Chapter Twenty-Two #2
He pointed at Ma. “Pink. I like Pink.”
“Clean,” I growled.
He bent down and grabbed another bottle.
Ma waved us away. “Go.”
“Where?”
“I don’t care. Your room. Outside. Wherever. I have work to do.”
Hazel finally lowered her hands. “I can help.”
“No.”
“But—”
“You’re distracting him.”
Hazel looked at me.
I stared at Ma. “You done?”
“For now.”
“Good.” I grabbed Hazel’s hand, and her fingers immediately curled around mine.
That fucking felt good.
I pulled her toward the hallway. “Good luck,” I called over my shoulder.
“Fuck you,” Myth muttered.
Ma gasped. “Myth!”
“Sorry, Pink.”
I laughed all the way down the hall.
“This isn’t funny,” Hazel whispered.
“It really fucking is.”
“Your mother basically just announced to your entire club that we had sex.”
“They knew.”
She stopped walking.
I stopped with her.
“What?” I asked.
“They knew,” I repeated.
“How?”
I shrugged. “Guys talk.”
“Did you tell them?”
“No.”
“Then how did they know?”
“Taco figured it out.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Farmers market.”
“Yeah.”
“That little shit.”
I smiled. “You like him.”
“I do,” she confessed.
“Everyone does.”
“That probably encourages him.”
“It does.”
I started walking again. Hazel came with me. When we reached my room, I opened the door and pulled her inside.
The second the door shut, she started talking. “I swear I didn’t know she was bringing me here.”
I leaned back against the door. “I know.”
“She said we were going for a drive.”
“Sounds like Ma.”
“And then we turned this way, and I figured maybe she was just giving me a tour or something, but then she pulled into the clubhouse and—”
“Hazel.”
“I told her maybe we should call first, but she said she didn’t need an appointment to see her own son, which honestly sounded reasonable at the time—”
“Hazel.”
“But then we walked in and you looked annoyed, and I don’t want you thinking I’m trying to invite myself into your club or whatever because I’m not. I know this is your thing.”
I pushed away from the door.
She kept going. “I can leave.”
I stopped. “What?”
“I can walk home. It’s only two miles.”
“No.”
“If you don’t want me here—”
I grabbed her face and kissed her. That shut her up.
Her hands landed against my chest, and for half a second, she froze, then her fingers curled into my shirt.
I backed her toward the wall.
Her lips parted beneath mine, and I deepened the kiss.
Fuck. I’d seen her this morning. I’d kissed her before I’d left her house. I’d spent half the fucking night with my hands on her. And somehow I still felt like it’d been days.
Her arms slid around my neck, and my hands moved down her sides and settled on her hips, pulling her against me.
She made a soft sound against my mouth.
My dick immediately noticed.
I slid one hand up her back and into her hair.
She pressed closer.
The kiss went from me shutting her up to something else entirely. Hotter. Harder.
Hazel’s fingers slid beneath the edge of my cut and curled around my sides.
I kissed her until I couldn’t remember why the fuck we’d been talking in the first place.
Then somebody dropped something in the common room.
A loud crash echoed down the hallway.
“Goddammit, Taco!” Ma yelled.
“That wasn’t me!”
“Then who was it?”
“Munch!”
“You fucking snitch!” Munch shouted.
Hazel started laughing against my mouth. I dropped my forehead to hers.
“Your mother is terrifying.”
“You’re just figuring that out?”
“I thought she was fun.”
“She is fun.”
Another crash.
“Not the bleach on the wood!” Mom yelled.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Myth groaned.
Hazel laughed harder. I smiled despite myself.
When she finally settled down, she looked up at me. “So...”
“So?”
“I guess you’re happy to see me.”
“Yeah.”
The answer came easily.
Her smile softened. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Damn glad.”
Something shifted in her expression.
I wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t matter.
I ran my thumb along her cheek. “I wasn’t pissed you showed up.”
“You looked pissed.”
“That’s my face.”
She snorted. “I’ve noticed.”
“I was pissed Ma didn’t call.”
“That’s different?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“Would’ve liked a warning before she took over my fucking clubhouse.”
Hazel smiled. “She’s cleaning.”
“She’s terrorizing grown men with a bottle of Windex.”
“Your clubhouse could use it.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“There were three shoes by the couch.”
“Don’t start.”
“None of them matched.”
“Hazel.”
“And I saw the pizza box.”
I kissed her again just to shut her up.
It worked for about ten seconds.
When I pulled back, she was smiling. “You keep doing that.”
“Works better than arguing.”
“I don’t know. I like arguing with you.”
“I noticed.”
Her hands rested against my chest. “Are you sure I’m okay being here?”
I looked at her. There was no joke in her eyes now. She meant it.
And for some reason, that question hit differently.
This was my clubhouse.
My club. My life. I’d spent years keeping things separated.
Women came through sometimes, sure, but that wasn’t the same thing. They weren’t part of anything. They didn’t matter.
Hazel did.
I hadn’t figured out exactly what the fuck that meant yet.
Maybe I didn’t need to.
We were Hazel and Bone. That was what she’d said.
I’d liked it then. Still fucking did.
“I like having you here.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Really?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
She smiled. “I wasn’t going to.”
“You were.”
“Maybe.”
I slid my hand around the back of her neck. “You can be here.”
Her smile faded slightly. “When?”
“As long as I’m here.”
She studied me. I knew what that meant. She wasn’t stupid.
I couldn’t have Hazel wandering around the clubhouse whenever she wanted. Not with what we did here. Not with shit going on with Owen. Not with Eli and whoever the fuck had put a dead man inside one of our coffins.
There were things she couldn’t see.
Things she couldn’t know. Not yet.
Maybe not ever, but that didn’t mean I needed her standing outside every part of my life.
“If I’m here,” I said, “you’re good.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“No walking down here by yourself.”
Her lips twitched. “Bossy.”
“Serious.”
“Fine.”
“And if Ma tries dragging you down here again without telling me—”
“I should tackle her?”
I stared at her.
Hazel smiled.
“I’d pay to watch you try.”
“She’d probably win.”
“She definitely would.”
We both laughed.
I pulled her against me and she rested her cheek against my chest.
And I stood there holding her.
Hazel in my room at the Grave Prowlers clubhouse while my mother terrorized half my club with cleaning supplies. It should’ve felt wrong.
Like two pieces of my life I’d always kept separate had gotten shoved together without my permission.
Instead, it felt strangely fucking easy.
She slipped out of my arms before I could stop her and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To help Pink.”
“No.”
She looked over her shoulder. “No?”
“I brought you back here to get you away from that shit.”
“Your mother is cleaning your clubhouse while five grown men follow her orders. There is absolutely no way I’m missing that.”
“Hazel.”
She opened the door.
I caught her hand before she could step into the hallway.
She looked down at our hands, then up at me. “You sure?” she asked quietly.
I knew she wasn’t talking about cleaning.
I tightened my fingers around hers. “Yeah.”
Her smile came back. “Okay.”
I walked out with her instead of letting go.
From the common room, Taco shouted, “Why the fuck am I cleaning a ceiling fan?”
Ma immediately yelled back, “Because it’s filthy!”
“Who looks at the top of a ceiling fan?”
“I do!”
“Why?”
Hazel started laughing.
I shook my head as we headed toward the noise.
Maybe bringing Hazel into the clubhouse should’ve bothered me more.
It didn’t.
Not even a little fucking bit.