Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cassie
"How the fuck do you know there's a charity ride this weekend?" Maddy growls at me while pinning Parker with a nasty glare.
Parker holds his hands up in surrender. The hint of mischievousness in his eyes endears me to him a bit more.
His hovering around the garage all afternoon was kind of cute, and I openly appreciated it.
I mean, he's hot as fuck even if he needs his hair mussed up a bit.
His attitude is growing on me as well. I don't think there's any point in trying to find the soft, gooey center everyone knows he has, because it comes out in his own way.
Plus, I love all the warning glares he gives the other men when they're too close to me or checking me out. I have a feeling he will follow me everywhere from here on out because the prospects really pissed him off.
I think some of them have a death wish.
"I didn't tell her." Parker leans back in his chair and threads his hands behind his head. Jesus. "Are you forgetting she has all the brothers at the garage wrapped around her bright red nails?"
That finally gets Maddy to look at me. He's always loved when my nails are red and wrapped around his cock. I'll need to thank Kimmy for doing my nails yesterday.
In an attempt to tease him out of his bad mood, I bring my thumb to my lower lip and suck on it just enough to make him growl. Before I can hum and arch my chest, the office door bursts open, and I swear I almost throw the fuck up.
"Holy shit!" I gasp, shoving out of my chair so fast I trip over Parker's legs and go tumbling right into his lap. To my surprise, he doesn't throw me off him. Instead, he pulls my back to his chest and wraps his hand around my throat to calm me down.
"Easy now," Parker whispers in my ear. "You want to be here, then you'll need to be okay with this version too."
By this version, he means Ripley's face and shirt spattered with blood and who knows what else. What seriously confuses me is the slight cock of Ripley’s head and concerned way he watches me.
Koa slips in behind Ripley and smiles at me. The closer he gets to me, the more I notice the blood on his neck and cheek too. I throw my hand up to stop his pursuit because there's no way he's about to kiss me with blood all over him.
Parker's fingers tighten a bit on my throat.
"He's watching," he whispers, and I snap my gaze to see Maddy frowning at me.
"Now's your chance to prove you can handle us.
If not, he'll whip the martyr right out of his heart and push you away again just so you can be the sweet little woman he seems to think you are. "
"Kitty, are you okay?"
My eyes ping-pong between the three men all looking at me with expressions varying from concerned to resigned. My attempt at wiggling out of Parker's hold is futile, so I do what they don't expect and completely relax my body into his.
Koa and Ripley stomped in here covered in blood, Maddy’s pissed at me for knowing club stuff, and the one holding me has been hostile toward me since I moved in. The best thing I can do to prove myself is offer them my trust in a very charged, possibly dangerous moment.
"Someone want to tell me why you didn't shower before coming in here?" I wonder instead of asking the burning question in my mind. What did they do and to whom?
"Shit!" Ripley scrubs his hands down his face and turns away. "I didn't think. Fuck, I scared you!"
I think I'm the only one who realizes Parker's laughing. If it weren't for the soft bounce of his chest and the puffs of air against my temple, I wouldn't know. It makes me want to be this close to him all the time so I can read him more easily.
Ripley continues mumbling to himself, ramping up into panic territory. "Ripley—" I start, but he's quick to cut me off.
"No no no, it's too soon for her to leave. How could I scare her already? I'm not a bad guy. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"
My heart cracks right down the middle for the man breaking in front of me. "Parker, let me up please." With a final squeeze on my throat, he helps me to stand. "Koa, can you get me a few wet rags?"
I don't spare anyone but Ripley my attention as I approach him. My gut twists with anxiety, not because I'm scared of him, but because I've never seen him as anything but his calm, intense self.
"Cassie," Maddy says my name softly as his chair creaks. Please don't force me to stop.
Parker knows me better than I thought he did, because he moves between Maddy and me to stop him. "She's just fine, Mads. Give her space to show you."
I swear my heart warms so much that his belief in me mends the break I felt for Ripley's fear of scaring me off. The good news for them is I don't scare easily. I just need my stalker man to take a breath and realize I haven't run.
Hissed arguing behind me fades away as I approach the gentle killer. I'm under no illusion that Ripley hasn’t killed people, but I don't think he's murdered without reason. I'd bet my heart on him taking down the bad guys.
Ripley spirals. "I don't want to lose her. I just got her. Hers. I'm fucking hers."
Don't fucking cry, woman. Never in a million years would I have thought an MC president would be panicking over me. Maddox sure made it look easy to leave me in the dust until his needs brought him back.
Nope. He's not important right now. My sweet psycho Ripley is.
Koa shifts back into the room and waits by the wall with the rags I asked for. Now it's just up to me to calm him down. To reassure Ripley.
"Ripley," I call out to him softly. Startling him out of his feelings won't help anyone.
I reach for him. The red of my nail polish matches the blood on his tanned forearm. For a moment, I pause and really question what I can handle in my life.
I've wanted to be a biker chick for as long as I can remember, and befriending people in the MC brought me closer to my dream. Living here now, it's not everything I thought it would be.
These aren't just hardened criminals with no feelings and wild sides that take your breath away. They're more than just a group of people who live life on the high side and have each other's backs no matter what.
No. They're so much more.
The feeling the Shadows possesses is far beyond anything I could dream of. I've never known much danger in my life, but if I did, this is exactly where I would want to be. Who I would choose to trust.
There's warmth and beauty here I never expected.
It's in the easy smiles, rambunctious laughter, helping hands, hugs, and jokes.
Their lethality is reserved for safety and guarding this big family.
Women choose their paths and who they give their time to.
The elderly are helped up the stairs and given the best seats.
Respect, love, camaraderie, and family live in the Shadows MC. And it's just that, isn't it? They're hiding their true selves from everyone else. Their good is being hidden, and I plan to know why.
There's a reason I never ran—now it's staring me right in the face. They're good. When they blend a little further into the darkness they use to cloak themselves, I want to help wash it off.
I can handle the blood, territory disputes, war, and fights. I want it all. Hell, one of the men I'm falling for doesn't want me to be scared of him so badly that he's losing his mind and tearing himself apart.
So as I slam back into the present, I come to with a small smile and the realization that I have never once been scared since I got here. Not by them. Not by this compound.
"Ripley, come sit," I order, tugging him toward the couch in Maddy's office. He doesn't budge, just continues staring at the bloody arm I still have in my hold.
His shuddering breath threatens to strangle me with emotion. The shaky breathing, paired with the fact that he won't look at me between his long waves covering his face, gives me more resolve.
"You'll dirty yourself." If a grown, muscly, dominant man could whimper, I think he just did.
I huff a small breath and tug on him, ignoring the foul scent of pee and copper. "Now, my love." Using my new nickname for him makes him stumble toward me. I count it as a win.
With some precise nudging, I manage to get him seated on the couch. He barely has a moment to form a protest before I'm straddling his thick thighs and brushing his hair away from his harsh cheekbones.
I hold my hand out toward Koa, not once glancing away from my trembling man. A wet chill encompasses my palm, signaling my time to take care of Ripley.
Reverently, I drag the soft cloth across his eyebrow and over the arch of his nose. Hmm, someone broke it at some point.
"Why are you frowning?" Ripley whispers, worry sinking deep into his dark eyes. "You're scared of me now, aren't you?"
I purse my lips and wiggle further into his lap. Not going anywhere. "I was thinking about what I would do to the person who broke your nose. Maybe use a spoon and scoop their eyeball out or something."
Koa snorts, and I think I hear Maddy rumble out a laugh. Parker’s choke and following words give me so much joy. "Absolutely not! I'll remove all the spoons from the fucking compound before you even think about taking my eye!"
Glancing over my shoulder with a cheeky grin, I tease, "Then I'll just have to use a fork."
"Is it too soon to tell her I love her?" Koa mock-whispers to Maddy, who swats him in the chest.
All too soon the teasing fades, leaving us in a thick atmosphere of unknowns and assumptions. Maddy comes to stand near me with his damn eyebrows furrowed as he watches me wipe the blood from Ripley. "Cassie, maybe you shouldn't—"
"Shh," I hush him, trailing my thumb across Ripley's lip. "I'm just fine."
I swear I can feel Maddy raise an eyebrow without even looking at him. "But...?"
"But I have questions," I mutter, thoroughly distracted by Ripley's heavy breathing as I pamper him with gentle touches.
Pressing a lingering kiss to the corner of Ripley's mouth, I sink into the feel of him. Seeing this side of him, the bloody and the vulnerable, has made me far more attached than I'm willing to admit yet.
Maddy sighs. "Of course you do."
Now isn't the time to demand answers, and I'm not sure I'm ready to dive into it yet anyway. I want to take care of my crazy stalker and let them figure out their business for a bit longer.
"But I'll hold off on demanding answers if you let me ride in the charity this weekend."
The way Maddy tenses confuses me. What is he so afraid of? "Victor's still out there, and it's an eighty-mile loop. You've never ridden that far, and I don't want you to crash because you get tired."
"Okay. Come on, Ripley." Climbing off his lap, I help him to his feet and usher his quiet self toward the door. "Let's get you to a shower."
"Hey Cassie," Maddy calls out, stopping me at the door. "What Rip said about not wanting to lose you, we feel the same way. We're yours."
Eyebrows furrowed like usual, beard trimmed immaculately, tanned pecs on display beneath his cut, Maddy implores me with his entire body to believe him.
Even Parker doesn't flinch at that strong as hell declaration, even if he does look a little terrified.
I love how Koa seems to want to run after me.
I smile so wide my mouth hurts and know exactly how I'm going to get my way. "Then I'm excited to ride on the back of a Shadows’ bike this weekend."