Chapter 33 #2
Guess I’m about to find out. And when I do, she’ll be by my side.
The woman whose bloodline runs thick with the sins of the man who spent the better half of the last decade torturing me.
The woman who sees me for what I am. Who’s awoken parts of me I thought to have long been cold and dead in the ground.
All these choices I’ve made. The path I’ve taken. In the end, they all lead back to her. I’d have always ended up here. Gunning it down a highway, jacking up my speed, riding the taillights of the pretty girl on the bike in front of me.
Gracie Donovan.
There’s no leaving her behind. There’s no choosing a life without her.
Is she worth it? Hell yeah. She was worth it all along. The first night in that jail cell. The day I put that first body in the ground to protect her.
I lift my chin and smile. “I’m not gonna miss you, Axe.”
Another grunt. Then he yanks open the door.
Gracie stands just outside it, her usual pissed-off expression replaced with one of surprise.
As always, she looks fucking gorgeous. Leather jacket, tight jeans, tiny top.
Little hint of that tattoo peeking above her waistband.
A tattoo I’ve spent the last month memorizing.
Every line, every curve, every scale of that snake is burned into my brain.
It’s become my favourite thing to look at.
She angles her head, eyeing her brother. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugs. “Club business.”
With a frown, she says, “Linc doesn’t have any business with you. Or the club.”
“So I’ve been told.” He leans closer and presses his finger to her chest. “Stay out of trouble, Gracie. And don’t forget about our deal.”
I push to standing and cross my arms. “What deal?”
Grace waves me off. “Don’t worry, big brother. I haven’t forgotten.”
Axe glowers. “Don’t call me that.”
“Goodbye, Axe. ” She skirts past him, gives him a small shove, and slams the door in his face. Then we’re alone.
She drinks me in, a slow grin splitting across her face. “Big bad Officer Decker, all dressed up. I’m gonna miss that uniform.”
“What’s he roped you into?”
Her smile falls and she sighs. “He hasn’t roped me into anything. You might be all squared up with the Sinners, but I’m still not completely forgiven. Axe holds a grudge, and from where he’s standing, we’re not even yet.”
I grit my teeth. “You’re not doing anything for that asshole. You understand? I know what it means to make a deal with the devil. What did you promise him?”
She rounds the desk and leans against the edge, clutching my collar and pulling me closer. She runs her hands over my chest, then settles them at my shoulders. “He’s not the devil. He’s my brother.”
“Grace,” I growl.
She huffs a breath. “You know who’s scarier than Axe? My dad.”
Hell of an understatement. Her father’s reappearance has made shit…
complicated. The man’s even more overbearing than his son.
When Grace told him we were leaving, I thought the guy’s head was gonna explode.
Axe may be hard to deal with, but Jimmy Donovan is fucking impossible.
It’s another reason I’m happy to be leaving South Bay behind for a while.
“What’s your point?”
“Axe agrees it’s best Jimmy doesn’t know the real reason the enemy invaded Sinner territory.
He’s leaving me out of the story. In exchange for his silence, I owe him a favour.
One he can cash in whenever he likes. Jimmy’s in the dark.
I’m forgiven. Axe gets whatever he thinks he wants from me. Everybody wins.”
“No,” I say. “Axe gets something to hold over your head. I’ve been there. And I won’t let you?—”
“Let me?” She steps closer, a small smirk tipping up at the edge of her mouth.
“Grace,” I warn.
“We’re leaving, Linc. Let’s put all this behind us, okay? Please ?”
I sigh. “Fine. You ready?”
“I’m always ready. Are you?”
No.
Yes.
I don’t know.
This town is a part of who I am. I’ve never left it for more than a few days. But now I’m here. Leaving behind my badge. Taking a six-month leave. With nothing but a bag of clothes, my motorcycle, and my woman.
It’s weird, knowing I won’t wake up here tomorrow.
Not knowing when I’ll be home. At the same time, it’s like a weight’s been lifted from my chest. Whether I want to admit it or not, South Bay has been suffocating me.
I need a break. A moment to think. To suck in air that hasn’t been tainted by all this history, all this bloodshed.
“I will be once we get out of here.”
She hums. “Tell me you packed light.”
“Yes, Grace. I packed light.” I roll my eyes.
“But I really think we should consider strapping the bikes to my trailer and taking my truck. Then we wouldn’t have to pack light.
And don’t you need all your… I don’t know, girl shit?
It looks like a makeup bomb exploded all over my bathroom counter every damn morning.
How the hell you fitting all that in one bag? ”
“Sheer will and a little skill. I’m a practiced nomad, Decker.” She grins. “I know how to survive off a couple pairs of underwear and a curling iron. You’ll be fine. Promise.”
I grin. “Leave the underwear behind.”
“Only if you pack that uniform.”
I kiss her. And it’s fucking healing. This last month has been hell.
Living with the fear that I might end up in handcuffs, that Donovan might change his mind and force me back onto his payroll, that I’m gonna come home one day and Grace will be gone, with nothing but a skull and crossbones burned into my floor in her place.
All the shit that haunts my nightmares.
I don’t dream of Emily anymore. There’s no more pale skin, no more song, no more crash. I’ve let it go. Let her go. But I’m still haunted. Now, it’s Grace I see. Bleeding, dying, begging. I don’t get to her on time, I don’t save her.
Only thing that’s kept me grounded, that’s kept me sane, is this. Her lips. Dragging my teeth over her throat, my fingers over the inky lines marking her thigh. Reaching across my bed in the middle of the night and finding her.
So I need to go. Leave this place behind and figure out how to live without the shadow of this town looming over me.
Our kiss deepens, and she pulls my hand up to her throat and squeezes. “I really think you should pack the uniform.”
I smile against her lips. “And I really think you should stop kissing me like that. Or I’m gonna have to fuck you. And you are not quiet enough for me to do that with a roomful of cops on the other side of the door.”
Another big grin as she tugs at my belt buckle. “Try me.”
I have her pants pulled down before I can think better of it, and then I’m bending her over the chief’s desk and slotting between her legs.
Her tight, wet pussy wraps around my dick as I slowly push inside.
I ease in, letting her adjust as I close my eyes and just…
feel. Feel her. The shake of her body as I move, the tensing of her muscles as I tighten my hold at her hip.
Fuck, she’s perfect.
My woman. My Sinner. My peace.
And I need peace.
I need her version of peace.
Speeding down the highway, asphalt beneath my feet, and this woman wrapped around me. Showing me who I can be without this place, without my past. Loving every part of me, every version of me. Even the ugly ones.
Because we can do ugly. We can do real. And this is real.
Through all of this, through the blackmail and the bullets and the bodies I’ve put in the ground, she’s breathed me back to life.
This isn’t about surviving anymore, about getting through the day in one piece.
It’s about living. Being the man she needs me to be.
The boy scout. The protector. The man who will drop a body to take out a threat.
Paying penance every day to those scales that have finally tipped back into place.
Turns out I didn’t need redemption. I just needed her.