Chapter Twelve
Edge
I love my brothers. I’d fight and die for them any day of the goddamn week, but there’s two in particular who are testing the vows I made to the club I love. One I left at the hospital when I walked out with his daughter. The other…
I can’t believe Wraith’s here, like a long shadow darkening my doorstep.
I help Harley out of the cab, right before I throw some bills through the passenger side window, more than enough to cover the ride I was forced to take seeing as she was in no condition to get on my bike.
She tugs my jacket tighter shut around her and I step behind her to shield anything that the stupid hospital gown might not cover.
Yeah. Real smart move running out of there without her clothes.
He unfolds himself like some slithery creature to stand like a stork or a flamingo on those long legs of his. A grin twists up his mouth, but I’m in no mood for jokes.
“See you got your woman after all. I knew security wouldn’t be able to stop you, but I had to see them try.
It was either that or she would have phoned the cops, and we don’t need you getting dragged down there in the middle of all this shit.
It’s bad enough that they’re gonna be sniffing around everyone right away.
We need to get our shit together. All the brothers that can make it to church need to be there. ”
“Now?” I cock a brow. “You calling it or are you just the messenger?”
“If I said I was the messenger, would you shoot me?”
“Right now I can’t think of a better use of your face than to eat a bullet,” I grind out.
Wraith keeps right on grinning, like it’s hilarious that he’s on my doorstep, the gray light of dawn coming over the horizon, when I’ve got my woman with me after she’s just walked through hell and back because of this club.
“I know what you’re thinking, Edge.” Wraith crosses his arms. “Didn’t call it. Just the messenger, so save your bullets. Steel called it a half hour ago. Probably right about the time you busted your girl out of the hospital near fucking naked and walked out like a crazy person. Both of you.”
Harley shrinks back against me, and I lock my arms around her waist, marveling at how well she fits there.
I’ve had few real times in my life to hold her and right now I want to do just that, wrap her up in my arms and assure myself she’s alive and well and that I’m gonna keep her that way for the rest of our lives, that it makes my eyes sting again.
Harley, my Harley. Just thinking about her in that bed, so still and pale, makes me want to break down and weep all over again, and if you’re sitting there thinking I’m less of a fuckin’ man for it, you’d be dead fuckin’ wrong.
Life ain’t worth living without something to live for and Harley is every single reason I’m still walking on the right side of ground.
“It’s nice to see you again, Wraith,” Harley says politely.
I can tell she’s watching the whole exchange like a hawk and the caveman part of me that I can’t control nearly gets into a pissing contest over the fact that she’s watching Wraith’s face, not mine, even if it is necessary.
As if she can sense the straight up assholery going on behind her back, she turns her beautiful neck, gives me a whole view of that glorious gold column that I want to sink my teeth into so bad my mouth waters.
My cock springs to life, hardening in my jeans, right up against her ass.
I know she feels it, but my girl is a true professional.
She doesn’t even so much as make a sound.
She looks up at me and blinks those long, raven black eyelashes.
Fuck. Just… just, fuck. I could drown in her eyes. Eyes the color of a languid waterfall, with a whole hell of a lot of current underneath. I don’t know when I got so fucking poetic, but she brings it out in me.
“It’s okay, Edge. I’m going to be okay. Right now your loyalty is to your club.
You swore vows to them, and I know that these men are your whole life.
I was raised that way, so I get it. Even if we both don’t want you to go, you have to.
The club… they’re my family too. That attack…
it was personal. Someone wanted to hurt Steel Riders.
You have to figure out who did it and respond.
I don’t want to live in fear. Not here. Not in Helena. This is our town.”
Wraith lets out a low whistle. “Damn it, Edge, I get why you picked her, even if you have to go through all the trouble of having Steel up your ass.”
I’d like to take that son of a bitch and pummel him for even daring to show up at my house like the prick he is. I don’t, though, because he’s right. Harley’s right.
They’re both right and it tears me up inside because there ain’t a thing I’d rather do than take Harley inside, clean her up in the shower, worship her body, make her warm and safe, kiss hot trails over her injuries as if I could heal them just by loving her.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I’ll be fine. Just going to take a shower and go to bed. In our bed, Edge.”
She speaks in hushed tones, but I know Wraith hears her, because the bastard’s ears practically prick up. For once, he keeps his big mouth shut. He kicks at the dirt and when he looks back up, that shit-eating grin is back.
“Time’s wastin’. Get her inside and get on the back of my bike and ride like the bitch you are to get yours, since you’re so fond of leaving it.”
Lighthearted or not, I still want to fuck the little prick up. “Remind me again why I shouldn’t give you a taste of the fine delicacy that’s my fist?”
“Cause, you love this face so much, bro. This face is much too pretty for you to want to mess up. Much prettier than yours, especially at the moment.”
Harley actually lets out a small sound of choked mirth and just hearing that sound…
before I would have died a man, but now I can die a happy one.
That little half laugh goes straight to my chest. It beats me up worse than Steel ever could have.
It’s like a second ass kicking that fucks me breathless.
“I like his face,” Harley protests in my defense, totally half-hearted and this time I can’t stifle a grunt of mirth.
Wraith grunts. “Got a good one there, Edge. Totally don’t deserve her, you know.”
“I know.”
Harley angles in to me so that Wraith can’t see her hands. She signs something to me. Something that she taught me a long time ago. The very first ASL I ever learned.
I love you.
It feels like I’ve been clubbed over the head, watching her hands move so gently, the one injured, with dried blood where she pulled out the IV. I can’t believe she did that, but when she saw them try and restrain me, she went apeshit like a vengeful goddess.
I move my hands back, awkwardly, because I don’t want her to get any ideas about what I can and can’t do at the moment, when it comes to my signing.
And then, even though that annoying little shit, Wraith, is watching, I tip Harley’s chin and slant my mouth over hers.
My lips meet hers, mine chapped and dry from riding like the devil straight to the hospital to face what would have been the worst night of my life, hers as soft as satin.
I take my time, make that kiss count, because what happened tonight drives home the point about never knowing when these moments might be our last.
Her lips open to me and when I sweep my tongue into her mouth to stroke and tangle with hers, sweet as honey, smooth as good whiskey, and hot enough to send fire straight to the pit of my stomach and tighten up my groin.
I can’t help the groan that escapes and evaporates out into the night when I force myself to pull away.
Wraith clears his throat from a few feet away and I think about grabbing him and throttling him, wrapping my big, battle scarred hands around his throat and squeezing until his eyes bulge from the sockets.
I don’t look at him though. I keep my hand on Harley’s chin and bend my head so that our faces meet, forehead to forehead.
Her hand brushes over my pounding heart, tearing up a wild beat in my chest that would make even the world’s best drummer jealous.
Her eyes flash when she pulls away. “You have to go. It’s okay. Go. I’ll be fine here.”
I make sure she’s tracking my lips. “Lock the door. Stay in the house, Harley. Promise me you won’t go anywhere.”
Two pink smudges appear on her dainty cheekbones. I can’t tell if I’ve just pissed her off or if that blush was from something else entirely, but I don’t care. She’s mine now and if I have to fucking lock her into that house to keep her safe, I’m going to do it.
“Promise me!”
She doesn’t respond and I reach behind her, gripping her neck hard.
I wrap my arm around her, sink my fingers into the meaty part of her hip and cart her up against me.
The fact that Wraith is getting one hell of a show doesn’t stop me from going completely caveman.
She lets out a little yelp and mumbles something that passes for assent into my ear.
I set her back from me, forcibly, because I know that I have to. Wraith rolls his eyes as he walks by us. His bike is parked at the top of my narrow driveway, nearly at the road.
“Come on, princess. Time to suck it up and mount up.” He bats his eyelashes like a little bastard and puckers his lips. “You might be the prettiest thing that ever rode bitch on the back of my bike. Though I have to say, still not prettier than me.”
Harley’s eyes swivel to my face and she can’t hide her smile. She bites down hard on her bottom lip with those top pearly little teeth and my cock punches against my fly hard enough to bruise. I promise I’ll make her pay for that later. I’ll make her kiss away the pain in my cock after…
Fuck. I am so fucked.
I track her every movement as she mounts the steps with care, her bare feet walking so daintily over the dry earth. I don’t move until I hear the click of the deadbolt sliding into place.
For the first time in my life, I wish that this meeting could wait. That all of it could wait. The roar of justice hums in my blood, but it’s muted, quieter than usual. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt so torn.
My throat feels oddly closed up as I force myself to turn and stalk to the end of the driveway, where the bastard with the shit-eating grin is waiting for me.
“Ready to go, sweetheart?” Wraith asks as he holds out a helmet.
I’ve never wanted to kill anyone more.