by Addison Jane
Optimus turned to us with darkness in his eyes. “If they come for my family, the only place they are gonna be heading is hell, and I’ll make sure it’s a damn painful ride.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on as Eagle pulled me to my feet, and we followed Optimus out the meeting room door. As we entered the main room, Op put his fingers to his mouth and let out a loud whistle, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
“Blizzard and I are stepping out for a little bit,” he announced loudly. “When we get back, we will be calling church to discuss some urgent matters regarding some danger to the club. So if you’re drinking, now would be a good time to stop and get as sober as fucking possible. I also recommend having your arms on you at all times from now on, just in case shit turns sour sooner than we expected.”
The men in the room moved quickly while the women instantly went to the kitchen to start preparing food and coffee to try and get the boys sober. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, and we all knew exactly what to do and worked like clockwork.
“I’m going to go and help,” I told Eagle stepping toward the kitchen, but not getting very far before I was being pulled back into his arms.
“I got something else to say before you all run off,” Eagle called loudly, causing everyone to freeze. “As of right now, Skylar is no longer a club girl. You horny bastards can get your kicks somewhere else.”
A round of cheers went up throughout the room, and I let out a loud laugh, shoving Eagle in the chest. He looked down at me and smirked. “I was pretty sure I hadn’t given you an answer yet,” I told him, trying my best not to smile, but the joy that overcame me was not something I could fight.
There really was something about this man, and he knew me. He didn’t shout from the rooftops that I belonged to him, he didn’t give the usual speech where he used the word mine far too many times. He just let them know that I was done being a club girl and that we were exploring where this could go and that while we did that, I would be with him only.
He placed a soft kiss on my lips, and I snuggled in closer to his body. I knew shit was going to get bad and that there was a possibility that Abel was going to come after my family—these people, my real family. But right now, I was allowing myself to enjoy this moment with him, because this was a changing moment in my life, and it deserved to be appreciated.
“Welcome to the family,” Op said, patting Eagle on the back with a subtle smirk like he wasn’t surprised one bit. “Not that you weren’t already, but I’m happy for the both of you.”
I nodded and grinned back. “Is it okay if Sky and I come with you?” Eagle asked before Op could disappear into the night. Optimus was still smirking at the two of us, but he raised an eyebrow in question. “Now Sky is with me, and shit is hitting the fan, I’m asking if it’s okay we bring Emerald back here to keep her safe.”
Optimus nodded without a second thought. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. She can help Emerald pack while we have a few words with our great law enforcement officer.”
I ran and grabbed a jacket while the boys walked Rivet back out to his club. Just as I was passing by the bar, someone grabbed my arm and I turned to see Jake. My body stilled, the smile on my face instantly dropping.
“I just wanted to tell you I was sorry,” Jake said, his voice rough. It didn’t seem to me like a forced apology, his face looked almost sad and worn down. “All the things I said, they weren’t aimed at you. I had some shit happen, and I was feeling shitty about my own decisions. You just happened to step into the firing line.”
The emotion in his voice was real, and it was honest. He let me go and my body relaxed, but instead of accepting his apology and walking away, I stepped closer. “There are some women out there who take advantage of the men whose hearts are kind,” I told him, placing my hand on his shoulder. He was surprised, his eyes moving from my hand up to my face. I offered him a supportive smile. “That just tells me what kind of man you are, and I hope you continue to be that man, and not let this person change that.”
A smile tugged at his mouth, and he hung his head, shaking it a couple times before he looked back up at me, his eyes a little redder than before. “I’m glad my brother found you, he deserves to have someone like you in his life. Someone who helps him to breathe.”
I tilted my head, a little confused by the remark, but before I could ask what he meant, I heard my name being called.
Jake and I smiled, and I knew that we were good, as I turned and jogged to the door where Eagle was waiting.
“Everything okay?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my back and leading me out into the night.
“Yeah, everything is great.”
He couldn’t see the beaming smile on my face in the darkness, but the warmth that flooded through me was that of a raging fire.
And just when I thought things couldn’t get much better, he laughed softly. “Good, let’s go get your sister.”
Rivet and his huge crew of bikes followed us into town, taking a turn off before we got into the suburbs of Athens. The loud roar of the group vibrated through my body, a great feeling to know that the club had other people out there looking out for us, people who would have our backs at a moment’s notice.
That’s what I admired about the Brothers by Blood, there were people out there who didn’t like them, for the most part, because they really were the good guys. But the people who stood beside them and supported them were ten to one because the brothers were respectful, they held their values and lived by a set of rules that were to be admired.
They were a family, in so many more ways than blood could ever make them.
We pulled up outside Deacon’s house, backing the bikes into the curb before shutting off the engines. The lights were still on inside, and as we climbed off, I noticed the porch light flicker on and the door open.
I wasn’t really sure I understood entirely what was happening, but I knew that the guys were not happy with Deacon. For what I could figure out. He used to be a part of the DEA and Rivet had said that one of the prophet’s daughters had given the DEA the information they needed to get their search warrants.
I really liked Deacon, so I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to lose my mind at him if he had put my little sister in the middle of a shit-storm or taken advantage of her to get something he wanted.
As we walked up the steps to the porch, Eagle took my hand in his, Deacon’s eyes immediately zoned in on the movement. “Well, that’s new,” he said with a grin, before looking at Op. “You guys must be running out of club girls.”
“We need to have a few words,” Op said, clearly not amused by the joke. “Sky is going to help Emerald pack while we do.”
Deacon’s face instantly turned to a mask, a strangely scary version of him that I had yet to meet. “No problem, she’s in the living room,” he said, stepping aside and waving me through the door.
The tension in the small group had just heightened by ten. I looked to Eagle who pressed a kiss to my forehead before stepping back. “Go get your sister,” he told me, not as an order, but as a request, so I was not involved in this conversation.
“We’ll be discussing this later, yes?” I asked, refusing to move until he told me that he would share with me what was going on.
The corner of his mouth kicked up just slightly. “Yes, we’ll talk about it later.”
Satisfied, I nodded and made my way through the entranceway, jumping a little when the door was shut sharply behind me. I rushed down the hall and into the living room where I had to pause for a moment and stifle a giggle.
Emerald looked up just as she was stuffing her mouth with a hand full of Doritos. She gasped when she saw me, tossing the chips in the air and leaping from the sofa. “Sky!” She grinned as she plowed into me. It took me a second to realize that she had called me by the name I’d chosen when I left the Colony, and not sister or Sapphire.
That alone brought tears to my eyes. I tried to swal
low back the burning in my throat, not wanting her to see me upset, but Emerald being Emerald she noticed right away. “Oh no, I have made you sad?”
I shook my head back and forth, laughter spilling from my mouth. “No, you have made me very happy.” I pulled her in and hugged her to my chest, tickling her under the arms and making her giggle like I used to when we were young. “I have something amazing to tell you,” I said to her once I found my composure again and pulled back.
Her eyes lit up with wonder. “Tell me!”
I couldn’t fight the smile on my face that just grew wider and wider. “Eagle and I, we are together now, and I’d really like it if you’d come to the clubhouse and stay with us.”
I didn’t want to explain to her the rumors about Abel and the Militia, the last thing I wanted was for her to be scared.
Her mouth fell open, and her smile lit up her face. “I am so happy for you,” she gushed. “I hope that one day I can find someone who I choose to be in a relationship with, who makes me happy, too.”
I hadn’t spoken too much to Emerald about Eagle, but we had grown up together, and we could read each other like a book. The few times that Eagle had dropped me off to visit with her, he had always made an effort to come in and say hello and ask how she was. That just showed what kind of man he was right there.
Even when we were still figuring out how we felt about each other and things were still strange and new, he stepped out of his shell, the one he used to keep others away, and made an effort to be polite to the person who was most important to me.
“The clubhouse still makes me nervous,” she confided as we walked down the hallway to her room. “Is Deacon okay with me leaving? He has been so lovely, I will miss him. Will I still be allowed to see him?”
“Yes, of course, you may see him, and I’m sure he will be happy that you and I can be together again,” I told her, hugging her closely to my body. “The people at the clubhouse will be very respectful, I promise.”
At that point, I’d forced myself to not think about where things would go next. Emerald couldn’t live at the clubhouse forever, and things were still changing. I would have a place to live, but the club would no longer be paying my school fees.
I forced those thoughts to the back of my brain as I helped her to pack her things.
Everything would be okay.
I knew it would.
I had my sister back, and I had Eagle beside me.
Abel could come at us, but he was about to get a lesson in true family and just what that meant.
“You guys look like you have an issue, so let’s hear it,” Deacon said after he shut the door behind Skylar, leaving us outside in the night, the bugs zipping around the porch light above us.
Op folded his arms across his chest and widened his stance. “You get information out of Emerald to give to the DEA?”
Straight to the point, no bushes here to beat around so may as well just ask the question and get an answer.
Deacon tilted his head to the side and pressed his lips together. “Did I lock her in an interrogation room and pry information from her?” he threw back. “No, I didn’t.”
“Then how ‘bout you explain this shit before I punch you in the face for being a sneaky fucking asshole,” Optimus countered. “Because we both know I’ve been waiting for an excuse to do that for a while.”
Deacon rolled his eyes but stood his ground. “And I thought we were getting along so well.”
“So did I,” Optimus growled. I could tell now that Op wasn’t just annoyed that Deacon had used someone connected to the club to get information from, or that Deacon had pretended to be this perfect gentleman when he’d offered his assistance. No, Op was feeling betrayed.
Things had been tense between the two, to begin with, and I knew that Op still held somewhat of a grudge toward him. But the truth was, he’d helped us out on more than a few occasions and stood up for us when shit had turned south. There was a trust beginning to form between Deacon and the club, and unless there was a reasonable explanation, I knew that this move could have just shat all over that and earned us another enemy.
One who knew shit he could possibly use.
Deacon allowed his shoulders to drop and he leaned back against the door. “Look, did I go into this thinking that I was going to find out the things I did? Hell no,” he said with a sigh. “I was interested in the Colony. I had looked into them before, and I knew the type of shit they did there and it fucking disgusted me. I genuinely wanted to help and protect Emerald from having to go back there.”
He looked Op directly in the eye, not once wavering at the dark stare that was thrown back at him, all of us waiting for him to continue.
“The more comfortable Emerald got, the more she would tell me things they wouldn’t let her do, things they would let her do. More details, more things that fucking turned my stomach but that she described as so natural, so fucking normal.” I watched him visibly shudder before he found his composure again and stood a little straighter. “It was eventually the name that popped up that made me think I could use that to help bring these assholes down.”
“Brock Obrien,” I spat, the taste of his name on my tongue was like rotten milk. Deacon’s gaze flicked to me, he was surprised I knew. “Yeah, turns out both Sky and I had Wrench look into him, and his rap sheet was impressive.”
“You don’t even know the half of what he’s got going on,” Deacon seethed. “When I let the DEA know that he was there—with evidence and first-hand accounts from Emerald, and knowing what he was doing, they were able to get the search warrants because of him being a wanted felon.”
“What evidence did she have?” I asked, confused because as far as I knew, Emerald had basically run out of the Colony with a picture of Sky and the clothes on her back.
When Deacon’s eyes moved to the door, listening to make sure the girls weren’t close by, I knew shit was about to get worse.
“We have word that their older brother is coming to get back at Sky for embarrassing him down in Dallas. We need all the details Deacon if we are going to keep these girls safe,” Optimus reasoned, his tone changing. He wasn’t pleading, but he was asking for this bullshit to be put aside so that he could work with us on this, and stop keeping us out of the loop with information that impacts on the club.
Deacon sighed. “Emerald brought her marriage certificate with her, as well as photos of her and Brock on their wedding day.”
Blizzard, Optimus and I all stood there with our mouths hanging open. It took me several moments of processing that information in my head in order for me to even form a response.
“Skylar doesn’t know,” I muttered, and Deacon cringed.
“No, Emerald didn’t want her to know,” he confirmed sadly.
“Shit!” I cursed, running my fingers through my hair.
We all looked up as we heard footsteps coming toward the front door.
Optimus shook his head and clenched his fists at his side. “Shit just got a lot more complicated.”
After ten minutes of trying to convince Emerald to get on the back of Blizzard’s bike—none of us considered when we rode out here that she would be too scared out of her mind to get on—Deacon offered us a reprise and drove Emerald to the clubhouse in his car.
The clubhouse was still a ball of nervous energy when we arrived, and we’d quickly rushed all the boys into church and given them a brief rundown on who we were dealing with and what the possibilities were.
I walked out of the meeting room in search of my woman, finding her at the bar giggling together with Emerald and Jess. Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I felt complete when she melted into my arms and lay her head back against my shoulder, turning her face so I could capture her lips. The kiss was soft, but fuck it drove me damn near crazy, and I pressed my hips into her back, letting her feel just how ready I was to take her to bed and show her just how fucking happy I was that she was mine.
“I need to get Emerald settled in h
er room, then I’ll be ready to go to bed,” she murmured softly, pressing her lips to my neck. “Tonight has been a little crazy.”
“Yes, I was getting ready for bed before you arrived tonight,” Emerald said, her voice so sweet and innocent it never failed to throw me for a loop.
Skylar snorted as she jumped off the barstool and tugged on her sister’s hand. “Oh, is that what you were doing when you were shoving the hand full of corn chips in your mouth,” she teased.
Emerald protested but allowed Sky to pull her away. She smiled at me over her shoulder. “I won’t be long.”
I groaned, and Jess laughed at me as I turned and walked away, my cock hard and pressed against my jeans uncomfortably. I didn’t even give a shit. Skylar had my head fucked up, and it was taking all the strength I had right then and there to not turn around, and throw her over my fucking shoulder. The funny part—I knew she’d fucking love it.
I dropped down into an empty chair, reaching around Hadley to snatch Leo’s fresh beer off the table in front of him. He instantly turned to me. “Who peed in your fucking cornflakes?” he asked with an eyebrow raised before adding. “Tell them to get you a beer next time instead of stealing mine.”
Hadley rolled her eyes at her man before also turning her body to face me. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Dunno what the fuck you’re talking about,” I grumbled, chugging back half the beer before setting the bottle on the table. The bitter taste of the ice cold liquid sent a chill through me, and I wiped at my beard with the back of my hand.
“My bullshit detector is on high alert,” Hadley threw back.
I straightened my shoulders. “I have a detector that’s on high alert, too,” I threw back, enjoying the way her whole body stilled. “One that has me questioning why whenever I see you, you’re drinking soda.”
