9. Lilah
CHAPTER NINE
lilah
I wake up, and he's not on the couch. I fully expected him to still be here, and now that he’s not, I’m disappointed and I’m not sure what to make of it. I feel as though I’m getting attached and I don’t even know why.
Then the front door opens and Tempest walks in carrying a paper bag from the bakery down the street, phone in his other hand. "Morning," he says as he spots me standing in the doorway of my bedroom.
I look at the bag and then back at him. "You snuck out," I say.
He gives me a flat look. "I don't sneak."
I cross my arms over my chest and stare at him. "You left without telling me."
"You were asleep." He holds up the bag. "I was gone all of ten minutes."
I don’t move, I just continue to look at him. "You could have woken me."
"You needed the sleep more than you needed to know I was getting breakfast." He moves past me to the kitchen and puts the bag on the counter. "The almond croissant is yours."
I open my mouth to argue, but stop in my tracks. How the hell did he know I love almond croissants?
He opens the bag without looking at me. "You looked at it twice in the bakery window yesterday. I wasn't planning to go back but I passed it this morning and it seemed like the right call."
I look at the back of his head. "You noticed that?" I ask as I move toward him.
"I notice everything." He hands me the croissant wrapped in paper and goes back to whatever he was doing. "Coffee's already on."
I stand in the kitchen holding the croissant, unable to comprehend that he remembered. "Thank you," I say.
"Don't make it a thing," he says, staring at me like I’m about to sprout horns.
I narrow my eyes at him and stick out my tongue as I sit at the table with my croissant as he slides my coffee mug over to me at the same time he reaches for my still-wrapped croissant and slides it back to himself.
I frown at him. "I thought you said the almond one was mine."
He nods. "It is."
I gape at him. What the hell? "Then why are you taking it away?"
"I'm reconsidering."
I gasp. "You wouldn't."
"I would."
"No. You're bluffing."
He lets the silence sit for a second but then slides it back across the counter. "I know."
I can't help but laugh; this man really knows how to make me laugh and feel at ease.
Ghost calls halfway through breakfast. Tempest glances at the screen before answering, not bothering to leave the table. "Prez."
"Church at one."
"Yeah?"
"Are you bringing Lilah?" he asks.
Tempest looks at me and I shake my head before he even says anything. "She doesn't want to come."
There’s a moment of silence before Ghost speaks again. "Did you ask?"
Tempest’s lips twitch as he watches me. "Not yet."
Ghost huffs a laugh. "Then you're guessing."
"I know the answer."
"Humor me." The line goes dead, and Tempest sets his phone on the table and looks at me.
"No."
A corner of his mouth twitches. "I haven't said anything."
"You didn't have to."
He reaches for his coffee. "Church."
I raise a brow. "I know."
"You coming?"
"No."
His brows furrow. "Why?"
I stare at him. "Because I don't belong there and I don't know anybody. They're all going to look at me like I'm some stray you've dragged in off the street."
His eyes darken and his jaw tightens. "They won't."
"You don't know that."
He’s dead serious as he looks at me. "I do."
I fold my arms. "You've known me a week."
"Exactly," he says.
I blink.
"What?" He asks.
"You've known me a week," I repeat.
"I know." He tells me, not seemingly caring.
"And?" I question.
He shrugs.
"You still came back." I point out.
He takes another drink of his coffee. "Natalia will be there."
I frown. "Ghost's wife?"
He starts counting them off on his fingers. "Evangeline, Willow, and probably a few of the kids."
"I don't know any of those people."
He doesn’t seem fazed by my words at all. "You didn't know me."
I glare at him. He’s driving me crazy. "Stop saying that."
"It's true."
I sigh. "I'm not biker material."
His brow furrows slightly. "What's biker material?"
I wave a hand at him. "You know what I mean."
He shakes his head. "No, I don’t."
I look at him and he holds my gaze, eventually I sigh again. "I'll say the wrong thing."
"No, you won't."
"They'll think I'm awkward."
He shrugs. "They'll think you're quiet."
I gape at him. "That's not better."
"I like quiet." I look at him and see that he's still looking at me, like he hasn't realized what he just admitted.
"You do?" My voice is small and low.
He shrugs. "Doesn't bother me," he says, and something warm settles low in my chest. He reaches for his mug. "It's just a couple of hours,” he says but I don't answer. "Natalia will be with you," he says. "Evangeline too. You'll have somewhere to sit, someone to talk to."
I look at him. "And you?"
"I'll be in church." At least he doesn't pretend otherwise. "When church's over, we'll head home."
I don't correct him, don't even notice it until we're both standing up. That’s when I realized he never said apartment; he said home. Home.
The second Tempest opens the clubhouse door, every instinct I have tells me to turn around. There are people everywhere.
Conversations stop for a fraction of a second before starting up again, and I'm suddenly very aware that I don't belong here.
I glance at Tempest, he doesn't even seem to notice, or maybe he does and just isn't worried about it.
He steps inside like he owns the place, giving me room to walk in beside him instead of behind him, I stay close anyway.
One man built like a brick wall is arm-wrestling someone half a head shorter than him while everyone else shouts conflicting advice.
"Lilah." I turn and see Ghost crossing the room, and beside him is a woman with dark hair and kind eyes. She doesn't hesitate; she comes straight over like we've known each other for years.
"I'm Natalia." She smiles as she offers me her hand. "Ghost's wife."
I shake it. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too." She glances between me and Tempest before looking back at me. "Coffee?"
"Please."
"Good answer." She hooks her arm through mine before I can overthink it. "Church starts in twenty minutes, once these idiots disappear, it'll just be us girls."
Ghost snorts. "We're not idiots."
Natalia smiles sweetly. "I wasn't talking about you."
He shakes his head. "You were definitely talking about me."
"I absolutely was."
I can't help smiling and Ghost notices, it seems that these men pay attention to everything. "Thanks for coming," he says. Something about the way he says it makes it impossible to feel like I'm intruding.
"Thanks for inviting me."
A man appears at Tempest's shoulder with the sort of grin that tells me he's been waiting for this moment. "So..." He looks me up and down before turning to Tempest. "That's the neighbor?"
Tempest doesn't even look at him. "Venom," he warns.
"What? I’m introducing myself." He spreads his hands and offers me one. "Venom."
"Lilah."
"It's nice to finally meet you." He nods toward Tempest. "I've heard all about you."
Tempest finally looks at him. "You've heard nothing."
"True." Venom grins. "But it sounded good."
I laugh. "There she is!" Venom points at me before looking around the room. "She laughs. That's a good sign."
"I laughed at you," I point out.
"I'll take it." He leans a little closer. "So... does he smile?"
I blink. "What?"
Venom jerks his thumb toward Tempest. "Smile. You've seen it?"
I glance at Tempest; he's already looking at Venom like he's considering burying him in the woods. "Occasionally," I admit.
Venom throws both hands in the air. "I knew it!" He points across the room. "Savage! Pay up!"
Savage doesn't even bother looking away from his phone. "I'm not paying you."
"You owe me twenty."
"I said it'd take three days," Savage yells. "It's been over a week."
"Still counts," Venom says loudly.
"It really doesn't," Savage snaps and the argument continues without either of them sounding particularly invested in winning.
I look at Tempest. "Are they always like this?"
He nods once. "Pretty much."
I find myself smiling again when another man walks over. He's tall, broad-shouldered, older than Tempest by a few years maybe, and there's something steady about him.
"Lilah?" he asks and I nod. "Hades," he says introducing himself.
It takes me a second to place the name. The phone call to the man Tempest trusted enough to stay with me the first night. "It's nice to finally meet you," I say.
"You too." He glances toward Venom and Savage, who are still arguing across the room. "Sorry about them. They're always like this."
I smile. "Don't apologize. It's nice."
He nods once, like he understands exactly what I mean. "Evangeline wanted to come," he says. "Lily's under the weather, so she's at home with the kids. She asked me to tell you she's sorry she missed you. She'd like to meet you properly."
I look at him. "She knows who I am?"
"Hades knows who you are," Tempest says, from somewhere to my right. "Which means Evangeline knows."
"The flowers," Hades says. "I don't think they stayed in one place for more than an hour. Wherever she was, the flowers ended up."
I remember the phone call, the deep voice telling me his eight-year-old wanted flowers for her room. "Does Sophie still want her flowers?"
Something shifts in his expression; it’s warm and full of surprise. "She talks about it every morning."
"Bring her in when things have settled down," I say. "She can pick whatever she likes."
He looks at Tempest like he's checking something but Tempest doesn't react.
"I'll tell her," Hades says.
Natalia finds me about half an hour later with a mug of coffee in each hand.
She passes me one before taking the seat opposite. "Better?"
I smile. "Much."
"You're doing better than most people do their first time here," she says.
My brows knit together at her words. "Is there a usual way people do it?"
She laughs a little. "Either terrified or trying very hard not to seem terrified." She wraps her hands around her own mug. "You're neither."