Chapter Seven
Charlotte was content. Actually, that was a mild way to say how happy she was.
The food had been incredible and the conversation flowed like it was so natural between them.
Savage actually talked to her about a few incidents in the club.
One was from his days of being a prospect, and another was about some occurrences with the guys on the open road, which she loved.
Club business was not a topic of conversation.
She knew how that worked, after all, she listened to plenty of arguments from her parents about that. It sucked for the both of them.
They made their way into his apartment, and she kicked off her pumps, as Savage kicked off his boots.
“You want a beer, babe?” he asked.
Charlotte nodded in agreement, although she wasn’t much of a beer drinker.
He went into the kitchen, as she made her way to the couch, sitting down on it, or more like collapsing.
It had been a long night. After they enjoyed their food, they danced for a good two hours.
Shared the nicest chocolate cake dessert she had ever eaten, and then danced a little more.
Checking the time, she saw it was close to two o’clock in the morning.
They had left the bar a little after one, which had been close to closing.
He didn’t break any rules on the hour’s drive back.
He came back, holding two beers in one hand and a soda in the other. “I figured I’d let you try the beer, but I had a feeling you weren’t going to like it.”
She reached for the beer, took a sip, and wrinkled her nose.
He laughed. “See, I think of all the options.”
“That’s disgusting. Why do you guys even drink it?” she asked.
“And girls. Beer is an acquired taste.”
“So, I know this is a lot, but, uh, have you ever been married?” she asked.
Savage laughed. “No. I don’t have an old lady either, and I’ve not staked my claim on any of the other women. What about you?” He winked at her.
“I’ve not been married, and no, I don’t even have a boyfriend. I’ve never been with a boyfriend. I’m a virgin.” And there she went, spitting that little piece of detail out, rather than keeping it to herself.
Did men even like the thought of their woman being a virgin?
Were virgins popular anymore? Didn’t men want experienced women?
“I figured, since you had no boyfriend, and also, I haven’t seen Doc on the warpath recently.”
“What does my dad have to do with this?” she asked.
“Your dad has everything to do with this, seeing as anyone who gets near his girl will have to answer to him.”
“Oh.” She glanced down at her can of orange soda. She wondered if it was too late to try and enjoy the taste of beer. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“I don’t want to get on Doc’s bad side, Charlotte. You need to know this. The club will come first. My place there is everything to me,” he said. “I’m not playing with you. This is not a game. You need to figure out if you’re playing with one of your father’s friends, or if this is real to you.”
“And then what?”
“We’ll see what happens, but we’re not going to play the short game. I’m not looking to fuck you and forget you. I’ve tried to forget you, and that shit ain’t happening.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged.
Charlotte glared at him. “You can’t just say stuff like that and not expect me to be a little curious about it.”
“The fair. Seeing those kids ambush you, pull you into a toilet, it fucking blew my mind. Wrecked me. The fact they all walked away, alive, that is a fucking miracle.”
She had no idea. “You did shock me when you shoved the ... girls.”
“They were complicit in what was happening. They didn’t tell that fuckhead to stop. You need to understand, I’ve got no problem doing what needs to be done, regardless of the sex. Someone is hurting you, or hurting ... anyone, I do what needs to be done.”
There was a story there. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” Savage said. “Let’s just say, I know the fairer sex are not always as innocent as they’re painted to be.”
She was not going to push. Not on this. When Savage wanted to talk to her, that time would come. She didn’t want him to think about his fucked-up past.
Charlotte didn’t quite know where the boldness suddenly came from, but she took his beer from him and put it on the coffee table, on top of a coaster, along with her soda.
Before she lost the nerve, she moved to straddle his lap.
The dress she wore had a large skirt, so she wasn’t fighting to drag that up her thighs to straddle his lap.
She was just running with what she felt like doing.
Putting her hands on his shoulders, she smiled down at him.
“So, if that means you don’t want to play games, and I don’t want to play games, are we, like, officially boyfriend and girlfriend now?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“But I don’t want to go to my dad yet,” she said.
“Charlotte!”
“We’ll tell him. I promise, but I don’t want him, or my mom, or all the club stuff to stop us from being like this.
They will make your life miserable, and Mom won’t leave town.
” She thought Nancy was leaving town so many times.
Her mother’s bags had been packed a few times, and still, she never left.
If this came out, she knew it would cause both her parents to fight.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he said, running his hands up her thighs. “Aren’t you?”
“No.” She leaned in close and kissed him. “The last thing I want is for you to die, Savage.”
He sunk his fingers into her hair and pulled her close. She stared into his mesmerizing eyes, which were a dark shade of blue.
And then he pulled her down and kissed her. She let out a moan, and she couldn’t help it as his other hand went to her thigh, but he didn’t stay there. He started to move around the back, and when he grabbed her ass, she let out a whimper.
His tongue traced her bottom lip, seeking entry, and she let him in, and he growled against her mouth. Meeting her tongue with his, he gripped her ass tighter, and the grip on the back of her neck tightened as well.
She felt on fire with need. Not once did she want him to stop. Her body was a complete bundle of nerves—a fever pitch.
The hand at the back of her neck let her go, but then both his hands were at her ass, gripping it.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepened the kiss, and couldn’t help but rock against him.
Charlotte felt the hard ridge of his cock as it rubbed against her core. She wanted his hands all over her.
But he pulled away. “It’s time to go to bed,” he said.
She thought he meant to have sex, but she was very much mistaken.
****
Savage checked the perimeter of Rivermont Ridge. A few months ago, they had dealt with the Bratva drug problem, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t attempt to come into town to serve some of their fucked-up shit.
They kept drugs out of town. There were a couple of older men and a few younger guys who liked to brew their own alcohol, and from time to time, they would serve it up, pretending it was lemonade.
They did have to put a stop to that. The moonshine had been so strong, it ended up putting a couple of guys in the hospital.
Savage hadn’t been one of them. He’d been one of the guys escorting others to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped.
That had been an interesting twenty-four hours.
No one liked how close kids had nearly come to drinking the damn toxic stuff, and it was fucking toxic.
Savage had no problem patrolling the perimeter of the town, to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. There were a couple of old abandoned ranch houses that had been left to ruin. A few of them had a good bit of land attached, and he’d been tempted to see the going price for them.
It was also cold as fuck right now, and Savage pulled out his binoculars from his stance within the tree line.
He was hidden by the trees, as he looked over toward one of the farms. The rain wouldn’t let up, and he noticed a car heading down the long, overgrown dirt path.
He recognized it but couldn’t quite place it.
Focusing on the driver, he noticed Andy Bernadette.
The bruised nose gave it away. He had punched him in the nose—not enough to break, but enough to leave a mark.
The little fucker had put his hands on Charlotte, and not in a good way.
The man had threatened her, and he didn’t understand why.
Why ask a woman out on a date and then treat her like shit? That didn’t add up.
He watched as Andy parked his car and stepped out. Another man he recognized as “Jimmy the Real Estate Guy”—that was his advertisement on nearly all the ranches.
Savage didn’t like this. Something pissed him off about Andy Bernadette, and he didn’t think it was just because he’d asked Charlotte out on a date.
Pulling out his cell phone, he contacted his guy, Paulie Valentine, who was able to get shit on everybody. Paulie Valentine was in his late forties, still lived with his mother, and had an entire basement filled with multiple computers. He loved computers even before they became popular.
“Yo, yo, yo, it’s my guy, what can I do for you?” Paulie asked.
He was also happy all the freaking time.
Savage liked him, and they had a history.
Kind of. Paulie had gone into the system once, over some fucked-up reason.
The guy loved his mom, but it was his dad that had been the problem at the time.
Thankfully, Daddy left, and things got resolved for Paulie to get out of the system before bad shit happened.
They had known one another for the briefest of times, when Savage was only five years old.
Clearly, he left a lasting impression, as Paulie had never forgotten him, and the few times he needed help over the years, he’d been there.
Outside of the club, he was the one person Savage would call a friend.
“I’ve got a name for you, but I don’t want you to do no personal digging. This is what you can find through your screens, man.”
“This sounds dangerous,” Paulie said.
His friend also liked to do more than was needed, and Savage didn’t want to get the man killed.
“Just what I tell you, you got it?”
“I’ve got it. Wow, you sound grouchy lately. Are you coming for Thanksgiving this year, or is it Christmas?”
“When’s Thanksgiving?”
“About a week’s time.”
“Shit, fuck, I had forgotten about that,” Savage said, and it explained why Doc wanted a word. Usually, he went to see Paulie at least once, either Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year. It was one of them.
He ran a hand down his face, as he thought about Charlotte. It was going to be hard to get her out of town. Her parents would ask questions.
“I’ll make Thanksgiving this year.”
“Excellent. I better go. I’ve got my spying to do. I’ll call you back with all the details.” Paulie hung up.
His friend didn’t exactly do well with manners and tended to just say what was on his mind. The man didn’t have a filter, and Paulie would often say, “Not that I have a problem or anything. I just say it like it is, and I don’t fucking mince words.” Even when they were kids.
He knew Paulie had to learn self-defense as well, seeing as his ability to just say what was on his mind got him in trouble a few times. Their friendship was an unusual one, but he wanted to introduce him to Charlotte.
Pocketing his cell phone, he watched as Andy talked to Jimmy.
He couldn’t make out what was being said, but Jimmy’s hands were in front of him, as he shoved them in either direction, clearly not happy with the conversation.
Andy looked ready to explode, and he didn’t like that short fuse on him.
None of this was good, but he knew Paulie would come through for him with details. His guard was on when it came to Andy.
After another ten minutes of the two men arguing, Andy climbed into the car, shoved two fingers up at Jimmy, and then got in his car and drove off. He waited, and Jimmy wasn’t long behind him.
After that, Savage decided to go and check out the ranch house.
He made his way down the long hill, being careful not to fall, and he came to the building with half the roof missing.
The ranch house was a mess. There were boards on the doors and several of the windows, but one or two of them were actually missing, and it made no sense why anyone would want it.
Although, there was a lot of land that came with the building.
He didn’t like it. Something didn’t sit right with him. He also didn’t like Andy Bernadette, and his gut was telling him that little shit was up to something.
He made his way back toward his bike, straddled the machine, and headed back to the clubhouse to talk with Doc while he waited to gather information from Paulie.