27. Wombat
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Wombat
The anguish in Honor’s voice cut like a blade. I knew she was being honest with me, but still had no idea how I could help.
Fuck. I couldn’t even help myself. The best I could do was get out of her hair. “Thanks for taking DA.”
“About that, he’s been lethargic.”
“Has he thrown up?”
“No, just…fragile, if you could call a sixty-pound pile of muscle and bones that.”
That was new, but Lemon said he’d be that way for at least another week or two with the bland diet and rest.
“I’ll let Lemon know, she’s at Sonnet’s right now.
I think she’ll be back by the time I get home.
” My sister was still reeling from rehousing so many rescue animals and likely escaped for the afternoon because of all the bikers who’d been in and out of the house. She claimed it messed with her energy.
There were things I needed to do back at the house.
I hadn’t planned on doing more than picking up DA.
But I was stalling because I couldn’t leave Honor alone, could I?
I didn’t know. That was the problem. I didn’t know how to fix things.
That was something I usually excelled at.
Finding the right place to distract, distance, bullshit my way through, and occasionally hammer the solution home.
But Honor soaked into my soul. When she felt pain, I felt it too.
And she was hurting. How could I walk away?
I filled the gap with rambling plans instead. “Also, Fly’s staying the night, but only to help cover emergencies. He’s in a lot of pain. I wish Walt had someone else, but none of them are competent enough to handle it. I think it’s wearing on him.”
“You’re tired, too. I’ll come over.”
“Don’t. I’m in no shape to—” She needed to stay safe. There was no telling what Winter would do.
“I’m coming anyway. Maybe we’ll both rest better together.”
She shouldn’t. She couldn’t. “Honor?”
“Please?”
“I need the space.”
Her face fell, and my heart followed it right into the depths. She whispered a subdued, “I see” in response.
No, she didn’t. This wasn’t me rejecting her, it was me keeping her out of harm’s way.
If she stayed here, she had an alarm system, a police station nearby, and lots of witnesses to notice if Winter skulked around her townhouse intent on fucking with her.
I didn’t want to scare her, but I also needed to keep her away, if only for tonight.
“It isn’t like that, it’s just until shit calms down, understand? ”
“Are you sure?”
No. I needed her. She might think she wasn’t strong, but she’d been my anchor when the world went up in flames. Maybe it was her past that made her so competent, or maybe that was just who and how she was, but she was beautiful and tough, like the rarest of diamonds.
To keep her that brilliant and perfect, I needed to guard her with all the violence and brutality I’d learned since becoming a Destroyer. “Yes. I’m sure.” I bit my lip to keep from saying more.
Her eyes narrowed in on that movement, then flashed back to fix me with a stare that quietly spoke, I don’t believe you.
You’re going to have to trust me, beautiful.
DA fought the lead as I walked to the door. Molly whined.
Both of them were likely smarter than I was. Or maybe they’d picked up on the sad truth this was just the first of probably a hundred goodbyes. Each one would be harder than the last.
Until Honor wised up and realized that we just didn’t work.
I drove away thinking, Love isn’t enough.
It never was. My parents loved us, but failed at the hard part.
Showing up when life shoved love into the mud and stomped on it was what it took to prove you loved someone, not just being there when it was easy or convenient.
Blindly, I thought I could be that person for Lemon and Sonnet.
My older sister probably thought the same thing, but was smart enough to get selfish and take care of herself before she learned the hard way I was too immature to fill the role of a parent. Just like Mom and Dad.
Lemon was just beginning to see the cracks.
Yet, I’d make the same mistakes all over again—a hundred times over.
The truck bounced on the driveway as I failed to avoid all the potholes. DA shot me a glare as if to berate me for being such an idiot. “I know. I’m distracted. Sorry, buddy.”
His tongue hung out, mocking me.
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
If the way he licked his chops and panted at me was any answer, it was likely yes.
I parked the truck and let him out.
He froze in the driveway, sniffing the air.
An uncharacteristic growl rumbled in his throat.
I scanned the twilight for threats. Walt’s SUV was long gone.
Nickel’s van was nowhere in sight. Kid’s lifted truck, also gone, along with a large amount of debris from the barn.
The bones of it stood jagged and black against the darkening sky.
I searched the shadows for signs of Hoot.
Nothing.
Fly’s beater was parked next to Lemon’s car, and I steered DA in that direction. He met me at the door.
I stated the obvious. “You look high.”
“I tweaked something. Lemon gave me an aspirin.”
He was on something stronger than aspirin. “I want DA with you, guarding the house tonight.”
Fly, stoned as he was, still scanned me from head to toe. “Do you think that’s necessary? I’m here.”
“Do you think you’ll ever get your patch if you keep disobeying orders?”
“Point taken. C’mon, Dumb Ass, you gotta take your meds, too.”
This time it wasn’t just my hide on the line. I stopped his progress with a hand on his arm. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Yeah. One yellow pill before bedtime. Knocks him out. No more no less.”
“Only one,” I reminded him.
“I’m not stupid, just crippled.”
If he’d have landed worse, or if he’d not been in shape and practicing with Kid how to fight and fall, he would have died for certain. “You ain’t crippled. Just healing.”
“You sound like your sister. All woo-woo and shit.”
“We learned it from our parents.”
“Whatever, man.” He called my dog again, and this time DA listened. But he made his protest known as the door shut between us.
I stared at the barn some more, searching for movement.
“Fuck.”
Maybe I was torturing myself. I could have stayed at Honor’s. I could have gone inside with DA and Fly and slept on Lemon’s couch. Instead, I was out here looking for shadows.
The trees listened to my heartbreak, and the reminder I used to use like a shield. “Everyone leaves.”
“I won’t leave you.”
I froze. The feminine voice in the shadows wasn’t Lemon, and it sure wasn’t Honor. “Winter?”
“I won’t.”
My stomach coiled up into a knot, trying to hide just like my nuts had.
She stepped into the moonlight. A splinter of moonlight caught on the metal in her hand. “I didn’t know you owned a gun.”
“You’d be surprised at what you don’t know about me.”
That was an understatement. I didn’t dare move or let that thought cross my face, so I searched for something to keep her talking. “You burned my barn down.”
“How do you know that?”
“Cameras.”
Her fingers tightened on the handle of the snubbed .22 she pointed at me.
I scrambled for something to keep her from shooting me. “But the footage was grainy at best. I’m only guessing here.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Liar. “Right. Of course not. Why are you here, Winter?”
“I’m here to take you back.”
Over my dead… damn. I was a little slow on the uptake. She’d brought insurance to make her will known. “Are you sure you want me?”
“What’s not to like? You’re a Destroyer. The top of the peak, the baddest criminals in the county.”
That was an insult. We reached beyond the county. “And why does that matter?”
“Because you’re not scared. I despise scared men.”
And yet… she had to hold a gun on them? That would scare the piss out of most. “Everyone gets scared.”
“Not you. You broke Christian’s hand. And he’s one of the richest dealers around.”
I couldn’t piece together who she was talking about at first. Then it hit me. Her ex…the poor idiot I’d borrowed her from for a night. “I ain’t rich.” I made certain to point at the dilapidated shed to the left. “Case in point.”
“But you will be. Everyone knows your club controls the drug pipeline into Hagerstown. Then there’s the guns and—”
I cut her off. “You don’t know shit.” I took a step toward her, hoping she’d pull that trigger. Sure the bullet would likely careen around like a ping pong ball in my guts, but I’d get my hands around her throat first.
Even better, Fly would hear the shot and come running.
Okay, hobbling, but still, he’d be out here sooner or later and her and her big mouth would be gone. Permanently.
She took a step back. “Don’t come closer.”
I took another step. “Why not? Don’t you want me?”
Winter froze. “You… Do you mean that?”
Hell no. I meant to stay alive and get that gun out of her hand.
“You know so much about me that you’ve got me at a disadvantage.
Maybe I could…” I deliberately let my eyes trail down her body to her crotch.
The gun wavered between us like a hazy cloud.
My focus may have been on the vee at the top of her legs, but my attention was on that blob.
It dipped as she relaxed. I took another step closer, bringing my eyes up to meet hers. I forced a smile. “There you are.” My fingers uncurled, ready to act. But I kept my movements lazy and slow. The same trick had worked on a mangy fox once.
Touching her was going to be worse.
“So I am.” Her gaze went a little wider, the fear smoothing out as curiosity, or maybe desire took root.
I must have moved too quickly, because that softness disintegrated. She rushed to take a shooter’s stance and held the gun solidly as she pointed it at my chest. “None of that. We’re going into your house. Got it?”
My hands flew up, palms front. “Sure, anything you say.” I had a .
45 in there. It was tucked into a little hiding hole in the mattress.
I’d get her on her back, distract her, slip my hand down there and…
Yeah. Plan formed. With that, I retreated carefully.
I kept my pace equal to her advance, but I did not turn my back on her.
I didn’t trust her or that peashooter in her hands. The trick was to keep her talking.
“Aside from the drugs and position, why me?”
She pointedly looked at my belt.
“That’s it? A fat dick?”
Winter shrugged. “Until I can find better.”
“Way to make me feel special.” I hadn’t meant to mutter that out loud, but it snuck out. I turned to unlock my front door.
The cold metal of the gun pressed into my spine. “You don’t have to feel special, just comply, got it? I want to be on top and you’re my ticket there.”
“If you wanted the top, all you had to do was ask.” Fuck my smart mouth. Luckily, she took it as teasingly seductive, not bitter.
“We’ll explore that, too. Move.”
Sure thing. Bedroom, gun, flip this bullshit scenario around.
Hell, maybe I’d kill her while I was at it. First, I had to determine if she told anyone she was coming here.
“I suppose you and your girlfriends get a big laugh out of this role-playing, don’t they?”
“Role playing?”
“Yeah, dub-con, fake kidnapping, forced sex of the motorcycle guy at the point of an unloaded gun.” There were whole hashtags dedicated to that.
“It’s loaded.” Her snide reply sent a chill down my spine.
Jesus. She really was crazy.
It was getting harder to play it cool. “That puts a whole new twist into this. What a strange kink.”
I turned to unbuckle my belt. An insane thought flashed through my head. I could whip the belt out and perhaps impress her with the trick, but I’d also have a tool I could snag her gun hand with. “Wanna see something cool?”
“No tricks.”
Damn, there went that idea.
Light stretched across the wall and crawled across the ceiling. It streamed in at an angle from the window near the corner. Someone was coming up the driveway. Maybe it was one of my brothers. I hoped like hell it wasn’t Sonnet.
The car pointed toward the garage rather than turning to park near the house.
That meant it was a Destroyer. I smiled at Winter. “Looks like one of my brothers is here to party.”
Her face blanched. “Tell them to leave.”
Not on her life. I was counting on them to save mine.