Chapter 7
SEVEN
Shona
I was pacing the floor when Savage came back into his room, a cold sweat running down my back. He noticed immediately, and came over to me to pull me into his arms.
“I don’t even know why I’m so nervous,” I laughed into his chest. His warm body pressed against mine already felt incredible.
It felt like home.
He felt like my home.
“Come sit down, baby, I need to tell you something.”
A sudden chill blasted through me. Is this where he said sayonara, your family drama is too much for me? I wouldn’t blame him, honestly, it was a lot for someone to take on and I knew he had his own drama.
He sat me down on the bed’s edge and he stood up, his own pacing setting my nerves on edge.
“Savage, for the love of God, tell me what’s wrong.”
“Something was raised after you left church and I need to tell you about it, but I’m fucking nervous because I don’t like talking about it.”
“Uh…if this is about my family-”
“No,” he said quickly, coming to kneel before me and taking my hands in his. “Baby this ain’t your drama, it’s mine. I just…I don’t talk about it, because I fucking hate talking about it. I don’t know a lot about my life pre-Ireland. I was born in Russia to a powerful man.”
She nodded. “Oh…okay.”
“My mother knew he would use me as a tool. She wasn’t his wife, she was one of his many girlfriends.
When she was able to, she fled with me from Russia and took me to her homeland…
here. She changed my name and put me in an orphanage no one would think to look in, and she hid where she was so the lie could be kept. ”
“You know who he is now?”
He nodded. “Yes, I’ve discovered a lot about what she kept me safe from. She gave up her life for me.”
“How could he still not know where you are?”
“My birth name wasn’t Niall Gleason.”
“Oh.”
“It was the man’s name who got her out of Russia. He protected us at the peril of his life. He died with her, protecting her. I wear his name with pride. That’s why no one calls me Niall until they’ve earned the right to.”
“So what do you have to tell me?” I asked him. “It looks like you’re about to pass out.”
“I don’t want you to think I am anything like him…I’m fucking terrified you won’t want anything to do with me after I tell you.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I put my hand on the side of his face and leaned down to kiss him softly on the lips, leaning my forehead against his. “Nothing would ever make me stop wanting you, Savage.”
He pulled back, his brow furrowed. “You don’t call me Niall anymore.”
“You told me not to…when I left and after what I just heard, I need to earn my right back to being able to call you it.”
He sighed. “I forgot about that.”
“I understand it.”
“You don’t have to earn shit with me, Shona. I’m Niall to you. I’m your Niall.”
My chest expanded and I pulled him to my lips again, deepening the kiss and holding him close.
I know he needed to talk but declaring that…
declaring what I think he was saying made me feel whole.
He was claiming me. I pushed him back a little.
“Wait…did you…did you claim me by pulling me onto your lap in the chapel?”
His cheeky smirk answered for me, and he kissed me again. I couldn’t even be mad. I would have wanted him to do it in front of everyone, but in front of the boys whilst amidst club business…that was declaration enough for me.
“Are you going to finish talking?” I asked him.
He groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Apparently I need to know, so yes.”
He groaned and pushed up into a standing position as he started to pace again.
“Jesus, can you just come and sit down…you’re making me dizzy.”
Savage sighed and came to sit next to me on the edge of the bed. His warm hand was on my thigh, sending the wrong kind of signals to my horndog brain.
“My father is powerful…he’s done bad shit to get where he is now. He’s feared, and that’s what he lives off. His own brothers fear him, so much so they kicked him out of Russia and now he’s the President of a secret society known as the Onyx.”
I felt everything in me chill. I knew all about that society. They were no joke, and they were into everything.
“You’ve heard of it.”’
I nodded. “Yes, my father has been trying to get in league with them for some time, even before I left. I know some things about it, but not a lot.”
“No one truly knows the depth of depravity that comes with the Onyx. Unless you’re a member.”
“Okay…so your father doesn’t know about you…why are you so worried?”
“He does…he knows I’m alive, and he knows I’m in Ireland. He doesn’t know where, but that’s not going to take long to figure out if he truly wanted to.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Niall?”
“What if…he’s been planning on coming over here to claim me back?” he asked me. I heard the fear in his voice, and it startled me.
Nothing scared Savage.
Nothing.
“We wouldn’t let him take you. This is your family.”
“I think he’s in league with your father.”
“No way…if he had power like that, he wouldn’t need to skate around shit. He wouldn’t care about MC’s, he would try and overtake even your father. My dad is sadistic.”
“So is mine,” he replied quickly. “My father is Boris Markov. Third son to Pavel Markov, the pakhan of the Markov Bratva. He scared his own family so much that they shipped him off to run another country. Nothing scares the Bratva.”
“He’s not going to take you, Niall. I promise you. Nothing will ever come between you and the club. Why would he be interested in one son who hasn’t been raised under his roof?”
“I’m his only son,” he told me. “I have six sisters. Each time one of his women birthed a daughter and not a son, they were killed. Even his wives.”
Chills ran down my spine. No wonder he hated talking about him. I wouldn’t want that as a legacy either. I didn’t even like telling people who my own father was, and he was nothing compared to Boris. I ran my hand down his back, soothing him just as he had done in chapel.
“It’s so hard to believe you’re Russian.”
He chuckled, and his entire body relaxed. “I’m not. I am Irish with a Russian father.”
“Sure you are, buddy,” I said, pushing up off the bed.
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down, so I was straddling his lap.
Slowly, he pushed my hair over my shoulder and leaned down to kiss along my collarbone.
Every single touch of his sent fireworks through my veins.
He was my drug of choice, my kryptonite, my absolute fucking everything.
There were no words to convey how fucking much I loved this man. There were no words for what I felt.
“I wish I had told you how much I wanted you all those years ago.”
“You didn’t know…you thought I loved Zach.”
“I mean before that…before I spoke to you.”
Frowning, I looked down at him. “What do you mean?”
“Shona…I have wanted you since the day I met you. You smiled at me, handed me a beer and told me I looked good as a prospect and that I’d be patched-in in no time.
Your smile fucking haunted me for weeks, because I wanted to see you smile at me like that all the time.
Every time I saw Dog mistreat you, it took everything in me not to beat the ever loving shit out of him and go comfort you. ”
His confession left me speechless. I remembered the day we met.
He’d been lost and alone, scared because he and Viper were small fish in a large pond.
I’d known instantly that they belonged with us and I had done everything to make them feel welcome, even giving them beer when they were underaged. No one cared in the clubhouse.
“That means you’ve been in love with me for…fifteen years.”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“I wish you’d kissed me back then.”
It was a confession I hadn’t expected to come out of me, but I felt it. I felt it to my core. What could have happened if I’d been with him all those years?
“So do I…how about this…I make it up to you for the rest of our lives, yeah?”
I smirked, loving how fucking cheeky he was. “You can try, but I will hold this over you every time we fight.”
“That’s okay, baby, I don’t intend on fighting with you much. When I do, I’ll just kiss the life out of you and have you fall into my arms, ready to be fucked senseless.”
My pussy clenched. I felt her wanting to greedily clamp over his cock and come all night. It was like he knew what I was thinking. In the next instant, he shifted me so I wasn’t pushing against his hard cock under his pants.
“I gotta talk to the boys,” he said, pushing me onto my back. “But when I get back, we are going to be locked in here all fucking night, got it?”
I nodded, watching him walk out, squealing like a high school girl when he closed the door. How the hell did I get so lucky?
Savage
I flicked my cigarette to the ground and stomped on it when I saw the familiar car arrive in the compound.
Lorcan O’Farrell, one of the most feared men in Ireland, stepped out and looked around.
We’d been pushing our luck with him lately, and I could tell from the tension in his shoulders that he didn’t want to be here.
Personally, the deal with Alasdair should never have happened.
I wouldn’t have even come if I were him, knowing what we now had to help with on O’Farrell territory.
I couldn’t regret it though, we’d been able to find out more about Shona and save her from potentially fucking up her entire life.
The thought alone made me angry - angry that she’d had such a shit life.
Maybe that’s what bonded us…the fact we both had shit fathers who deserved to burn in the pits of Hell forever.
Lorcan made his way over to me. “Savage.”
“Lorcan,” I greeted him. “Nice drive?”
“Not too bad,” he replied. “I hear you have a special guest in the shed over there. I have to admit, I’m surprised he hasn’t been torn to pieces yet.”
“He’s sitting on ice until Chains can use his arm,” I told him. “Don’t worry, he’s been well looked after.”