Chapter 41
She’s in pain.
I can sense it. I detect every wince Camryn’s made since she walked in and headed straight for her brother.
Her anger didn’t push me away. I like it when she fights me and pushes back.
What I said to her the day behind the tattoo shop was a lie.
Told to create the distance I needed to keep from taking her back to my cabin and never letting her leave.
She’s angry with me, and I want her to stay angry with me.
I want her to hate me even as I want her to open her legs and let me fuck her until she can’t speak, too hoarse and too exhausted to do more than lie there with my cum covering her body, leaking from inside her.
And my hunger has only gotten worse since I watched her cuddle her niece.
It did something to me, something I shouldn’t feel.
Protective. Hungry. Hungry to see her hold my child.
The thought nearly leveled me. I have never thought about a child of my own.
I’ve been ruthless in my prevention of kids, rarely fucking after I got out of the Marines, and never going bare in a woman.
Even in my teens, I was careful because the thought of having a child was non-existent with the way my family lived.
But seeing Camryn, the woman whose pussy is still fresh in my mouth, whose cries still sound too damn real when I lie in bed at night, holding the small baby on her chest, made me feral, filled with a reckless need to fuck her raw and impregnate her.
And that is why I shouldn’t have come. That is why I should have stayed in the shop like I told Onyx I would, because this is the damn problem.
This need for her. Coming here tonight was a risk.
I knew it, and I should have kept my ass at the shop.
Not putting Jace, his new daughter, and fiancée at risk.
But I couldn’t stay away, not even after Jace’s warning. His request is still fresh in my mind.
When I showed up earlier, he looked at me.
I acted like I agreed to that unspoken message, as if I agreed to stay away from her.
I lied straight to his face. I’m willing to abide by his request to an extent, but when she and I are alone, nothing else matters.
Not the threats being directed at the Legion.
At me. Normally, I don’t live in a world of compromise.
I can’t afford to. There’s just black and white.
But here I am dabbling in the gray, compromising my rules about women, about things other than my revenge against the Mestizos, just so I can see her in person.
I drove an unrecognizable bike, leaving my distinctive all-black motorcycle parked behind the shop, which gave the illusion that I was still at the shop in case anyone was watching.
The Mestizos are becoming increasingly reckless and brutal.
Taking women off the street in broad daylight now.
The police are doing nothing, and from my sources, even the FBI is laying low, not wanting to jump the gun and pick up the low-level animals.
They want El Jefe, and so do I. But instead of hunting that animal, I’m here.
A place that has no room for a man like me.
Bright and sunny. Babies being fed, Wives and fiancés chatting.
Good food. Big ass men, all soft and pretty when it comes to their women.
Not something I’ve seen before. Even with Onyx, he didn’t show affection, partly because Ivory was hardened.
She loved Onyx, but her assault changed her, made her more closed off.
My mother’s bastard of a husband only showed physical affection when he was fucking her or beating her.
This gentle petting is not something I’m familiar with.
Sloane and his son are also here. New is that he’s now engaged to the curvy red-headed doctor he was salivating over in the club all those months ago.
Good for him. Riggs has something going on with the beautiful Jacqueline, but I know why he holds himself back.
Everything in the club is tenuous, including his position, and with the way he travels, he’s gone for months at a time.
But what’s startling is Onyx. He’s been watching the young mother, Nova, and her daughter, Roxi.
I saw them once when Onyx and I were eating in the diner.
She was on guard, ready to step in and protect her daughter.
Mother bear vibes were written all over her.
I recognized the timid looks, the fear. She’s been hurt, probably abused by the little girl’s father.
Onyx watched while the little girl moved crayons on the table.
The little girl is a tiny replica of her mother — all hair and eyes.
Onyx grumbled, tracking them with his eyes every time she had to serve male customers. But the worst was when Roxi spotted Onyx and hid behind her mother’s legs. Once our order was taken, I could feel the anger radiating off my friend. “Why would she be scared of men? She’s six years old.”
“You know why she’s afraid.”
“Bastard.” The rage in Onyx’s eyes was potent. I knew what he was thinking. Angel had died around her age. It was fortunate that the woman’s husband wasn’t around. The ache in my chest spreads with the memory of my niece.
When Camryn gets up and walks up the slight incline, I forget about my dead sister and niece.
She moves slowly toward her brother’s mansion.
My eyes are glued to her form, picking up on her slightly hunched frame, the ginger way she walks, her hand covering her lower tummy.
I study every painful step, wondering what’s causing it.
Her brother is out of sight, most likely fucking his fiancée in one of his many bathrooms, and I set down my mostly untouched beer.
I follow her like the stalker I am as she slips into the massive house.
I want to know what’s making her face so pale.
I breathe in her scent, using it to tell me her direction.
I follow and hear the quick snap of a door.
I climb the steps, realizing she’s going to the same bathroom that we were trapped in for a stolen moment all those months ago.