Chapter 14
Leena
The roar of Wraith’s bike has barely faded into the distance when Steph opens the door for me and ushers me in.
Wing’s house is nice. A corner house on a block with larger builds and even larger yards, the street is sparsely populated.
There are maybe ten houses in total on both sides.
The house is pretty, though it looks like it could use some attention.
The peeling shingles match the peeling paint, and I know if Steph has anything to say about it, she’ll get the place fixed up.
She grew up in a small house, a neat and tidy place with an actual white picket fence.
Steph’s mom is nice, I’m not sure how she was ever with a man like my father.
My sister welcomes me with a warm hug. Her honeyed hair is done up in a messy bun at the top of her head and even with no makeup on, she’s prettier than any other woman on the planet. Her skin shines with a new radiance and her light eyes flash with a mysterious light that shines from inside.
She looks happy.
“Come in! Adam isn’t here, so we have the place to ourselves. Do you want tea? Something to eat? Do you want a tour? The backyard is really nice. I’m already planning out flower gardens and—” she laughs prettily when she realizes how rapid-fire her questions are.
Taking my hand, she pulls me through the house so fast that I barely have time to take it in.
Unlike Wraith’s, it looks more like a bachelor pad.
Sparsely furnished, outdated finishes like frosted light fixtures and yellowed blinds at the windows, ugly carpet, and floral wallpaper.
It was probably like that when Wing moved in and I can imagine that he didn’t touch the place, other than to put up a huge TV that captures my attention as I’m tugged through the living room into the kitchen that adjoins it.
Like the other room, the kitchen is old, with faded pink countertops and blond wood cabinets. It’s all in good shape, but it shows its age.
I like it though. It feels warm and homey even if I can’t imagine a guy who is actually in a bike club living here with flowery wallpaper and pink counters.
“It needs some work,” Steph admits. “I was researching how to steam off wallpaper this morning. Adam says he hates it, but he never had time to deal with it and when he did, he had no idea how to tackle it. He admitted he’s not that handy with stuff like this and it’s a big project.
I want to get new countertops, because those can be installed and I’ll paint the cabinets.
” She laughs again, that light sound that I’ve always loved.
“Sorry. Anyway. I’m getting carried away. ”
It takes me a minute to process that Wing is actually Adam. I want to laugh at myself when it finally sinks in.
“Do you want some tea?”
“There’s tea in the house?”
“There wasn’t, but Adam went out this morning after… well… the meeting and got me a few things that I asked for. He’s really very nice.”
“Even if he’s shorter than you by a good three inches?”
Steph laughs again and waves her hand in the air. “Oh god. That doesn’t matter. Most guys are, when you’re a six foot giraffe.”
“There is nothing giraffe-like about you unless you want to call a giraffe wondrously beautiful, which they are.”
“Tea it is.” Steph is used to being beautiful. She’s also used to compliments and takes them in stride as easily as discussing something mundane, like the weather or what to have for dinner.
She gets busy plugging in an electric kettle and turning it on after she’s filled it with water. When she turns back to me, her eyes have lost their light, and her lips are pulled into a thin line.
“Do you think it’s going to be okay? I mean, with what happened to Ami?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, the words scraping past the mass of worry clogging up my throat.
I lean my hip against the counter. The kitchen is one of those L-shaped things with a long line of cabinets and a shorter row with a lip on the other side for a few bar stools to be set under.
“Do you believe her?” Steph’s eyes grow even wider and her lips thin out into a hard, flat line.
I don’t know what to say, so I decide on the truth. “No. I don’t know. Why would she lie? I guess she might have a few reasons, but Ami is also Ami. We both know that she loves drama. She was the one that our father was constantly complaining about, she’s the reason we’re here in Helena.”
“She took us both down with her,” Steph sighs.
“I’m glad she did, though. I was pissed when I found out that dad was marrying us off as a package deal, but I never would have met Adam otherwise, and even though it’s only been a day, he’s nice.
I know he’s nice. I’ve never met anyone I can talk with so easily.
He makes me feel… safe,” she finally finishes with a star-struck look in her eyes.
“I don’t know. Sometimes things just feel like they fit. ”
“I- I’m not sure.” I’m still confused about what happened in Wraith’s kitchen earlier, my body buzzing from the electricity of his touch and the force of the climax that he tore from my body. “It hasn’t been enough time.”
“Right. I know. I’m being silly. I guess I just mean that I think Adam and I will be a good fit. I’m sorry that whatever happened with Ami last night that it happened at all. I wish she could have been matched with someone more like I was.”
“But that’s the thing. We both saw Gage in the hallway this morning. He looked really bad. Like he’d been crying. He didn’t look like a guy who’d take his fists to her,” I say.
Steph pulls out the teabags and sets them aside. She passes one mug over to me and I breathe in the delicious scent of mint.
“I know,” she says softly, as she stares down into her tea.
“When we were talking to Ami, she wouldn’t look at us.
She only ever does that when she’s lying.
She’s not afraid to make eye contact otherwise.
She likes people to listen to her stories, because you’re right, she does love drama.
She loves being the center of attention. ”
“She didn’t do this to herself though. So if Gage didn’t, then who did? And why is she covering up for whoever did it? It doesn’t make sense.”
Steph’s cup trembles in her hands. “Gage shouldn’t have got so drunk last night that he couldn’t remember anything. That was his first mistake.”
“He was just nervous. Ami was being mean to him. I watched her all night. She was probably terrible to him, and it made it worse. Imagine how we would have felt if our men treated us that way. Wouldn’t talk to us or snubbed us when we were already stressed to the breaking point.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. He probably thought a little bit of whiskey would take the edge off.”
I set my mug down. “Do you think that Ami would really do that? Put this whole thing in jeopardy? Start a war? Make an innocent man pay for something he didn’t even do?”
Steph lets out a shuddery sigh. “I hope not, but I honestly don’t know.”
“I don’t think our father would let this deal go to shit just because Ami says Gage hit her.
He’ll see through her lies, like he normally does.
And if she isn’t lying, I think he’ll just let Steel and the club punish Gage and find somewhere else for Ami to go.
We both know he doesn’t really care about us.
Not when it’s either us or everything he wants.
He wants power. He wants people to respect him and fear him.
He’s wanted this for a long time and he’s not going to throw it away because of Ami. ”
“But what if he did do it? What kind of man hits a woman like that?”
I bite down hard on my bottom lip. “I think that the club’s Prez will get it figured out.
Wraith talks about him like he respects him.
I’ve seen him with his old lady too, when I was there for the shower.
She’s nice and she wouldn’t be with him if he was a total asshole.
They’ll find Ami somewhere to go and take care of her. I’m sure of it.”
Steph nods. She takes a sip of her tea, and I watch her throat work hard to get even that small swallow down.
“So, how are you? I know it’s only been a day, but what’s your man like?
I watched him yesterday and he seemed nervous and then he was closed off.
I couldn’t tell whether he’d be nice or not.
He picked you up like a Neanderthal and carried you off like he was in a rage about something.
I didn’t even get to wish you good luck. ”
I can laugh now at the memory of being carted up in Wraith’s arms, his big hands tearing my dress, being slammed down on his bike, but at the time I was torn between fear, annoyance, and the new stirrings of desire that I didn’t even know how to process.
How could I be incredibly turned on at being handled so roughly?
“He’s okay. He might seem rough, but I think he was raised rough.
I tried to ask him about it and he just checked out.
He looked like he was going to throw up or something.
I didn’t ask him any more about it. He has a dog though.
She’s the sweetest. She’s paralyzed and she has a little wheelchair thing she uses to get around. ”
“What?” Steph’s mouth drops open.
“Yes. He’s very nice to her. I can tell he treats his dog like his queen and that says something about a person, I think.”
“Maybe. If his dog is like his baby, then he’s probably not all bad. Just rough around the edges, like you said.”
“He… I think we’ll be fine. I hope so. It really is too early to tell, but last night our father and Ivan came over to drop my boxes off and Ivan has a big mouth. He was being an asshole and said some mean things and Wraith threw him out and bloodied him.”
“What?”
“Yes. While our father watched.”
“Dad watched and did nothing?”
I almost wince at the use of the word, dad.
I could never bring myself to call the man who sired me by such a familiar title, one infused with love and care, like Steph does.
Her mom was nice enough though, to shelter her from our father’s ways and views.
She more than made up for being the only parent in Steph’s life most of the time, and so Steph is more generous with the endearment, than I am.
“That’s right,” I say instead. “Wraith told him to pick the trash off his lawn on the way out and slammed the door in his face.”
“Are you serious?” A smile tugs at the corners of Steph’s lips.
“Yes. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me like that. So, yeah. I think it’s going to be okay.”
I take a sip of my tea and finding it mostly cooled down and entirely delicious, the mint spreading through my chest and infusing my stomach, I gulp half the mug down.
“What about you? I mean, I know you said you were getting along, but how is… the rest? Everything?”
A pretty blush creeps over Steph’s sharp cheekbones and she drops her eyes, surprising me.
She’s not normally overly shy about anything.
She’s been modelling for a while and hasn’t always done the most modest shoots.
She’s quite liberal in her views about things, so to see her blush at my simple question astounds me.
“We had sex last night,” she admits in a soft voice.
“What?” I reach out and grip the edge of the counter.
“Well, we are married. I think he’s attractive. It just kind of happened. I’m glad it did. I enjoyed it.”
I’ve never talked about this kind of stuff with either of my sisters before, and something tightens in my belly when I imagine Wraith’s dark head bent between my spread legs.
The burn of his broad tongue on me, the taste of my own musk on his lips when I shamelessly licked it off after.
I glance away too, to hide my own flushed face.
“I’m glad.” I mean it too. “This thing could have gone so badly. For all of us. Instead, Steel picked out three good men for us.”
“Gage?”
“Well, I don’t know. I still don’t think he did it. If he didn’t, I feel really bad for him that he’s being accused like this and that he has to defend himself and that he’ll have to take some kind of punishment.”
I glance at Steph and find her blush gone. Her shoulders sink a little and she gives her head a shake. “We’ll just have to see. And do our best to make our marriages work. I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of us.”
Steph might be beautiful. But somehow, she’s not at all vain.
She’s a genuinely nice person through and through and I’m proud to call her my sister, even if we haven’t always seen each other that much or been super close because we weren’t raised together in the same house.
She’s always been kind to me and made me feel welcome when I visited, even though I was way younger than her and probably annoying when I was a girl and she was already a teenager.
“Neither do I.” I drain the rest of my tea. “Wraith’s fine with me doing my school in a few weeks. He wants to get me a car too. I’ll be fine. And you seem like you’re going to be happy. Do you think he’ll let you continue your modelling?”
“I don’t see why not. I haven’t asked, but I’m sure he’ll be fine with that.”
“Even if you have to travel.”
“I’m sure if it makes me happy, he’ll understand.”
“Our father hated you doing it.”
Stephanie’s lips arch into a full smile that reaches her pretty eyes.
“That’s the thing. We don’t belong to him anymore.
He literally has no control over us. We’re finally free.
That was the whole reason Ami agreed to this at all, and I know for sure that you did as well.
I won’t say bad things about him because I really don’t even know him, but he did have some old-fashioned thoughts and I’m glad I don’t have to hear about them anymore. ”
“I’ll drink to that. And to sticking together. All of us. No matter what happens.” I raise my mug before I remember it’s empty. “Any chance I can get a refill?”
Steph grins. “Sure. Because that is definitely worth toasting.”