TWENTY-FOUR
Harper
Playing with the end of her braid, Harper leaned a hip against the bar in the clubhouse. As soon as the phone picked up, she asked, “Do you know where I could get a contract killer from?”
“Who the fuck am I killing?” Cain answered evenly, without hesitation, and Harper’s smile grew.
She’d asked a guy she’d once dated the same question, and he told her to stop being stupid. Strike one, Carlos.
Her dream was of a man who would reply as Cain had. To be ready for war.
His question warmed her from the top of her head to her toes.
She was taking a risk calling him from within the clubhouse.
Since leaving two weeks ago, they’d come to a new friendlier accord.
Maybe they were both trying to be on their best behavior. It wasn’t as though Harper could call what they had a relationship. Texts. Calls. And the daily gifts continued. With all the stuff he ordered online for her, she wondered how he ever got anything done.
“I was joking, but it’s nice to know you’re willing to jump into action for a girl.” She said, still smiling.
“Who, Harper?”
Oh, that gave her shivers.
Ask any of the bikers; they’d claim they were terrible guys, but they loved with their all and would do anything for their wives. That was the kind of man she wanted. And for as much as she fought against feeling anything for the villain across the country, he had the bad boy qualities she was attracted to.
“One of my professors has been giving me a hard time, but I was joking. I can deal with him. I’ll be graduating soon, anyway.”
“Tell me about it.”
She smiled and explained her issues with the overzealous teacher who liked to single Harper out.
Changing the subject, she asked, “Did you get the bad guy?”
He’d left her bed four days ago to track a bounty.
“Yeah, late last night.”
Her chest warmed. Was it pride? Holy crap, was she acting like a proper wife? That was absurd. Her driving force was to be done with Cain as soon as she’d neutralized his overzealous revenge threats against her family.
“Congratulations, mister bounty hunter. That means more money to spoil me,” she joked.
“What would my wife like?”
“Hm. Lots of chocolate-coated nuts.”
“Is my little wife behaving?”
“Define behaving? I’ve only had five dates and six illicit trysts since you left. It’s been a slow week.” She exaggerated a sigh and nearly choked with lust, hearing Cain’s responding growl.
“Do you really want to taunt me about this, little girl?”
She blushed at his tone. The noise of his voice went right between her legs. She missed seeing him, and it had only been a few days. She was so wrong for being attached to him while trying to untangle herself from the mess.
“These dates and liaisons will die before they know what hit them. And then there will only be my cock for you to play on.” She tried to act natural when Preacher strolled by and winked hello at her. “But you know my cock is the only cock to stretch you out, don’t you, my stubborn wife?”
Harper’s lungs failed to work.
“Harper, answer me,” he said seductively, like he knew what his words had done to her, reminding her of the fast sex days ago. Cain had left her shaking and sated to the roots of her hair across the bed. And stretched sore from his cock.
“Now you’re thinking about your husband’s enormous cock you’re addicted to taking. I need to go. Be home tonight, Harper. I want to see your pretty blushing face on a call.” He hung up and left her dazzled. Thank god he did because right then, one of her brothers plopped down on a bar stool next to her.
“What’s wrong with your face?” he asked.
Harper scowled and punched his arm. “What’s wrong with yours? Oh, yeah, you were born that ugly.”
He smirked. Knox knew he was a pretty boy, and there were enough panting women to tell him so.
“Are you busy?” she asked him.
“Nah, not right now, waiting on Hero. Why?”
“Can I talk to you? The Marinos circle.” She added and watched Knox’s blue eyes become serious. The Marinos circle meant it was to be kept between them.
“Yeah, what’s up? Who am I killing?”
She loved that colossal idiot.
“No one, it’s info only. Over twenty years ago, were the Souls involved in wiping out another club?” The shock registered on Knox’s face before he blanked it out. He was so eerily like their dad. She touched his forearm before he could deny it. “I’m not asking to know club business, but it’s important, Knox. And it’s between you and me only. I can’t tell you why I need to know yet.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, and he searched her face with his shrewd gaze. He was only twenty, but more mature than his years. Each day, he became a little more ingrained into the man he would be one day and the vital job he’d hold. His gait had become taller and more self-assured, she observed. Knox, a biker through and through and a true Marinos, would be president.
“Are you in trouble, sis?”
“No.” she swallowed the lie because she didn’t know if she was. Cain had been different recently. She had a feeling he’d protect her against anything. “Was there another rival club?”
“Yeah. A long time ago. No one talks about them anymore. But what I know, they were bad news, like really fucking despicable shit.”
“Who were they?”
“The Raging Rebels. They were only a minor operation a few towns over. Their prez, Hades, was once a prospect for the Souls. When he wasn’t given a patch, he held a grudge and spent a few years gathering misfits and criminals to form the Rebels.” Knox rolled a shoulder beneath his white henley shirt and club cut. “From there, they orchestrated a war against the Souls. They ran drugs and sex trafficking through Colorado, worked with the Mexicans and Russian Bratva.”
Whoa. It was worse than she’d suspected.
Cain had been looking at his vengeance through the eyes of a little boy who’d found out his father wasn’t his birth father. That cemented his biological dad as some mythical god in his mind. Someone to avenge.
But from the pieces of information she’d stitched together, she’d known they wouldn’t kill innocent people. They wouldn’t kill people for no reason, either. If they’d killed Cain’s father, it meant he was terrible and needed neutralizing.
“Was it only that club?”
Knox’s brows knitted, and his mouth twisted, speaking low and angry. “What the fuck, Harps? Do you think we go around offing other MCs by the droves?”
“I know, I know. I was only asking to make sure it was just the Rebels.”
“They were sick as fuck, Harper. Dad and the others were right to get rid of them. They were a poison in this state. And…” he inhaled long and hard. “It was them, Harper. The one who hurt Mom. That club kept her hostage for years. That sick motherfucker stole our mom and did… he did.” Knox couldn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. They were aware of the mental, physical, and emotional torture and abuse.
Air rushed through her ears like the back doors had opened, and the breeze whirled through, yet her skin was hotter than coal. The bile rose in her throat, and she thought for a second she’d be sick right there.
The truth was gutting.
All this time, she and Cain had been connected in more ways than two kids meeting in an ER waiting area.
His father’s actions—holding Harper’s mom hostage, violating her repeatedly, and ruining her life—had profoundly changed her.
“Why did you wanna know this now?”
It took effort to control her face, and it was hard to act normal when she desperately wanted to scream. Of all the horrific things that she could have anticipated, this was the most unexpected and awful.
“I heard a few things at school. You know how idiots like rumors about us.”
A scowl drew Knox’s brow down. “Are people fucking with you? I’ll take care of it.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I was curious more than anything. You know what I’m like.” She tried for a natural smile.
“Don’t mention this to the oldies.” He warned, and she shook her head.
“I’d never mention it to Mom, especially now.”
Shit, she didn’t mean to say that last part, but luckily, Knox hadn’t picked up on her slip.
As soon as Knox spotted Zane, they took off, and she dashed to the bathroom. She slammed the stall door open, fell to her knees, and Harper threw up in the toilet.
Her cries were filled with anger and anguish and muffled against her hands. The open wound was for her mom and the growing feelings she had for a man she didn’t even know.
Cain was avenging his rapist father.
And now she had to wonder, had he known all along what Hades was and didn’t care he was fighting for a rapist?
How could she live with that?
There was no way she could keep this to herself. Everything had changed in a flash. This situation was too colossal for her to fix.
Was she strong enough to stand by while her family removed Cain altogether?
Two hours later, she reached home and saw a gold package on her doorstep.
Her villain husband had somehow found somewhere to deliver a big box of chocolate Brazil nuts to her.
She cried for the next hour.
Unsure how to proceed.
But she deliberately missed the video call with Cain that night and the one after that. And left his text messages unread.
* * *
Cain
In the dead of night, like all the other times before, pulled by the allure of his wilful and addictive wife, Cain dropped his clothes and climbed naked into her bed next to her motionless body. He curled around her frame, humming at her warmth. He pressed his mouth to her throat. He’d missed this woman more than he could express, like missing her from some deep place. Another skim of his lips to her throat, and he felt when Harper came awake and realized he’d broken in again. No locks could keep him away from her, and she should know that by now, especially after ignoring his calls for two days. He’d ditched a job to catch a flight from California. And because he’d been dealing with Damon’s moods, he was less than patient.
He breathed her in, glad he’d stopped off to deal with her professor’s bullshit. Long story short, he wouldn’t trouble Harper in the future, or he’d see Cain again.
“My dick has been hard all day. Has my wife been thinking about me, hm?”
One hand played between her legs, getting her nicely ready. His wife enjoyed his fingers, so she was drenched in moments. The other hand was held over her mouth. He didn’t want to hear what his little brat had to say for herself yet, not until he’d glutted himself on her to help calm his inner fury.
The longer she’d ignored him, the more volatile he’d become until he’d launched a coffee cup across his office, shocking the fuck out of three of his team. Then he’d booked a flight, and here he was.
His addiction to Harper demanded attention.
The next move he made was to anchor her legs over his and nestle his hungry, angry cock against her dripping entrance.
Though she wiggled and muffled against his hand, her ass was driving him wild, grinding on him. Enticing him to fuck her.
So that’s what Cain did; he slid home and kept pushing until Harper took every inch. Her groan was fucking music to the ears that had missed her voice.
“You’re in so much trouble, sweet baby. You promised to be nice to me. Is ignoring my calls nice? I don’t think so. Now, what should I do for your punishment for not speaking to your husband for the longest two days?” he slackened his hand on her mouth. And kept fucking her sure and deep, grunting as the bliss poured through him. This nearness was what he’d missed. The connection with her was heaven. It was fucking torture, and he chased it like a demon would run down the corridors of hell.
With each slam of his hips hitting her plump ass, he’d make his wife regret ignoring him.
“Divorce me,” she panted into his palm, licking the skin like a naughty girl. Cain chuckled and ground his cock tip against her g-spot to derail her ridiculous thoughts.
Her pleasure was his drug. He couldn’t get enough of her wetness slicking around him.
“That’s not happening.” Never. “Your pussy is so tight I might think you want to keep me locked inside of you forever.”
While his addiction to his mouthy wife had been growing, curling tight chains around his soul, he’d fed on her hatred.
The more obsessed he’d become with Harper, the more unhinged he’d been to hold on to her, and the harder she’d hated him. He could make her body react, but he hadn’t been able to penetrate more than her body. Yet.
But that was about to change.
Hate was only the other side of the same coin.
Their shared sexual groans went on for long minutes.
Cain was barely holding on. Being back inside of Harper was the drug he’d been dying for, and now it took all of his control not to glut on her.
Drawing in a breath when he gave her quickened thrusts, Harper gently eased her fingers across his tattooed arm, and the action soothed something monstrous within him. Her appraisal and light-fingered touch did something to his brain, short fucking wired his hard drive, making it dysfunctional, because when his next ram came, it was deeper than ever, probably too much for her tight pussy to take, but she still arched her ass into him, taking it.
“This peachy ass is so distracting. It’s all I think about all day long. I wonder when I can get it back into my hands. And then I think about what rancid motherfuckers are looking at my wife’s perfect ass, and it makes me feel murderous, Harper.”
She chuckled, but he slammed in deeper, and the noise turned into a sexy little moan followed by sexier pleading to make her come.
On a powerful slam, he cuffed a hand around Harper’s throat, angling her head back. “Look at me.”
As soon as their eyes locked, he felt a jolt, like she was in his head. The place she’d been taking over gradually until she was everywhere.
Her lips opened, and she emitted a little puff of excited air.
He made her come so hard she nearly ripped into the skin of his forearm as she held on and cried his name like his good girl. He felt her shatter around his jutting cock. Cain, unable to hold the pleasure at the base of his spine, joined her seconds later. Because he wasn’t wearing a condom, he withdrew in time to spurt over her ass cheeks, covering her in his ownership while his hand remained locked around the front of Harper’s throat.
“God.” she panted, her face partly buried in the pillow.
God was nowhere near him and never had been.
The things he’d done and would still do were far from holy.
Harper’s only hope was with the monster caressing her body.
Cain stupidly thought his wife would be happy to see him now he’d made her come, and she was all soft and warm in his arms, but when he rolled her over, he froze. Tears were silently streaking down her face.
“What is it?” The panic rose like the ocean. “Did I hurt you?” Fuck .
“You… you have to go, Cain. You can’t be here.” She hiccupped, pushing at his chest to get him to move, but he was paralyzed, frowning.
Rearing to a kneeling position, he gathered Harper’s body in his arms, though she struggled.
“Stop, baby. You’re going to hurt yourself.” He soothed his mouth to her temple while she fought to free herself from his arms.
“You’ve hurt me! You’re the one who has hurt me,” she sobbed, staring with her free-falling tears cascading down her lovely cheeks. Even now, with her despair, he wanted to lick every tear and keep them as trophies. Everything about Harper was his. “You keep hurting me over and over, and now it’s worse.” She hiccupped, and he held her even tighter until she ceased struggling and pressed her face into his chest.
Cain held Harper until her trembling eased. When he tried to cup her face, she swatted his hands away, slipped out of bed, and pulled on a robe. Her expression was unreadable as she turned to him. Moving slowly, he got up, stepped into his jeans—leaving them unzipped—and switched on a lamp, casting a soft glow over the room.
“Was I too rough?”
“It wasn’t the sex, Cain.” She bit out, and then she directed the blueness his way. They were so turbulent that he wanted to break the world in half to fix whatever it was.
“You’ve done some despicable things since I’ve known you. But I believe you’ve never lied to me. You’ve been brutally honest about what you were planning to do. I need you to be honest right now.”
Cain’s brow fell over his eyes.
She took a shuddering breath like she had to fortify her strength. “Did you know what your real father had done? Years ago. Have you known this whole time?”
They were only a couple of feet apart in the middle of Harper’s bedroom, yet he felt the chasm caving in his chest.
He looked at his wife like he had no fucking clue what she was asking. Because he didn’t. “I need more to go on. Explain?”
“Your father was called Hades, yes? The president of the Raging Rebels.”
“Right.”
Harper’s voice cracked as she sobbed a little, but swallowed the sound as she pressed a hand to the center of her chest.
Cain grew more concerned and worse still when she warded him off from going to her. She’d pressed her back against the dresser, looking at him through the saddest eyes.
When she spoke, her voice trembled. “Over twenty years ago, do you want to know why my father and the Souls killed him? Why they eradicated his club? Hades stole my mom. He snatched her from the street, and she was the victim of sexual enslavement for over three years, Cain. He and his club members did so many atrocious things to so many women. My mom, Cain.” She whimpered, pressing a fist to her lips. And then her eyes turned dangerously cold as the time stretched between them. “Did you know? Have you been working to destroy my family so you could avenge your father, the sexual predator?”
The bottom fell out of Cain’s stomach.
Swerving around, he grabbed his t-shirt, yanking it over his head.
“Did you?” she repeated, her voice so strained, and he had no answer because he was standing on crumbling ground. “You need to leave,” Harper issued.
Yeah, he needed to fucking leave.
Wearing his boots, he avoided Harper’s gaze, fearing the hatred in her eyes would kill him.
His wife.
The fucking wife he’d all but stolen.
He’d forced her into so much.
And she’d taken every despicable thing from him into her sweet, innocent heart.
Hades. Rape. Hostage. Sexual enslavement.
The words ricocheted around his skull as he closed Harper’s front door.
The unbalanced fury crawled through his eyes.
He’d shelled out thousands—no, hundreds of fucking thousands—for an intensive search. He’d been obsessive in needing every scrap of info before moving on the Souls. Every lie and rumor turned into cold, hard facts. And he’d thought he had the truth.
Somewhere along the chain, someone had fucked up.
And that someone was about to die.