Chapter 48
forty-eight
It’s seriously distracting how attractive my husband is.
Especially when he wraps his black bandana around his face and ties it behind his head, then slaps the back seat of his bike, waiting for me to hop on.
“Giddy up!”
Of course, his first task after getting his cast off was to plan something dangerous. But he promised me it would be a short ride.
“Oh, wait! I left my glasses on!” I attempt to pull them off to rush them back inside the house before we take off, but he stops me.
“Leave them on.” His tongue slips out of his lips and licks the bottom one. “I like them.” He not-so-secretively readjusts himself, his erection filling his jeans in a way that makes my body hot. Despite the chill in air.
I get excited thinking about finally having sex without moving around the plaster covering half his lower body.
Suddenly, I feel sexy. And that’s not something I give much thought to. But he seems to have a specific taste that really does it for him. Like me in my organic chemistry pajamas and bunny slippers. Now, my glasses.
“It’s a good thing nerdy chic style turns you on. I think I’ve perfected it.” I wave my hands down at my solid parka, the glasses, and point to my knitted cap.
He pulls me into his chest, then helps me settle on the back of the bike. Before he revs the engine, he turns to me. “Nah, tulip. My style is my wife. Whatever you’re wearing? That’s what I’m into.”
I smile as he taps my thigh, letting me know he’s about to take off. And we do.
In just a few minutes, with me gripping his chest like an anchor, we arrive at the Maned Marauder’s hangout.
The barrels are blazing with fires. And even though it’s March, the spring air is cold at night.
Makeshift bar table set up with drinks. His brother, Nico, and friends, Adal and Valen, surround one of the fires.
“Sup, bro. Hello, Scoutie.” Nico gives me a half-hug as he fist taps my husband.
“Hi!”
“We’re out of moonshine tonight, Scoutie,” Adal says, pointing toward the bar with a smirk. “But we have regular beer if you want.”
“I don’t think I ever want to try that stuff again. Probably just stick to water."
Apollo slips by to get a bottle and a beer for himself, and I surprise myself with how natural it feels, how good, to be here hanging out with these guys.
"You missed last night. Olivia came over here with us before some races,” Valen tells me. “She says hello. And you two are more than welcome to come to our place anytime.”
I nod. “Oh, yeah. Fridays are my dates with my mom unless we’re watching Landon play hockey, but I’d love to. Apollo tells me it’s a ruined mansion that you’re working on restoring. That sounds amazing!”
Apollo returns and hands me the chilled bottle as he screws off the top of his beer.
“What’s amazing?”
“Our place. Come over. Sometime.”
“I guess I have to if you’re my benefactor now.”
Valen shakes his head slowly, as if disgusted with the term.
“I can’t believe you came out with us. Where’s Olivia?” Adal asks Valen. Everyone in the circle turns to hear his reply.
He pulls out his phone, mask tilting toward it while keeping the screen hidden from view. “Omega House catching up on things. In her office. Now walking to the hall. To the conference room. She had to finish up some Feral Friday issues.”
I sigh with relief. “Thank the gods it was just for juniors, and I didn’t have to go. I got enough of a playback from Evie to feel like I didn’t miss a thing. And I really wanted to.”
“Hmm, yeah. Knowing your brother was participating…” Apollo trails off, and my stomach churns just thinking about the scene.
“At least Lan’s trying to focus on hockey as the season finishes.” To the guys around us, I announce, “Conference final game is next Saturday, and my brother’s on the NU starting line.”
“I want to go with you and your family,” Apollo says with a hint of edge to his voice. “But Delta business may keep me away. Unless Valen would help—”
“Nope,” he says, still studying his phone screen.
Apollo sighs. “Fine. I’ll see if Nicky can figure it out.”
It’s a fun evening until I get too cold. Apollo directs us to the room beneath the highway, and Valen is the only one to join. The other guys are distracted by a new bike that one of the Marauders built.
“Any sign of him?” Apollo asks as I sit beside him on the scratchy sofa. He pulls me over onto his lap, and Valen takes the chair in the corner.
“None. Not at Sanguine Manor. But the sacrificial stuff is still there. He’s probably in the crypts, is my guess. The catacombs cameras I put up have been tampered with.”
“Tampered with?” I ask.
“Yeah. He’s got the signals interrupted or hacks into the feed and replays a blank screen.”
I shiver, and Apollo’s arms tighten around me.
“We need to find him.” His words are flat. But the threat behind them? They’re palpable. “And end him.”
“I’m still on the case,” Valen assures us. And I feel some comfort in that.
But not enough.
As soon as we get home, Apollo flops onto the sofa with a grin of victory, opening his arms wide for me. “I did it. And it only hurts a little.”
“I still think it was too soon to go riding. But I’m glad you had a good time.”
He flips on the TV, but something nags at the back of my brain.
“You asked Valen to help you with Delta business. But Nicky does already, right?”
“Mm-hmm.” He shifts me so my head is resting on his lap and tugs a blanket off the back to toss over my legs.
“Why doesn’t Valen pitch in? I mean, he’s a senior member. I’d also guess he was most likely to become president. So why wasn’t he?”
Apollo stiffens. His eyes lock onto the screen in front of him like he heard something he didn’t want to. But there’s only a commercial on.
“Is that rude of me to ask you?” Worried I’ve offended him, I bite my lip.
Clearing his throat, he sucks in a weighted breath. “I need to tell you something. But it’s an ancient Delta secret. You can never tell a soul, Scout.”
I sit up, suddenly afraid. “If you can’t tell me, then you shouldn’t. I don’t want them coming for you—”
He holds my face. “Ssh...listen. I will tell you. But I can’t disclose everything. I need to leave out some details.” As if he’s suddenly worried about me, he tightens his lips. “It’s why I hadn’t been with anyone for a while before I met you.”
His fingers knot into my sweatshirt, and he pulls me onto his lap to face him. I’m enraptured by his retelling. During the middle of the story, my arms wind around his neck, analyzing every motion of his face.
The words part his lips like a confession. But…none of it changes my opinion of him at all. In fact, it just goes to show how far my husband is willing to go to get what he wants.
It seems as if he’s built this up in his brain as something much more gruesome than it is.
When the tale is finished, he sits back and sighs. “So that’s it.”
“You know it wasn’t you who killed the old woman, right?”
“It could have been. It was—”
I shake my head and stroke back some of his hair.
“No, stallion. I heard about her from Landon and Aiden. That was Gimpma. An evil woman they purposefully kept down there as punishment. She’d been there since my parents went to school at NU.
She choked to death on her breakfast around that time.
I know because the guys were making crass jokes about the sausage the chef made. ”
He stares off as if this is a new possibility for him. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Chlamydia couldn’t really kill someone like that. Not that fast anyway.”
There’s a hint of a sparkle in his eyes. Like I just told him a secret he needed to hear for a very long time.
“How do you feel about telling me?” I ask.
“Honestly? Fucking relieved. Holy shit. I’ve been carrying that guilt around for too long.” His breath comes out ragged and steady. “How do you feel hearing it?”
I give his chest a big squeeze and listen to his heart beat hard against his ribs. He pulls me tighter to him.
Maybe I feel like giving him a complex. Or maybe I could get something out of it if I play it up.
Whatever my reason, I tell him, “I’m now a little concerned. Just a bit.”
He pulls me back by the ponytail, and we study one another. His expression serious. “What’s your concern?”
I swallow audibly. Playing it up for the dramatics. Even give him puppy eyes.
“Does Valen give a better hand job than me?”
His face breaks as he laughs. Instead of answering, he pins me to the sofa and tickles my ribs until I beg for mercy. “I don’t know. Guess you’ll have to try tonight, and then I’ll give you a grade.”