27. Flame
FLAME
Walking the property with Grey has to be the most awkward experience that I have had in a long time.
He’s an asshole, but he has been holding that part of his personality back since staying with Willow.
Anyone with fuckin’ eyes can see that he is into my little Fox, except for him and Willow, apparently.
Not sure if he’s fighting it because her dad is his boss, or if there’s something else.
All I know is he can’t keep switching between being respectful to her, then going back and treating her like shit. No one gets to fuck with my girl like that.
After checking the house, we head outside for the perimeter check, and I decide to finally call him out on his hot-and-cold bullshit now that we are alone.
“What the fuck is your problem with Willow anyways?” I ask after walking for a few minutes in silence.
Beating around the bush has never been my thing.
His long stride falters for a nano-second, and I would have missed it if I wasn’t so locked into reading his response.
A rough, “Nothing,” is all I get as he continues walking, brushing off my question.
That isn’t going to work for me, so I press on.
“After how I heard you speak to her at the airport and when we had dinner with her family, I don’t think you can say that you feel nothing when it comes to Willow.
I’m just trying to figure out what that sweet woman could have done to piss you off so much. ”
“Why? Can’t have anyone be mean to the woman that you claimed?
” he asks, trying to shift the conversation away from him.
Even if what he said is one hundred percent true, no one fucks with my woman’s feelings.
But he continues, “Did you even tell her that yet? How would that even work when it comes to her life? She may be here a lot, but are you telling me that when she’s gone on jobs out of the country for who knows how long, you will be fine with sitting in the clubhouse with your MC, just waiting to see if she comes home alive? ”
His question blindsides me, because I never got to that part of us being together.
I kind of hoped that she would stop being the Fox and focus on her businesses that were in town.
When the inevitable day comes that I take the gavel from my dad, I can’t stay away from the club for that long.
Not to mention the shop has more business than Smoke and I can handle as it is.
“Or have you thought of the fact that she may not want to be around your ‘Brothers’? She doesn’t seem too interested in getting to know them.
You’re telling me that you would ask her to be around a club that fucked with her family?
I don’t even know the entire story, just what I got from her brothers, and from what I’ve gathered so far, fuckin’ with her family is unforgiveable in her eyes.
Good luck getting that spitfire of a woman to play nice and not cause waves as the President’s ‘Ol Lady,” he finally finishes, leaving me questioning my soon-to-be relationship.
I need to talk to her, but I’m selfish and don’t want to lay out all the reasons that she shouldn’t give us a try.
I know she won’t want to be close to her family in the club, except for Smoke, but I think she could keep herself in check.
She’s been around MCs for a while; she knows how they work.
She knows she would need to keep her feelings and opinions to herself around the club and show respect to the Brothers and their families.
Now I’m pissed about him putting down the relationship that I could have with Willow.
I stop in my tracks, and so does he. I start to size him up.
He’s just a little taller than me, so we are almost eye level.
“Sounds to me like you’ve put a lot of thought into why she shouldn’t be with me.
Is there a reason our relationship is on your mind so much?
Don’t give me some bullshit answer of you workin’ for her dad.
You’re too hot and cold with her to be neutral,” I say, wanting him to admit that he’s obsessed with her too, so he can stop acting like I am the crazy one for wanting to make it work with Willow.
He glares at me before turning and walking again.
After a stretch of tense silence, he says, “I already lost my woman. I will never replace her with someone else. I wouldn’t be able to give another woman all of me, since part of me will always be with my wife.
It wouldn’t be fair to ask anyone to be alone for weeks on end while I’m working or missing big moments in our lives because I’m a soldier, even if I am out of the military.
You can’t build a life with someone when they are always gone.
Willow is young. She should be able to build a life, not wait on someone for it to start. ”
We walk in silence as I dissect what he laid out.
To be honest, neither of us are good enough for Willow.
We can’t offer her the white picket fence that she should be able to have.
“So, you want her, but you’re being a dick because you think that she shouldn’t get half of you,” I say, trying to summarize the bullshit that he was spewing.
I get that he has issues, but he’s acting like a kid on the playground, picking on the girl he has a crush on.
“And you’re saying that you would rather have her be miserable in a life that she doesn’t want to fit into,” he replies in a dark tone.
We both go quiet for a few minutes. I’m trying to find the answers to the questions that I now have about my relationship, and I have no fuckin’ clue what he’s thinking about. After a while, it hits me.
“She needs us both,” I say, and he immediately stops and looks at me like I’ve lost my damned mind.
“I don’t understand how you got any of that from what I said,” he replies, slowly raising an eyebrow.
“Clearly you want her just as much as I do, you’re just not smart enough to put the fuckin’ pieces together.
But that’s fine. I don’t mind carrying the mental load for us.
” He glares at me like he wants to beat the shit out of me, but I continue.
“Listen, big guy. You’re right. Neither of us make sense.
You’re gone killing people or whatever you do for work, sometimes for weeks or months at a time.
You don’t want her to be alone. As for the emotional support, you wouldn’t be able to deal with her baggage because you have a shit ton of your own.
But if you had someone there to be with her if you couldn’t, she would never be alone,” I say confidently.
It makes perfect sense; he should be thanking me.
“And you would be fine with your ‘Ol Lady being with another guy?” he asks slowly, like he can’t believe the words that are coming out of his mouth.
“My ‘Ol Lady is one of a kind. Would I want her sleeping around with everyone? Hell no. But if she had another man that she was with that I could trust? That could go and keep her safe when she decides to go on killing sprees? That would make her the center of their world when I have to take care of the MC? Yeah, I could accept it. But only because my girl deserves it. She is the most selfless person that I have ever met. I am a selfish asshole, but I won’t be when it comes to her. She’s too good for both of us and our bullshit.
I would never make her choose. I know she has feelings for you, even if she denies it.
She deserves to have someone that will put her and her feelings first, because you know she never will.
I guess I didn’t realize someone in your field of work would have such a black and white outlook on life.
” I finish my speech, shrugging my shoulders as he stays silent.
After we finish walking the property and checking all the buildings, we go over a plan to keep this creepy fucker out, and try to figure out how he is getting in.
We’re going to have to talk to her about what she has coming up so we can make a schedule where we can switch off and make sure that she is never alone.
Avoiding my idea of both of us being with Willow, we walk into the house.
Multiple voices are coming from the kitchen.
We rush towards the commotion, wondering how anyone could have gotten in while we were checking the property, but we stop in the entry way and watch her cutting vegetables.
I hear Blitz’s voice as he talks about how he should send his guys to watch her instead of me because of my club’s fuck ups.
He thinks prospects could protect my girl better than me? I think the fuck not.
Willow sees us and nods towards the barstools with a smile on her beautiful face.
When we sit down, I notice my girl is on a video call with the entire officer team of Blitz’s club.
I knew Blitz loved her like his own, but I didn’t know how much all of his club cared for her.
She is close with his chapter; I’m just hoping that she can give mine a chance.
I tell Blitz my opinion on why my girl is none of my club’s fuckin’ business.
After he accepts my answer, we move on to how Grey and I plan on keeping our girl safe, even if he won’t admit that she is “our” girl yet.
When we are about to get off the call, Willow shocks me again, which is becoming a common thing when it comes to my girl. She starts listing off all the things that she did in the little free time that she has for Blitz’s club.
The ‘Ol Ladies in my chapter couldn’t give a shit about anyone else. They only care about how much power they have by being claimed by a Brother. Willow cares about the Brothers and their women.