CHAPTER 18
SNAKE
Now what, Snake?
I swear I can hear my women whispering the words in my ear while my eyes stay locked with her hazel orbs. I’m still trying to process the sheer fucking terror I felt when a call from my father woke me up, while also realizing my Angel wasn’t in bed with me.
Talk about the worst roller coaster ride in existence. Would not recommend and I’m sure as fuck hoping not to get on again.
But she says she’s okay. I blink a few times and try to focus on the woman in front of me.
“Come on, Ms. Lara,” Dad drawls. “Let’s look around and make sure nothing was disturbed or stolen.”
I don’t look in his direction.
I can’t.
Now what, Snake?
The challenge is right there. Burning in her eyes.
My brothers move through the space, Whiskey murmuring, “I’ll check and make sure nothing was added like bugs or cameras.”
“Probably for the best,” Lara deadpans.
While my eyes are on Graycie. I take a step closer to her. She doesn’t match me, but she doesn’t take one back either.
I’m standing in front of the woman who holds half of my soul and my entire heart and I’m huffing and puffing like an asshole. She’s looking at me. Waiting. Expecting.
And I’m laying a damn brick.
Right in the middle of a pink kitchen. How fucking fitting.
I need to find my balls.
“Fuck,” I bite out the word and rub a hand over my face. My arm shoots out and hooks around my woman’s waist without warning.
A little grunt of surprise comes from her chest when I haul her against me, and I mean right fucking up against me. It almost has me forgetting why I rode through town like the devil was chasing me at far too fucking early in the morning.
“I should put you over my knee and spank your ass red,” I growl the words lowly and feel the way her body trembles. It might be the worst fucking time, but my cock perks right the fuck up and takes notice.
“You said I could work,” her words are accusations that feel like little knives sliding right underneath my ribs.
“Yes,” my voice reverberates around us, “as long as someone was watching you and escorting you.”
“Warden was with me.”
I pull a deep breath in through my clenched teeth and start to count to ten, only making it to five before I grind out, “There was no plan in place for you to have an escort. You didn’t tell me about going to work today. I would have made sure someone was there, or I would have been up.”
“You need to sleep,” she tries to explain, her words a gentle and loving protest for what she thinks is right, what she thinks is caring.
“I need to make sure you’re safe,” I tell her, my voice softening slightly.
“I’m sure Dad was up early and happened to be in the clubhouse when you came down.
It was happenstance, not planning.” I stare into her eyes to make sure she sees how serious this is.
“That’s dangerous and I am not risking you. Ever.”
“Yeah,” she breathes out. “I pretty much regretted coming here the moment I saw the backdoor and the handle fall off in Warden’s hands.”
My grip tightens on Graycie, her words slicing through me and making the fear inside of me, the feeling I’ve been wrestling with since the moment I was yanked out of my dreams, sprout talons. The feeling slashes through me devastatingly.
I drop my forehead down to hers, needing her to hear me. “Please,” I beg her, “don’t ever do something like that again. You were planning to come here by yourself. What if there had been someone here? Graycie, I-,” I start, but my words get cut off.
“Nothing is missing,” Dad’s voice cuts through some of the tension in the room.
But not all of it.
Because I haven’t had the chance to kiss my woman.
No. That’s not true. I had the chance, but I chose to put my fear and worry front and center.
“Shit,” I bite out. “Graycie-girl,” I murmur, “I see you.”
My lips take hers, the kiss starting out coaxing and teasing, like relearning each other in new light, but then something hungry takes over. I can’t get enough. Of her taste. Of her body pressed against mine.
“This is quite the show,” Playboy whistles from somewhere far too close for my liking.
And reality snaps back into focus around me.
Damn it.
I peck my woman’s lips once. Twice. Three times.
Then I tuck her into my side and look over to find Playboy leaning back against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest. There’s a playful smile on his face, but his eyes keep darting toward somewhere else in the kitchen.
I give my brother, who doesn’t know when to be serious, a death glare, but he’s not bothered. Not even a little bit. He winks at me. The fucker winks at me.
With a kiss to my woman’s temple, I murmur, “I should have kissed you first. I’m sorry.” I pull back and look into her eyes, needing to know the answer to the question I should have asked. “Are you okay?”
Her arm wraps around my waist and something in the depths of me sighs with the contact.
“Yeah,” she breathes out, “I’m okay.” She looks over at Dad with a soft, sweet smile on her face. “I’m really glad I had Warden with me.”
“Pretty sure you can just start calling me Dad, Graycie,” Dad’s voice is thick, but he’s still on high alert and ready for anything.
Even in this fucked up situation, my woman has a way about her. It’s just natural.
Whiskey walks back into the room and nods at me. “I’ve done a sweep and didn’t detect anything, nothing putting off a signal at least.”
Lara huffs and throws her hands up. I can’t really blame her.
Playboy makes a sound in the back of his throat. Lara cuts a look in his direction that would have my balls shriveling up and taking up permeant residence somewhere around my diaphragm. Just in case.
Kind of like a migration.
But balls instead of geese.
“Since nothing was taken or destroyed, I think we have to air on the side of this having to do with you, Angel.” I hate the words, even though they’re right, because my woman’s face falls the moment they register.
“We’re going to head back to the compound and it’s where you’ll need to stay until we figure out what’s going on.
Not even work now, not now,” I plead with her.
“Yeah,” she croaks out the word, agreeing even though it costs her.
“It’s not forever,” I tell her.
A tear slides down her cheek while her fingers play with the edge of my cut. “I know,” she says, but her voice is so flat that I’m not entirely sure she believes it.
Which just won’t do.
As my mind starts going over options to make this right, to find a compromise somewhere between her safety and her sanity, my woman turns toward Lara, her voice wobbly, “I’m so sorry, Lara. For putting you in danger.” She swallows hard, her tone tinged with regret, “For putting Vanessa in danger.”
Lara grabs my woman’s hands and shakes her head.
“I don’t want to hear that, Graycie,” she tells my woman straight out.
“Don’t apologize for things you haven’t done.
You don’t control anyone else.” She eyes me over my woman’s shoulder before amending her words, “Well, you control someone, but only one person and only because he chooses to be that for you.”
Graycie looks confused before she follows Lara’s line of sight up to me and turns a pretty shade of pink as she blushes.
“I don’t know about that,” my woman tries to deflect.
Ryker barks out a laugh from his position along the perimeter of the room. “She’s not fucking wrong,” he tosses out there.
I swear I hear Sidewinder snicker, but when I glance at him, he’s scowling at the floor like it owes him fucking money.
Even though I feel the tops of my ears heat slightly, I ignore it and my brothers. I put all of my focus on my woman.
“Could she bake some things at the clubhouse?” I blurt out the question, not expecting it to be a real possibility.
Lara tilts her head slightly. “Is it a commercial grade kitchen?”
“Yeah,” Ryker is the one to answer her as he straightens up slightly. I’m not sure if he’s intrigued by the question because of the possibility of readily available baked goods or for some other reason.
Either way, I’m not inclined to step in. Yet.
“It would need to pass an inspection,” she muses, “I’m pretty sure.”
“We could swing that,” Ryker throws out there.
Lara flashes my Prez a small smile and I swear I hear Playboy growl under his breath.
I’m too busy soaking up how good it feels to have my woman tucked into my side. She fits against me perfectly.
Graycie leans into me and whispers, “Thank you.”
I look down at her and smirk. “For what?”
“For finding a way, one I never would have pursued or even considered.” She gives my waist a squeeze. “You did that. For me.”
“And for my own sanity,” I tease her.
“So, you really did it for you?” The teasing note in her voice has me swooping down and kissing her again.
“I really don’t think this is sanitary,” Lara points out, but I can hear the laughter in her voice.
My woman turns toward her friend and boss with a huge grin on her face. “Once everything is approved, maybe I can do special orders at the clubhouse. It would free you up and still give you time with Vanessa.” Her face falls slightly as she adds, “And it will make sure you and her are safe.”
Lara’s face softens. “You’re always thinking about everyone else, Graycie, and I love that about you.”
“Yeah,” Playboy scoffs, “because everything is about you.”
Lara spins around to face him, her hair flying around her head. That’s when I realize it’s down instead of pulled back like it normally is. She’s clearly wearing pajamas if the tight shorts and oversized shirt are any indication.
The look she levels my brother makes me wince. But Playboy’s face remains a neutral mask except for the way his eyes burn with words unsaid and judgements rendered.
“Excuse me?” Her hands slam down on her hips, all of her sass on display.
“Who the fuck do you think you are to talk to me like that? You always have some shit to say, Playboy,” she sneers his road name like he’s dirt under her shoe, “but the reality is that you don’t know me, and you don’t know a damn thing about my life. ”
“I don’t have to know anything about your life,” he curls his lip with disgust with his words. “Maybe most people can’t see through you, but I can see how fake you are. I’m not fooled.” He barks out a laugh, but there’s no amusement in the sound. “You think you’re so perfect,” he sneers at her.
Taken aback by my brother’s attitude, I look at him, my face a mask of shock. I’m not the only one either. Everyone in the room except for Lara and Graycie are looking at Playboy like we’ve never seen him before.
He has never been disrespectful to women, quite the opposite because he never really had a mom. The women of the club rallied to help Rumble raise him.
Lara tips her head back and laughs, but it’s not a nice sound. It’s filled with derision and a big side of ‘you’re an asshole’. The way her eyes bubble with hatred as she looks at him is a sight to see.
“I’m not perfect,” she’s almost yelling the words as she takes a step closer to him without even realizing it.
“I’m the farthest thing from perfect. I’m just a woman trying to keep my fucking life together while getting my business off the ground and raising my daughter.
” She gets right in his face without any fear, “You’re just a little boy who has been listening to the wrong people.
” Her voice drops to something dangerous with a warning I’m pretty sure my brother should heed, “But if you’d rather make assumptions than see for yourself, you can’t be helped. And you can fuck right off.”
My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman talk to Playboy like this. Usually, woman fall at his feet with their thighs spread. This is kind of a nice change.
“I feel sorry for you,” Lara whispers the words before looking around the room. When her eyes land on me, she straightens her spine. “I’ll let you know if my security company has anything to say about someone getting in. It doesn’t make any sense.”
She closes her eyes for a moment and her exhaustion becomes obvious. Playboy’s hands twitch at his sides, like he wants to reach for her, but then they clench along with his jaw.
“I need to go check on Vanessa,” she says to no one in particular. When she looks at my woman, her eyes soften. “Take care of yourself, that’s what matters most.”
Lara gives my woman a quick hug before she disappears through the door that leads back up to her place. Playboy watches her go without saying a word.
No one says anything for a moment, and I kiss my woman’s head. “We should swing by your place before heading back home.”
Graycie nods and I don’t think she realizes that she’s agreed with the clubhouse being her home. I’m certainly not going to mention it.
Before we head out, Playboy and Whiskey moving with us, Graycie steps away from me. I feel the loss of her heat immediately. She stops in front of my dad and winds her arms around his waist to give him a squeeze.
“Thank you for having my back,” she whispers the words and Dad’s face softens.
“Anything for you,” he whispers, “as long as I get those grandchildren soon.”
She giggles and doesn’t deny it as a possibility. Dad looks over her head and we share a look, loaded with all the possibilities for the future. I don’t even try to hide the smirk on my face.
After I help her into Dolly’s car, I follow close behind her while Playboy and Whiskey take the lead. Graycie doesn’t know it yet, but once we get her stuff into my house on club property, I’ll never let her leave again. I’ll never give her a reason to want to.
If this is the first volley in that dick’s campaign to terrorize my woman, he’s going to be sorry. It’s time to tighten the noose around him because I have plans for when he’s finally in my clutches.
I’ll have to curb my bloodlust until I can take him to our wet room. Then the fun will really begin.