Angel

by Victoria Johns

  Declan drove past the back of the compound at speed until we were on the dirt track to the house. The atmosphere in the Jeep was tense. Even though he’d imparted some information, he’d gone back to acting like I wasn’t there, or at best, like I was a chore he could well do without.

  At my house were a couple of Harley’s I didn’t recognize, and before we’d become stationary, the owners appeared from the shadows. One held a huge hunting rifle pointed at the Jeep, and the other was attempting something slightly more covert with a handgun. When they spotted Declan, the two men wearing Carnals cuts, completely ignored me and looked for guidance from their president. Declan just nodded.

  “All quiet, Prez,” the one with long hair and a horseshoe moustache rumbled before they both climbed on their sleek steeds and roared away.

  “Inside. I want to do a check of all the doors and windows.”

  It occurred to me then why Declan was being so off. This was the other part of his personality that I didn’t know. This change in situation had caused the ‘Wolf’ to shine through, and he was intimidating and a little scary. And a lot hot. I knew the safest thing for both of us was to get some breathing space.

  “I’m going to shower and hit the sack.” I didn’t wait for his reply.

  Standing under the water of my power shower was bliss after using that thing at Throttle’s cottage. Pure heaven. I scrubbed at my hands and arms until the water that swirled around the plughole was no longer stained with blood. I didn’t care what time it was or that I was so hungry I could have eaten a disease riddled donkey, the lure of my own bed was too much to resist.

  An hour later as I lay in my bed with my back to the bedroom door, he entered and climbed in beside me. I hated that my body recognized him and felt excitement rather than anger at him joining me. “There’s a perfectly good couch downstairs.”

  “I know. I’ve spent the last hour with my ass on it waiting for you to come talk to me.”

  Like a fucking traitor, my body once again shivered when I realized he’d stripped off before he got in. “Now you want to talk to me.” My inner bitch gathered pace at the sheer nerve of him.

  “No. I want you to talk to me.” I snorted like a hog back at him. “I need to know what happened to you.” Declan’s question wasn’t a question, it was a demand, and it was said with a measured voice.

  “Nothing.” I still hadn’t turned to face him and even though we weren’t touching, I could feel his body heat.

  “Don’t bullshit me. You were gone a long time. That motherfucker hurt you?”

  “No. Just a whack round the face the day before I discovered Davis.”

  I felt his body stiffen up and heard his teeth click as he ground his jaw. “Did you?” I heard him swallow. “I’ll deal with it, but I won’t lie, it’s gonna piss me the hell off. Did you let him touch you?”

  My mind blanked at his question and I hesitated just that little bit too long. He scared the shit out of me when he launched from the bed and began pacing on the spot, before I watched him grab the wooden chair that sat in front of my dresser and smash it violently against the wall in a rage. When he stepped up to my free-standing mirror and eyed it up, I leapt from the bed to intervene.

  “Stop! Declan, Stop! He didn’t… We didn’t.” I stood in front of him and clasped his face in my hands, forcing him to focus on me and breathe. “I couldn’t, wouldn’t. He wasn’t you.” I finally admitted out loud what I’d known the whole time I was with Throttle at the cottage: that I was Declan’s.

  That my heart and body belonged to him.

  Declan’s pupils flared as he understood what I’d admitted and we both moved into a kiss at the same time. I could feel the lust, the yearning behind it all and it sent a jolt of pleasure to the pit of my stomach. When he dropped to his knees and lowered my panties, my legs trembled in anticipation. Declan kissed me gently on my inner thigh before he roughly hitched my leg over his shoulder. My back bowed off the wall as he lapped his tongue over my clit and ate me like I was his last meal on earth.

  “Oh God!” I panted, dangerously close to losing my mind and senses as he picked me up and placed me on the bed. Pushing my legs further apart, I watched as he removed his own boxers and his dick hung, heavy and swollen in front of me. Never taking his eyes off me, he pumped himself quickly once and then a second time before pushing it into me.

  The pressure, the sensation of being filled so completely was just like I remembered only this time we were in a bed and didn’t need to rush. My body craved the deepness as he moved and drove inside me, letting me appreciate him in all his glory.

  “You’re mine, Rosie.”

  “Yours, Declan.”

  “You’ll scream that as I make your pussy quiver.”

  I loved his filthy mouth, and it made it hard to hang onto any form of control. He got off on seeing everything he was doing to me and I got off on knowing that he liked what he saw.

  Both of us were close. I realized just how close when he demanded I let him hear me. Telling him I was his as my body convulsed through an orgasm was something else. It was the most sexually gratifying experience of my life, and as I came down from my high, his body stopped and went rock solid. His eyes never left me as I came for a second time while he made me watch him as he emptied himself inside me.

  I was blown away.

  My nerves were still tingling after what we’d just done. I could have gone again but she’d just pretty much collapsed and fallen asleep as soon as I’d cleaned her up.

  And fuck me, she looked all peaceful and angelic, breathing softly in the bed next to me. Having that intimate connection with her was like feeling my own heart liquefy and pour through my veins into her.

  She’d helped reassure me she was okay, which was good because I was so fucking angry. After I’d tracked down Razor and dealt with him, I was marrying this girl and we were going to resume our life together. Like we’d never been apart.

  I left her in bed and went back to check things downstairs. I wanted to be double sure that everything was in order as my men retreated further from the property. I was sure they were okay, but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

  As I put a foot on the bottom stair tread, I heard, “No!” from the bedroom. Cussing myself for leaving my gun in my cut on the hall floor when I’d quietly undressed, I raced back to my girl. Flicking on the light switch as I crashed into the bedroom, I saw Rosie tangled up in the bed sheets having some kind of night terror.

  “Hey, hey, I’m here. It’s okay, Rosie. You’re safe at home.”

  She woke up instantly and looked around the room, dazed and confused. “Shit, I… can I have some water?”

  I could tell she needed a few minutes to pull herself together and I was going to give her that. I was determined, though, after I’d gotten her a water and my gun, we were going to talk shit out. If my time inside a confined jail cell had taught me one thing it was that pushing our evil deeds to the dark crevices of our minds served no purpose in the long run. That mental stuff always caught up with you.

  Handing her the glass, I waited patiently for her to have a sip before taking it back and placing it on my bedside table.

  My bedside table.

  Something else I was claiming.

  “You need to talk it out.”

  “That just gives it air time.”

  “No. It enables me to take the weight from you. Cry, shout, scream if you have to, but don’t let it take root, deep down where it becomes too hard to shift.”

  “I can carry it.” Rosie was always so strong. She thought giving in and admitting a weakness was her biggest weakness.

  “I can see this sort of thing is going to be a feature in our relationship. And while it’s as cute as fuck most of the time, now I need you to be serious. Tell me what’s going on in your head.” I braced for a dismissal and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t get one.

  “It was too easy to end him. I think I was even smiling when I stuck him with the knif
e. I should be guilt ridden about taking a life but I’m not. Some twisted angel that makes me.”

  “There’s a difference between taking a life intentionally and doing it out of self-defense or to protect those you love.” I reached for her hand.

  “I was choking on blood in my dream just then,” she admitted with a sigh.

  “Just your minds way of telling you to let it out and lighten the burden. If it could cope with it on its own, it would.” My heart broke for her. I knew what she was going through and that it would be with her for the rest of her life. If I could take it from her I would, because this would mark her and kill her spirit slowly if it was allowed to.

  “I can’t believe I walked so willingly into all that shit. I could knife myself! The cottage was beautiful, a real place of solitude. But you know me, didn’t take long for me to yearn for a bit of Rosie style mischief. I can’t believe I never figured it out for myself. How dumb am I?”

  “So how did you figure it out?”

  “Some shit didn’t add up. I started to piece together some of the little gaps in his stories and went hunting. Us bitches get extra nosy when we think men are trying to hide stuff.”

  “As angry as I was, I’m grateful you went voluntarily and didn’t figure it out. I hate to think about the trouble you’d have caused had you been aware.” It was odd that I was able to find something to be thankful for in this mess. Rosie was a handful at the best of times. Take her somewhere she didn’t want to go, or try to suppress her and she was as temperamental as a firework with a lit fuse on the fourth of July. Eventually, there’d have been only one way to make her compliant and that thought chilled my blood.

  “What do you know about Throttle?” Her question interrupted my dark musings.

  “Cunt. Kidnapped you. Wanted what was mine. Dead. Lucky for him he got your version of a happy ending and not mine.” I smirked.

  “Okay.”

  There was something else she wasn’t telling me. I could have forced her but I knew whatever it was would get the better of her and she’d spill eventually. “I found a lot of stuff in the place they were keeping Davis. Old photos.”

  “Of?”

  “Him, you.”

  “And?”

  “Newspaper clippings about you and what happened to your dad.”

  I hated that she was mentioning him, bringing him into our little cocoon. “We can talk about that when things calm down a bit.”

  Rosie fidgeted with the bed sheet between her fingers before she decided to turn and face me fully. “I don’t know any other way to say this, other than to just spew it out. Throttle’s real name was Connor Foster.”

  My whole being stilled. “Go on.” I was calm on the outside, but my insides were glowing like a furnace.

  “He told me he had two brothers. He wasn’t keen on sharing anything but Davis told me that he was your brother and Razor is in the mix, too.”

  “Is that right? Could’ve been bullshit and bluster to coax Davis into talking, scare him a little into giving everything up.”

  “Davis didn’t need scaring. He was already terrified. He even thought I was part of it when I first found him. God, he was a mess then and that was before he was shot.”

  I didn’t doubt that Davis was shitting it. Physically, he’d been through the ringer and even without the gunshot wound, the authorities would be asking questions. He’d been gone nearly as long as Rosie, and even though I didn’t say it to her, I found it slightly odd that Razor hadn’t given him his usual face grooming touch.

  “There’s one other thing. In the box with all the articles and photos, I found something else.”

  Whatever she was about to tell was what she’d been building up to. “Go on, baby.”

  “Your dad’s ashes.” If I’d thought she couldn’t shock me, I was wrong. “Say something,” she whispered.

  “Not much to say. Throttle, brother or not, tried to harm you and he’s dead because of it. My father, piece of shit, got what he deserved, too. Karma has a way of seeking you out and serving up what’s coming. Razor will get the same.”

  “I want to do it.”

  Her words weren’t just bravado; they were truthful, but still, I would never let that happen.

  “As badass as you are, that’s not gonna happen. He’s my problem and I’ll deal with him.”

  Rosie didn’t answer me, which spoke volumes. I knew I was going to have to keep an eye on her. I couldn’t afford for her to go all wild card with Razor still out there. Eventually, I’d find him, or he’d find me and I’d end him. It was as simple as that. The lone wolf in me had no other plan and I was capable of hunting prey if I wanted or playing the long game, but I knew it wouldn’t come to that. Razor was impatient and if Rosie had killed his family—fuck, my family—then he’d crawl out from the rock he was hiding under sooner rather than later.

  “That’s enough for tonight, baby. Sleep.” I turned her away from me and spooned up close behind her.

  “Is this how it’s always going to be?”

  “No. I have my way, you’ll be breathing easy soon.”

  “But the Carnals have way too many enemies.”

  “A lot of what you hear is folklore to keep people in line. A lot of it, it would seem, is manipulation. The brothers loyal to Razor have been dealt with. The only one still awaiting justice is Razor. The whole thing with the Mexicans was fabricated to destabilize me, and my position. Easy street is just around the corner.”

  I kissed her shoulder. Story time was over. I’d had an alliance with the Sentinels for years and I wanted that to continue. It was largely JP keeping the folklore going for her, to keep me away from Rosie. He wasn’t ready for life to go full circle and our past together to become our future. Unfortunately, circumstances had changed that. Now, I was here and she was here and I was going to give her the life we’d always wanted.

  Rosie finally fell asleep and I knew she was resting good because she was at home and we were together. All that she’d shared jerked around in my brain as I tried to unjumble it. It wasn’t impossible for Throttle to be my brother. My dad was a fucking asshole where women were concerned and he’d spread his seed far and wide. If everything that had happened had been because of that, because I’d killed our dad, then this plan had taken some concoction. Razor and Throttle must have been plotting for years, and they knew more about me than I figured. For them to infiltrate the sentinels and get close to Rosie proved that.

  My emotions were a jumbled mess and had been since Rosie left with him, but the one thing I needed to keep just below the surface was my anger, my rage. I was the Carnals’ President and my enemy was still out there. That fucker was going to see a side to me he’d never seen—the loner, the wolf—and when he finally surfaced again, I’d end him for good. I’d take pleasure in it and I’d do it for myself, and for my woman.

  I left Rosie sleeping.

  The look she had on her face was one I remembered from the past.

  When we were younger and I bunked in her trailer, she used to pretend it didn’t offer her comfort, that she was just a heavy sleeper, but I knew the truth. She slept better because we were together. We settled easier because we each knew the other was safe. The content look as she blew air through parted lips now was exactly the same as it had been back then. I wondered whether either of us had slept, truly slept, without the other for all this time. Just being near her was leveling for me and if I had to turn over every rock on the planet to make her world safe again, I would.

  I checked in with my men who were at various points all over the Sentinels’ property and all had been quiet. There’d been a shift change before dawn and I felt blessed by their loyalty. While I’d been sleeping in a bed holding and protecting my woman, they’d been hunched up in cars doing the same for me.

  The Carnal’s clubhouse had been quiet overnight apparently. If Razor turned up there, he’d be insane. These guys were livid at being duped and even more so at the fact that we’d nearly gone to war wit
h the Mexicans for no real reason. Most of the brothers had wives, girlfriends, and kids. They all had lovers and families, and going to war would have put all of that at risk for years to come. Thank Christ I didn’t escalate things without hesitation like Razor was pushing for.

  One of my guys had checked in on Davis. He was in a bad way and I had no idea how I was going to stop Rosie from feeling that guilt. He was clear about his request, though. He did not want to see her. He was just too upset. At the moment, it looked like he would end up in a wheelchair unless the big guy upstairs bestowed the guy a miracle. JP was well on the road to recovery. He’d spent the night giving the nurses shit for trying to move Vix out of his bed. One of the Sentinels had to intervene and calm things down during the early hours of the morning. It didn’t take the nurses long to see that a calm JP was a far more pleasant patient than an obnoxious one. So far, though, Razor hadn’t shown up there to finish Throttle’s work either.

  As I multitasked by frying bacon and watching bread under the grill, she appeared barefoot, wearing just a t-shirt that said, ‘My vagina does all her own stunts’.

  “Nice,” I nodded at her top.

  “Stick around and I might show you.”

  I switched off the gas and moved the frying pan to the side. After I’d checked on the toast, I walked over to her. Once in reach, I grabbed her hips and pulled her into my body.

  “I’m going nowhere, baby.” Her lips were warm and I made the most of them before a cough from behind us interrupted me. Looking over her shoulder, I saw Mac stood there, grinning from underneath his ridiculous horseshoe moustache and checking out my woman’s ass. “Go get some clothes on, Rosie. My men appear to be losing focus.”

  She turned on the spot and spotted him before grinning. “Hello again.”

  “Mornin’, sweetheart,” he rumbled back in his thick Scottish accent, the one that had women flocking to him from both here and across the pond. It seemed they were suckers for it and it didn’t take long to get panties dropping and juices squirting.