Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Shona
A few days later
Savage was sitting in the booth with Viper and Ace, and for once they were drinking coffee and not beer. I gave Kayleigh a little wave, and moved over to sit with Savage.
“Sleep well?” Viper asked, looking like he’d been up all night. His sunglasses were over his eyes and his mouth was pulled into a grimace.
“Yes, did you?”
“No, there was some kind of banshee screaming the walls down last night.”
I giggled and looked at Savage who was smirking into his coffee. Last night we’d been insatiable for each other, fuelled by the excitement earlier in the night. With everything that had been pulling us apart, we couldn’t stop ourselves.
Finally free.
My monster, and I was his woman.
“That’s because your buddy here learned this new trick where he-”
“Jesus,” Viper got up and moved away. Ace chuckled and shook his head before he pulled something from his pocket.
“I took the liberty of having this made,” he said, handing them to me. “The cut is in your room. I had Sheridan order it in, and she put it in there the night we went to Belfast.”
I took the patches off him and looked down at the one that clearly stated Property Of and another one that said Savage. Looking up at Savage, he smiled down at me.
“About damn time,” he said as he chuckled.
I ran my fingers over the stitching, especially over his name.
Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I realised this was the official claiming, and I was excited for it.
I’d never felt this way with Dog. I never truly felt like I belonged with him, and yet with Savage, I knew I did.
He loved me for me, never told me to cover up when he knew I was comfortable in denim shorts and crop tops, never told me to stop drinking when I was getting tipsy.
Instead, he held my hair back and let me throw up before he fed me his potato mash with broth.
I’d never felt more protected than I did with him.
He was…everything I had ever dreamed. It was almost like teenage me manifested him, and I was too stupid to see him before now.
“Can I show you something?” I asked him. Savage nodded and we headed out of the clubhouse. No one was outside right now, so it was the perfect time.
“What’s up, baby?”
I lifted my shirt up and showed him the tattoo I’d had done by Orla earlier this morning. Savage’s smile was broad as he took in my tattoo over my ribcage.
“That had to have hurt.”
I shrugged. “I don’t mind a little pain when it’s something I want.”
“I’ll remember that for later,” he said against my lips.
He kissed me hard, wrapping his arm around my waist. I could feel how hard seeing my Property of Savage tattoo had made him.
He ground it into my hip, causing me to moan.
He pulled away when he saw someone come into the compound from behind me.
I turned in his arm and saw Brogan pull up.
“This must be about Darby’s protection, right?”
“She doesn’t really need it anymore,” he said. “Come on, he doesn’t look happy.”
I took Savage’s hand as he led me over to where Brogan stood by his car.
“Brogan.”
“Savage, just the man I wanted to see. Shona, it’s nice to see you again.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, seeing the way he was trying to avoid my eyes.
“We need to go inside.”
Savage shot me a look and then looked back at Brogan. “Head in. We’ll follow.”
Brogan led the way into the clubhouse. I held onto Savage’s hand a little too tight. He ran his thumb over the back of my hand, comforting me. Brogan slid into the booth with Ace, and we sat on the opposite side.
“What is it?” I asked again.
“We received word that all bodies were accounted for except for one. There was one man who was not at the clubhouse that night, because he was home with his child who happened to be sick.”
“He’s coming after us?”
Brogan shook his head. “I don’t know for sure, but he has blocked my request to have Darby placed in witness protection.
Since there was nothing to report on now that the clubhouse is gone, witsec aren’t going to take the case, which means we can’t protect her.
At first I didn’t see a problem, she could easily integrate into this club with you but when I found a few searches were done on the house she’d been in, I looked into it. ”
“It’s one of my brothers, isn’t it?” I asked him. He looked at me then, and I saw the answer before he nodded.
“Bran. Since he is her older brother, and he is technically married with a good family and no criminal record, if he asks for Darby, we do have to hand her over.”
“She’s eighteen,” I argued. “She can live where she wants, right?”
“Technically, yes. When I handed her over to Tierney to watch when you guys were in Belfast, she told me that Darby was asking about the club, what was happening and when she could return.”
“She’s brainwashed. I didn’t tell her about Keefe. I didn’t think she could handle it. Is there a way Tierney can keep her safe?”
“It goes without saying that we are not going to mention this publicly, and if you do, I’ll deny it. You guys can make it so she disappears from view for a little while, right?”
“You mean kidnap her?” Savage asked.
“We can organise that. Call Tierney and have her bring her by. We’ll get her set up in the clubhouse and have a staged kidnapping later tonight,” Ace said.
I hated this, but it was for her own good. I knew the kind of lies that my father could spread, and how easy it was to want to believe him.
“What about Bran?”
“Can he really not be brought in and given a cut here?” Ace asked. “We can offer him safety for his family and a new job, a better way of living.”
I shook my head. “Bran was just as vicious as my father. The only reason he would have been caring for his kid was if his girlfriend took off again. He was abusing her at one point, I knew that.”
“Fuck.”
“Savage?”
“I’ll call Wolf. He’ll take care of it.”
He squeezed my hand under the table. Brogan looked down at his phone and back up at us.
“Tierney is almost here,” he said, pushing out of the booth. “She’s got Darby. I’ll let her know of the plan.”
I saw the nervousness in his stance as he headed outside. “Are they still on the outs with each other?”
Ace shrugged. “Orla has been trying, but it doesn’t appear to work. She’s still angry with him about his hours, and he won’t stop working.”
“But they so clearly love each other.”
“She wants him to stop being a cop in a corrupt office,” Bear said, coming over out of what appeared to be thin air. “I’m working on it. If I can, do you think we could offer him a position here?”
“Absolutely,” Ace said. “Without a doubt. He’s done more for us than most.”
Bear nodded and walked off.
He was a ninja. A fucking ninja.