Chapter 3
PHANTOM
Icrush my lips to hers and savor the sweetness of her taste. Every red blood cell in my body soaks up the goodness of her essence like it’s a life force my body has craved for years.
And it has. I have.
I am a man starved for the love of my woman. Or at least she used to be. I growl into her lips and my cock is instantly ready to reclaim her body while my heart reconnects with hers.
I’m dangerously close to throwing this entire operation.
There’s not a bone in my body that doesn’t want to throw Everly back over my shoulder and keep running until I have her safely away from this place.
And then I wouldn't let her out of my sight until she laid out every single detail about why she left.
Hell, I wouldn't take my hands off her sexy little fuckable body.
I could make sweet love to this woman for as long as it takes to get the answers I need out of her. She always loved a good pounding.
My hands slide from her hips, up her curvy body only to settle over the slopes of her cheeks.
She hungrily whimpers into my mouth when I slip my tongue between her parted lips to caresses over hers.
I should focus on the problem at hand, but not a chance.
She is here and in my arms again. The world can burn now.
I don’t care. I have what I need and she is mine.
Her hands come to rest on my chest and for the next five seconds it’s as if she never left me and I never let my heart ice over. We are Everly and Phantom again. Like we were meant to be.
I nip her lower lip and she gives this tiny gasp that is my undoing. And here I was thinking up all kinds of ways to get her back to my place so I could tie her to my bed and make her beg for my cock.
I tease my lips over hers before I pull back and connect our gazes. It’s dark as hell out here, but I can see the pretty green of her eyes glitter with the old love we used to share.
Temptation mixes with need in my blood. I dip my head and steal another taste of her lips. My reward is another whimper while her soft curves mold to my body.
One little sexy sound from her and I’m ready to fall to my knees and beg her to come back to me.
And then I blink and we are right back in the hell I wish I could end with her next words.
Her hands wrap around my wrists where I’m holding her face to mine. “Take that grin off your face, Phantom. You look like you’ve won the lottery.”
My grin deepens. “I have.”
I clamp a hand over her mouth and silently tell her to lower the volume. That’s when I realize what she has on. I was so mesmerized by her lips, I missed the rest of the juicy package.
I look her up and down. She’s dressed like she’s watched way too many heist movies for her own good. There’s not a thing on her body that isn’t black or latex. Including a mask that covers half her face, I kid you not.
I’m not gonna lie. It’s doing things for my dick. She is cute as hell in it. I move my mouth to say as much but then again…the way lasers of death shoot from her narrowed eyes, I am probably better off keeping my mouth shut.
There are a million things I want to tell this woman, but the men coming up behind me draw my attention back on the danger at hand.
“Phantom, you good?”
It’s Venom.
“Yeah, I caught myself a little mouse. I think I’ll keep her.”
That gets me a hiss.
“The hell you will. This is my show. You guys are uninvited intruders. You need to leave before you blow what I’m doing.” She pushes against me to go where? I don’t know. She can’t take a step one way or another without exposing herself and us.
“The only thing you are doing is leaving. Our long talk, angry fucking and then the sweet make up sex after that will come later.” I snap off the face mask so I can think with my head and not my dick for however long it takes to get her to safety.
“Until then, stay behind me and move when I move. You copy?”
I turn on my heel and palm my weapon.
I peer around my shoulder to see snowflakes clinging to thick, black lashes surrounding a pair of very pissed off green eyes. If the owner could shoot beams that disintegrate men where they stand, I would be a pile of soot right now.
And the hand across my cheek only makes me want to bend her over and stroke her deep until she’s screaming my name.
I rub at the sting and welcome the bloom of heat across my face that her slap leaves behind.
“Like hell,” she growls into my face like a woman possessed by rage and not an ounce of fear of someone two and a half times her size. I’ve never felt more proud.
I grab her hand and force her to wipe off the blood I feel oozing from the corner of my lip.
“Damn it, Phantom!”
She tries to jerk away but I hold her tighter.
“I’m going to love making that ass of yours pay for the blood you spilled.” I lean in and press my lips close to her ear. “Remember, baby, in my world there’s always a price to pay for blood. Always.”
I take my jacket off and put it around her. “You shouldn’t be out here. Do you know what the hell you have walked into the middle of?”
“I didn’t walk into anything, I've been waiting for this night my entire life.”
I know she speaks the truth, but not on my watch.
Not when I can take him down and keep her safe.
I know her past, her bloodline and her desire to bury the man who fathered her.
It’s why she played around with the enemy.
Me. All to piss off dear old Daddy. And then it got real when I proposed and she got scared and ran off.
I don’t need it spelled out for me. It’s why she left me, and I’ve come to terms with being used.
Doesn’t change the fact I was the idiot who thought love was real there for a while. Looking at her now, I still do.
Her slightly upturned nose, her perpetual sweetness that she just oozes even when she’s mad and the softness of her skin against mine.
She tries to shrug off my coat, but I grab one wrist and shove it into one arm and then repeat with the other until I have the leather coat around her and zipped up.
I grab the lapels of my coat and haul her body into mine. Bright eyes blaze into mine and I’ve never wanted to fuck her more. “Keep this on. I don’t need you living through this shit only to get sick and die.”
She swings and my universe turns on its head as I nearly miss catching a strong right hook that nearly catches me off guard. But she gave herself away with the small pivot of her hips.
I release her fist but not before kissing each of her knuckles. “Sass and claws. You haven’t changed a bit, my little tigress.”
Piercing eyes hit me. “You have no idea.” She jerks her hand free and this time I let her go and push her into Venom’s waiting arms.
“Venom, good to see ya. But I don't wanna hurt you, but I have a knee waiting for your balls if you don’t unhand me right now.”
“Hello to you too, sweetheart. Mind not doing that? I have Christmas plans with my girl.”
The quick exchange between my brother and my girl gives me a chance to screw my head back on straight.
Reaper and the rest of the crew fanned out the second we arrived.
Right now they are canvassing the area. Our one mission is to stop a large shipment of Euphoria coming into our parish.
So far we’ve saved a girl, ended three assholes from raping more women and that is about it.
It’s twenty-four hours later and the window for getting this shipment before it is moved to another location is growing slimmer as the night deepens.
And we are after that damn black book with all the dirty details of this shitty operation.
Nowhere in tonight’s plans does my ex come up.
And yet here she is.
There’s no way I’m going to let her get herself in the middle of this drug deal. I push her behind me when she tries to take the lead and Venom moves in behind her.
This woman is going to be the death of me. I know it.
We ease around the edge of her skimpy hiding spot. I don’t know how the hell the men one hundred yards from us haven’t noticed us by now, but thank God for the storm hanging over us. If there was an ounce of moonlight, she’d be dead with how exposed she is behind these few wooden palettes.
“Hey, you’re not listening!” A small fist comes down on my shoulder but I shrug it off and narrow my gaze on men moving across the railway station. Veles. The fucker. He’s here and so are the Vultures. I can spot those ugly fuckers a mile away.
I test the freezing air. Yep. I can smell the bastards, too.
Liquor, tobacco and gunpowder. It hangs in the air everywhere they go.
“Hey. Excuse me. I’m the one here to get what I need to take down my father. What the hell are you doing here?”
Everly keeps her voice pitched low.
I turn on my heel and put my nose to hers. She stops short and lets out a huff of frustration.
I cock my head to the side and consider her face in the darkness for a moment. When you live in the shadows like I do, one learns to read the energy around you. This woman has a lot more to say than she’s sharing.
“That’s a good point. How did you know about tonight when I had to kill three people to get the information?” Let that sink in. Behind her Venom lets out a sound of disapproval, but I don’t give a shit right now. I want answers and if there’s one thing I know, it’s how to get them.
She locks her knees, and those beautiful eyes of hers narrow again. “You think you scare me, biker boy?” Those arms of hers cross and I actually see the minute utter defiance enters every muscle in her body.
“You think you can drop bodies and I’m gonna run off screaming? Do you forget who my father is? Or that my family’s fortune is built on bones and graves of others? You need to do better than that if you want me to cower and obey your orders.”
She throws a hand up and slices the icy air between us. “Better yet. I was here first. You go do you and leave me to finish what I need to do.”
Heat burns through me but before I can shut her up with a kiss, Venom clears his throat. The man wears a smirk when I manage to peel my eyes off Everly’s pissed off expression.
“Um, we need to get going, biker boy.”
Everly hooks a thumb over her shoulder. “What he said.”
Not yet. The Vultures are going to take a while to unload three train cars full of dope.
I move us deeper into the shadows. I press my nose to hers and lower my voice.
“You sound pissed off at me when you were the one who left the night I proposed to you. If you didn’t want to marry me, there was an easier way to say so instead of taking my ring and then ditching me.
You can work through that in therapy, but here and now you listen to me if you don’t want to end up dead for Christmas. ”
The longer I speak the wider her pretty greens grow.
Her sweet tongue pops out of her clenched lips and she dares to run the tip over her bottom lip just like she used to do when she wanted to lay into me for something she didn’t like.
Back then it was going too fast on my bike or hogging all the blankets at night.
I spot a silver chain around her neck and wonder if she’s still the sentimental type and has my ring hanging around her neck as a trophy to remind herself of that one time she duped a man into loving her.
“Mind if you two leave this for later?” Reaper comes up behind Everly, causing her to whirl around.
“Reaper,” she breathes out heavily. “Mind pulling your enforcer back so I can do what I need to do?”
My lip pulls into a smirk at the acid dripping from her words. My girl still has fight in her when she’s backed up into a hard spot.
The rest of our crew ease from the shadows like a well-oiled unit of damage and destruction.
That has Everly recalculating her stance.
Her eyes roam over every single brother in our crew and as she takes in the weapons, the manpower and the strength we have as a group.
I can see the gears in her pretty head turning.
“I know you’re here to take down my father.
You have to know my brother is among them right now. ”
She juts her chin toward the train car being unloaded. “He’s not part of the drug crap my father is pulling off. In fact, he’s how I got the intel to be here tonight.”
Reaper simply nods and I offer a curt, “Noted.” None of us are here to offer an olive branch.
My eyes fall to hers. “Leave, Everly. Bad things are going to go down here tonight and you don’t need to see another one of your brothers take a bullet.”
The second her lips move my mind swims with ways to kiss her and not get another powerful right hook to the face.
“Phantom, no. You don’t–”
Jax comes around the edge of a building, hauling ass and all my ideas of kissing her until we are both breathless drop in the snow at my feet. I shake off the momentary daze of emotions that cloud my brain and pull my ass back on task.
Wide brown eyes lock on mine as Jax dives behind another stack of palettes ahead of the one we are using for cover.
“They know! Cover your asses,” is all the warning he gives before a wave of bullets spray the ground at our feet and the walls surrounding us.
I grab Everly and wrap my body around her. Holding her against me with one arm, I raise my weapon and drop a man charging toward us with hatred in his eyes and a Vulture cut wrapped around his shoulders.
Chunks of cement, half frozen mud and dirty snow flies everywhere.
Acid gurgles in the pit of my stomach. Of all the rotten fucking times to reconnect with an ex. For God’s sake, this better not be karma coming back at me for that prick of a patch I dropped in the gator pit tonight. He deserved that wicked death and I’m glad I gave it to him.
As if he can read my mind, Venom comes up beside me and grunts as if to say look what you did. Before he moves off into the darkness, he shoves a fresh clip of bullets into my hand.
“Try not to end up dead before Christmas.”
Noted.