This wasn’t rehearsed, but no one questioned what I was doing. They knew. It was one of the benefits of a decade spent beside these people. My people.
“Our family is changing. Growing. One of our own is taking that next step and we will allow nothing under the fucking sun to put them at risk.” Texas was swallowing hard as I met his eye and we nodded to each other. “Elizabeth, no….Lizzy.” She clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. I smirked at her. “I can’t promise that we’re about to start watching chick flicks together or any of that bullshit, but before the eyes and ears of everyone that matters to me, I promise you this: long before your child gets here, this will be handled. Oakdale will be safe and you’ll have nothing to worry about. Do you understand me?”
She nodded slowly, looking a little pale.
“Use your words.”
“I understand, jackass.”
Texas groaned and pulled her back flush against her body as I waved them away but everyone was laughing. Almost everyone anyway. While Kane, Saze and Tanner piled in around the happy couple, I noticed Sylvia drifting away to look out the window, the grip of the knife that she was throwing earlier clenched tightly in her palm.
I stepped closer to her, clearing my throat to make my presence known. “You know I want you to take point on dealing with the Cartel. That’s not gonna be a problem, is it?”
Despite the short, platinum mohawk and the buzzed hair on either side, the piercings in her eyebrows and lips, the general fuck off attitude that she did almost as well as me; whenever I looked at her, I saw the young girl Texas, Rebel and I had found in one of the Cartel’s whorehouses when we started cleaning up this city. She had followed us around without fail for nearly a year, never speaking a word of what had happened but refusing to get lost even when we gave her the means to start over somewhere else. Then we’d located the boss of the assholes who had held her, and despite my brothers in arms warning me against it, I put a gun in her hands and gave her a choice. Be the predator or forever be prey.
The rest was history written in red rage.
She expertly sheathed her knife and took out her phone. I waited patiently while her fingers flew across the keys because I was used to her chosen form of communication. Sylvia would speak only when she absolutely had to - think life or death - and I knew her silence had to do with whatever came before that day we found her. But she never told and we never pushed.
Once she offered the phone to me, I took it and read the bubble of text. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry. But you should know, Tanner said their next major operation is someone new that took over in Charlotte. Part of the Cartel, but supposedly, he’s still following the rules you laid out. What do you want me to do about him?”
I considered that for a moment as I passed the device back to her. Tanner would already be spreading the word to our other chapters that operated in the surrounding cities of what was going to take place in case any issues sprung up, but I didn’t like the idea of a potential unknown, especially one so close to us. I liked only hearing about it just now even less. I wasn’t anybody’s fucking babysitter but they were still supposed to be reporting shit like this before it got out of hand. The other chapters were free to do their own thing as long as they obeyed my rules, so what the fuck?
And was this asshole an enemy or not?
I was sure that I was about to answer but my train of thought slipped through my fingers the moment Caitlin stepped carefully into the room, wearing a tiny pair of jean shorts and a black tank that left creamy skin on display. She was already a brilliant flame, even while tired and bruised from her ordeal. But with her short hair wet and curling around her face and her pale skin flushed with freshness and vitality, she was a fucking star. I couldn’t look at anything or anyone else. A meteor could fall right outside and nothing would draw my gaze from her.
A hand against my back pushed me in her direction. I considered responding to Sly but I couldn't form my own words. Didn’t give a shit about them, truly. Nor did I give a shit about the attention that tracked me as I stalked across the room.
No, the only thing that mattered was the desire that lit up those beautiful green eyes when they landed on me and those sweet, pink lips that I wasn’t waiting a second longer to claim.
“Creed.” That breathy exhalation of my name was all she managed before I was on her.
My hands settled on her hips with the ease of familiarity, as if we had done this a thousand times before. I wasted no time in walking her backwards towards the wall, twisting at the last second so that I took the impact instead, pulling her hard against me. My cock came roaring to life at the same time her lush curves molded against my body and the moment I heard her sharp intake of breath, I bent low and slanted my mouth over hers, tongue delving.
Her taste.
Good fucking Lord, her taste.
Mint. Sweetness. Warmth.
And mine.
All. Fucking. Mine.
I licked the roof of her mouth and her sweet moan was music to my ears. Her hands ran over me furiously, fisting my shirt in her grip one moment and slipping underneath it to scratch down my abs and ribs the next. My muscles flexed at her wicked touch as our tongues dueled, coiling around each other.
Caitlin was an open flame against me, one I was completely willing to scorch myself on. Nothing had ever felt as good as it did to have her in my arms, pressed air tight against my body, soft lips shifting and molding against mine while we shared our breath.
I couldn’t get enough.
My hands drifted down her back, cupping her firm ass and giving it a tight squeeze. Her purr of encouragement had me rolling my hips, humping against her like an animal following its instincts. There was a good chance I was going to rip her new clothes off then and there if not for the catcall that sounded loudly, followed by choked laughter. We opened our eyes at the same time, breathing hard, and I grinned as her cheeks flushed, barely holding back laughter when she buried her head into my chest.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, so low I knew I was the only one to hear her. I rubbed her back, chest shaking with restrained amusement.
“No wonder he kicked us out, hermano.” Kane’s face was split in a shit eating grin and Saze was shaking his head. “He needed some good ol’ fashioned private time.”
I flipped him the bird, all the while carefully trying to ignore everyone else, but they weren’t making it easy. Lizzy looked ecstatic. Tex and Sylvia cautiously optimistic. Tanner being Tanner, he looked more confused than anything.
“Did I miss something?” He asked, actually putting his tablet down for the moment. “She’s supposed to be Rebel’s sister, right? Wouldn’t that make her public enemy number two?”
Caitlin tensed in my arms. That was all it took for the urge to knock his fucking teeth back into his throat to hit me.
“Hey, don’t give me that look.” He held his hands in the air and I contemplated breaking his fingers instead. “I’m just trying to figure this out. As glad as I am that you’re getting your dick wet instead of stomping around like a fire breathing dragon, are we supposed to just trust some random bi-”
“Be very fucking careful how you finish that sentence,” I interrupted loudly, feeling the monster in me rattle the bars of the cage harder than ever before. No one would disrespect her in front of me without paying for it.
No one.
“He’s right.” My eye twitched as I looked down at Caitlin but the rage mostly settled the moment she patted my chest and turned to face Tanner. I wasn’t quite willing to let her go though, so she had to settle for the arm I greedily wrapped around her waist that forced her back against me.
“I understand that you have...reservations,” she continued. “But I’m not like my brother.”
Tanner’s eyes flicked between both of us, looking wholly unconvinced. But even as pissed off as this whole thing was making me, I couldn't ignore the mirrored doubt coming from multiple pairs of eyes throughout the room. I growled low in my th
roat, knowing only Caitlin could hear it, but I kept my mouth shut.
I wasn't at a point where I could define what this woman meant to me. I only knew that I wanted her around and that I was never letting go. With that knowledge came a fact that I had to face.
We operated like a democracy, but I wore the crown. If I said she stayed, then she stayed, and everyone who cried and moaned about it could sit on a fucking power drill and spin. But forcing any of the Sinners to put up with her presence didn't mean I could force them to like her, much less trust her. And I wanted that for her. I wanted her to be able to look at each of these people and never doubt that they would keep her just as safe as I would.
Which unfortunately meant this was one battle I couldn't fight for her. Not if they were ever going to take her seriously.
Tanner pushed his glasses up his nose. “Prove it then. Help us find him. Rebel is like a ghost in the wind.”
Caitlin paused, head tilting, and I absently slipped my fingers beneath her shirt so that they glided across her stomach while the wheels turned. It also stopped me from gnashing my teeth at the way Tanner crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot impatiently.
“Wait,” she said finally, squaring her shoulders in a way I already felt familiar with. Caitlin shot a questioning look at me over her shoulder before turning towards Texas. “Only you two knew his real name all this time. How does that work?”
Texas and I locked eyes. Not the time or the place, we agreed silently.
“We had an agreement, Red. We’ll leave it at that. Where are you going with this?”
“So you’ve already tried looking up his last name?”
I flicked my tongue against my teeth. “We’re bikers. Not idiots. O’Reilly was the first thing we-”
She turned in my arms, curls bouncing as she faced me, green eyes bright and wide. “That’s not his last name.”
The whole room froze, but I knew without looking that that particular news hit Tex and I the hardest. Another lie to add to the pile. As if it wasn’t already as large as a mountain.
“Then what the hell is it?” Texas growled.
Her mouth opened, then closed. Those jade orbs dimmed and I already knew I was going to absolutely fucking hate whatever was about to come out of her mouth.
“I- I can’t...tell you.”
Again with this?
“You’re protecting him? Still?” I spat at Caitlin, barely noticing the way she flinched away from me. All my focus was on staying against the wall as anger pumped through my veins like nitrous. If I moved, even an inch, the rage would bubble over and this time it wouldn’t be an act.
“He’s my brother,” she said weakly, green eyes tormented.
I didn’t care. Even when I felt that goddamn squeeze in my chest again, I ignored it. Here I was, claiming her in front of my people. My family. Defending her to them. And what did I get for giving a shit?
Nothing.
It wasn’t like I was asking her to put a gun to his head. I would do that myself.
“Did you already forget?” I said slowly, biting off the end of each word. “That he had you drugged and delivered like a piece of livestock?”
She swallowed hard. “Of course not, but-”
Someone’s watch beeped and Texas cursed. “We don’t have time for this. We need to go. Now.”
I couldn’t look at her again without saying something I knew I would regret, so I didn’t bother.
CHAPTER 6 - Creed
My fingers drummed a steady beat into the metal table I was sitting at, the only sound echoing in the vastness of the forgotten warehouse as I tried to reign in my focus. Texas was standing behind me and to my right, with Sylvia across from him and to my left. Since I had the twins taking care of another issue for me, Tanner was the only other member of the inner circle inside, leaning close to the entrance we had used. Not to say we were outnumbered. Many of my other Sinners were in attendance. Tone, Axle, Crank, Snuff and others were spread out around the room, a wall of muscle and anger, fierce expressions matching those of the Cartel members on the other side of the room.
This shit was as real as it got. Hector “El Lobo” Martinez and his punks had been relieved of their firearms before we even arrived at the abandoned industrial complex, but I was sure that more than half of them still had knives they were all too eager to draw. Hector and I hadn’t even spoken yet and the tension in here was thick and cloying, but my mind was still a million miles away.
If any part of Rebel’s plan involved his sister throwing me off my fucking game, it was working. Because here I was, staring down a group of vile motherfuckers and all I could think about was Caitlin.
I didn’t do regret, that shit would get me killed. But there was no other explanation for the uncomfortable clench in my gut each time I remembered the crushing sadness on her face as I brushed by her without a word.
It didn’t sit right, leaving her like that. Felt too much like I was giving her up. Which was something I would never do, but did she know that? Unquestionably?
I wasn’t able to say yes to that question, which only pissed me off further, the speed of my agitated drumming increasing.
Caitlin had already been betrayed by those closest to her, including her brother. She hadn’t given off the impression that there were a whole lot of other people in the picture she could count on. But she was mine, and I wanted her to be able to count on me. To depend on me.
To trust in me.
Even I had to admit that stomping away like a petulant child wasn’t doing me any favors in that department. Except that was only part of it. It didn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to understand where the rest of her reservations were coming from.
She wanted to protect Rebel, and until now, I hadn’t been able to look past my thirst for vengeance long enough to realize that was something I couldn’t continue to fault her for. If my own brother, Rain, had put me in a similar situation, would I give him up?
Rat him out to be killed?
Hell fucking no.
Which made me a fucking dumbass for expecting Caitlin to respond differently. I knew that there was a fire burning inside of her. One hot enough to thaw even my cold soul and start a once dead heart beating over again. Hot enough to see her through circumstances that had forged the woman I now craved with every fiber of my being.
That woman wasn't going to back down, no matter how often or how hard I snarled about wanting her brother dead.
Pushing the matter would only push her away from me. A piece of her would always be held back. I already owned her body, even if I hadn’t claimed it yet. That much was clear from the way she molded herself against me as she slept. The sweet gasp that fluttered from between her lips with our kiss. The wetness dripping between her thighs at the slightest touch. I was a greedy bastard though. I wanted more.
I wanted everything.
I wanted-
“How long are we going to sit around waiting for this white pendejo?”
The accented voice broke my focus and the tapping ceased, my fist clenching so hard my knuckles popped. I didn’t bother looking at the speaker, my gaze going to Hector instead. He looked the same as always. His lying, thousand dollar suit wearing ass. As if a fancy outfit made him less of a snake. There was a flash of irritation in his cold, brown eyes as his body tensed. He knew what was coming.
Everything else aside, it was his job to keep his fucking goons in line.
“Sly,” I said softly.
There was a rustle of fabric behind me. Before anyone had a chance to finish their shouts of alarm, there was the sound of flesh hitting flesh like a slap, followed by a sudden and prolonged silence. I raised a brow at Hector, never looking away. Behind him, the speaker from a moment before dropped to his knees onto the cement with a loud thud, a hand clamped over his throat, the hilts of two of Sylvia’s throwing knives sticking between his fingers. Blood was running down the column of his neck, staining his skin and clothes, his breaths coming out in ch
oked gasps and gurgles. The smell of copper and piss hit my nostrils and my lips curled. A finger tapped my shoulder twice in quick succession and I nodded.
Sylvia moved around the table like a ghost despite the heavy boots, her expression arctic, a combat knife that bordered on a sword gripped tightly in her right hand. The last remains of the dusky sunlight streaming in through the tall windows caught on the dark metal of the blade, illuminating the lines and strikethroughs covering the body from the hilt and extending nearly to the tip. I saw recognition flare through several eyes, hate following in behind it. Yet, all but their leader visibly flinched when she stopped beside the dying man.
“Is this necessary?” Hector asked, voice light, but the tight clench of his fingers where they sat folded on the table gave him away. So did the tension in his eyes. That bit of discomfort that said he could feel the hole Sylvia was staring in the side of his face while he tried to avoid looking her way.
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