Chapter 38
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
WRATH
As much as I want to stay at the clubhouse and fuck Elodie, I am swamped this week, especially with all the new drama with Chassis.
And the fact that Dare is now saying he’s going to claim her, I can’t wrap my head around any of it.
Dare is the president of the club. This isn’t something he has to do.
Glancing down at my watch, I let out a groan. Elodie is probably cleaning the clubhouse right now, but I’m here with Cake and Dare—in Prescott. We left last night after Dare announced he would be taking Chassis as his woman.
Standing in the middle of the bar at the original chapter’s clubhouse, I look around and realize that we need to step up our game. Not only is this place a hell of a lot nicer than ours when it comes to furniture, but the shit all over the walls is better, too.
They have club memorabilia everywhere. Original patches and cuts that are no longer in use, including the very first cut, are framed and hanging on the wall with a light above them to highlight what they are.
We need to up our game.
Cake is still good and pissed that Chassis uploaded all her shit onto the internet, seemingly really fucking proud of the mess she’s got herself into.
And maybe she’s in love with this guy, but he is definitely not in love with her, and if he is, it’s only out of happenstance, because I can’t imagine it started out innocently, not with who he is and what he wants.
“Thanks for coming with me. I know you’ve got shit to do with that big job this weekend,” Dare murmurs as Cake storms off to deal with his daughter before he brings her out here. No doubt he’ll have to drag the girl out by her hair. I can’t imagine she’s going to come willingly.
“Fuck,” a voice hisses from across the room.
Turning my head, I look over to see Piston, Cake’s oldest kid, making his way toward us.
He jerks his chin, his lips twitching into a smirk as he closes the distance between us.
He juts out his hand, shaking mine first, then Dare’s, before he shoves it in his pocket and rocks back on his booted heels.
“My dad did it, huh? Which one of you got roped into dealing with Chass?” he asks.
I wince, but Dare doesn’t even hesitate. “I offered,” he says. “Claiming a woman is not my thing. I don’t date, don’t plan on it, don’t have any kids either. So this works for me.”
“I guess I should give you a speech about treating her right or whatever, but I don’t think I need to.”
“You don’t?” I ask.
Piston snorts. “Chass? No. Honest to fuck, I should tell her to treat you right. She’s not happy about this shit at all. I would probably just lock her up. Don’t sleep next to her at night or anything. No telling what she’d do.”
I know that Piston is trying to make light of the situation, but he’s kind of scaring me. Chassis is a club princess, and she’ll be the queen of our chapter once she and Dare seal the deal, so the last thing we need is for her to fuck up our operation in an effort to get back at her dad.
“She really in love with that guy?” I ask.
Piston shrugs a shoulder. “I think she’s in love with the idea of him. She didn’t put up too much of a fight when Dad brought her here and locked her ass up in the back room.”
I know what that back room is for. Everyone does. That is the holding room, and there is no way I’d put someone I cared about back there, not with the horrors that the room itself has seen over the years.
Dare clears his throat and crosses his arms over his chest. I watch as he dips his chin once, but doesn’t shift focus from the dark hallway that Cake disappeared down.
“Chassis is a free woman. I won’t force her to stay. Won’t lock her up, either. But I’ll protect her.”
Piston stares at Dare for a long moment, then nods once before he shifts his attention to the dark hallway as well. Seconds later, Cake appears. He doesn’t stop walking until he is directly in front of the three of us, and I didn’t see her before, but Chassis steps out from behind him.
I haven’t seen her in years, probably since she was about fourteen years old.
Eleven years have been good to her, and if I weren’t half in love with Elodie, I would reconsider Cake’s offer.
She’s tall, probably around five-eight, but she’s got curves in all the right places.
I feel like a pervert for even looking at her like that, but damn, she is built.
Her long, light-brown hair is straight and brushes her elbows. Full lips, big blue eyes that I know every man imagines looking into theirs when he’s balls deep inside her. And I know it makes me sound like a fucking asshole, but facts are fucking facts. Chassis Adams is sexy as fuck.
But Chassis Adams doesn’t give a fuck about any man in this room. When she lifts her head, her eyes lock in on Dare’s. The moment they look at one another, the second they connect, it feels as if I’m watching an intimate moment take place.
Taking a step backward, I move away from them to give them privacy, even though they’re in the middle of a public space. Clearly, they do not need anyone gawking at them. Cake and Piston must feel the same way because they follow me.
“Is everything all good?” I ask, shifting my attention from the couple to Cake.
He grunts, not answering me immediately, also not looking away from them for a long moment. Then his spine straightens as if he’s brought out of his thoughts, whatever they are. He turns his head, his eyes finding mine before he jerks his chin in my direction.
“It’s good. She agreed and has her shit ready to go back with you.”
“Social media and baby daddy?” I ask.
Piston curses beside me, likely because he knows just how fucking dangerous that shit was that his sister did.
Cake clears his throat before he inhales deeply through his nose, then lets the breath out through his mouth, a cleansing breath, probably an attempt to keep from getting irritated as fuck at Chassis again.
“Social media is no longer a problem. No phone, no fucking issues. Plus, I watched her deactivate all her accounts. I’m keeping her phone in case that fuck tries to get in touch with her again.
For all intents and purposes, Dare is the baby daddy, and nobody here is going to say a goddamn thing to anyone, especially not a Perov about where Chassis has moved. ”
And that is that.
Our club world has just been officially rocked and altered all at once.
It should probably be an issue, but it’s not.
For some reason, it feels right. Like maybe the original chapter and us, we were always meant to be bonded in another way, not just because we’re the Iron Flame MC, but because of something else.
Something bigger.
And maybe this was the reason.
I don’t know why or how, but it just feels right.
Now I need to get back to Boulder City and make something else right.
Because no doubt, Elodie is pissed that not only did I ditch her at Fat Boys, but I’ve also been gone for coming on two fucking days.
I know she’s got to be mad, because I would be fucking furious.