THIRTY #2
It had taken everything in Splice not to rush across the street and punch the fuck out of the man who’d been a second father to him his entire life, especially since his dad had died.
Vince was Splice’s go-to guy for advice.
He would have trusted his uncle with his life—worse, he would have trusted him with Lisa’s life. That’s how high he’d rated Vince.
This was the worst betrayal imaginable.
And yet, he still didn’t have a clue why ten years ago, Vince frightened Lisa so badly that she left. Or why was Vince attempting to do the same thing today?
“Vince? Your uncle Vince?” she asked incredulously. “But why?”
“That I don’t know yet.”
But he would. And soon.
“I can’t say much about club-related stuff, but recently we found out Vince is dealing with one of our enemies and he tried to get the club involved under the radar.
” He stated, “When I confronted him about it, he claimed it was only an idea, and not something he was pursuing, nor would he stab the MC in the back. But Primo found out that’s all bullshit because he’s heavily in with them in a big way. More than he told me.”
Splice laid his head on Lisa’s shoulder; the only bit of peace he’d had for days was right here, and he tried to gulp in her scent until he didn’t want to go on a murderous rampage.
He always thought he could trust family, no matter what.
It all had unmoored Splice.
He wrapped both arms around her waist and held on.
They were silent only for a moment before she lifted his head.
“Now explain the amnesia part and how you thought it was a good idea to ignore me.” Her voice had turned harder, and Splice groaned. He was going to make up for this for the rest of his life.
His primary goal was to protect her, so he focused on getting Lisa out of the line of fire.
“After I got confirmation that Vince was the caller threatening you, the same person who probably tried to run you off the road and who had your car trashed, I wanted to confront him and yank the throat out of him to know why he’d done that.
Tomb persuaded me to play it smarter, in case there was more to it than just him.
If there’s a network of fuckery going on, then it won’t end with just stopping Vince. ”
“Tomb knows?”
Splice nodded.
“Nina too?”
“No, sweetheart. Her anger out there is genuine. Your girl has your back. The core counsel brothers and me held an emergency meeting the other night. It all came together fast. Everyone else out there thinks I got into an accident.”
“So fast you couldn’t let me in on it, too.” She scowled.
“I wouldn’t hurt you for the world.” He vowed, gripping her waist and going forehead to forehead. “I needed Vince to buy that we were over, that you were out of the picture, so it’d take the focus off you, baby. I had to act and say all that shit in front of him, so he’d think he’d won.”
He watched Lisa process everything.
He admired his woman for not flying off the handle, to give him a moment to explain everything, even if she still wanted to rip out his spleen.
“You are my whole fucking world, Lisa.” He said in a gravel-like rasp, “Not gonna leave you open to get hurt, no matter what I have to do. You’re my reason.”
“Your reason?” She asked breathily, her eyes steady and deep.
“Lisa, you are my reason for everything. What I do from this point on is to protect the love of my life.”
“Ryan,” she said, her voice box shaking, and she stroked a hand on his beard. “This needs trimming,” she added absentmindedly, and Splice grinned.
“You can trim it for me when we’re home together.”
He’d need the longest shower of his life after all this was done to wash the grime of his uncle’s betrayal off his skin. And he wanted Lisa right there under the water with him.
Another finger stroke on his beard, and Lisa raised her eyes to meet his again. “So, as I see it, you’re faking memory loss, so Vince thinks I’m kicked to the curb?” Splice nodded. “Thanks for that,” she sassed, and he grinned again. That tension, locked tight in his chest, loosened some more.
She was fucking magnificent.
A one in a million woman.
Sure as hell, Splice knew he didn’t deserve someone as good as her.
But ask him if he’d ever thought of letting her go so she could have a better man love her, and his answer would be a resounding fuck no.
Hell no, and try to fucking take her from his grasp, and he’d go ballistic in his rage to keep her by his side.
These two days had felt like he was going insane without her.
He’d slept in this room or tried to; instead, he’d lain awake, everything going around his brain, and only the image of Lisa had kept him steady. He must have scrolled through his pictures of her a million times, keeping to his vow to protect her and not crawl to her on his knees.
If not for Vince camping out at the club to monitor his ‘injured’ nephew, he could have slipped into Lisa’s house.
It had been a brand-new torture without her.
“Is there an end date to this memory loss, or am I to be known as a biker outcast, hm?”
God, he loved that haughty tone in her voice.
She made his heart pound and his dick hurt.
It was the wrong time for it, since he couldn’t stay there much longer without rousing Vince’s suspicions, but she was turning him on. He wanted nothing more than to be tortured by her in bed, making him wait for his pleasure in only the way she could do.
“It’ll all be sorted soon, baby.”
“Can’t we just ask him what he’s doing?”
“I’m going to, but I need him in an environment he can’t escape from or contact anyone. The brothers are doing reconnaissance now. I expect that to be finished soon, too. Then there’s only Vince left to deal with.”
She nodded, and he appreciated that she trusted him enough to let him deal with it.
Splice pressed a kiss to her lips. “Can you wait a little longer, sweetheart?”
“I don’t think there’s much choice, is there? Unless I dump you.”
“Absolutely not.” He growled, and she gave him the first smile he’d seen in days.
His heart shifted in his chest, and Splice wanted to run away with her, just scoop her up and disappear. To live in off-grid bliss with his woman.
“Then enduring is the only choice we have, right?”
He nodded gravely and basked in how she lingered her fingers over his hair.
“Can I ask one thing?”
Splice’s eyebrow angled high. “Go for it.”
“When all the truths are revealed, and you know why he did it, can you give him one good punch from me? He was the catalyst for us losing ten years together. He might be your uncle, and whether you keep him in your life after this, I won’t forgive the jerk for what he’s done.”
He couldn’t help it; Splice laughed lightly and buried his face against Lisa’s neck, inhaling her hard enough to sustain him for the hours ahead.
“Love you, woman. Yes, I’ll punch him for you. And rest assured, he’s dead to me now, so neither of us will see him again.”
Splice promised this.
Vince could have interfered with Splice’s life in several ways, and he probably would have forgiven the old man, but taking Lisa away from him for all this time and trying to do it a second time, in Splice’s eyes, that was unforgivable.
If someone else had messed with him, they’d already be bleeding out.
Lisa’s touch brought Splice’s head out of his murderous thoughts, and he wanted to fall into a kiss with her that would end all kisses. He wanted to do more than kiss; he wanted to have his woman screaming, to know they were a solid entity that no one could break apart.
He’d move the planets to keep her.
Lisa was a once-in-a-lifetime love, and nothing in this universe could rip him away from her. He’d do anything to stop that.
“Are you okay, baby?” he asked.
“I should ask you that. It’s your uncle; that’s something neither of us expected.”
“I still have you?”
“Of course,” she said easily. Then she cupped his face and Splice’s insides boiled alive, groaning low in his throat as she came nearer.
“My sweet boy, we’ll deal with your lying to me when this is over.
But right now, I want you to know one thing.
Two things, actually. I will be by your side until the end of time; that’s a guarantee; nothing can part us, because I believe in my man’s strength. ”
She’d inflated him with enough confidence in that one statement to not only power the entire city but to go into a battle he never envisioned he would ever have to face in his life.
“The other thing is. I love you, Ryan. Very, very, very much. So get this done soon so we can get on with our lives. We have so much to do together.”
She meant sex.
“I don’t mean sex.” She read his mind, and he groaned.
“Say it again.” He rasped.
“I don’t mean...”
“The other thing.”
She grinned, knowing what he wanted. “I will when you come home.”
Come home. Lisa was his home. He’d be wherever she was.
“Cruel woman.” He adored her. Every single beautiful inch.
She got off his lap and fixed her coat, making sure her hair wasn’t messy from his hands.
“Okay. I guess we have to put on a show out there, don’t we?”
She got him. She understood, and he loved her for that. Splice grimaced, hating that anyone in the clubhouse who wasn’t part of the brotherhood would think he was really dumping her.
“Ugh, those women are going to think you’re fair game.” She huffed. Then added, collecting her emotions like a titan. “Fine. I understand, but I won’t like it. Don’t come to my house smelling like another woman.”
His lips twitched, wanting to maul her like an animal attack, putting his mark all over her pearly white skin, leaving streams of his come on her body. “I only want your perfume on me, sweetheart.”
“Yes, mine.” She pointed a delicate long finger at him, eyes slit narrow, so fucking sexy, he felt the dominating look in his starved body.
Before he opened the bedroom door and his amnesia act started again, he roped Lisa in and took hold of her hand, bringing it up, and he pressed a soft kiss to her inner wrist with all the worshipping love he had crammed into his heart for her.