Chapter 22
Anika
I sit on the couch with my knees pulled to my chest and watch everyone else moving around.
Patch had to go into church, and I was left on my own in his room.
I couldn’t stand being in there without him, so I came back out to see what the girls were up to.
Most of them were busy or off in their own little circles, so I opted for the couch.
The door opens to the office at the side of the room, and I see the guys start filing back out.
Patch comes out, and immediately, like he knew I was here, his eyes find me.
He glances back at the office before turning and coming toward me.
My insides dance with anticipation as he walks over and sits down next to me.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah. There was nothing to do in there,” I tell him.
“I need to talk to you about somethin’.” I nod my head as he shoves off the couch and offers me his hand. I slip my palm against his and stand before he leads me out the side door again. We walk the same way to the back of the property, where all the guys are buried.
“Why are we going back here?” I ask.
“I like it back here. It’s calmin’.” I don’t question him as he leads me around the side to where a bench sits that I hadn’t noticed before. I take a seat next to him, but he keeps my hand held tightly in his.
“I was a bad kid, always in trouble. My adopted parents couldn’t handle me.
I basically did what I wanted, when I wanted.
I found the club when I was just a kid. They didn’t let kids in, though, you know?
So I hung around with some of the other kids who grew up here.
We became good friends, and that’s how I found the club.
They took me in, didn’t care that I was different or acted differently.
They gave me a place to call home, and I never looked back. ”
“What about your parents?”
“My real parents?” I nod my head. “Didn’t know them. They put me up for adoption when I was four. My adopted parents are around, but we don’t talk much. I’ve basically made my own way in life.”
“That had to be hard for a kid,” I say.
“It was, and it wasn’t. I had good friends, good people around me. This club became my life, my family. They became everything I needed.”
“And you stayed.”
“And I stayed. It was home. It’s the only place that ever felt like home.”
“I get it,” I say softly. Patch turns to me now, and I can see the serious look on his face.
“Shit’s gonna get bad for a while. Things are gonna get bloody, and I need to know that you can handle that,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“We know who the guys are that took us,” he says, and my heart leaps into my throat. They know? They found them? What happens now? I have so many questions, but none of them will come out. It’s like I can’t form words.
“I …”
“Don’t need to worry about anything, darlin’. I’m gonna handle this,” he says.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m gonna take care of it. You don’t need details. You just need to know that if I come home different, that’s why.”
“I … I don’t know what to say.”
“I want you, Anika. I think I have since the first night you ran into my life. Things got fucked up. Things happened, but now I’m gonna fix them. We know these guys were tied to your brother’s death. We know they were the ones who took us and held us there.”
“You’re going to kill them?” I ask. I need to know what all of this means. I need to understand.
“Yeah. I’m gonna kill them.”
“Haven’t we been through enough? How can you possibly think killing them will help this? Can you live with that?” Patch chuckles before shifting in his seat.
“Sweetheart, I’ve killed before.”
“You what?”
“I don’t go around killin’ for fun. They were traffickers, killers.”
“You … oh my god. I can’t …” my words won’t form.
I have no idea what the hell I’m trying to say.
He’s killed before. I’ve slept with a killer.
Ellie was right that night at the bar. What if he’s a killer?
He is! I shove off the bench, not sure what to say to him.
So I say nothing at all. I walk away, back toward the clubhouse in a slight daze.
“They all deserved it!” He calls out to me. I slowly turn to face him, and I don’t know what to do.
“You killed them. What kind of fucked up fairy tale am I living in?” I ask more of myself than of him. Patch walks toward me, and for some reason, I feel like I should be afraid of him, but I’m not. I’m not afraid of a man who has admitted to killing people. Am I okay? Is this okay?
His hands come to rest on my shoulders as I look up at him.
“Am I crazy?” I ask. He chuckles and shakes his head.
“No. You know what you feel, Anika. I wouldn’t hurt you,” he tells me, and I know he’s not lying. He wouldn’t hurt me, not like that.
“I don’t know what to say,” I tell him.
“It’s a lot to process, but you have to know this is who I am. I’m not gonna change.”
“You like it? Killing people?” His lips curl into a small grin as he shakes his head.
“You don’t get it. These people have sold humans.
Women, children. They have taken their lives away from them.
Don’t they deserve the same?” I get it, I do.
They deserve what they got for that, but how can I look at Patch and know he’s the one doing it?
He’s the one taking their lives? I stand in a shocked silence when his hand cups my cheek.
Then I finally look back up at him. Before I can say anything else, his lips gently press into mine.
His kiss is soft, unhurried. It’s sweet and powerful all at the same time, and all too quickly it’s over.
Patch pulls away from me and lowers his hands to his side.
“You can choose to leave, Anika. I can’t force you to stay,” he tells me.
“What if I don’t want to leave?” I don’t want to leave, do I? No. I don’t think I do.
“Stayin’ means you’re mine.” His words have so much finality to them. I’m his. Is that what I want? To be his? To be with a man who has killed someone? Those plans on killing again? A man who has bared his soul to me?
“I’m staying.” The words come out before I can rethink them. Not that I really needed to, I know what I want. I want him. I want the man who saved me. I want the man who has given me whatever I needed and more.
Patch nods his head and holds out his hand to me. I slip mine into his, and he intertwines our fingers. Then he’s pulling me along back to the clubhouse.
“What does all this mean?” I ask him as we walk.
“You’ll see,” he says. He pulls the door open and leads me inside, straight to the middle of the room.
“I’m claimin’ her. She’s mine,” he announces. Cheers go up around the room as I stand here with heated cheeks. Guys walk over and fist bump Patch and congratulate him, as the girls do the same with me.
“Patch?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s all this mean?”
“It means you’re mine now.”