“Yeah, me either.”
“No lies here remember?”
“I’m not,” Houston snuggled tight to me. “It’s not what you expected?”
“Not in the least?”
“What did you expect?”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re fishing for a review? Do you have an account you want me to post on or something?” I teased, and he turned to face me and nipped at my lower lip. “I expected you to … to make… have sex the same way you do everything else.”
“Hard?”
“And fast and controlling and a little rough. More a pain for pleasure type and mainly about you. More fire than sweet.”
“So that’s what you came looking for?” Houston grinned and shifted his position.
“Oh, I never said that!” I giggled as he covered my mouth with his.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Houston
I woke up the following morning to a text message. Dez. I had only seen her at the wedding last night from a distance and I needed to meet with her before we left. She would be by in an hour wanting to drop off her research and pick up her cash.
It was strange waking up in my childhood bedroom. I was used to waking up in strange places but not like this. Not with a girl like Amelia in my arms, a girl I hadn’t tried to sneak out on the night before.
I had no idea what time Alec and Kristy had gotten home. We had stayed wrapped up in each other until almost one in the morning and then waking up twice more to do a barely conscious repeat.
We had talked about everything but nothing of importance. I stared down at her. Her lips were parted just so, her hair was left in a crazed mess from my hands the night before. Her makeup was mused, and creases in her cheeks from where she had slept on my chest. Sometime in the night I had carefully pulled my arm out from underneath her head when it had fallen asleep and started to tingle.
I felt sick to my stomach. More than once I had called her love, attacked a Bastard who dared to lie a hand on her, and sang my mother’s song to her. What was between us, it was real. Somehow, I woke up and realized I was in love with Amelia. In near thirty-years and to many women to count, I had never felt this way. Never fallen this hard let alone this fast. But I wasn’t sure it mattered.
As she slept I softly kissed her forehead, her neck and then her collarbone. I traveled down her, sliding my hand between her legs. She slapped me away in her sleep and rolled over leaving a tight little bare bottom pressed against me. So not helping.
Amelia wasn’t ready to wake up, and it was only nine. We would need to be on the road in an hour or two, but she had time to sleep. If she was worn out now, sitting astride my bike all day was going to be hell.
I chuckled, slid out of bed and tossed on some clothes quietly and crept downstairs.
“I heard you coming a mile away son. Never did fix that fourth step,” Alec said from the kitchen island, coffee in the pot perking.
“Didn’t know if you would be up.”
“Wanted to see you before you snuck out on me.”
“We got to get back to the ranch.”
“How is that ‘we’ working out for you?”
“I would prefer not to talk about it,” I grumbled pouring myself a cup of coffee.
“Kristy has a million and one ideas for a biker meets cowgirl wedding theme. That was my foreplay conversation last night. Thanks a lot.”
“I’m not marrying her. I’m leaving her. As soon as I help straighten out the rustler mess. I get back on the bike and I go, back to Amarillo, back somewhere that isn’t with Amelia Lorbosh.”
“Then why did you bring her here?”
“Because I’m addicted to punishment. I needed to know, even if it would never last. I needed to know if it was… if she could have been…”
“Why couldn’t it?”
“Because she loves that ranch as much as I love this cut. Because she needs to be there, to be home. Amelia would never be happy with the life I have. And I could never stay. Never settle. She would want rings and babies and then what would happen when I got restless? When I got the urge to up and leave and ride off because I couldn’t deal with the nightmares that I drown in cheap booze and pussy? Just leave behind a wife? A child? Fuck that!”
“Oh, shut up! You are still such a child. Running away as quickly as you can. What about me? What about the shit I did? The people I killed? Maybe I was long in the tooth when you joined us, but I took my share. I did horrible things in the name of this club, to protect it and this family.
“I came home to a young wife every night, who believed in us and prayed to God every night. She wanted to see beauty when I stopped believing because all I saw was destruction. I watched my bride cry every month for eight long years because I couldn’t give her the child she prayed so hard for. Watched her cry when I confessed my marital indiscretions with some club whore from the Four Corners when we patched them over. I cheated on your aunt because I couldn’t admit it was my issue, my shit that wouldn’t produce a child for her and still I didn’t ride away!
“Then we lost Breanna. Wes brought two boys and a barely recovered toddler to us who screamed every night in physical, mental and emotional pain from the hell she went through. Austin didn’t sleep, and you didn’t talk for nearly a month. You dad just up and left the night after he stabbed the man to death who killed your mother.”
Houston flinched at Alec’s words. “No. Don’t you dare. Wes ran, and he left that trait to you. But don’t you think I ever wanted to mount up and go? I went from a childless home to three babies going through hell. I couldn’t reach out to my best friend and I lost him long before he died.
“You three were my babies. And I raised all three of you to take the same cut I did. I sent my three babies to war. And not just under the red, white and blue Destiny fought for. I saw the cross my son was burnt to and still I stayed, I saw my daughter lie in a hospital bed in Bethesda and be told she may never ride again. I couldn’t find my son. I couldn’t find him anywhere. It took weeks of searching across Texas, across the country before you turned up.
“Listening to my wife cry every night as she wondered which phone call that came would be the one telling her to pick up her other son’s body? Still I stayed. I let you deal with your bullshit the way you wanted to because you’re a grown ass man. But you want to ride off on the best thing that has ever happened to you, and you damn well know she is, because you would rather leave now than even try to learn to deal. Try to learn to live in one place. Break both your damn hearts now because you don’t want to face later!
“You lost your brother. I get that. I lost mine when your father died. Lost a nephew and a son when we when buried Austin. You’ve killed men and you don’t know how to deal with that. I sent you in to everything you did. Let you go rabid when I couldn’t handle the loss of my oldest. Destiny though, she’s done worse. She took out two traitors in two years. She drained a patch brothers life blood with a knife to the heart for the lives he cost, the people he hurt.
“Destiny learned to stay. Learned to give in, learned to love and that the best person you can have to have your back is your better half. I could never have run this club, I could have never survived if I didn’t have your Aunt. Everything we did, where we had to go, all of it. I stayed grounded here. In this house with her. Think about that.”
Alec stormed from the kitchen and I sank down on a kitchen bar stool and lie my face in my hands. What the hell just happened?
“Houston? Baby?” I heard Amelia’s voice come up behind me and felt her arms wrap around me, holding on tight. Holding me together.
“Good morning sweetheart.”
“What happened? I heard yelling, where’s Alec?”
“Everything’s fine. I promise,” I looked at her in her cotton nightgown she had pulled on. “I do love this nightgown on you.”
“And I do love the smell of that coffee,” she picked up my cup and took a drink.
“Pretty sure that’s my m
ove,” I smiled, trialing my hand up her thighs.
“Pretty sure we both need to head to the shower,” she stepped away. Coffee in one hand, my hand in her other and led me upstairs and back to our private quarters.
***
I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on my boots. We had spent the last forty-five minutes getting ready to leave. Getting ready to leave on the bed, on the sink, in the shower, on the sink again. Finally, Amelia had pushed me out of the bathroom and locked the door, so she could put some clothes on.
I grabbed my gun holsters and my cut and knocked on the bathroom door.
“Go away!” she yelled.
“I am, I’m going downstairs.”
“I’ll be down in five.”
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror that still hung above Austin’s old dresser and saw a smile on my face. Damn Amelia.
I thundered down the stairs and grabbed a piece of cold fried chicken left over from the wedding off the kitchen bar and saw a blacked-out Mustang idle at the curb.
I walked outside and around the driver’s side and the window rolled down. Dez was hid behind her black sunglasses and she looked a little rough, her short hot pink hair going in different directions.
“Fuckin’ early to be doing business Callaghan.”
“Yeah I know. But I’m heading out of town. What you got?”
Dez pulled a thick tan envelope from her center console. “What proof I can. Your buddy Brad’s spending bigger than he makes. Got friends he shouldn’t have. There’s a phone in there and a tablet. Call me when you get where you’re going, and I’ll help you hack a live feed trace. Get close enough to the phone, I should be able to pull live data and conversations. You will have to remote me in though.”
“Speedy should be able to help with this. Not exactly a techy myself.”
“No shit,” Dez glanced up at the big house. “Look, not exactly my neck of the woods. Stopping in at the wedding was one thing. Don’t exactly want to cut off some of my other business by being known as to friendly with the head MC.”
Reaching inside my cut, I pulled out an envelope of cash and handed it to her through the window.
“You’re dropping a lot of cash on this cattle gig. That piece of ass you’re working must be pretty tight,” she opened the envelope and glanced at the cash.
“I don’t pay you for your mindless observations.”
“That’s free of charge Callaghan,” Dez’s purple painted lips smiled as she shifted gears and I stepped back allowing her to speed off.
I stepped back into the yard as Amelia walked out of the house. “Who was that?”
“A friend of Destiny’s I have doing some digging for me.”
“About Homeland?”
“Yeah. Nothing yet though. I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
As usual, Destiny and Fabio could be heard arriving before they could be seen. Eric was just a half a block behind them with Stella on the back.
“You look like shit,” I declared hugging my sister tightly when she got off her bike.
“Whiskey. Sex. Minimal sleep. I should still be in fuckin’ bed,” she groaned, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her make-up was left from yesterday.
“You sure you want to spend the rest of your life waking up to that? Because I don’t think I handed you a receipt,” I teased Fabio and we hugged, slapping each other on the back.
“Can’t believe you guys are heading out already. Sure, you can’t stay a few more days? We aren’t set to leave for Cancun until Wednesday,” Destiny asked Amelia.
“I got to get back to Homeland and Houston left some boys there. Need to make sure they didn’t accidently burn the place down while we were gone.”
Everyone came out and said their goodbyes. I watched Amelia give hugs to my family, Kristy squeezed her a little tighter than she normal did people. Destiny whispered something in her ear and then extended an invitation to come see her in Sweetwater.
Then Alec hugged me close. “I’m sorry about this morning.”
“No, no. Things needed to be said, things needed to be heard.”
“Things needed to be listened to,” Eric said with a raise of an eyebrow.
“Sure.”
I pulled on my helmet and mounted the bike, Amelia swinging up behind me with a small groan.
“Sore?”
She slapped my side. “Asshole.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Amelia
Half-way home we pulled into the same little diner we had met Scottie in a just a few days before. It seemed like much more time had passed than the full forty-eight hours. More like a lifetime or two.
We walked in, slid into a booth and ordered our meal.
“I’m going to go freshen up,” I told him and headed for the small restroom behind me.
We had no idea what to say to each other since we got on the bike in Sweetwater. Which was fine, not like a bike was suited for heart to heart conversations anyhow. We said we would figure out how to do this when we got back to Homeland. I had a small inkling that my family wouldn’t be so accepting of our situation.
Unmarried women did not have outrageous affairs under the Charlon roof like we had under the Vandergriffen’s the night before.
Perhaps he thought we could go back to pretending there was nothing between us. Maybe he could, but I knew think I wouldn’t be able to. Besides, our track record of being able to keep our hands off each other before wasn’t that grand. And after last night and this morning…
Of course, he only promised one night. I knew what I was doing, so just buck it up and deal with it. I told myself in the mirror as I washed my hands in the small bathroom sink.
I stepped out of the restroom and saw Houston across the diner looking at his phone. I should grab mine from the saddlebag as well and shoot a text to Mom and give her heads up that we were on our way back.
I slipped out the side entrance, grabbed my phone and typed out the quick update. I slipped back in the front door without Houston noticing me as he faced the other direction.
“Tell Tate to get his ass back. I don’t give a shit about any lip he gives you, this is an order from his President if he wants to keep his VP rocker, wants to keep his Bastard cut he will be at Homeland in forty-eight hours. Tell him this shit is serious. Have him call Speedy, he will be able to fill him in. Yeah, yeah, be fucking done with it.”
He was ordering Tate home? He would strip my brother of his patch just to force him back? Did he want to leave me behind that quickly and that badly?
Houston tucked his phone away and I walked around the table and slid into my seat.
“I thought you went to the bathroom,” he said to me as he tucked the envelope the girl in the mustang gave him back into the pocket of his cut.
“I did. I stepped out the side door to grab my phone. Warn the ranch we’re on our way back.”
Our burgers and fries came in and we ate in peace. Both knowing that we were just a touch guilty about something, but not wanting to fess it up to the other. Why couldn’t he just tell me that he ordered Tate home?
Something felt off. Houston was holding back on me.
Well, fuck this.
Houston paid the bill and we walked back to the bike. Houston lit up a cigarette while we stretched our legs. I adjusted my sunglasses and looked back at him. He leaned against the building casually, arms crossed like he was un-fuckin-touchable.
“Look we get back to the ranch, I have shit to do. I shouldn’t have stayed away as long as I did,” I told him. Make an easy out for him not to have to spend time around me. Not like I wasn’t working the place long before he showed up and started following me around.
“Sorry I kept you away, you didn’t have to go with me,” Houston had his agitated voice in place.
“Yeah right. No one tells Houston Callaghan no remember? I didn’t have a chance in hell. I guess Tate doesn’t either?”
“This is what this is about. You eav
esdropping?”
I couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t trust me. He lied to me back in Sweetwater when he said there was nothing new on Homeland. He was ordering my brother home, threatening him. I couldn’t stand to be around him when in one minute his kiss was gentle and promising and the next he was talking about how quick he was leaving. We had no business returning to the ranch together. It was time to rip the band aid off. How many more days with him would it take before I feel so deep that I would be hopelessly unsalvageable when he left.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop! I don’t need you ordering my brother home and I don’t need you and your biker crew either. Get back to Homeland and you guys can just pack up and be gone. I will deal with the bullshit myself. Send me a bill for your services and I’ll see you get paid in full!”
“Is that what you want?” he threw the cigarette out and stepped up to me and suddenly I was very unsure of my stance and of the fight I had just picked.
“We both know we’re over before we even got to start. I was fine before you showed up.”
“But will you be fine once I’m gone?” Houston’s words cut deep because I knew it would take a whole lot of moving forward before I moved on from him. If I ever could. Houston on the other hand, he would be bedded up with Tasha or some other whore in a matter of days if not hours after I saw his taillights disappear. To Houston I would be a footnote soon lost to memory. But to me? To me he would be the chapter in my life that I read and read a thousand times for the next fifty years and that I was sure.
“I guess I won’t have a choice, will I?”
“Just because we both know the end of the story doesn’t mean I want it to end with a bitterness and fighting,” Houston’s voice went soft, and I knew he meant it. Problem was, the only way I saw myself letting him ride away from me, was if it ended in a fight.
We stared at each other for a long moment. I was thankful for the height gap between us that offered some distance as our bodies were just a mere inch apart. Thankful for my dark sunglasses so he couldn’t see the bullshit pain and tears well in my eyes.
Houston Callaghan: The Devil's Bastards MC Page 17
