“I appreciate the warning coming from friend and not foe,” Destiny replied. I didn’t dare to look at Fabio. This was his bride’s ex-fiancée, surely the calm, collected one of the trio was ready to blow his lid.
“This isn’t Bastard business,” Fabio added.
“No, but it is an unprecedented wedding for the Bastard Princess and for the head of the families. Marissa and I wished to offer our own congratulations on the day as well. From one former playground mate to another,” Trent replied. Marissa, the woman at his side stepped forward and offered a small silver wrapped box she had been holding to Destiny.
“Something old and something new for tomorrow,” she said with a small smile. “A thank you, for what you did last year.”
Trent and Marissa got back into his patrol car and backed out of the lot. Destiny tucked the package into her cut without opening it and disappeared into the clubhouse with Fabio. Houston finally started to soften his stone statue once the patrol car had long since disappeared into the night.
People disappeared as he looked down at me, my hands still where I had placed them just a few minutes ago. “Brave little thing aren’t you Half-Pint?”
“You would never hurt me… physically at least,” I half whispered forgetting the possessiveness that steamed in his eyes when he felt he was defending what was his. His club, his family, me.
“How was I to know it was you that dared to put hands on me?” he asked as he wrapped an arm loosely around my waist.
“Oh, you knew, or else you never would have let them stay on you. While I’m here, I’m your old lady. I belong to you. I follow your rules here same as you follow mine back at Homeland. And here, here old ladies support their men. I’m just playing the role you asked me to,” I whispered softly, no longer able to look him in the eyes.
“You’re right. Here you belong to me. And today, all of this, you have proven to be an excellent old lady for your first day with the club,” Houston caught my chin with his pointer finger forcing me to look up at him as we kissed.
“But it’s just a role. None of it’s real,” I tried not to let my voice crack. It was all a lie, I wasn’t playing a role. While I was here I would be his old lady, and when Sunday came, and I climbed off his bike back in the ranch yard, then our lives would go back to normal. Damned the consequences.
Chapter Twenty
Houston
My patch brothers had asked me to stay, they would be up for most of the night partying, but for the first time in history, I declined. It was eleven-thirty at night, Destiny and Fabio had snuck away for a few minutes together before she would return, to our childhood home for the night as the couple was abiding by the no contact after midnight tradition. I suspected that despite the show they were putting on, Fabio and Destiny were enjoying their wedding festivities as much as their elders were.
It would be awhile before Kristy and Alec wandered home still. Despite the fact they no longer ran the Sweetwater chapter, they still clucked over it like the child it was to them. And Kristy would be running over her pre-wedding checklist for the millionth time.
I loaded Amelia back on my bike, and this time, she wrapped her arms around me. She consented to playing the role that made things easiest. It kept the target off her back as much as possible with Tasha and the other girls. Plus, it kept the other patch brothers from sniffing around her with perverse ideas. I would lose my mind and control of my fists if she paid any bit of attention to any of these men out of more than politeness.
Jay, ever happily married but the first to tease and torment, had chided me. After all, technically he had met her first, even if it was just via phone to give her directions to Tommy’s and directions to me when we both knew damn good and well she wasn’t going to find her brother there.
I pulled into the two-story, three-bedroom country style stone faced house. With its sleek shutters, white porch and side facing attached garage it reminded me of something normal upper middle-class people lived in. Kristy kept the landscape neatly manicured with bright flowers and a bird bath. The driveway was paved and Vandergiffen was scrolled perfectly on the mailbox.
There was no indication when we pulled in that a biker and his old lady lived here, that they raised a mess of heathens here. This was a perfect all-American neighborhood to live in, if it wasn’t for us. Luckily, it had no home owner’s association to throw tantrums about the bikes that littered the drive way and came and went all hours of the night.
I left my bike in the drive and unlocked the front door with my key, stepped inside the small foyer and flipped on the lights. Organized chaos had taken over Aunt Kristy’s home. By the end of the week my Aunts would need a new hobby, probably poking holes in Fabio’s condom stash.
Amelia reached for her small bag on the bench just inside the door where Kristy had tossed it earlier. It was impressive Kristy managed to find energy to connive to spend time with the virgin inked girl.
“You want a beer?” I asked her to break the silence. Ever since she had stood by me with Trent, placed her hands on me as support and a reminder to keep things together, things had been more tense. I didn’t know what to say to her. For two weeks I spent every day by her side, we worked in the Texas heat together, laughed together, drank our evening coffee together. Amelia was rapidly becoming someone I could consider a dear friend, a bonded spirit.
In the last few hours since we arrived in Sweetwater and she started playing the part of my old lady… I could see her living it. She fit in despite everything. I couldn’t let myself vision that though. I had no business picturing her with me. If I could be happy with one woman, it would be this one. So fiercely strong and independent who would always have my back.
But she wasn’t a biker. She wasn’t from the wrong side of the tracks. She wasn’t meant for the outlaw life. She was a cowgirl. She had a home, a ranch, her own life. At least she would have it again if I could just catch a few measly ass rustlers.
I pulled a beer out of the fridge and twisted the bottle top off and handed it to her.
“What? You make me drink alone now or do we do all our night caps like this not just our coffee?” she asked when I hadn’t fetched myself one.
“Oh, I uh.”
“I don’t mind sharing,” she took a drink and handed me the beer. “But I’m not above teasing you. You’ve been different since we got here. Like you know you’re surrounded by people who have proven to take you down a notch or two, not just by someone like me who keeps trying and failing. You’ve been acting like a little nervous school boy ever since we walked in here. It’s like a window to the past.”
I coughed on the beer I was drinking. Damn her. She reached out and took it back from me and never broke eye contact as she took a long swallow.
“I expected a rebuttal. Don’t tell me you spent all your edge for the day?”
I took the beer away from her again, set it on the kitchen counter top without a drink, and picked her up in my arms. She half shrieked, half laughed as she wrapped her legs around my waist and I pushed her against the wall the divided the kitchen and dining room.
I kissed her hard, my tongue battling with hers as I ground into her. She moaned erratically as she tangled her fingers in my hair. “To many clothes,” she gasped as my lips traveled to her earlobe.
Just then I heard a bike pull in. It was the sound of Destiny’s pipes. “Come on,” I said putting her down with a small sigh. I pulled her upstairs to the bedroom Austin and I had once shared.
The bunk beds of our youth were replaced with a queen bed for guest purposes and for whenever one of the kids needed a place to crash, but other than that, not much had changed. Austin and I hadn’t taken a lot with us when we went to empty clubhouse apartments when we prospected. Destiny’s was much the same as she didn’t have much room to take things with her in the Marines.
I sat her bag down on the bed and looked around. I had stayed here, whenever Kristy could force me to. “Feel free to look around. The bathroom’s th
rough there, it’s small. Used to be a big walk in closet that connected to the hall linen closet. Alec hated the public seeing a teenage boys bathroom, so he built it one weekend. Don’t worry it’s cleaner now.”
“Okay,” Amelia said glancing around the room. She knew it was personal, knew it had been Austin’s as well.
I heard Destiny climb the stairs to her old bedroom and slam the door before she turned on her old stereo. Just like she had in her high school years.
Amelia smiled wickedly as she kicked off her boots and pulled the t-shirt over her head. I had never thought that simple was sexy, but on Amelia it was. I groaned as he hardened.
Throwing her arms around me her lips found mine. They were demanding as they moved with mine in a way that had never been before. Leaning me towards the bed her hands found my belt. I pulled away before she got it opened and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Half-Pint,” I gasped. “Not now baby.”
“Why? Is it something I said or did? Destiny?” she whispered with a panicked look on her face.
“Honey, I don’t give a shit about who else is under this roof and Destiny wouldn’t either. But now’s just not the time. You were furious and repulsed by me just two hours ago.”
“And I’m dealing but this … this… spark between us overrides that. And if I’m getting the benefits and respect of belonging to you, don’t you want your end of the deal? Or do you not want this anymore?”
“Do not play the offensive hand with me Amelia. I want this,” I grabbed her hand and placed it at the front of my jeans. “I want you. If you can’t believe my words, can’t believe my actions, then believe what you feel. But it’s been a long day, and I won’t take you because you are wrapped up in the high of the biker world. Not tonight sweetheart. I gave you my word that I would ruin you for other men and that is still going to happen.”
Amelia slowly withdrew her hand despite the strong urge inside me to say fuck it. To change my mind. But I needed to walk away from this now. The regrets we would have between us needed to be as minimal as possible and right now Amelia’s mind wasn’t a hundred percent on board. “Kiss me goodnight and tell me you understand.”
She leaned in and kissed me softly before I stood up and walked to the door. “Where are you going?”
“The couch. Tomorrow is a big day and I won’t be able to sleep a wink next to you tonight nor be able to keep good on my word,” I gave her one last look before I shut the door behind me. Turning down the hall I was attempting to recompose myself, Amelia had me distracted enough I didn’t see Destiny leaning in the door way of her bedroom in a pair of jogging shorts and one of Fabio’s shop t-shirts.
“Dammit Destiny, you scared the shit out of me!”
“You’re off your game big brother,” she teased and followed me down the stairs.
“What the hell are you still doing up,” I asked taking a spare pillow and blanket from the trunk in the living room.
“Like I’m going to sleep tonight. Plus, I was waiting to see if you finally slept with her.”
“How do you know I haven’t?” I was cranky and was not in the mood to talk to anyone about it let alone my sister.
“I can tell these things. Besides, I talked to her. She’s still infatuated with you, figured that would change once you nailed her,” Destiny said as she pulled herself into the Alec’s easy chair and sat cross legged like a teenager.
“You’re a bitch you know.”
“So, I’ve been told. What’s so special about her? And don’t give me the brush off, I have all night.”
I kicked off my boots and shrugged out of my cut. I was going to have to feed Destiny something or she would pester me all the way up till I handed her over to Fabio at the end of the wedding aisle tomorrow.
“She’s Tate’s kid sister.”
“Bullshit. Try again, it’s never mattered to you before.”
“She’s just different okay? I like her, she’s dangerous. She’s never been around the life before, yet she marched her ass into Tommy’s a couple weeks back looking for Tate. She was going rounds with Dart when I broke it up. I convinced her to come back to our apartment there, and yeah I had plans then, but she was looking for Tate, I thought he had her pregnant then she told me who she was and why she was looking for him.”
“That girl had just went rounds with Dart and she was still willing to follow you to your apartment?” Destiny asked, “You either made quite an impression or she’s not as bashful as she comes off.”
“She had a gun on her that time. One mistake she never made twice. She left, and I put in a call to Tate’s rig knowing damn good and well I probably wouldn’t get ahold of him and even if I did he wasn’t going to go back to the ranch. Next thing I know I was on my bike and heading south. Put together my team, hell I’m currently footing the bill and not for her lack of bitching about that either.
“She had me on a horse. I’ve watched her rope and fix fence and drive tractors and ranch shit. I’ve seen her go head to head with her fucking piece of shit cousin Brad, who by the way I’ll explain that shit later, but she went head to head with me too. The night Tommy got hurt she and I had been out on the bike when we came up on the rustlers and she held her own. We didn’t even get to fight but she wasn’t scared. She did what she had to do to take care of her ranch and then to take care of my men like they were her own.”
“You know what that sounds like… how Dad used to talk…”
“Don’t. Because it’s not happening. I brought her here because I care enough about her I want her away from that ranch just in case she gets a lead and a fool headed idea. You know what this means,” I held my patch, staring down at the logo on the back and caressing the name. “This patch is the most important thing in my life. It’s not for her. Homeland is where she belongs, and yeah, it’s been fun and games there, but do you see me waking up on a ranch every day? Waking up with a ring on my finger, chasing kids through a yard?”
“The ranch part no, but the Aunt’s will be tickled pink to know those riding lessons paid off,” Destiny lit up a cigarette and tossed me the pack. “I used to talk like that too. To Stephan. All the reasons why it would never work.”
“Fabio was born in this life, he’s your VP for crying out loud.”
“And the patch we both wear was more reason not to do this! Yet, I couldn’t imagine not getting the match to this ring tomorrow,” she held up her engagement ring. “Will we have babies some day? If Stephen gets his way yeah, I’m still scared of the idea. I’m not exactly mommy material.
“Last year when we rode the chapters I made a push and a promise that we would all find real ways to earn if we had to. Legal ways to keep us away from the trouble. We were tired of the death. The lives we lost, the lives I took. I killed a prospect I had rode next to for damn near year and not twelve months later I took out his sister and drove a knife into the heart of yet another patch brother. I would do it all again. But that took its toll.
“You’ve done some shit. Some bad shit Houston, but I killed a brother. You wore a patch with him, he served under Uncle Alec, under Austin. I twisted a knife in his chest and I ordered his body flayed, burnt and God only knows what else. I’ve dealt with the monsters, because I couldn’t imagine a life anymore where I got on a bike and rode away from Stephan again.”
“You’ve had your whole life to learn to love like that.”
“Bullshit. Go ask him about goodbyes. He’s gotten all mushy when it comes to me. Ask him about every time I rode away from him for ten damn years. The riding away gets hard. The Devil’s Bastards won’t always be clean and clear. We will have to fight again I’m sure, but we’ll bow out of the wars when we can. We won’t look for trouble anymore period. Not if I can help it.
“Someday I’ll step away from the table, for a year or so, give Stephan a child. Another generation of Callaghan’s if only by blood and not name. Maybe you should think about it too. Doesn’t mean you’re not a badass, doesn’t mean you’re not the Prince. The
re’s more to life out there than this cut.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes, but don’t you ever tell a soul I said it. They will take this cut from me when I’m good and cold and that ain’t going to be for another forty years at the very least. But Nomads do their own thing. That’s the whole point! Maybe, it’s time you get something better than those shitass string of apartments. I’ve been to Laredo area. It’s not too bad.”
“Austin would have been the one. Even back when we were all kids and he was the feared badass that no one dared cross. I never knew him to keep a woman more than a few nights, but even then, I always assumed, especially after you left that he would be the one to settle down. Like Eric, Alec and even Dad had. Raise some kids, love a good woman. Kind of turned out to be your thing.”
“Yeah. Austin,” Destiny pulled out the silver box that Marissa had handed her from her running shorts and handed it to me. “Marissa, the queen of the keepsakes and trinkets. She got this for me, for tomorrow. As a thank you for last year. I didn’t do it for her, but I guess she sleeps better knowing she’ll never have to see them again.”
A silver bracelet with a large silver charm hung on it. It was heart shaped but it still sported a small, detailed Devil’s Bastard skull that matched the one they wore on their cuts. Houston noticed a small hinge on it, a clasp, he opened it and on one side of the locket was a small photo of his parents on their wedding day, and on the other a picture of Austin.
“So, they are with me always.”
“She’s good for The Badge.”
“You can call him Trent, he used to be your friend.”
“Not after he left you the way he did.”
“Stephan kind of helped shape that opinion,” Destiny laughed taking the bracelet back.
“He really wanted him dead.”
“But Trent’s a good ally to us. He proved that last year and it’s good to have friends, especially when we are trying to learn to fly straight.”
Houston Callaghan: The Devil's Bastards MC Page 14
