by Marie James
“No. We got to him before he could. It’s—she was—”
“Just fucking spit it out.”
“She was smiling when we found her. Covered in blood and smiling up at him as he raised his fist to hit her again.”
“Where is he?”
“Still in the garage. We worked him over pretty good, but we know the final decision is yours.”
“Where’s fucking Pete?” That’s two people now that weren’t supposed to show their faces around here anymore.
“Had some personal shit to take care of tonight. We have Sonic on the gate.”
“A brand-new fucking prospect? Whose fucking bright idea was that?”
“Seriously?” Chains stops me with a grip on my arm. “I texted you earlier, and you said it was fine.”
I almost shake my head, but quickly remember Molly picking up my phone when it buzzed earlier. Groggy from both exhaustion from riding and the fun we’d had together, I didn’t even open my eyes when she told me it was nothing before putting my phone back down.
“I was half asleep.” My excuse is flimsy at best, considering what has happened here tonight. “I want Pete back immediately.”
“And Sonic?” I know exactly what he’s asking. He wants to clarify if two men will be taking their last breaths tonight.
“Leave him in there with Pete for the next six months. Pete needs a fucking break every once in a while.”
“He won’t ever take one again after finding out what happened tonight,” Chains sighs.
Ignoring Chains, I continue toward the garage. I have two reasons to let my monster out tonight. However, Mac is a distant second when I step inside the garage and see the piece of shit that tried to get with Molly. A girl got hurt on my watch tonight because I was too wrapped up in a princess I have no fucking business putting my hands on. That poor girl’s pain and suffering are my fault and a brutal reminder of why Molly and I can never happen.
Chapter 31
Molly
“You’re getting better,” Xena praises as I pull my third cherry stem from my mouth.
“I can’t do it,” Legs grumbles, pulling a mangled stem from her lips.
“May be the reason you can’t keep TJ interested,” Vixen taunts. “No mouth skill.”
“Enough,” Xena snaps when Legs drops the stem and begins to move around the table to go after the girl who insulted her. She glares at Vixen. “Go entertain Boston.”
Vixen shrugs before leaving us standing at the table. The atmosphere has changed. The fun was sucked out of the room the second Chains walked in with a weary look on his face before Briar followed him outside.
“I wonder what’s going on.”
“You know better than to even think about anything like that,” Xena chastises me. “Much less open your mouth to speak of it.”
I turn my attention to her, eyes narrowed in annoyance. “You going to give me some command to take care of one of the guys, too?”
“You know better than that, Prin—” Her jaw clenches as she catches herself. “Molly.”
“Do you really think I lack the mouth skills to keep TJ coming back for more?”
Sighing, Xena loses focus on me and turns in Legs’s direction. “You have fantastic mouth skills, babe.”
Legs beams at the praise and takes a step closer to Xena.
The front door opens, but it’s Zoe, alone, walking toward us, not Briar.
“What’s going on?” she asks the second she’s within hearing distance.
“What do you mean?”
“One of the guys grabbed Lynch as soon as we got off the bike. They all headed toward the garage, but he told me to come inside instead of letting me go with them.”
“We can drink,” Xena says slapping her hand on the tabletop to get our attention. “We can work on cherry stems, but we won’t stand here and speculate about what’s going on outside. The guys will handle whatever it is. It doesn’t concern us.”
“Where’s Piper?” I ask, suddenly realizing I haven’t seen her around much since Xena is clearly trying to step into her shoes.
“Visiting family,” Xena responds, and I’ve known her long enough to know she’s lying, but too concerned about what’s going on outside to grill her about it.
“Cherry stems?” Zoe asks, clearly not as concerned as I am.
“Working on our mouth game,” Legs clarifies as Zoe wiggles her fingers in the near-empty jar to grab one out.
“You don’t need help on your mouth game.” Zoe winks at Legs, restoring her confidence immediately.
“Told ya,” Xena adds.
“Yeah. Okayyy.” I turn away from them as some kind of unspoken but very sexually-motivated conversation happens.
My eyes stay on the door until they’re so dry, I realize I’ve forgotten to blink. After what seems like hours, the guys return.
My brother’s jaw is clenched, but it’s the sight of blood spattered on the front of Briar’s t-shirt that demands all of my attention.
“What happened?” Briar’s eyes snap up to mine, stopping me in my tracks.
With an almost imperceptive shake of his head, he walks right past me and down the hall to his room. The door snaps shut with a thunderous echo.
I look to my brother for answers, but I know he has none to give. Zoe, even only here for a couple of months, seems to know not to ask.
“What are you ladies up to?” The smile on my brother’s face doesn’t meet his eyes, and I don’t miss his unspoken need to be right beside his woman.
“Cherry stems,” Legs blurts like she’s too ignorant to feel the tension swirling all around us. “Working on our mouth game.”
“Zoe,” Lynch says looking lovingly down at my best friend, “told me once you don’t need any practice.”
“Yick,” I spit and walk away before I’m privy to any more of their conversation.
Chuckles follow me across the room, but I stop before reaching the front door. I have no reason to step outside. There’s a rule about us being in the front of the building after dark. Zoe and I have both been warned that it’s dangerous, and the guys can’t protect us as easily out there. I know not to even try. No matter how distracted everyone in the clubhouse seems, I’m well aware someone is watching at any given time. If Briar isn’t out here, that means the duty has switched to someone else.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see, sure enough, that Ronan has his eyes on me. Making eye contact is a mistake, but he lets me off easy, simply raising his beer in either a salute or a challenge.
I let my curiosity go for now. I’ll talk to Briar about it when we have the chance later.
I can’t go home just yet, so I’m forced to grab a bottle of water from Mac at the bar and sit on the only sofa that isn’t occupied by horny people and wait. No matter where my eyes wander, I’m slapped in the face with sex.
Kai winks at me as he bounces on Professor’s dick across the room. Ronan has his eyes closed as Minx sucks him off, but I know he’s still very aware of where I am in the room. Lynch and Zoe are in some tangle at the pub table with Legs as Xena watches on, not even bothering to hide her hand under her skirt.
The entire clubhouse is sexually charged, and here I am a voyeur without permission to participate. I’m normally not even in the thick of it like I am right now, but I have to wait for Lynch and Zoe to disappear for the night before I can join Briar. I sit, hoping he’ll shower and come back, but that doesn’t happen.
I’m aching, knowing exactly what Vixen is feeling as Boston licks her to climax.
“Molly.” Guiltily, my eyes snap up to Ronan’s. “Why don’t you head home?”
I nod, thinking that’s the best idea, for now, only to look over to where Lynch and Zoe were to find them gone.
“Night,” I mutter, relishing in the fact that he’s facing away from the hallway and Mac is busy restocking the beer fridge.
Slipping unnoticed down the hallway, I let myself into Briar’s room with my keycard. I don’t know how lon
g I’ve been playing peeping Tom with all the action in the living room, but I find Briar face-down passed out on his bed. His pillow is damp from his hair, forming a dark ring on the normally cream-colored fabric.
Slipping my shoes and clothes off, I climb on the bed with him, covering his muscled back with my softer body. The heat of his skin is something I’ve been longing for all damn night, and I release a whoosh of relieved breath as I settle on him.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” he grumbles into his pillow, but he doesn’t move to push me away.
“What happened tonight?” I ask against his warm skin.
“I fucked up.”
He doesn’t explain or elaborate further, and I know he won’t.
Club business is never discussed. Women in the MC life are supposed to take everything at face value. The men’s word is law, and we aren’t to question any of it. Those that do don’t last very long around here.
“I need you,” I tell him instead, with a slow swivel of my hips against him.
Certain the move would shoot him into action, I’m incredibly disappointed when he just stays still, lying underneath me like my weight doesn’t even register.
“Tell me what’s wrong, so I can fix it,” I whisper in his ear.
“You need to leave.”
His words aren’t a suggestion, but an order, ones I know he’ll physically enforce if I don’t comply on my own.
With the threat of tears burning behind my eyes, I climb off of him and scramble back into my clothes.
“You touch me, then push me away, over and over,” I spit, finding my spine somewhere between tugging on my dress and slipping my feet into my sandals. “One of these days I’m not going to come crawling back.”
I let the empty threat hang in the air as I leave his room. We both know I’d turn around and walk right into his arms if he opened his door and demanded it of me. That thought keeps me standing in the hallway for a long moment before finally giving up and heading out the back to the house.
Silence greets me as I step through the back door. Zoe and Lynch must still be playing at the clubhouse because there aren’t any sounds coming from upstairs, and they don’t entertain people in our home.
“Thank fuck for that,” I mutter to myself as I climb the stairs to my own room.
Overcome with my own exhaustion from the day, I don’t even bother to undress as I fall into bed. I’m tired from staying up late at the bar last night and returning only to go to Briar. My nap earlier wasn’t nearly as long as I would’ve liked, but it’s the push and pull from the man I love that seeps into my bones and leaves me weary.
I knew this thing between us wouldn’t be easy, but the second I think I finally have him, he pushes me away again. How can we successfully fight everyone with an opinion about us when he’s fighting against us too?
It’s that thought and the realization that we may not make it that carries me into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 32
Briar
“Someone want to fucking explain what happened last night?”
I don’t bother looking up from the table to know that Lynch’s icy glare is on me.
“It was my fault.” My head snaps up in Pete’s direction. “I should’ve been here.”
“You’re not responsible for what happens when you take a fucking night off,” Lynch spits, and I feel his eyes on me again. “What was so goddamned important for you to not pay attention when one of the guys comes to you for direction?”
He doesn’t do well with excuses, but spilling the truth with the entire MC sitting around the table during church isn’t something I’m fucking brave enough to do, so I open my mouth and lie to my president for the millionth time since Molly came home from school.
“The ride back from Detroit fucking killed me. I took a pain pill and passed out. I wasn’t thinking when Chains texted about the gate.”
“I’m not concerned about the fucking gate. If you had taken care of that bastard like you told me you were going to, that girl getting hurt last night never would’ve happened.”
What the actual fuck is he talking about? He knew that night that I didn’t put that guy to ground. He’d punched me in the fucking face for reminding him that Molly wasn’t a little girl anymore.
“I wasn’t going to kill a guy that was lured to a room because Mol—” My jaw snaps shut when his eyes narrow further. “I dealt with the guy how I saw fit.”
“And look where it got us.” Lynch’s eyes stay on me a moment longer before roaming down the table to Chains. “Where is the guy?”
“Scattered on the farm.” Chains is referencing the ten acres of land the MC owns on the opposite side of town. Heavily wooded, the area is hard to traverse, so it’s less likely people will go wandering and find something they shouldn’t.
“How’s the girl?” Lynch asks, turning his attention to our road captain.
Hornet shrugs. “Couldn’t tell you. Ask your brother. He took her from me before I could even get her inside the clubhouse last night.”
Lynch, confused, looks around the table as if he’s just now realizing TJ isn’t with us. Before he can open his mouth, the church door swings open, and one pissed off enforcer barrels into the room.
“Sit,” Lynch snaps when TJ beelines in my direction.
My shoulders sag in relief when he actually listens and falls into his chair.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” TJ asks.
“You know who I’m talking about. Where’s the girl?”
“Not here,” he mutters.
“TJ, I swear to God if you don’t give me a straight fucking answer, I’ll string you up myself.”
TJ swallows, pulling his knife from his belt. I don’t know if he’s readying himself to use it on his older brother, or if it’s a means to calm himself.
I’m grateful to see the blade is clean, but inwardly wonder just how long it’s going to stay that way.
“TJ?” No one misses the warning in Lynch’s voice.
“She’s fine,” he finally answers. “I took her home.”
“Home?” Hornet questions. “She wasn’t even conscious when you took her from me. How do you know where she lives?”
TJ doesn’t respond right away, and I can see him working on an answer, some lie that will get everyone off his back.
“Her phone synced up to the Tahoe. Her GPS had her apartment flagged.” The lie is good enough for everyone else, but no one says a word until he’s done cutting a line across his palm. “I didn’t fucking hurt her.”
He flinches, and I don’t know if it’s from the pain he’s inflicted on himself, or if the thought of making her bleed is abhorrent to him.
“All issues are to go through Chains from now until Briar gets his head out of his ass.”
“Prez—”
He silences me with a quick slash of his hand.
“I’m all ears if you want to explain what’s more important than helping your brothers when they need you.”
Strained silence fills the room. Even confessing my love for his sister, professing to care for her for the rest of her life wouldn’t be enough to keep him from ripping my throat out in front of everyone. With the sneer on TJ’s face, I imagine he’ll be right there beside him, lending a helping hand.
When I don’t spill my guts, he continues. “I want the clubhouse on lockdown until further notice. Our members, prospects, and the regular whores are the only ones allowed through the gate. I don’t know what the fallout is going to be, but we have one girl beat to fuck and probably heading to the police as soon as she’s able, and a guy someone is going to miss eventually. We can only pray he didn’t tell anyone where he was going last night.”
“And if the girl talks?” Hornet asks, the only one of us brave enough to voice the question even though we’re all thinking it.
No one is worth bringing the club down, and he wouldn’t blink an eye to silence her if it looked like she was going to bring trouble on us.
>
“She isn’t going to the fucking police,” TJ assures us with an edge to his voice that begs anyone to disagree.
“How can you be so sure?” Lynch asks.
“I’ll kill her myself if I think she’s even considering it.”
That shuts everyone up about the subject.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Lynch says before turning his attention to Boston. “How did it go in Baltimore?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know that the guys over there are going to be able to move their eight kilos.”
“I was afraid of that.” Lynch’s eyes find mine again. “We may have to shift some of the product to Detroit. Parker assured me he could move more.”
“Speaking of that overeager bastard,” Boston interrupts. “He’s been feeling us out. I can tell he wants to join us here. I don’t think he’s satisfied with the oversight he’s been allowed in Detroit.”
“He’d rather be at the clubhouse than running shit in Michigan?” Ronan speaks up for the first time since we convened.
“I can’t tell if he wants a challenge or a break. The kid is actually pretty hard to read,” Boston answers, looking at Lynch rather than Ronan.
Lynch leans forward, steepling his fingers against his lips as he thinks. “I need him there.”
“You said you would never hold someone back just because they were an asset where they were,” Smalls reminds him, shocking everyone at the table since the man hardly ever speaks. “The kid actually emailed a fucking resume.”
Uneasy chuckles fill the room. It’s funny that anyone would do such a thing, but the tension still lingers from what happened last night.
Lynch nods before looking back at Boston. “Offer him another five percent.”
I know better than to speak up even though he just gave Parker an additional ten percent of the Detroit cut two days ago.
“If he still wants to join us, tell him he has to find and train his replacement before we’ll even consider it. Anything else?”
Lynch looks around the table, excusing everyone when no one speaks up. I stick close, just like I’ve done since he took over the gavel, even though every molecule in my body is urging me to make my way out with the rest of the guys.
