Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
VIKING
Daisy is gone when I wake up. I don’t go looking for her. It was a moment of weakness. I shouldn’t have allowed her to stay, shouldn’t have needed her. I need to get my shit together, that's what I need to do.
After showering, I put my clothes on, my normal uniform of jeans, a tee, my coat, and boots. Walking out of the bedroom, I make my way toward the bar, but I don’t stop for a drink. It’s well into the afternoon. I slept most of the fucking day away.
Unfortunately, I’m met with not only Shocker sitting at the edge of the bar but also Piggy and Bullet, who are staring at me with hard, narrowed gazes. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I look at the screen and frown.
I don’t have any missed calls or messages, so I can’t imagine why they’re looking at me the way they are. But since we aren’t a shy group of men, they let me know immediately what the fuck the problem is.
“You just fucking left her alone, completely unprotected,” Piggy growls.
I almost burst out laughing. Mainly because Lainey has complete fucking surveillance at her place, which her brother, who is so pissed off at me right now, knows full and well because he’s the one who set that shit up.
“And you had no fucking way to check on her, to keep tabs on her and her place?” I ask.
“Fuck you,” Piggy grinds out.
My lips twitch into a smirk. I think about telling him to fuck off, but he’s not all wrong.
I said I would protect her, watch over her, and then I walked away in the middle of the night like an asshole.
I can’t tell Piggy why I left, though. I can’t tell him that I’ve fallen in love with his sister, and I walked away in an effort to protect both her and the club.
“You got anything you want to enlighten me about?” he asks.
I start to tell him to fuck off, and fuck him, but then he takes his phone out of his pocket, and I watch as he looks down at the device, his brows snapping together. I start to ask him what the fuck is going on, but then he flicks his gaze to meet mine.
“Paul must have been watching. He’s at her place now.”
I actually feel the fucking blood drain from my body at his words. Paul is at her place. Which means he’s right, he’s been watching her… and now I wonder just how fucking much he’s seen.
Because if he’s seen me fucking her, that’s going to be a bad goddamn day for her, for the club, and for me. I don’t give a fuck about myself, but Lainey and the club, absolutely.
Piggy flicks his gaze to meet mine, then takes half a step toward me, stopping when he’s just about a foot away. I can see the fury in his eyes, and I have to confess, even if it’s only to myself, that it’s warranted.
I fucked up.
“Don’t kill him. It’s less than a week, Pig. Not sure it matters much at this point,” Bullet says, speaking for the first time.
Piggy’s head whips around, and I wish I could see the look on his face, because my guess is that if looks could kill right about now, Bullet would already be six feet under. If it bothers him, Bullet’s eyes don’t even twitch.
“It is what it is, brother. She made her choice.”
Piggy looks back at me, jerking his chin in my direction, but I can tell that he’s pissed off. I wanted to avoid all of this, every moment of it. I didn’t want anyone mad at me, I didn’t want Lainey hurt, and yet I’ve accomplished both things.
Piggy is pissed off, and Lainey is in love with me and no doubt hurt that I’ve left her there.
“Yeah, that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it or that he’s obviously there too many fucking days early. Goddammit,” Piggy bites out before he turns and walks away.
“He’ll be okay,” Bullet states. At his words, my gaze shifts to meet his. Connecting to his own.
“Yeah,” I mutter. “But I shouldn’t have left.”
“No,” Bullet grunts, “you shouldn’t have. Want to tell me why you did?”
I think about that. No. I don’t want to tell him why I left. What I want to tell him is to fuck off, because it’s not his business. But it is his business. I’m his road captain, and I left the sister of one of the club officers alone.
Unprotected.
Unguarded.
When I promised to do the exact opposite.
I’m the asshole here, and Piggy has every fucking right to be pissed off at me about it. I press my lips together, rolling them a few times, trying to think about how to answer Bullet’s question.
“Not really,” I say.
He smirks but doesn’t respond immediately. Instead, he clears his throat and rocks back on his heels before he takes a step toward me. I watch as he dips his chin, his eyes searching mine.
“Say the word, Viking, and we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
I know what he’s saying, but I can’t do it. Jerking my chin up slightly, I press my lips together in a thin line. I have nothing to say. We stare at one another for a long moment, then he dips his chin slightly, as if he understands everything I’m not saying.
“So be it,” he mutters before he turns and walks away from me, leaving me alone in the bar.
Shocker clears his throat from the bar behind me. Turning my head, I look over at him and let out a grunt before I say something, which is only to tell Shocker to keep his fucking opinions to himself; then I walk out of the clubhouse and toward my bike.
Then I do something really fucking stupid. I ride straight to her place. The place I just left a few hours ago. I have to know that she’s okay. Even if Piggy is likely already there, I need to be there.
And fuck, that is going to be difficult as hell when she’s married, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay away from her then, either.
LAINEY
There is a knock on my door. My nose is buried in a photo album, lost to the past and what my world used to consist of. A painful reminder of childhood. The past isn’t something I typically dwell on.
Childhood wasn’t pleasant, not for me and not for Axton. The only way I survived was because of my brother. He sacrificed so much to ensure that I wasn’t just safe, but that I had moments of happiness, too.
And now it’s my turn to sacrifice for him.
For his happiness.
Placing the photo album into the box, I stand as another knock raps against my door.
Making my way toward the sound, I pinch one eye closed and look into the peephole to see who is here.
I know it’s not Gunnar because, without a doubt, that man would just waltz in here as if he owned it, because he’s done it time and time again.
Maybe it’s one of the girls, though. They usually text me if they’re going to stop by, but maybe my brother told Millie that he dropped all those boxes off. They’re really awesome about helping out with stuff like that.
The person on the other side of the door isn’t Gunnar, and it’s nobody else from the club, and it certainly isn’t one of the girls.
It’s Paul.
I think about pretending to be gone. But then he speaks; his lips twitching into a smirk when he does. I take him in for a moment. He’s still handsome. I’d almost forgotten in the past weeks just how good-looking he is.
But as handsome as he is, he’s not Gunnar. And that’s the real tragedy. At that thought, sadness washes through my entire body. What a cluster. Reaching for the handle, I tug the door open, then step back slightly.
I plaster on my fake smile. It’s all I have right now. I didn’t expect him to show up, and he’s here. Panic sets in as my heart begins to slam against my chest, because what are the odds that he just showed up here almost the moment Gunnar walked away?
“Paul, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I state in an attempt to be bright, cheerful, and unbothered, all three things which are a complete freaking lie.
A lie lie, the likes of which I’ve never told before.
He doesn’t speak immediately. Instead, he slowly spins around the living room before he faces me. His lips curve up into a smirk as his gaze lifts to meet mine. “Noticed your guard left. I thought maybe we’d grab lunch or something, get to know one another a little bit.”
Weird.
“We’re going to have our entire lives to get to know one another in just a few days. Why are you really here?”
He chuckles and runs his hand over the side of his hair, smoothing it down. But it didn’t need smoothing. It was already perfect. There is no doubt that there is some kind of balm or gel on it to keep it all in place.
“Smart girl,” he murmurs. “Though I already knew that, didn’t I?”
I shrug a shoulder, unsure of what is happening here and also not in a position to piss him off, at least not too much. He takes a step toward me, and for the first time in years, I feel uncomfortable in my own skin standing here.
Paul makes me feel that way, and not in a sexy way, in an unsure way. I don’t know if he’s judging me, if he’s disgusted by my clothes, by my small home. It’s not modern or fancy; it’s lived in, and right now, it’s a mess because I’ve been packing.
Then, before I realize it, he’s closed the distance between us.
He’s so close to me that I can feel his body heat.
Tilting my head back, I lift my gaze to meet his.
His chin is dipped, his lips are curved up, and at the sight of them, I’m reminded of his mouth between my legs, and I clench them together at the thought.
I should not be thinking about that. I love Gunnar. But here I am. Maybe it’s because I know this man is going to be my husband in a few days, and I’m never going to have that with Gunnar, so maybe my body is helping me out a little.
Maybe I’m just a hot-ass mess.
Which is, I think, more the case than anything else right now.