Chapter 24
Fault Lines
Elizabeth
“You have to let me up,” Thunder said. He shifted, but I locked my arms around his waist. If he really wanted to, he could break the hold. “I can’t be late.”
I wrapped my leg around his, holding him against me. It wasn’t enough, so I swung my leg over his middle, sitting on his lower stomach. Crawling forward, I gripped his biceps, pinning him to the bed. “Nope.”
“No?”
“You…still have”—I checked the clock on my bedside table—“fifty-eight…minutes.”
“Better make them count.” He stared up at me, his eyes twinkling. “I don’t think I like that smile,” he said.
“Don’t…move.” I dragged my hands down his chest, swaying my lower body as I crawled backward, taking the covers with me, until my face was level with his dick. It’d been a long time since I had done this, but there was no chance I was going to stop. My goal was to finish him before he had to leave.
My husband’s eyes never left me as I sat up again to pull his boxers down until they wrapped around his ankles. His dick twitched when I touched him. I ran my finger down his foreskin, watching as it pulled up towards his body, only to fall when I let go. He slowly hardened the more I stroked him.
“Dammit, you’re trying to kill me.”
Not today. Maybe tomorrow. This was all spur of the moment, but when I caught the red numbers on the clock, I had to speed up.
There was no way I was sending him downstairs hard.
He’d never live to hear the end of it. Wrapping my mouth around him, I sucked in my cheeks, creating pressure.
Doing it again, I felt the muscles in his legs tighten underneath my hands.
I kept up my rhythm, adding long licks when my cheeks hurt.
He groaned. “Don’t leave me hanging, pretty girl.”
“Club. Girl.” I was teasing, but the minute the words left my lips, I instantly regretted them. While I knew he had a past, I didn’t want to think of him with anyone else.
“Oh, hell no.” He sat up, leaning against the headboard, before he reached for my forearms. He didn’t hurt me, but he wasn’t gentle as he hauled me up his body, making sure I was sitting in his lap. “Where did that come from?”
I said nothing.
He leaned in until the ends of our noses touched.
“I stopped visiting them before Halloween. I think it was actually September. There was no point when I wanted you, but you weren’t ready.
” I felt his hand sliding underneath the band of pajama pants, moving south until he reached the gusset of my panties.
Sliding the fabric to the side, he rubbed a finger against me. “This is why. You’re soaked.”
My breath quickened as I pushed down against his hand.
“You can sit there and be pissy when you know I’m telling the truth, or be a good girl and ride my dick. I know which one I would prefer.”
A squeak escaped me, and I could feel my cheeks heating. I sat frozen. It wasn’t until his finger pushed against me again that I let out a groan.
“That’s it, pretty girl.”
“I don’t...like you…right now.”
He laughed, suckling at the skin between my neck and shoulder. “You don’t like that I’m right. In fact, I think you might even be jealous.”
My head tilted back, giving him more room, as I closed my eyes. “Nuh-uh,” I groaned.
“Uh-huh, but that’s alright. We both know you’re lying to yourself.”
I didn’t respond, knowing it was true, and I was too chickenshit to acknowledge it.
Instead, I unbuttoned the pajama shirt I wore, dropping it on my side of the mattress.
“You have…twelve minutes…to make…me…” I didn’t dare look at him as I lifted to my knees, pushing my underwear and the pants down my legs until they were out of the way. ”…come.”
He held himself at the base, hardened to the point his dick was sticking straight up. “Sit on me.”
Lifting, he helped guide me until I hovered above him.
His other hand gripped my hip, holding me steady as I slowly dropped.
Inch by inch, I took him inside me until there was no way to determine where I ended and he began.
Neither of us filled the silence with the words I knew I desperately wanted to hear but was afraid would change everything.
“You’re strong enough to do this on your own, but I’ve got ten minutes.” He pushed up against me while rocking my hips backward.
The motion sent lightning through me until it burst into a million colors across my vision.
I should have told him I loved him, but I dug my nails into his shoulders as he picked up the pace.
I didn’t want to float away, but when I gave up the fight, knowing he’d catch me, I thought I heard him speak.
“Don’t leave me, Liz.”
***
Thunder
Church went silent when the prospect closed the door.
“I know this isn’t what everyone wants to do on a weekend, but we need to get ahead of whatever is coming,” Sabre said.
“Where do we even start?” Grizz moaned, leaning back in his chair as he rubbed his neck.
“Peter,” I said. Every brother turned in my direction. “I refuse to call him Pulse. He wasn’t a brother.” There were a few nods. “We know Alex sanctioned him to join the Lopezes. How did he get here?”
“Showed up at the gate one day with his own bike,” Wreck said. “It was too nice for a prospect, and when I asked him where he got it, he said he’d won the pink slip in a street race.”
“I remember that,” Zook said, pointing at How. “I had to hold you back. You were drinking one night and thought it would be fun to race him down the road in front of the clubhouse. He laughed at you.”
“Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.” How shrugged.
“So, who sent him? Alex or the Lopezes?” Sabre took a gulp of coffee from the mug sitting in front of him.
“He was here for Grace’s first Family Sunday, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind he was aware of Matt’s dealings.
In fact, I would bet that Pulse was meeting with the men who showed up at the tit show. ”
“El Sombra Roja still has the protection orders out. They don’t explicitly say, but they include both kids.” Cyph popped the tab on an energy drink before taking a long gulp. “Oh, fuck. Fuck!” Cyph’s eyes were wide open. “I need a piece of paper and your pen.”
Pretty held his pen close to his chest. “No, this one is my favorite.”
“Here.” Grease rolled a pen down the table.
“I need a piece of paper, fucknut.”
Pretty gave Cyph a death glare, slowly ripping the back page out of his notebook.
Cyph uncapped the pen before drawing three lines on top of each other, labeling them “The border”, “the Guardian Knights”, and “us”.
“What’s the point of all this?” Op asked. He was following along, but his mind was running through missions, and by the look in his eyes, he was coming up blank.
“The Lopezes need our territory, and Pulse saw an opportunity at the diner. I think he knew exactly who Aunt E was when he saw her and figured if he took her to the Lopezes, it would be one step closer to eliminating Daddy. Buster was collateral damage.”
“If he had succeeded, we would have had to choose a side. You said it yourself, Prez. We can’t fight a two-front war.” Op dropped his head into the cradle of his hand. “We also know more now than we did then.”
“Something else to consider,” I started, staring at the paper.
“The old run lines are still intact. They come up from the south, so if the Lopezes were to take our territory, they could easily squash the Guardian Knights.” I could still remember the nights I’d slept in the brush, running drugs or guns.
“Run whatever they wanted without paying a single dime.”
“Krait’s probably thinking the same thing, which is why he wanted us to burn the warehouse.
It would have been one more spark for the Lopezes to retaliate.
That’s where he fucked up though, because if they take our territory, Krait would have to push east through Tombstone.
” Cyph finished his energy drink, popping the tab of a second one.
“Yeah, but that’s Saint’s Outlaws territory, and Scorpion is pay to play.” Sabre slid forward in his chair, laying his arms on the table in front of him. “We’ve never had to reach out, but we’ve all heard the stories about the Saints.”
“So where do we go from here?” Grizz demanded. “Waiting isn’t working for us anymore.”
Sabre laughed. The sound echoed off the walls. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“I’m telling her,” Pretty sing-songed.
The reference had made a few brothers nervous. They shifted their feet, their boots clanking against the wooden floor.
“We’re talking a shit ton of money.” Count drummed his fingers against the table.
The silver skull ring he always wore shone against the lights.
“I prospected at the tail end of running. I have—well, Bookie needed help to clean the money, so I volunteered. If we were to go back to something similar, we’d have every three-letter agency on our doorstep.
I don’t want to be the one dealing with that fucking shit. ”
“We can make friends with El Sombra Roja, but that won’t stop his arranged marriages either.” Wreck was the first one to speak, and all eyes fell on him. “It also won’t stop the cartel war that’s coming. We’d just be right in the middle of it.”
“Why can’t we break the holds on us?” How was staring at the piece of paper in front of Cyph. “There doesn’t seem to be a way to get the cartel off our necks.”
“Holds are like rubber bands. They loosen the more they’re stretched, until they snap. Only the person holding the bag gets the brunt of it.” Dead shook his head. “You should understand that. You served.”
“Alex had never heard Liz stutter until he showed up at lunch. She didn’t back down, but every time she spoke, he leaned forward, trying to decide if he’d really heard it.
She shook him. He said to wait for his call, but I don’t expect the club to do that.
” I crossed my boots at the ankle under the table.
“It’s better if we don’t,” Zook commented.
I covered my face with my hands as I let out a loud, frustrated groan. I hated the thought of putting this kind of pressure on her shoulders. “If we’re going to keep Alex at bay, Liz has to be the one to get through to him.”