11. Good Ending to a Bad Day
Eleven
Good Ending to a Bad Day
Amelia
The scene with Vance brought up a lot of emotions, the first being intense fear when I looked into his angry eyes and knew that anger was aimed at me.
Death is absolute. Yes, we have our memories, and those memories belong to us forever.
I have conversations with my grandmother even though she’s gone, and sometimes when I listen carefully, I can almost hear her voice uttering her words of wisdom.
When my grandmother died, I was beyond sad.
Nana Jean was a lively woman, and I don’t recall a day when she wasn’t busy doing something.
Whether it was baking, meeting up with friends, shopping or volunteering, she was always on the go.
Because she was my nana, I never noticed her slowing down, and then one day, she wasn’t there at all.
Nana Jean lived a long and happy life; Sal still had a long life to live. His time was violently cut short, and although I’m not a fan of Vance, or Sal, for that matter, I can understand the pain of losing someone you love. It seems that the only thing Sal did care about was his son.
Vance walked away broken-hearted, and I felt the agony of his loss.
“Babe, this isn’t on you.” Bullet’s voice is gentle. His strong arm comes around my shoulders, and his lips graze my temple.
“I know.” I sigh heavily. “He looks so lost.”
“It was his father. And even though Sal was a shit mechanic and an unethical businessman, he loved his kid, and his kid felt that love. It’ll take time, but he’ll bounce back,” Bullet says.
We sit in silence on my couch as I lean into him.
It’s a while before Bullet speaks. “Broke my heart when I lost Helen. She was the closest I ever got to a mother. She was something else.” He chuckles.
“Helen was all milk and cookies until you didn’t do your homework; then she’d become a fire-breathing dragon.
She wasn’t abusive, but she was determined.
She would sit with me for hours to make sure I understood what I was doing.
I would tell her I wasn’t smart enough, and she would stop everything, sit me down, and say, ‘There are all kinds of smart. Some find it in books, others in doing tasks, but Aaron, never, ever again do I want to hear you say those words.’ She was a good woman, and not only with me, but with Crush too.
She loved him just as much because love is infinite, she’d say.
Losing her hurt like hell. I miss her every day, but I moved past hurt, past the anger, and moved into a place where I found peace. Helen wanted that for me.”
My eyes are welling with tears hearing him speak about his beloved Helen. “I’m sorry I never got the chance to meet her.”
“She would have loved you,” he replies with a smile. “I’m sorry I never got to meet your nana. She sounds like a feisty old woman who loved you very much.
“Yeah, she was. She would have talked your ear off, but she would have liked you too. Nana Jean said that a real man won’t just tell you he loves you but shows you he does.
I don’t know another man who would have gone through all the trouble you did to get back the money for me. Look at the tragedy that came from it.”
“It isn’t as simple as that. There’s more to this story.
We just haven’t figured out all the pieces yet.
Why would he go back to the shop that late at night without backup, even if he did think it was the Pride?
I got a look in his safe, and there was a lot more cash than what he gave us.
If you’re running a business, you take your money to the bank and make a daily deposit.
The shop was a front for something else.
It might have started as a mechanic shop, but I think Sal was dealing with bigger fish that swallowed him whole.
The biggest question that keeps rattling around in my head is where Violet disappeared to, and why.
She had a bunch of college books she was studying when we met her, but Wildcard hacked into the college enrollment files in the local schools; they haven’t got a Violet Harper listed anywhere. ”
“Doesn’t she have a family, somewhere she lives?”
“Orion has a feeling that she might have been running for a while. A runaway can get into a heap of trouble on the streets. So he cross-referenced her name and description in the police database. He got nothing when he checked for arrests, but she came up on a missing person’s report.
The picture was from a few years ago, but when Orion pulled the photo up on the screen, War confirmed it was the same girl.
She’s on the run again. Guard thinks she’s the key to this whole thing,” he answers, then adds, “We’re keeping all information to ourselves for now.
Vance isn’t thinking straight and isn’t going to be any help until he settles.
As for the police, they’re too focused on making a case against Satan’s Pride to seriously look at other suspects.
Guard wants us cleared fully, and that means figuring out who really killed Sal and why. ”
“You’re telling me,” I point out.
“You trust me to take care of you, and trust goes both ways. I’m trusting you to keep quiet. If in the future you choose not to know—”
“I want to know!” I jump in. “I’m glad you’re able to share with me.”
He cups my cheek and smiles, “There may be times when I can’t tell you things. Club business remains in the club, but I promise you that whenever I can, I’ll never leave you in the dark.”
I rest my head on his shoulders. “It’s been a very long day.”
He chuckles, and the sound makes me smile. “My girl needs a hot bath and bed.” He kisses my temple, then shifts me off him, coming to his feet. “I’ll run you a bath. You can soak in the tub while I clean up the kitchen.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t. I do it because my woman likes to wake up in a tidy house without dishes lying around. I get it, because I like it that way too. Bath first, though,” he says and gives me a wink before moving away. Puss leaps off the sofa and follows him.
A few short days ago, I was living in a small world, and my sole focus was the school and my job.
Who would have thought a leaky roof could lead to an extraordinary man coming into my life?
Bullet is like no other man I’ve ever met.
It’s not just his sexy grin, his magnificent body, or his amazing blue eyes that I could lose myself in.
It’s his confidence. He knows who he is and what he wants.
Bullet has lived through horrible situations, yet he chose to become the man he is.
And through all his hardship, he’s still a caring man who wants to take care of me.
I didn’t think men like that existed anymore.
Most of the men I’ve met have been too involved with their careers to spend time on a relationship.
I thought a work-life balance would be hard to find, but with Bullet waiting for me, I can’t wait to come home and sit at the dinner table to hear about his day.
“Babe, the water’s waiting for you,” he calls in his low, sexy voice.
I go to him, but instead of walking into the bathroom, I stop to take his hand and tug him along with me. “I need you to wash my back,” I say. I’m finding my inner diva. First, I lunged at him in my kitchen, and now I’m asking him to bathe with me. I’ve never been this brazen.
Bullet doesn’t hesitate to unbutton my blouse, leaving it open as he wraps his hand around the back of my head and kisses me so deeply that I feel his warmth all the way down to my toes.
My hands glide under the soft material of his T-shirt as I press closer to his chest. I move my hands over his sculpted abs as his hands grip my ass, pressing me against him.
After Bullet finally drags his mouth from mine, he promptly removes my blouse and bra and tears off his T-shirt.
I’m as worked up as he is and take off the rest of my clothes, but before I can step into the tub, I find myself backed into the door.
With one hand, he holds both of mine over my head and plunders my mouth again.
I feel a tingle of excitement run through me.
His free hand finds its place between my legs.
“Thank God you’re already wet for me,” he murmurs hoarsely against my lips.
His finger slides inside me. My body immediately responds, moving with the pace of his hand.
Bullet tears his mouth away, but his eyes are locked on mine.
“I want to see you come for me.” The words alone are enough to send me over the edge.
My breath hitches, a loud mewl escapes my lips, but I never waver from staring into those beautiful pools of blue.
His finger curves inside me, hitting just the spot that has my legs quivering, my stomach clenching, and finally, I succumb to the most magnificent orgasm, while Bullet coos words of sweetness in my ear.
There’s no time to think before he lifts my leg over his hip and thrusts inside my pussy. It aches so good that I beg and moan for more. I can’t understand how I can need him so much when I’ve just had the most amazing orgasm, but I do.
“Aaron, baby,” is all I manage to say when he playfully tweaks my nipple, and I grip his cock tighter.
“Christ, Amelia!” he groans. “Come on, baby. One more time,” he whispers, his breath on my cheek.
“So close,” I respond. He lifts my other leg, and I wrap both of them around his waist. He tilts me into a position where I feel every inch of him inside me. That’s all I need to reach my climax, taking Aaron with me, hearing him moan my name.
Slowly, Aaron moves us from the door. He carries me to the tub and sets me into the water first, then settles in behind me. My back to his front, he cradles me in the warm water.
“Are you good, beautiful?” he asks. I love it when he calls me that.
“Better than good.”
He chuckles.
“This is the good way to end a bad day.” I twist my head to look back at him, and kiss his jaw.
“Best way ever.” He kisses my temple.