by Tillie Cole
It had been too long.
Too fucking long.
Adelita froze, and I knew she’d seen it. “Tanner . . .” she whispered, her Mexican accent thick as it rolled around my name. It used to bother me, hearing my name said in such a way. Now it was the best fucking thing to ever hit my ears. Adelita reached out and traced the tattoo of her necklace on my chest. “This date . . .” she said, catching the numbers underneath.
“Was the day we met.”
Adelita’s lips twitched before they lifted into a smile. “The very first day?” Her head tipped to the side and I felt like I’d been punched in my gut by how fucking stunning she was. “You hated me when we first met. On sight.”
I smirked. “You fucking destroyed me. One look at you fucking ruined me.”
Adelita kissed the date. I hissed. Her lips felt good on my skin. “I broke the infamous White Prince . . .” She looked at me through her thick lashes. “My greatest accomplishment in life.” Her lips twitched in amusement.
Growling and fucking done with waiting, I pushed Adelita back, laid her on the bed and shucked off my jeans. I covered her with my body and I crashed my lips to hers. Adelita moaned underneath me and it felt so fucking right. Her tits pressed against my chest, her arms and legs wrapped around me. It suddenly didn’t feel like it’d been years. It was yesterday and I’d just asked her to marry me. It was her underneath me, me inside her and her telling me yes.
“Baby,” she whispered against my mouth. I broke away and looked down at her sprawled out below me. Something shifted in my chest and the heavy weight I’d been carrying lifted.
She was away from her old man.
I was away from mine.
“Please, Tanner,” Adelita begged. “Make me forget. Take this day away from me . . . make love to me.”
I kissed her lips again, then kissed down her neck and collarbone. Reaching her tits, I sucked a nipple into my mouth. Adelita cried out and clutched my head. I remembered this. I remembered her fire when we fucked. I remembered her nails digging into my head and the way her back arched anytime I touched her tits. I groaned, and moved further south until I reached her pussy. I parted her legs and ran my hands down her thighs. Adelita’s head snapped back as I ran my thumb over her clit.
“This pussy is mine,” I growled, and pushed my finger inside her.
“Si,” Adelita cried out, and my cock twitched. Unable to hold back, I leaned down and ran my tongue over her clit. The taste of her . . . it was fucking everything. Adelita pulled at my hair as she thrashed on the bed. But I wouldn’t pull away. I licked her more and more until she broke apart. Crawling over where she lay, breathless and sweating, I put my hands on her cheeks and made sure I had her attention. The minute I did, her eyes locked on mine, I pushed inside her. Adelita’s lips parted as I filled her, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
“Mi amor . . .” she whispered, and I saw tears fill her eyes. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her as close as I could. I pushed into her again and again, faster and faster, until Adelita tucked her head into the crook of my shoulder and cried out into my neck.
Her pussy squeezed around my cock, and the feel of it tipped me over the edge. Smashing my lips to Adelita’s, I groaned as I came. Lita’s fingers dug into my arms as I spilled inside her. I rocked into her until I nothing left. My head dropped to the mattress beside her as I caught my breath. Adelita kept her arms wrapped around me.
When I pulled back, Adelita rolled her head so she could see me. “I never thought . . .” she said and a tear fell from her eye. It fucking destroyed me. “I never thought we’d get this.” She ran her hand over my cheek. “I hoped and I prayed so hard that I was sure God would tire of my voice. But deep down, I didn’t think we’d ever escape our lives. I didn’t think you would be safe leaving the Klan, and I never dreamed I would actually leave the hacienda and my home.”
“I told you we would,” I rasped. “I promised you, princess. I don’t fucking break my promises.”
“You don’t,” she whispered and kissed my cheek where my hand had just been. “You did it. You kept your word.” Adelita looked away, and a sad smile pulled on her lips.
“What?”
“You’re the first person who ever has . . . kept their word. Kept their promises. You, Tanner Ayers. My white prince . . . or maybe it should just be my prince now. The old title is not who you are anymore.”
My chest and throat felt so fucking full at her words that I couldn’t speak. So I kissed her. I kissed her, lifting her to the head of the bed and into my arms. Adelita laid her head on my chest. Her hand found the tattoo of her necklace. I felt her smile against my chest. “When did you get this?”
I ran my fingers through her dark hair. “Not long after I left the Klan. I got your necklace inked on me so I would never forget what I was fighting for.”
Adelita lifted her head, then kissed the tattoo of the gold necklace. Her eyes went to my other tattoos, and her finger started tracing Hitler’s eagle, the swastika, and the white-power symbol I used to show off with pride.
“Mi amor. Why, if you’ve left this life behind, do you still wear these tattoos?”
My jaw clenched as flickers of my old life flashed through my head like a damn movie reel. “Because it reminds me of what I’ve done.” I cupped Adelita’s face and made sure she was looking right at me. “I’ve done fucked-up things, Lita. You get that, right?”
Adelita nodded her head. She covered my hands that were still on her face with hers. “But you have walked away from that life. You have walked away from the prejudice, the violence.” She smiled. “You have worked for two years to change your life to be with me. A Mexican. A proud Mexican. That, Tanner Ayers, proves you are no longer the man you used to be.” Her hand started tracing the tattoos again. “Maybe it is time to change them into something else. Maybe you should start showing the world that you are no longer the Klan heir.”
My chest loosened from the rope I felt strung around my lungs. Adelita got to her knees, the comforter falling off us and showing me her naked body. Fuck. She was beautiful. She sat back on her heels and started studying me. Every inch of my body. Bitch was gonna make me hard again. A smile pulled on her lips. My hands held her slim waist. “What?”
Adelita’s fingers threaded through my hair. “You have hair.” She ran her fingers through the short strands. I hadn’t bothered to shave it again since I’d joined the Hangmen.
My lip twitched, fighting a smile. “I have hair.”
“You look different.” Adelita ran her dark eyes all over me. “Parts of you are still the same, but you seem different. Does that make sense?”
I nodded. “You look exactly the same. Still beautiful. Still perfect. Still you.”
“And still yours.” As those words left Adelita’s mouth, coldness ran through me. She must have seen it. Her smile fell and her face clouded with worry.
“Am I still yours?”
Adelita froze, then dropped her eyes. A second later her gaze met mine, and she took my hand. “Always.” She took a deep breath, then slowly straddled my thighs. Her arms hooked around my neck. “I love you, Tanner. I never stopped. In fact, when you left, my love for you only grew.” Her voice went hoarse, then she held my face. “I never let him touch me.” I blew out a breath I didn’t even know I was fucking holding. “I have only ever made love to you. I couldn’t . . . I wouldn’t . . .” She trailed off.
“You were marrying him.”
Adelita’s head shook back and forth. “He wasn’t you. Would never have been you.” Her husky voice told me she was getting upset again. “My father . . .” She blinked away tears that were building in her eyes. “He made it happen. I resisted his plan for me and Diego for as long as I could. But he planned it all. I didn’t know what to do or how to get out of it.” Adelita dropped her head to meet mine. “Even if I had been forced to marry him, I still would have been yours. You cannot give your heart to someone when it is already owned by another. I would h
ave found a way, Tanner. To leave. To run. To get to you . . . somehow.” Adelita’s expression changed to what looked like worry. “And . . . you? Has there been anyone else for you?”
I rolled Adelita beneath me. “No one. Only you, princess.”
The smile that pulled on her lips knocked the breath from my fucking lungs. I kissed her. I kissed her for so long her lips looked bruised when I finally pulled away.
“I don’t want to go back,” she said and the effect of her father’s betrayal was written all over her face. “I am not going back to those men, Tanner. Because if my papa is involved in this, so is Diego.” Her dark eyes flared with anger. “I cannot face them after learning this. After seeing Saffie, the girl my father hurt over and over . . . after hearing from the other women . . .” Adelita inhaled slowly through her nose, her eyes momentarily closing. When they opened, she said, “Did you ever dream we would be here like this?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.” She kissed me, then whispered, “Please don’t make me go back now we’ve found each other again.”
“You ain’t going anywhere.”
In minutes, I was inside her again. Adelita’s arms never let me go all night, and her lips never stopped touching my skin. I didn’t care what anyone had to say. She was here with me now.
And she was fucking going nowhere.
I’d die before I let anyone take her from my arms.
Chapter Nine
Styx
One week later . . .
“We ain’t got any intel yet,” Shadow said. “They’ve gone quiet, which in my experience is never good.”
I lifted my hands and signed, “You hear anything—anything at all from the Quintanas—and you let us know straight away.” Ky spoke for me.
Chavez nodded his head. “Will do.” I stared at Chavez and couldn’t get my mother’s journals from my head. Mae didn’t know, but when she went to bed at night, I came downstairs, poured myself a fucking strong whiskey, and read. Mae had been reading them too. And I knew when she’d reached something she thought was important. From the minute I came in at night, she looked at me differently or came over to me and kissed me, wrapping her arms around me, choking me to fuck. It was always when my mother had mentioned me. About how she’d run to Sanchez, run away from me and my old man. Fucked off out my life.
I didn’t mean to fall for him. I went to him for help. To get River away from the club. But when I saw Raul Sanchez, everything changed. He didn’t treat me like a whore. He didn’t belittle me like Shade did every single day. He didn’t make me feel unwanted—in fact it was quite the opposite.
I stood in his office, asking for help. I was so nervous. Sanchez knew who I was. He asked me if I was Reaper’s old lady. I told him the truth. That I had never been more than a whore for him to play around with, toy with like a pet. I told Sanchez he had my boy. My son. I told him I wanted out of the club. And I wanted my son out too. I wanted him away from Reaper and the club, period.
Sanchez stared at me for a while. I panicked, wondering if I had done the wrong thing. If I had just signed my own death warrant. But then Raul smiled and told me he would help me. I didn’t know if that was true. But I was desperate, and I had nowhere else to turn. Reaper had the police and local government on his payroll. My only choice had been his number-one enemy. Sanchez was going to help me save River. I was going to save my little boy . . .
“Styx?” Ky’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I rubbed my hand down my face. I had to get my fucking self together. A wave of anger crashed through me. I should never have started reading those fucking journals. I never thought anything of my mother. Nothing, but the fact she’d been a slut who’d cut and run. Now, all I fucking did was think about her. About how she was raped over and over by her fucktard of a brother. About how shitty my old man had treated her. And how she’d run away to save me. Not ran because she wanted to fuck Sanchez, like my old man had told me over and over again. You’re about as fucking good to me as your piece-of-shit whore mama was, boy. Fucking retarded pussy.
She’d wanted me away from him. From this club. A crowbar hit my stomach when I thought about it all. Because she’d only been a kid. A teen when she had me. Still too fucking young when she’d left and got in with Sanchez.
“Styx!” Ky’s elbow digging into my ribs made me snap my head his way and grab his wrist. He rolled his eyes as I threw his arm away. “What the fuck is up with you?” I looked across the table to see Chavez and Shadow were gone. When the hell did they fucking leave? “They left,” Ky said, reading my mind. He stared at me weird. “You sleeping?”
“Fuck off.”
Ky smiled. He got to his feet. “I gotta go. Li has an appointment at the hospital.” When I didn’t move, he asked, “You coming?”
I made to get to my feet, then looked round the empty diner we’d eaten at and shook my head. “You go.”
Ky frowned. This time there was no fucking smile on his face. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“N-nothing.”
“It ain’t safe for you to ride back alone.”
I pointed at the place Shadow had been sitting. “You h-heard him, th-there’s no s-sign of an attack y-yet. Or even th-that Quintana kn-knows we have h-her.”
“Yeah, and he also said them going quiet ain’t good.”
“G-go.”
Ky hesitated, but then his cell started going off in his jeans. “Fuck!” He pulled it out and looked at the screen. “It’s Li. I gotta go. Bitch’ll have my balls if I’m late.” I flicked my hand, telling him to get the fuck on then. Ky held the cell to his ear and hightailed it from the diner. “I’m on my way, sweetcheeks.”
I watched my VP pull out on his Harley, before I got a refill of coffee. I pulled out the journal from the inner pocket of my cut. No one would fuck with me here. The owners here knew I didn’t speak for shit. The place was a ghost town. I had to get back to the club. But I needed a fucking minute.
Opening the journal, I carried on reading.
He got me a house. Raul took me to the place he bought us. It’s away on its own. Far from the club and away from any threats. When I stepped through the door, I smiled. Because I’ve never had a real home before. I had a room at the Hangmen and grew up in a trailer. This is a real home built of wood.
And there’s a room for River too. River and whoever sits in my stomach. I’m pregnant to Raul, and I am so so happy. Raul already has a kid, but he’s left his old lady and promises we’ll make our family work somehow. I’ll get River back, and he’ll have a brother or sister.
We’ll be a family.
And for once, I will be happy.
My heart was threatening to break out of my motherfucking chest with how fast it was pounding. She had another kid? Or at least was pregnant with one?
What the fuck?
I couldn’t fucking sit here anymore. I needed my bike and I needed the road. Fuck the war and the threats—I needed to fucking ride.
Throwing a twenty on the table, I got out of the diner and slid on my Harley. The minute the engine started, I tore up gravel and fucking hit the road. I stuck to the back country roads. All the time my head fucking pounded. My mama had another kid? I had a brother or sister I didn’t know about? And had my old man known? Had he known she’d had a kid with Sanchez when he killed her? Did Chavez know?
FUCK!
I let the wind slap my face as I pushed my bike faster, tearing up the asphalt. Day turned to night as I kept riding, wind fucking lashing my face. I rode so long my legs went dead. But I rode on. I rode until I didn’t want to smash my fist through a fucking wall at what I’d just read. I needed to keep my shit together. Mae would see through me straight away if I turned up raging. I wasn’t telling her I’d been reading the journals. I didn’t want anyone to know I’d been a pussy for giving a shit about the woman who left me. Or maybe didn’t mean to . . . I didn’t fucking know. My head was too full—the war, the threats, Mae being pregnant, and now thi
s.
My mama had been pregnant with another fucking kid.
Needing to get back to the compound, to Mae, I turned back and took the two-hour ride back home. The minute I was through the gate, opened by Ash and Slash, AK came tearing from the clubhouse. I was braced, ready to fucking jump into action.
“Where the fuck you been?” AK asked. Vike, Rudge ,and Bull came bursting out behind. My body tensed, waiting for someone to tell me what was wrong. “You weren’t answering your cell.” I reached into my pocket and saw it was dead. I held it up so AK could see. Brother didn’t fuck around making me wait. “It’s Mae. She’s in the hospital. She went into labor while you were out. Everyone’s been trying to find you.”
My stomach fucking fell.
Throwing my cell back in my cut, I started my bike and tore the fuck out of the compound. My hands were fucking iron tight on the handles as I burned ground all the way to the hospital. I couldn’t get Mae out of my head. She was fucking alone because I couldn’t get my head out of my ass. I pulled into the hospital and smashed through the entrance. My eyes tracked all over the signage for a clue to where my woman fucking was.
The mood I was in, I was gonna fucking rip someone apart if I didn’t find out where the fuck I had to go.
“Styx!” I turned to see Ky rounding the corner of a hallway. “She’s this way.” I frowned, wondering why he was here, then remembered he’d been here with Lilah this morning. As if reading my mind, he said, “We were just leaving when Beauty came in with Mae.” He looked at me as he punched the button for the elevator. I didn’t wanna get in the fucking elevator; I wanted to run up the stairs and get to Mae quicker. “Where the fuck you been? I couldn’t get you. I had to send brothers out looking for you from here while Li stayed with Mae and Beauty. Li’s been on my ass to find you. Thanks, fucker. I really fucking enjoyed that.”
