6. Preacher #2
I touched my cheek and found a shallow cut from flying glass.
I pulled her against me and held on. Around us, the yard had become lights, radios and shouted information.
Gage had the surviving attacker restrained, Smoke was with the paramedics treating Luis, and White disappeared behind ambulance doors without anybody saying what came next.
Holly leaned back enough to look at me. “This isn’t over. Vega, the buyer, whoever was in that SUV. They’re still out there.”
“Yeah, and I’m not pretending otherwise.”
Her eyes searched mine as though the answer was already obvious. “And you’re going after them.”
“They came into my town, used your employee as bait, put their hands on you and shot the Sheriff.”
“That sounded almost like you care about the sheriff.”
“I care that they think they can do whatever the fuck they want in my town.”
That was the difference between us. The Sheriff was law and I wasn’t, but I didn’t need to like him to take exception to outsiders deciding they could shoot him on ground I considered mine. Holly understood; I saw it in her face.
“This town really is on its own, isn’t it?”
“Mostly, but this club was always here. That’s the part these assholes didn’t understand.”
She looked toward the road, where the ambulance carrying White had already disappeared, then back at me. “I’m staying by the way.”
The words hit harder than the gunfire had. “You’re staying in Salvation, or you’re staying with me?”
A smile touched her mouth. “That was arrogant, but both. I’m keeping Curtis Freight for the ninety days, maybe longer if I can make it work, and yes, I’m staying with you.”
Something in my chest went tight enough to hurt. “You sure?”
“Don’t ruin this by asking me five times.”
I cupped the back of her neck. “I’m not standing here because of a promise to your father. I’m standing here because I love you, and some bastard touched what’s mine and I nearly burned this whole fucking town down getting back to you.”
Her breath caught, and for once Holly Curtis didn’t have a smart answer ready. “I love you too, and I do know exactly what staying with you means.”
I pulled her closer until there was no space left between us. “Good, because I’m not pretending this is casual.”
I kissed her, not gently because I wasn’t feeling gentle, and not for long because there were paramedics, club brothers and a bleeding man ten feet away who was eventually going to wake up and regret every decision that had brought him into Salvation.
Holly kissed me back with both hands twisted into my cut, holding me like she had no intention of going anywhere. For tonight, having Holly alive and holding on to me was enough. The rest of them could wait.
EPILOGUE
Three weeks into Holly’s ninety-day trial at Curtis Freight, I found her in the yard arguing with Luis about a truck that should probably have been retired long ago.
Luis had his arms folded while Holly stood with one hand on her hip and a clipboard tucked beneath the other arm, which meant he was losing.
“It has another six months in it,” she said. “Fix the damn suspension.”
“With what money? The truck’s held together by hope and bad decisions.”
“The money I’m not spending replacing something that still runs.”
Luis looked at me as I crossed the yard. “You want to explain this to her?”
“Not a chance.” I stopped beside Holly and gave Luis the kind of look that told him he was on his own.
“Smart man,” Holly said, far too pleased with herself.
Luis muttered something in Spanish and headed back toward the warehouse. I hooked a finger through the belt loop of Holly’s jeans and pulled her against me, which earned me a smile instead of the argument I would have gotten three weeks earlier for distracting her while she worked.
“You finished for the day?”
“Not even close, but I’m guessing that wasn’t really a question.”
“It wasn’t.”
Her eyebrows lifted with immediate amusement. “See, this is the man everyone else gets. The bossy asshole who walks into places and expects everybody to do what he says.”
“Works most of the time.”
“Then there’s the one I get.” Her smile changed, becoming the one that usually meant trouble. “The man who drove thirty miles yesterday because I mentioned the office air conditioner needed a part.”
I slid my hand around the back of her neck. “You got a point coming with this?”
“Yeah. I like that man, that’s all.”
Something uncomfortable shifted through my chest, and Holly saw it because she saw too fucking much. She laughed softly and pressed both hands against me. “Relax. Nobody else knows he exists. Your terrifying reputation is safe.”
I kissed her before she could keep going.
The freight yard disappeared for a few seconds as she pushed closer, fingers sliding beneath the edges of my cut, and when I finally lifted my head, she was looking at me in a way that made finishing her paperwork seem a lot less important than getting her somewhere nobody could interrupt us.
“You’ve got ten minutes to finish whatever can’t wait until tomorrow,” I told her.
Holly laughed against my chest. “You know I technically still have Dad’s house, right? I could decide to sleep there just to annoy you.”
“You haven’t slept there in three weeks, and we both know you’re not starting tonight.”
“There he is again.” She kissed my jaw. “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll come willingly.”
“Twelve, and I won’t have to carry you out out.”
“Deal.”
After what happened. Vega still hadn’t surfaced, and nobody had approached another Salvation business since the night at Curtis Freight.
But their silence didn’t mean the problem was finished.
This was the cartel. They don’t forget humiliation, and the Unholy Few sure as hell didn’t forget somebody coming into our town and trying to take what belonged to us.
For now, they’d backed off, which was enough to let the town breathe while we figured out what came next.
A bike came through the gate behind us, and Smoke parked beside mine. He’d barely killed the engine when his phone rang. The second he looked at the screen, something in him changed; another person might not have noticed, but I’d known Smoke too long.
He answered, listened for a few seconds and ended the call before shoving the phone into his pocket. When I asked what had happened, his jaw tightened.
“She’s coming back to Salvation.”
He didn’t need to give me a name. There was only one woman who could put that expression on Smoke’s face.
I looked toward Holly, who had gone back to her clipboard and was already arguing with Luis through the warehouse door about the damn truck. She caught me watching and smiled.
Rowan had asked me to look out for his daughter, but he’d never asked me to love her. Loving Holly had nothing to do with his promise; that part was all mine.