Chapter 16
16
Morse
I KNEW I was in trouble when Amelia emerged from her room Friday afternoon wearing ass-hugging jeans and a forest green V-neck sweater that showcased her perfect tits. With Thia and Morgan in tow, she marched downstairs—her limp almost imperceptible—and, to my absolute horror, joined the ol’ ladies gathering in the common area. I stared at the screen, greedily gobbling up every detail of her appearance even as I prayed this was a fucking dream. Amelia couldn’t hit it off with the ol’ ladies. The instant they realized how amazing she was, they’d adopt her and never let her leave.
And I needed Amelia to go home.
The club was my refuge—my fortress of solitude—and her presence was too distracting. Too fucking enticing. The doctor’s appointment had shown me exactly how little self-control I had around her. How the hell could I resist her if she integrated with my people?
Carly said something that made Amelia laugh. The two embraced, and introductions were made as more ol’ ladies joined in. I watched, helpless, as they circled the wagons around her, unable to look away. God, she was so fucking beautiful. An oasis in the middle of the desert. A ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds.
Hell, she could have been the blazing sun, burning my goddamn retinas, and I wouldn’t have been able to tear my gaze away.
“You’re just a friend, dumbass. Ted’s old friend,” I muttered beneath my breath.
“Huh?” Hound asked. He was in the security room running maintenance on the servers we’d purchased to bring in additional funds by hosting websites. He stopped what he was doing to follow my gaze, chuckled, and shook his head. Hound was married to my cousin, Mila, who we watched pull Amelia in for a hug. “You’re in for it now, brother.”
Two Amelias together could lead to nothing but trouble. The two started gabbing like old friends as I tried to read their lips, annoyed that I couldn’t hear their conversation over the music and chatter of the common room. Mila had also escaped from the cult we’d grown up in, reinvented herself, and was surviving on her own until a situation with a stalker brought her to Seattle. I was glad she was here and safe now, but I sure as shit didn’t want her taking Amelia under her wing. Who knew what sort of secrets my crazy cousin would spill?
The ol’ ladies meeting got underway, with Emily holding court at the head of the sofas, giving her weekly update on their non-profit organization, Ladies First. After the meeting, the women resumed chatting, and I watched as Mila called Emily over to speak with Amelia. I couldn’t make out a damn word that was said, but when Amelia finished speaking, Emily grabbed her hand and marched her out of the room. I tracked their progress, dread mounting in my stomach as they disappeared behind the door to Link’s office.
They were in there for twenty-three minutes, and three-point-five seconds after they walked out of his office, I got a phone call from the prez.
“Get your ass in here. Now.” Link disconnected the call before I could respond.
Ignoring Hound’s knowing smirk, I stood, locking my computer before heading down the hall. Link’s door was open, so I tapped on it twice before pushing it open to find the prez pacing the space beside his desk like a caged lion. He stopped to look me over and frowned.
“You look like shit. You sleepin’?”
Unsurprised by his blunt observation, I shook my head. “Not really.” How could I with Amelia down the hall? The few hours I had managed to catch had been riddled with visions of the kiss we’d shared and tormented dreams of Ted coming back to beat my ass and reclaim his woman. I was fucking drowning in guilt, shame, and desire, and I didn’t know what the hell to do about any of it. “Got a lot on my mind.”
Link gestured for me to take a seat as he circled his desk and folded himself into his chair. “You need to talk to Sage?”
Probably, but I sure as hell didn’t want to. Sage always saw through the bullshit and forced me to find solutions to my problems, and I wasn’t ready to solve anything yet. Didn’t know that I ever would be.
“I’m good for now.”
Link’s frown deepened. “I never pegged you for a coward, Morse.”
I frowned right back. “That’s because I’m not. What the fuck, Prez?”
“Oh?” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Then why the fuck are you avoiding Amelia?”
I tensed. Had she come in here to rat me out? “She told you that?”
“Not in so many words, but I can read between the lines. What’s going on with you? What the fuck are you afraid of, brother?”
“It’s not fear. It’s….” Flustered, I shook my head and tried again. “What I want from Amelia is wrong on so many levels. Ted was—” I struggled to find the right words only to be cut short by Link.
“Ted? The dead husband?”
I ground my teeth, refusing to let him rankle me even though he was sure trying. “Yes. Her dead husband.”
The words didn’t cut nearly as deep as they had in the doctor’s office. Did that mean I was finally turning into the kind of heartless bastard who could claim a woman I had no business being with? Was that the sort of man I wanted to be?
“Is Ted the reason you’ve been sending Tap to help your woman?” Link asked, butting into my self-recrimination.
Startled by the question, I scoffed. “She’s not my woman, Prez. I’m just an old friend of her husband’s.” As she had reminded me, putting me firmly in my place. “And I’m not avoiding her. I delegated her interactions to the most qualified brother for the job.”
“So, it’s all about qualifications, huh?”
I sensed a trap but nodded anyway. “Yeah.”
“Then why the fuck did you take Amelia to the doctor?” The smug look on his face shouted checkmate, which was fair, considering I had no comeback. “You stay behind the scenes,” Link continued, driving the point home. “At your insistence. In fact, that was the agreement you insisted on when you joined the club. Yet you’ve led two ops for her. Why?”
“She’s my responsibility.”
“Havoc would have taken her to the doctor if you’d asked him, and he’s way more qualified than you are for field ops.”
“The bikes were the best transportation option.”
The bastard’s lips kept twitching as he tried not to smile. “Havoc has a bike.”
The mental image inspired by his suggestion made me want to wring his goddamn neck. “Julia would lose her shit if he put another woman on the back of his bike.”
Link shrugged. “What about one of the single brothers? Zombie? Frog? Specks? Hell, even Sage has more field experience than you do.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but not having a fucking leg to stand on, quickly snapped it closed again.
Link harrumphed. “Truth is truth, and you fuckin’ know it, so don’t come at me with that qualification bullshit. I know you well enough to know what’s up. You’ve got it in your mind that you’re not good enough for Amelia, so you refuse to step up and take a chance.”
The bastard had already won the game. Why did he have to be such a dick about it?
I didn’t have a worthwhile rebuttal, so I kept my mouth shut.
Link leaned back in his chair, steepling his hands on his desk as he considered me. “I called you in here to let you know Amelia plans to leave Monday.”
“Monday?” Panic, cold and frigid, speared through me, turning my blood to ice. “To go where? We haven’t neutralized the threat to her life.”
“I’m aware. So is she. But she’s in a bit of a bind, and her parents insist she go home to Idaho. She knows the risk, but school’s fucking expensive, and she’s not willing to deprive her daughter of this chance.”
He was revealing information about Amelia that I wasn’t privy to. Information she likely would have shared with me had I not been avoiding her.
He leveled a no-nonsense look at me. “If Amelia wants to go to Idaho, you can’t stop her.”
Technically, I could, but there’d be consequences.
As if reading my mind, he added, “We don’t hold people against their will here. No matter how much we want to.” When I didn’t immediately agree, his eyes narrowed. “You hear me, Morse?”
I grimaced and dropped my gaze to his desk. “Loud and clear, Prez.”
Finished with our conversation, he released me. Rather than heading back to the security room, I stormed upstairs and went straight to the room Amelia spent most of her time in.
Thia answered the door, flashing me a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. “Morse. What a pleasant surprise. Come in.”
The prickling sensation at the back of my neck gave me pause, but I crossed the threshold anyway. “Is Amelia here?”
“Nope. She should be back shortly, though.” Thia closed the door behind me, effectively blocking my escape, and pointed to the couch. “Sit.”
Her tone was half command, half threat, and I didn’t care for it one bit, but I did as I was told, holding her borderline hostile glare the entire time.
Thia joined me on the couch, glancing at her cell phone before setting it down on the arm. She turned to face me and said, “Ask me how I met Amelia.”
Again, her tone rankled, but I let it slide, more than a little impressed by her take-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude. “Fine. I’ll bite. How’d you two meet?”
“Aw, thank you for your interest.” Her smile was one hundred percent sass. “She found my name in a local obituary. My wife’s death announcement, to be exact. Amelia didn’t know me and didn’t owe me a damn thing, but my status as a military widow encouraged her to track my ass down to make sure I was okay. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t. Nor did I want her help, but she was relentless. She savagely bullied her way into my life through shit like casserole dishes and movie nights.”
“If you’re trying to tell me she’s a goddamn saint, I’m aware.” Why the fuck did Thia think I’d been staying away? I knew damn well that Amelia was too good for me.
Thia studied me like I was a suspicious object abandoned on the side of the road that might explode at any moment. “I simply wanted to let you know she was there for me when I had no one. And she told me what happened during her appointment.”
I frowned.
“Wipe that look off your face. Some people need to talk about their feelings. I hear it’s even healthy. Besides, I had to drag the information out of her because she doesn’t like to burden anyone with her problems. That woman is a treasure, and I will kill for her if necessary.”
Her eyes narrowed at me, and I nodded.
“Noted.”
“Good.” Her expression softened. “Because I love her, and she’s my favorite person in the world, but she can be a bit of an idiot sometimes. Seems like the two of you have that in common.” She waved off any possible rebuttal and added, “I mean the idiot part. You seem like a good guy, but I will gladly shank your biker ass if you hurt my friend.”
My irritation with her observation was only outweighed by my admiration for her honesty. No wonder she and Amelia were so close. Everyone said they liked straight shooters, but most people didn’t really want to hear the truth. Amelia always did. It was one of the many reasons I couldn’t get her out of my mind.
“I’m actually rooting for you, you know?” Thia asked, bringing me back to the present.
“You are? Why?”
“Because who doesn’t want someone willing to hack into her health records and change her weight? She deserves that.”
“She deserves a lot more than me.”
“True.” Thia shrugged. “But take it from someone who’s been dating, there’s a lot of fish-shaped scum swimming in the pond. Trust me. She could do worse. Besides, in the three years I’ve known her, she hasn’t so much as checked out a hot guy in the grocery store. But she looks at you. And you obviously care about her, so don’t fuck with her heart. Figure out what you want and have a conversation because leading her on and then ghosting her is not an option.”
As I was digesting Thia’s speech, the door flung open. Amelia stormed in with Morgan in tow and a bottle of wine in hand, which she thrust out toward Thia.
“Is this the super important delivery you couldn’t run downstairs and accept because you had to pe—” Her gaze landed on me, and she stopped short, gesturing the bottle between us. “What’s going on here?”
“We’re chatting while we wait for you,” Thia said, relieving Amelia of the wine and setting it on the mini fridge.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed at her friend. “About…?”
Thia shrugged, her expression unrepentant. “Life. Love. Murder. Pretty sure we covered the basics. Come on, Morgan. Let’s get some dinner downstairs and leave these two to talk.”
With one last don’t-fuck-this-up look my way, she ushered Morgan out, careful not to touch her, closing the door behind them and leaving Amelia and me alone.
“So, about?—”
She shushed me.
Startled, I twisted on the couch to follow her line of sight. Thia’s black furball of a dog crept out from under the bed, stopping every couple of steps to hunker down and sniff the air. Her eyes were wild and frightened, and she was ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
“Hey, Bailes, how you doin’ honey?” Amelia asked in a soft, sing-song voice as she crept toward the dresser. “You want a treat?”
Unlike the club dog, who went a little crazy at that word, Bailey crawled two steps forward, immediately changed her mind, halted, and backed up, head craning behind her to make sure the coast was clear. Amelia opened a bag, pinched a treat between her fingers, and slowly crouched to lower it down. The sniffing increased.
“Smells good, doesn’t it? Come on. That’s a good girl. You can do it, sweetheart.”
They both crept forward, Bailey’s ass occasionally overtaking her head in some odd show of hesitant excitement as they met in the middle.
“Gentle. Gentle.” Amelia coaxed, inching the treat forward.
I could see down her V-neck sweater. I tried not to look, but goddamn, she had the most perfect set of tits I’d ever laid eyes on. What I wouldn’t give to slide my cock between them until those pale, silky pillows were marked with my seed. The desire to bend her over and make her mine made me feel like an animal, but she was so damn perfect.
Bailey lunged, snapped the treat from between Amelia’s fingers, and sprinted back under the bed.
“Ouch!” She shook her hand, standing only to wince again when she straightened her leg.
I leaped out of my seat and cleared the distance between us, grabbing her hand to examine her fingers. There was no blood, only the indentations of sharp teeth. “You okay?”
“Yeah. The feral little beast didn’t break the skin this time.”
Her gaze lifted to meet mine and fuck . We were so damn close. Again. How had I let myself get pulled back into her orbit?
Was I a complete moron?
With her warm, soft hands cradled in mine, I had to fight the urge to pull her against me and taste her goddamn lips again.
“What are you doing here, Morse?”
The question pulled me out of my stupor, and I mentally shook myself. What was I doing? Our situation hadn’t changed, which meant this woman wasn’t mine and never could be.
Right?
One thing was undeniable. If I kissed Amelia again, it would be leading her on since I was a fucking mess, so I released her hands and shoved myself away, gaining control of my body and collecting my thoughts.
Heartbeats passed, and then her eyebrows rose in question. “Are you listing off baseball teams?”
Yes. And I was spinning my fidget spinner ring for all it was worth, but I stopped, not wanting to admit that shit, and leaned against the sofa.
“Link told me you went to see him,” I said instead, finally remembering the reason for my visit.
She blinked and then nodded. “Yeah, about that…. I’m sorry, but I have to go to Idaho. I would have told you myself, but I?—”
“Why?”
She took a deep breath and then proceeded to tell me all about her parents’ stipulations on paying for Morgan’s school, which seemed manipulative as hell to me. I kept my mouth shut, though, and let her ramble as guilt stabbed me in the chest. I should have uncovered the identity of the person who wanted her dead by now, but I’d hit a brick wall. The son-of-a-bitch had hired the hit through a professional service I couldn’t hack into without putting the club at risk. The option wasn’t out of the question—since my brothers could handle their own—but at the very least, I owed Link a conversation before I escalated shit that far.
Amelia wrapped up the explanation for her trip as she leaned against the wall. “So, I decided it would be safer and easier for everyone if Morgan and I went. Hitmen are looking for me here in Seattle. They won’t know to search for me in Idaho.”
“I can guarantee any professional would know where your parents live by now. Besides, how will you get there?”
“Thia will rent the car in her name.”
“But they’ll need your license if you’ll be the one driving it,” I countered.
“I know. We’re new at this whole hiding out thing and still brainstorming solutions.”
“Where will you stay?”
“I booked hotel rooms about a month ago, but you’re shaking your head, and I’m realizing that isn’t a good idea either.”
“No. I’ll have Tap or Hound bring you a burner phone so you can cancel those reservations. If anyone’s watching your credit card activity, we want them to believe you’ve quashed the trip idea. I meant what I said when we were at the….” I swallowed. This was a topic I could avoid revisiting for the rest of my life. “The doctor’s office. If you have to travel, I’ll drive.”
She frowned. “That’s a big ask.”
“You didn’t ask; I volunteered.”
Her eyes softened, and I had to glue my feet to the ground to keep myself from going to her, even as I eagerly enlisted in the next level of torture. Taking a trip with this woman could quite possibly break me. Still, there was no backing out now. Not when her life was in danger.
“Well, I suppose…”
I dipped a quick nod. It was all the confirmation I needed. “If we’re doing this, let me figure out the safest way to get you there and back.”
“You were right.” The grateful smile that tugged at her tempting lips drove home the fact that I was screwed. “Premeditated really is your jam.”