Chapter 12
Riptide
Ilaid in the dark, listening to Sloane’s breathing evening out.
Getting married was a big enough shock to my system, but to realize that if I kept having sex with her the odds of her getting pregnant were high was overwhelming.
Who knew what kind of fucked up things Ethan would do in the future to ensure that the couples he chose continue to have sex.
Like Sloane said, he needed us to reproduce.
It was the preferred method for him to get his minions.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I tried to accept that.
Even if Ethan didn’t require some kind of proof, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my hands off her.
Not after the responsiveness she’d shown me.
My dick was already hardening, just thinking about her spread out beneath me, trusting me to treat her right.
Judging by the things she’d told me, she hadn’t had much love or affection in her life.
I wanted to change that. To show her how good it could be between us.
But a baby? It wasn’t like I had anything against them.
They were cute little buggers. I just never expected that I’d be having them so soon.
There wasn’t any sort of timeline I was following.
Have a wife by twenty-eight. Kids by thirty.
Nothing like that, but no one had ever made me feel like I needed those things. Until now.
My heart had leapt inside my chest when Sloane had so casually remarked that Ethan wanted the couples having kids. It made sense. That didn’t mean it hadn’t put a bit of fear into me either.
She had no idea who I really was. What I was doing here.
How would she feel once she found out almost everything she knew about me was a lie?
Everything but my feelings for her. Another realization hit me.
At some point the charade would be over and we’d go back to the real world. Would she stay with me?
The thought of what her reaction might be unsettled me.
I put my arm around her waist, pulling her back more securely against my body.
Something about her made this place easier to swallow.
If it had been some other woman I wasn’t sure I’d be as calm as I was now.
As it was all I could do was wait and see how this would all play out.
I’d explain to her that I’d infiltrated her life in order to help her and the others.
It would hopefully be enough to convince her not to hate me.
In the meantime, I planned to enjoy my time with her.
I buried my nose in her hair, enjoying the minty scent that clung to her.
We could take our time to get to know each other, but I was going to have to keep my hands to myself.
If I knocked her up that would irrevocably tie us together.
I didn’t mind so much, but she might once she found out the truth.
She murmured in her sleep, her hand coming up to rest on my forearm. She seemed to need to touch me as much as I did her. I let my eyes close, but it was a long time before sleep finally claimed me.
* * *
The next morning, I groaned as sunlight woke me up.
Even as a kid, I’d been an early riser. Getting out onto the water right as the sun was rising ensured you caught the best waves.
I missed living near the ocean, but my parents had already moved to Tucson by the time I’d finished my service.
Between that and my club being here it’d only been natural for me to stay.
I traveled a few times a year to visit my beloved ocean and that worked well for me.
Sloane shifted in front of me, rubbing her pert little ass against my morning wood. She’d slept the whole night wrapped in my arms. My staring must have woken her, because she stretched and yawned.
I put a few inches between us. My cock was already fucking throbbing and ready for another round.
She rolled and gave me a shy smile as she tucked her hand between her cheek and the pillow.
Her beauty hit me like a punch to the throat, making it hard to breathe.
I couldn’t believe she was mine. She might not appreciate the marks that adorned her body, but I hadn’t lied to her yesterday, I considered them marks of her courage.
After seeing her help that little girl and agree to take a punishment for her, and then understanding what Ethan and his cronies did to people here, I’d known where her scars had come from.
She had a lot to learn about me, but right now I was fully content with her being my wife.
Will she stay yours?
“What are your plans for today?” she asked.
“It’s our honeymoon,” I told her with a grin. “Maybe we could go into town. Find something to do together.”
The smile slipped off her face. She bit her full lower lip and shook her head. “Ethan doesn’t allow anyone except Bruce or Jacob to go into town.”
That explained why we never saw anyone leaving to go get supplies in the city.
Between the spider web of little tire tracks and trails they had out here and the fact that only two people ever left, we had no hope of catching them unless we just got incredibly lucky.
From what we could tell they varied the way they traveled in and out.
“Alright. What would you like to do?” I asked, giving in to temptation and trailing the backs of my fingers over her cheek.
Something softened in her eyes and I enjoyed having her look at me like that. I hoped it wouldn’t take me long to get the feel for this place or for my new bride.
“I’d like to unpack my things.”
“It’s your home now. You’re welcome to do whatever you’d like with it.” It belonged to her more than it did me. “Then maybe you could show me what it is you do during the days.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I teach, most days.”
“That sounds fun.” Not really. I didn’t have the patience to teach other people things.
That was better suited to other men. I could work in teams with people, figure out what motivated them to give everything they could to whatever cause was needed, but actually sitting down and teaching them how to properly complete a task? No thanks.
I knew for a fact I’d end up being like my own father.
The man loved me more than life itself and I felt the same for him and my mother, but neither of us had wanted him to help with my homework as a kid.
I’d learned that lesson early on when I’d sat there wide eyed while he’d bellowed at me, ‘It’s two plus two!
What does that equal? Two plus two!’ As if yelling it at me would make me understand it any quicker or keep him from yanking his hair out.
“What?”
I blinked as I realized I was chuckling out loud. “Sorry. I was just thinking back to my father trying to help me with my homework. It’s definitely best if someone else takes the teaching jobs instead of me.”
Her smile brightened. “Your dad isn’t the patient sort?”
“He is with a lot of things. Not math, though.”
She cocked her head. “Ethan brought you here to take care of the finances, right?”
I nodded, realizing the mistake I’d made.
“Wouldn’t that mean you’re exceptional at math?” Her frown would be adorable as she reasoned out her question if she hadn’t about caught me in a lie. Math had never really been my friend.
“My dad’s not, but I am.” Lie. Rat was. I couldn’t create programs or apps, or do much more than add and fucking subtract.
My biggest skill was a knack for figuring out different types of technology.
I could use and repurpose things for tasks no one thought they’d be used for, but I couldn’t build them.
It’d helped me a lot in the military. It was even helpful to the club, but that was about it.
It didn’t really matter. I’d left the military, but hadn’t needed to get a job.
I devoted my time to my club. Somehow, this surfer kid had figured out way back in the day to dump a few paychecks into the stock market.
I’d made an investment with a fledgling technology company that had skyrocketed a few short years later and made me incredibly wealthy.
You wouldn’t know it to look at me since I still only wore jeans, t-shirts, dirty work boots, and my cut. But I’d bought my parent’s home and signed over the title to them. I’d paid for my sisters’ homes as well.
Mostly, I reinvested the money. My luck had held out and most of the time I just ended up making more.
Most days I ran The Bunker. The club’s bar gave me something to do when Priest had everything locked down with the club.
I pitched in with Lockout to pay Priest a salary that allowed him to be ready and available to his kids, but got most of the day to day things done for the club.
I fucking loved our bar. Everything from running it to working behind the counter.
It gave me a sense of fulfillment and it helped me keep an eye on things that were happening within the city.
Most people would look at me and write me off as soon as they found out I was the manager of a bar.
Add in being in a motorcycle club and they’d turn their noses up so quickly they’d never find out I was one of the richest men in the city.
Not that I let that slip to many people.
Attitudes sure changed when others found out you had money.
I wasn’t about to put up with the nasty changes.
Only a select few of my brothers knew about my wealth, and of course, my family.
I was a pretty private guy. I liked to focus on making sure our club members had what they needed and stay out of the limelight.
That was why it’d surprised my folks when I’d told them I was going to be the VP for the club.
Dad had been in an MC back in the day. He’d loved the lifestyle, but a workplace accident had broken his back, preventing him from riding.
It’d broken his heart. He’d retired from his club and they still treated him like family.
I’d had a legacy spot available to me and if I hadn’t met Lockout, I’d have taken it.
Even though I’d ridden everything from a surfboard, to a skateboard, to a BMX bike growing up, a motorcycle was the first motorized vehicle I’d driven.
Showing up to school on the back of a Harley sure hadn’t hurt my reputation with the ladies.
I pretty much loved anything that allowed me to go as fast as possible, but bikes would always be my first love as far as vehicles were concerned.
“I’d love to show you my classroom,” Sloane told me. The light pink flush on her face made it easy to see that she was pleased that her husband was showing interest in her.
Little did she know that I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted her to share her deepest secrets with me. “I need about thirty minutes to get some work done, and then I’ll be yours for the rest of the day,” I promised her.
“I’ll get started putting some of my things away while you work.” She slid off the bed and turned to face me. Her eyes widened and dropped down.
I’d rolled onto my back and my hard-on was tenting the blanket. Shrugging, I gave her a wicked smile. “That’s what happens when a man wakes up with his sexy wife rubbing her ass on him.”
Her face flushed pink and her jaw dropped open, causing me to laugh at the shocked look on her face. “I’m going to have so much fun teasing you.” Shaking my head, I got up and started to dress.
Her soft touch on my back had me pausing before pulling my shirt on. My eyes closed as she lightly traced the unbroken skin across my back.
“I should put more poultice on this. I don’t want it to fester.”
“Tonight,” I told her. I let the shirt drop down, covering my back and turned. Catching her wrist, I pulled her hand up and nibbled on her knuckles. “You can fuss over me then.”
She gave me an unamused look, and shook her head, but she left it alone.
I set my laptop up on my desk in the back room and logged into the different programs that allowed me to view Ethan’s finances. It only took a few clicks to see that Rat had done everything I’d requested. He’d already created three different shell companies and transferred money to them.
These shell companies were decoys. We’d be able to funnel the cult’s money through them and have it laundered before being returned back to Ethan available to use.
It would take a lot of work for anyone to realize these companies weren’t fully functioning businesses.
We weren’t on anyone’s radar yet, according to other Derek, and it was safe to set these shells up to enable the cult access to their money.
Ethan hadn’t mentioned where he was receiving his money from, but the need to have it laundered told me it wasn’t on the up and up. That was one of the things I needed to find out. Who was funding Ethan?
I hurried through my work and was pleased with everything that had been done so far. It would allow me to report back to Ethan and actually have something to show for it. Now I could enjoy the rest of the day with my new wife.
That made me pause. My work. My wife. It had been two days and I was already getting blurry about my real mission. I reminded myself that the honeymoon was temporary. Yet, I was still going to enjoy it.