CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I was sitting in the common room of the clubhouse, after waking up alone, again, with delicious pains throughout my body. I had expected Chains to wake me so that we could go back to Lexie’s place to get my stuff, but when I woke up I was alone, and all my stuff was already in the room, as well as everything we had gotten for Mr Boots. So that meant he either went alone, or he sent a prospect to collect everything. And the thought that a strange guy had gone through my underwear drawer had me fuming.
The front door of the clubhouse swung open, and in walked Lexie with Sage and Everleigh, who were both pushing prams with their beautiful little ones inside. Everleigh’s little girl Ivy and Sage’s baby boy Silas.
Chains had told me earlier that Lexie refused to stay at the clubhouse after Caleb had thrown that brick through the window—instead, going to stay with her sister Sage, and her old man Tiny. The house was still on club property, but far enough away that she wouldn’t run into Riggs.
When Everleigh and Sage saw Mr Boots, their faces softened, and I couldn’t help but smile. Everleigh took him from me, and I chuckled.
“He’s adorable.” She coos. Leaning down, she whispers conspiratorially, “I heard that new vet in town has gotten Ky all tied up in knots.”
“Really?” I ask, my brows lifting past my hairline.
“Oh yes, the fire at the strip mall burnt down the gym and the vet practice. Now he’s helping her clean her place up and the gym,” Everleigh replies, as I sit there frozen. Fire? Gym?
“There was a fire at the gym?” I ask almost robotically, wondering why Chains wouldn’t tell me what happened?
The three women look at each other, and I can feel my anger rising to the surface. “I’m not a child,” I grit through my teeth. “There’s really no need to keep things a secret from me.”
“We didn’t realize you didn’t know.” Lexie begins, frustration on her face, but I lift my hand to stop her momentum.
“I’m not angry at you, guys. I’m pissed at Bodie, I mean Chains. He could’ve told me, but he chose not to. Where are the guys, anyway?” I ask, fighting to keep a lid on my anger.
“Tiny told me they were going to the gym to help with the clean-up, so it’s ready for the reconstruction to start. I’m guessing that’s where most of the guys are,” Sage tells me.
I nod my head. “And what, the weak little women can’t help?”
The girls all chuckle at my remark, and I give them a sheepish smile. I was pissed off that Chains had left me after he had fucked me into oblivion earlier today. Maybe that was his intention, for me to fall asleep, and for him to make his getaway? Many scenarios have been running through my head that the prospect at the bar has been looking at me warily. I’d sent him a smile to let him know I was fine.
Handing Mr Boots back to me, Everleigh straightens and suggests, “Anyway, I was thinking we could make the guys some lunch and take it to them.”
“That’s a great idea.” Sage pipes up. “Jax and Cash are both at a friend”s house. I’ve only got Silas with me, and I can palm him off to Jack for a little while.” She laughs.
“I’m in.” I say, running to Chains room to put Mr Boots inside the bathroom where I had placed his kitty litter and scratching post together with his food and water bowls.
“Be a good boy, and I’ll be back soon.” With that. I shut the door and returned to the other women, who I found in the kitchen, busying themselves making enormous sandwiches. When they saw my eyes bugging out, Lexie laughs and says jokingly, “They’re growing boys.”
I joined the line, and for a few minutes we worked in companionable silence.
“So, tell us about you and Chains.” Sage was the first to speak.
“Nothing to tell.” I reply, going for nonchalance, even though my face was probably as red as a tomato, remembering the sex we had earlier.
“That blush tells me different.” Sage comments, and I give a nervous laugh.
“Honestly, I don’t know what we are, if you must know. He’s taken it upon himself to shield me from my ex.”
“There’s more to it than that, I’m sure of it. But we’ll unpack it another time. For now, we should get going.”
“That’s not a good idea.” A deep voice said from behind us, we all squeal and jump. Turning my head, I see the prospect that was behind the bar. “I’ve been given strict instruction not to let Zoe leave.”
“Even if she’s with us?” Everleigh demands, arching a finely shaped brow.
Without saying a word, he shakes his head.
“You know that I’m the President’s woman, right?”
“I do. And this order came from the man himself,” he tells us.
I straighten to my full height and pull my shoulders back. “Well, then you’re just going to have come with us, aren’t you?”
The guy looked like he was going to be sick, but I just smiled sweetly, and really didn’t care if he was going to get into trouble or not. I was going to go wherever the fuck I wanted, and Chains’ overprotective ass was going to have to live with it.
That thought made me feel a little better about what I was about to do. Because the other women had arrived in one SUV with the kids, which meant Lexie was on her bike, and if I wanted to get to the gym, I would have to get on behind her; something I hadn’t done since the night of the assault.
I enjoyed riding behind Chains because strangely enough; I felt safe wrapped around him. But Lexie was different, and just the thought of riding with her made me anxious. I forced those thoughts to the back of my mind, and slid on behind my best friend, knowing she was a safe rider and wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
Fortunately, I had the foresight to wear jeans today, along with a tan sweater and my favorite tan booties. Sliding on, I noticed behind us was the prospect whose name I learned was Stingray. Not sure why that name, and I wasn’t interested in finding out.
The ride took less than ten minutes, in which I was internally psyching myself up to seeing Chains after we had spent hours together having sex. I wouldn’t call it making love, because that’s not what it was.
Making love implied tenderness. The way he took me was so far from tender, I could almost still feel him inside me. I huffed, needing to stop thinking about him in that context. I was weak, and it was an aberration on my part. I couldn’t let anything like that happen again. I’d already made myself vulnerable to him, and I realized he wasn’t interested in anything deeper than sex.
I had to create space between us, and staying in Briar Creek only confirmed to me and everyone else around me, I was sure of it, that I still had feelings for him. Which I did, of course, I just didn’t need him to know all that. Tired of going in circles, I shook my head and stopped.
I needed to be independent before considering a deeper relationship with him. I had to admit that it was better than the enemies we’d been for all these years.
Finally arriving at the strip mall, a gasp left my lips when I saw the state of the building. Most of the shopfronts were just fire damaged, but the gym and the veterinary practice were completely decimated.
If I hadn’t been overtaken with the destruction of the gym, I would have been paying attention to the blacked-out SUV that had followed us from the clubhouse and was now parked across the road. A lone man sitting inside. Watching me intently.
But as it was, I was oblivious to everything but what I was seeing in front of me. Sliding off the back of Lexie’s bike, I stand there, staring at the devastation. The shock of seeing the damage rendering me speechless. So much so that I didn’t hear the heavy boots behind me until it was too late and I was scooped up into a pair of muscular arms and placed on the seat of another much larger motorcycle.
I look up into Chains’ angry blue eyes. But I’m pissed off too, and don’t recognize the danger I’m in, as I cross my arms over my chest. He watches the movement, his eyes on the rise and fall of my chest.
“Do I need to tan your ass red, little one? What the fuck are you doing here?” He growls close to my face, and even though I can smell smoke emanating from him, dressed in a sleeveless muscle shirt and jeans, covered in soot from head to toe, he’s too sexy for his own good and it’s the most intoxicating scent I’ve ever smelled But I wouldn’t allow myself to be distracted.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Did you seriously just say that to me?”
“What, tan your ass? You bet your ass I said it. Oh, and a heads up, you’d enjoy it, too,” he murmurs, nuzzling my neck as I tried to remain unaffected. “Stingray’s going to pay for not watching over you like I told him to.”
I tried pushing him back to give me some personal space. But who was I kidding? Personal space was the last thing I wanted. From Chains anyway.
“You can’t say things like that.” I reply, trying to maintain my anger, but his teeth and tongue were doing delicious things to the sensitive skin of my neck.
“Oh, but I can, little one. He had one job, and that was to keep you safe.”
“But he kept me safe. I’m here with you, aren’t I?” I argue.
Chains suddenly stops from his ministrations on my neck, and I pull back, noticing his attention is over my shoulder somewhere. I look around, but notice nothing.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, a ball of nerves settling in my stomach.
“Nothing, baby. Let’s get you inside.” Taking my hand, he silently leads me into the gym, and it’s there that I can see firsthand the damage the fire had done. And I feel like crying at how in just a few minutes, everything Ky and the club have worked for could just disappear.