36. Chapter Thirty Six
I have to take a few deep breaths as I take in the dedication Nicky and Dacre are showing me. I look at them in disbelief. Seeing them on their knees before me, laying their feelings out bare for me in the way they are doesn’t feel real. I feel like it's a dream that I am going to wake up from.
But from the look on their faces, it's real. They want me. They love me and they are actually here to stay.
Pike walks over and bends down beside Dacre. His hand snakes up my leg, squeezing the top of my calf, “What you say goes, Princess. You determine how fast or slow this whole thing goes.”
Sonny walks over kneeling down beside them, “ Mi hermosa diso, I knew from the moment I met you again, you were the person I would kneel before you for the rest of my life. I am yours, and I hope one day I can call you mine. ”
I can’t help but smile. I want what he wants too, what they all clearly want. But I can’t help all of the what if’s that filter in. The doubts that still linger.
I look up to my last guy. If I can call him that.
Dawson stands back from the rest of the boys almost hesitantly. I can see it written on his face as well. But a piece of me knits back together as he takes a step forward.
He doesn’t need to say anything but he does utter one word, “Yours.”
It feels final then. Like the band is back together or some other ridiculous rendition of a reunion.
But pain still holds strong in my chest. I can’t just let go of that hurt. The heartbreak that ruled my life for months. Because their words are just that, words. They are empty right now and, until they have action behind them, I refuse to let my walls down and let them back in again completely.
“I’m still so fucking mad at all of you. You broke my heart.”
Each of the boys nod, Dawson grimaces.
“You are going to have to show me that your words aren’t just empty. I expect you five to grovel.”
Sonny smirks, “Oh baby, you know I have no issues being on my knees for you.”
We erupt into laughter as Sonny stands up and pulls me into his arms. “I’ll do anything to prove my words to you, mi amor.”
His voice is quiet in my ear. I nod my head against his chest. Sonny’s arms wrap around me tight, squeezing like he’s trying to keep me here. To tether me to him .
He eventually drops his arms from around me, letting me take a step back.
Dacre is the next one to step in, pulling me in tight to him.
“I love you, Scarlett.”
I nod again into his chest.
He lets me go and Pike pulls me into his arms. He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to. I can feel it in his embrace. In the way his arms tense around me.
He lets me go, caressing my face as we pull back.
Dawson steps into me next. I’m surprised when he pulls me into his arms as well. He doesn’t say anything either but it kind of feels like an extension of our earlier conversation. It feels as though maybe his declaration of us just being friends isn’t his intention at all. That his feelings are more in tune with the guys and how they feel about me.
I don’t hate it, but it feels unexpected.
With Dawson, it feels like a rollercoaster. One minute he is all in, the next he wants me to disappear. At this point, I’m not even sure he even knows what he wants.
He lets me go and I’m immediately pulled into Nicky’s arms and spun around. I hold around his neck tight, giggling as he helps relieve the tension.
I needed it. Something to slice the doom and gloom feeling in the room. He eventually sets me down, holding me a second longer so I can gain my footing.
“What are your plans for the rest of the day, baby girl?” Nicky questions .
“Ah, training with Wyatt I think,” I say, grabbing my phone out of my back pocket from where I stored it earlier. My eyes widen as I see the time and the messages from Wyatt asking where I am.
“Fuck,” I yell, looking around trying to find my bag, “Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.”
“What?” Dacre asks, worried as he looks down at my phone.
“I’m half an hour late. Fuck!” I grab my bag but pause, “Can one of you guys take me to the clubhouse?”
Dawson immediately nods, grabbing his jacket and throwing it on, “I’ll take you.”
I nod before turning and smiling at the guys, “I’ll talk to you all later?”
I hightail it out of the room without getting a proper answer. My first training session with Wyatt and I’m already late.
Dawson doesn’t hesitate as he swings his leg over his Ducati as we rush out into the carpark. The bike roars to life and if I wasn’t in such a rush, I would take time to appreciate it a little bit more.
I swing my leg over the back of the bike, threading my hands around his waist. His chest is naked still so I can feel the way his skin prickles as my hands graze over his stomach. He takes off, making me tighten his arms around his waist. I feel the vibrations of his chuckle as he takes off out of the car park .
It only takes a few minutes before we are pulling up in front of the clubhouse. I throw myself off the bike but pause, leaning down and kissing Dawson’s cheek.
“Thanks, Daws.”
His cheeks heat as I turn around and run towards the building. I only hear the roar of Dawson’s bike taking off once I get inside the building.
I rush towards the training room, a few of the older guy’s eyes widening as I rush past them. I smack the doors, throwing my bag off to the side as I take the last couple of steps towards the range.
Opening the door, I see Wyatt leaning against the wall with his phone in his hands, starling when he sees me barge my way in.
“I’m so sorry, Wyatt. I got caught up with the guys and my phone was on silent.”
He smiles as I pant, trying to catch my breath. “It's okay, Scar. We aren’t in any rush.”
I breathe out a sigh, thankful for his understanding in my tardiness.
“Okay, where do we start?” I ask, clapping my hands together.
Wyatt walks over to a table, grabbing a pair of earmuffs off a table and handing them to me.
“First, we are going to start with loading and unloading a gun. You need to know your way around a gun before you can shoot it.”
I nod in agreement. Makes perfect sense to me.
Wyatt runs me through loading and unloading the handgun. I nod along with his teachings, playing close attention to his movements. I ask a few questions along the way. Wyatt is a good teacher. He’s patient and doesn’t make me feel like a complete idiot.
When it's my turn to load the gun, I fumble a little bit. The gun in my hand feels strange. I don’t expect it to be as light as it is for something so powerful.
Once I’ve got it loaded, Wyatt asks me to unload it. I don’t find it as difficult to unload which I take as a win. Sighing a breath of relief at the approving nod Wyatt gives me.
“Good job, Scar,” He smiles, “Now, I want you to reload the gun but this time you are going to actually shoot it.”
My eyes widen and he laughs, “Don’t stress. I will be right here with you. But from what I’ve seen so far, you will have no issues. This is only a .22 so it doesn’t have any kick. It's a really good starter gun.”
I nod as I pick it back up and reload it. Wyatt hands me a clip and shows me how to load a few bullets in before telling me to load the rest. They are a bit fidgety and we laugh as I struggle to get the first few in.
“I did the same thing the first few times I had to load clips. Mr Green made me sit in here and load and unload until I didn’t fumble anymore.”
I pause, looking up at Wyatt with a suspicious look. If this guy thinks I’ll be sitting in here loading and unloading clips, he’s got another thing coming.
He shakes his head, “Don’t worry, I’m not that insane. But I do recommend coming down here as much as you can and practising loading, unloading and shooting. We have another range that Dacre will most likely take you where we handle the bigger guns. It's good to practise real life scenarios where we may end up in a gun fight and you need to access your weapon quickly to take down the enemy.”
“Shit,” I choke, “all of this is so far from my life back in Australia. It's hard to believe this is reality and not some kind of joke.”
Wyatt chuckles as he leans against the booth of the range he has me set up in. “I sometimes feel like that too. But after your first mission out, it all very quickly becomes real. The things that we see, the things we have to do aren’t for the faint hearted…” He trails off and I see the demons come to life in his eyes. I put my hand on his arm, squeezing and letting him know I’m here. He looks up, giving me a small smile as he puts his hand over mine.
“It's worth it though.”
I nod, agreeing with him. Even though I haven’t been exposed to the carnage yet, I know it will be.
“I think you are going to shake things up here for us, Scarlett.”
I scoff, dropping my hand from his arm, “You say that like it's a bad thing, Wyatt.”
He shakes his head, “Not at all. Your Dad was the first person to make big changes around here. But under your ruling, I know that you are going to make your own. I can’t wait to see what you can do.”
His smile is earnest and I know just from the look he's giving me, Wyatt’s got my back and I know I’ll have his if and when he needs me.
“Come on, let's get you shooting targets.”
Wyatt helps direct me to the target, pointing out where the safety is and asking me to flick it on and off a couple of times; enough that I’m comfortable with it. He helps position me, legs spread and braced, elbows up and my grip tight on the gun.
“Take a breath and find your mark,” he says quietly in my ear. I close one of my eyes, lining up my sights on the black circle in the centre of the target.
“When you are ready, pull the trigger and let that breath you are holding out.”
I move my hand to the trigger confident with myself and pull. The bang from the gun is muffled thanks to the ear muffs and I smile at myself. From this distance we can’t see where I hit but I don’t care. I shot the gun. I did it.
“Good job, Scar. Cock it again and let off another. If you feel confident, keep going until the clip is empty.”
I feel Wyatt step away from my back. Just like before, I line up my sights directly on the black dot, suck in a breath before pulling the trigger and letting my breath go as I do.
After another shot, I feel like I go into some kind of trance. Line up my shot, breath in, trigger, breath out, reload. I repeat it over and over again until the clip is empty. I drop the clip out, putting it on the table and making sure the gun is safe before turning around and removing my ear muffs.
Wyatt is holding his phone up, smiling. I assume he’s still recording so I give him a dramatic bow which he laughs at, before putting his phone back in his pocket.
“You’re a natural, Scar. Let’s see how well you did.” Wyatt starts wheeling in the target and I clench my teeth, scrunching up my nose and preparing for the worst. What I don’t expect to see is a hole completely blown through the middle of the target.
“Fuck off,” I mutter, “Fuck off, there’s no way I did that.” I stare at the target in shock.
Wyatt chuckles and I turn to look at him, “What did I say, you’re a natural. Those boys have no idea just who you are, do they?”
I laugh, “That’s exactly what I plan on proving to them. I’m not some meek little princess.”
Wyatt looks at me with pride as he nods. A sly look then comes over his face as he looks me up and down.
“What?” I say rolling my eyes.
“What’s going on with you lot anyway? It's obvious you have Dacre, Nicky, Sonny and Pike all wrapped around your finger.” I snort at hearing it out loud but Wyatt continues,
“Then there’s whatever the fuck that mess is with Dawson.” He waves his hands around as if describing the mess that it is, “I know you guys used to be good friends when you were younger but it seems like you spent some time together when they went on vacation.”
I nod, taking a breath before I fill Wyatt in on the entire story. The facts of what I know from before, my accident which I’m sure he already knows and then when we met that night at the beach. I try not to get choked up as I explain them leaving and the months that follow. I take a breath expecting to see pity in Wyatt’s eyes but instead I see fury.
“Those motherfuckers. How dare they treat you like that! And what a piss poor explanation. I know the exact situation they were talking about and, while I can sympathise with them in not wanting to see someone they care about hurt again,” he shakes his head as he tries to find the words.
“I hope you plan on putting them through hell,” he finally says, raising his eyebrow.
An ominous grin turns the corners of my mouth, “Oh I plan to, and I have a really good plan that semi includes you, if you are up for it?”
Wyatt laughs, nodding his head, “I think I know exactly where this is going, and I am already so down with the plan.”
I hold up a hand, “But this doesn’t mean that you and I are going to be a thing. I know we’ve been flirting a bit but,” I shake my head and give him an apologetic look, unable to hide a grimace.
He laughs, “Don’t worry, even if you didn’t already have your hands full with five guys, I still wouldn’t be interested.”
I tilt my head, confused as I try to work out the meaning of his words. It eventually comes to me, my eyes widening as he nods, giving me a small smile.
“Yeah, I’m gay.” He winces as he rubs a hand through his hair. “Actually, you are the only person that knows.”
My mouth drops, “Oh, Wy. Thank you for trusting me.”
He nods but I can see the anxiety on his face. I walk towards him wrapping my arms around him. He holds me tight in return. I eventually pull away from him but grab his hands.
“Why haven’t you ever told anyone?”
He shakes his head, “I don’t want them to look at me differently or think that I’m hitting on them when he are hanging out or whatever.”
“Not even Rhodes? He’s your best friend. He would never make you feel that way.”
Wyatt blushes, turning his head slightly and I instantly connect the dots.
“Oh, you and Rhodes,” I say, my brows wiggling.
“Please don’t say anything.” He squeezes my hands tighter, pleading with me, “I don’t think he sees me like that, and I don’t want him seeing me in a different light if he doesn’t feel the same way.”
I nod, “Your secret is safe with me, Wy.”
He nods and sighs a breath of relief, “It's just so hard. He never asks Jethro to join in when he is with another girl, he always asks me. Of course, I say yes because well…” he trails off and I nod, even though I feel ill talking about my brother’s sex life. But Wyatt is trusting me with this, and I refuse to be a little bitch about it.
“Sometimes I’ll catch him looking at me during the act and I’m not blind. I can see the desire in his eyes when he looks at me. But he will then shake his head and go back to fucking whoever it is.”
It's my turn to squeeze Wyatts hands in mine. “It sounds like he may be a bit confused too. Let me do a little bit of digging…” Panic fills Wyatt’s eyes, “Don’t worry, I won’t even allude to anything involving you. You are helping me out with making the guys jealous so if I can help you out with Rhodes I will.” I smile at him, “I also kind of love the idea of having you as a brother-in-law. ”
Wyatt laughs as he pulls me into his chest, “Thank you, Scarlett. You have no idea what this means to me. Just having you here to talk to. You may already be well on your way to best friend territory.”
“Oh, those are fighting words, Wy. Don’t let Noah hear you say that. He would be on the next plane over.”
Wyatt raises his eyebrow.
“Gay?” he questions, and I laugh.
“Oh no, that boy is as straight as a pole unfortunately.”
We both laugh as I start loading another clip and Wyatt hangs up another target sheet.