Chapter 2
TWO
Savage
The only thing I wanted right now was a hot shower and a bed to lay my head down on, but there was no way I was doing anything before I checked on Shona.
Moving down the hall of the clubhouse, I said goodnight to my brothers and opened her door.
She never locked it which I’d always been mad about, even if it helped me to sneak in. She was asleep on her side.
I closed her door quickly and headed down to the empty room at the end of the hall that I normally took up residence in when I was here.
I undressed and got under the hot spray of water to wash off the grime, blood and sweat of the day.
It had been a hard ride, but we’d picked up some of Neal’s men tonight and they were currently strapped up in the shed waiting for their time to sing.
Neal hadn’t come back to Ireland after he found his way off the yacht so we couldn’t get to him…
not yet. Wolf was already on it. He had a lot more reach with where he could go and what he could do, especially in rival MC territory.
I grabbed a towel and dried myself before I pulled on a tee and sweats and moved down the hall, back to Shona’s room.
I couldn’t stand to be away from her, not after tonight.
It had been emotionally charged. Only a year after we lost Razor, and they tried to take Chains too?
Hell fucking no. Anyone who came near any of us was going to learn you don’t fuck with the Rebels.
I shifted inside and locked the door behind me, like it should always be, yet she never fucking did.
Moving behind her, I pulled her into my arms. Her gasp told me she had been asleep, but she soon settled into my arms as I moved a leg over hers and snuggled into her.
I breathed in her soft, feminine scent that drove me crazy and sighed.
She felt like home.
“Niall.”
“Don’t talk, Shona. I need this just like you do. Go to sleep.”
She relaxed in my arms and I quickly fell asleep with her safely tucked into my chest. I knew there was a time limit on the amount of times she’d allow me to do this without having the talk, but I would do whatever it took to have her by my side, on the back of my bike, with my name.
She didn’t know it yet but Shona was mine, and I’d never let another man near her.
When I awoke, Shona was gone from the bed, and the clubhouse was buzzing. I wondered if there was an update on Chains. Pulling myself up, I padded out of her room and down to my room to get dressed.
Once I was out in the clubhouse, I saw most of the club and a fair few Nomads were being fed. The mood was lighter than I expected. Shona was making coffee for everyone, and hadn’t looked up once. That was good. We didn’t need everyone butting into our business.
“News?” I asked Trigger, one of the boys who had joined the Nomads not long ago.
“Chains is good,” he said, speaking with his mouth full, which almost had me punching him. “He’s in recovery, but he’ll be all good.”
“Finish your food before you speak. Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”
He chuckled but moved away to get more food. The kids were running around like crazy as Butch tried to rein them in. I looked for Hawk and spotted him by the open doorway with Viper.
“What’s the word?” I asked him, taking the cigarette Viper was offering me. We moved out onto the porch where I saw Bear sitting with Orla, and Ryleigh was sitting on Fury’s lap.
“Hope you got some shut eye, brother,” Hawk said. “We’re not going to get much until Foley is six feet under.”
“We’re burying the fucker?” Viper asked. “I would’ve put him being incinerated alive if it were me.”
Viper always had a penchant for the most wicked violence possible. It was why we got along so well, and why we were used to do the trickier jobs. We didn’t have a conscience when it came to club business.
“Where do you need me?” I asked, taking a long drag on my cigarette.
“Here, brother,” he said. “After lunch, we’ll get the clubhouse cleared out on errands and we’ll start interrogating Foley’s men. I suspect the screams will be heard throughout the woods out back and into Kilkenny.”
Smiling, I suddenly couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty.
Shona
Savage was sitting with Viper out on the porch, smoking and talking. It was like he hadn’t been gone, and time had stood still. Last night had been everything I had needed from him; comfort and the feeling that nothing else could get me.
I knew the clubhouse was safe, but something about the way he came into my room and just held me as I slept had been overpowering. He hadn’t tried to talk to me yet, and I was thankful and a little put off by it.
“Have you spoken to him?”
I jumped at Maree’s voice beside me and turned to look at her. “What?”
“Savage - have you spoken to him yet?”
“About what?”
“You know, he’s a good boy,” she said, rinsing her coffee mug.
“He may be big and tough around the boys and he knows how to handle himself when it comes to the bad kind of people, but he cares for you a lot. I’ve seen the way he doesn’t tear his eyes away from you, the way he watches you and protects you. ”
“There’s nothing there, Maree,” I told her. “I already told you I wouldn’t be anyone else’s.”
“Darlin’, I know the guilt you hold, but Dog was not a good husband to you. Why do you think Ace kept you safe and asked for you to come here with them? He knew you were innocent of his crimes. You are our family, and we want to see you happy.”
“I just think it’s time I go out and travel, or do something with myself,” I told her. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot actually.”
Maree sighed. “Maybe it is best, you know. You get out, see the world and come back and settle down with the one you can’t stop looking at. How long has it been between you two?”
“We’ve never been official, Maree.”
“That’s not what I asked, is it?”
I sighed and turned my back on the door so I didn’t keep sneaking a look at him. He was my biggest temptation.
“Six years,” I sighed.
“Maybe it’s time to have the talk,” she offered. “Figure out where you both are.”
“Maree, it’s not what I want,” I lied to her. She knew I was lying too, I could see it in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything else. She merely shrugged her shoulders. “How are things coming along with you and Butch, and your retirement?”
She chuckled. “On hold indefinitely, well until we sort out what’s happening with Chains.”
I was so glad he was going to pull through.
It had been quite a relief when I woke up this morning.
Maree was still fairly young, but Butch couldn’t ride that much anymore, and I knew the two of them wanted to spend more time with her cousins over in Wales.
She’d been priming me to take over as the clubhouse hen, but I think that should go to Sheridan. She was the prez’s wife after all.
“Shauna’s on her way home, but Chains will be in for a few more days.”
It had been so good to hear the news that Chains was going to make it. It had been a close call from what I’d been told, but relief all the same.
“I’m surprised she’s allowing them to take her home,” I chuckled. “That woman is as stubborn as a bull.”
“I agree,” Maree smiled affectionately. “Turns out there’s an even better reason for her to come home and rest. She’s pregnant.”
I gasped, my hand flying to my chest in surprise. “You’re kidding.”
Maree smiled at me warmly. Like a proud mother hen that we all knew her to be.
“I am so happy for the two of them,” I said with glee. “Does everyone know?”
Maree shook her head. “Just the wives and Ace. She hasn’t even told Chains yet, so keep it quiet. These boys are like gossiping nancies, so don’t tell them.”
I traced my fingers over my heart in a cross motion and Maree chuckled before she headed out onto the porch to round up the boys.
I set the bar up for business, which would mean catering to the Nomads and the MC chapters coming in to help the club.The danger wasn’t over, so I would need to keep my mouth shut about leaving until things got a little normal again.
The last thing I wanted to do would be to leave them all high and dry in their time of need.
I wiped the bar again, only pausing when I saw the familiar tatted hand pop up in my line of vision. The dark swirls of the shamrocks and celtic knots on the back of his hand always did things to me. Slowly, I looked up at Savage, that undeniably sexy smirk on his face.
“Do you have a minute?” he asked me.
“Not right now, Niall,” I said, shifting my gaze behind him to the gaggle of girls who were eying his ass like he was a prized bull. “The bar will get busy now the food’s done.”
He turned to see what I was looking at, and sighed as he looked back at me. “Why do you let it get to you? You know I don’t look at anyone but you.”
It should do things to me and even though secretly I loved it when he proclaimed his undying affection for me, I didn’t want him to hold me up to some impossible standard. I wanted him to have fun and stop thinking about me.
“You should go and talk to them,” I told him, surprised at how easy it had been to say. I didn’t sound bitter at all. “I happen to know Leesha likes you a lot.”
“Is that what you want, Shona?” he asked, his eyes turning darker than they had been a few seconds ago. He was mad. “You want me to go and fuck another girl?”
“You can do what you want, Niall, I’m not your keeper.”
I could see his nostrils flare and his knuckles turned white where he was holding onto the bar too tight. He could make a scene if he wanted to. I knew I’d pushed him with the carefree way I told him to be with someone else.
It would crush me to know he was with someone else, but I’d never tell him that. It was stupid to feel that way. It didn’t stop me from thinking of how many ways Leesha could succumb to a tricky fate though.
Viper smacked him on the back, dragging him away from the bar. “Leave the pretty woman alone, Sav. We got business to handle.”