His Wild Blue Rose

by A. J. Downey

  “Oh, that explains it,” Lil said, all relieved smiles.

  Backdraft and I embraced first then I hugged Lil. I let out a gusty sigh, feeling surprisingly nervous.

  “Well, which one is the one they’re gonna have us look at?” I asked.

  “Two doors down from us, that way,” Backdraft pointed.

  I nodded and asked, “How many are left?”

  “One. Two doors down from us, that way,” he said.

  I swallowed hard.

  “Shit, they went fast.”

  “They did,” Lil agreed, and her smile was a little too big. I felt the first stirrings of suspicion.

  “Here they are,” she said, and inclined her head to a Prius pulling up to the curb in front of the brownstone they’d indicated. Manolo hopped out of the back and Lys got out right behind him.

  “Uncle Rodrigo! This place is cool-looking!” he cried and came running over to me.

  The Prius pulled away, leaving Lys standing alone at the curb looking up at the building’s old, but beautiful, façade.

  Her face held a combination of surprise and wonder, both of which I hoped turned to smiles and joy once she saw the entire place.

  “All we’re missing is the agent,” Lil said excitedly.

  “Yep,” I said and we all trooped up the street to where Lys was standing, a harried-looking woman with a briefcase striding down the sidewalk from the opposite direction.

  “Hello! I’m sorry I’m a little bit late, it’s been a bit of a crazy morning. I’m Laura.” She stuck out her hand and Lys took it.

  “Its fine, we only just got here ourselves,” Lys said pleasantly.

  “Hi. Rodrigo Martinez,” I introduced myself.

  “I’m Manolo Gutiérrez!” Manolo piped up and shook her hand.

  She laughed and said,

  “It’s very nice to meet you all.” I took note that she didn’t ask Lys’ name, and she made a weird face at Manolo’s last name not matching mine. I was a little worried that Manolo and I might not necessarily be white enough for her, but I held my tongue. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it was hella easy to lately.

  “Well, come on in,” Laura said warmly, after Lil and Backdraft introduced themselves as our friends and hopeful new neighbors. Laura seemed a little more relaxed after that and I felt disappointed. It looked like my initial conclusion wasn’t terribly far off the mark.

  I worried, but I kept it to myself. There was no guarantee Lys would even like the place. She might think it was too big, and I wouldn’t blame her. I was a little worried about that myself. We would just have to see.

  We went in the front door and I blinked, surprised at how far along the construction work had gone. The walls were all up and painted white and the space seemed huge. We went through the basement, which was fairly close to finished into a laundry room and had a wall knocked out to make the garage bigger. I liked that. I could work on the bike and we would have a place to not only park it, but for a car for Lys, too; we would need to get one. It was a fair distance from the flower shop for her.

  The kitchen was still draped in thin plastic over the countertops, no light fixtures were up, and I grew nervous. This was ‒way‒ more finished than I expected it to be, which meant that it probably had a price tag to go with it.

  Laura opened the French doors off the open space next to the kitchen, meant for a smaller dining room table, and Lys gasped, stepping out onto the stone deck with its wide, low steps leading down into the garden.

  Lys looked like Alice stepping into Wonderland and I could see Sold! in her eyes. It made me a strange mix of joyful and doubled-down on the nerves. She looked up and around, and took one look at me, and burst into a chatter of plans and plant types, talking about climbing vines and trellises. She was almost talking too fast for me to track in her excitement. Lil and Backdraft exchanged a secret look and Manolo’s mouth even dropped open.

  “Uncle, I’ve never heard Lys talk so much or so fast,” he said and the adults laughed. Lys shut her mouth and blushed furiously, stepping down into the narrow, but long, fenced yard.

  “There’s so much I could do here,” she said in wonder and I made a mental note to have a quiet talk with Manolo about making people self-conscious and thinking before he spoke.

  Still, there was no erasing the flush of excitement across Lys’ nose and cheeks and I decided right then and there, come Hell, I would figure out a way to make this place ours.

  She deserved to live someplace that make her feel safe and happy. She deserved to live someplace as beautiful as she was.

  “Let’s show you the upstairs, shall we?” Laura asked, beaming. She knew a sale when she saw one, and she knew she had us on the hook. I nodded and we went up to the next floor, which had two bedrooms and an office or library-looking room that could be a second living room or TV room if we wanted, or maybe an office for Lys to do her bookkeeping and shit from home.

  Manolo picked out his room right away and asked, “Can we paint it?”

  “I don’t see why not, if we buy it,” I told him. “Slow your roll just a little bit, Hombrecito. This is the first place we’ve looked at.”

  “Your uncle is right,” Lys said quietly, much more reserved in her excitement from the kitchen and garden. “I still have to research the schools around here for you.”

  Manolo looked taken aback. “I have to switch schools? But ‒ all my friends!”

  “Exactly,” I said, trying to head off a potential meltdown. “Let’s just see the rest of the place, and we’ll talk about it tonight, over dinner,” I said.

  He harrumphed and looked a lot less enthusiastic, but he went through the rest of the place with us. As I expected, Lys fell in love with the little balcony on this floor, overlooking the garden, and the little alcove that was perfect for a kitchenette to make coffee or tea just off to the one side of it. The master suite up top really did her in with the bank of windows and all of the light they let in, the high ceilings, and the private bath for the two of us, with not just a shower but a bathtub as well.

  We exchanged a look and I knew she was sold on the first try. I turned to Laura and asked, “Do you have any information on the schools and surrounding neighborhood?” The agent smiled and handed over a packet of information she had at the ready. I looked it over and handed it to Lys who immediately began to devour the pages with her eyes, her brow wrinkled with her critical-thinking face.

  “Do you love it?” Lil asked, and looked way too excited.

  I nodded carefully, and she and Backdraft exchanged grins that put the hair up on the back of my neck, tripping my cop-sense hard, that something was up. I just didn’t know what, yet.

  “Thank you, Laura,” Lys said, catching my eye. “I think we’ll be in touch.”

  “These brownstones have been a hot commodity, so you’d better make it soon…” she went into hard-sell mode and we nodded along, and followed her out. We parted ways at the sidewalk, and Backdraft and Lil urged us in the direction of their brownstone.

  “I really don’t think I’m going to be able to afford it,” I said sadly. “There’s way more work that’s been done to it than I expected. That just adds to the price tag.”

  “Well, what are they asking for it?” Lys asked. I flipped pages on the informational packet the agent handed us, and frowned.

  “This can’t be right. The owner still wants the same asking price as what it was before.”

  Lil grinned. “Okay, I can’t stand it anymore. That’s because I own it. I bought them all, and we really want you to have it. With the way the others sold, I won’t be taking a loss. We really want you guys to be our neighbors, so please say yes!”

  “Babe!” Backdraft chided, laughing, and I stared at her.

  “You’re serious.”

  “As a heart attack, bro. When you said you needed to start looking, and I suggested it, Lil had the workers come in to make it livable for you right away.”

  Lys and I exchanged a look.

/>   “And you seriously only want this much for it?”

  “Seriously.”

  “I don’t know… it might look weird to the department, like I’m taking a bribe or some shit.”

  “We thought of that,” Backdraft said. “Department knows. Way ahead of you, bro.”

  “They do?”

  “They do.”

  Fuck. “I don’t know what to say…”

  “Say yes!” Lil cried, and she looked like she was about to burst from excitement.

  “Uh, Lys?” I looked to my woman for a little guidance, here.

  “What about my school?” Manolo asked.

  I went down on one knee and said, “Bud, we can’t keep you in your school and live here, and I know you’re going to miss your friends, but you’ll still see them when you go stay with your abuela, and a new school means new friends, right?”

  He crumbled and looked like he was about to cry, but looked back at the brownstone and along its face.

  “I get to paint my room however I want, right?”

  “I can agree with that, Hombrecito.”

  “And my friends can come over, on like my birthday and stuff, right?”

  “Absolutely,” Lys agreed, gently.

  He wiped his nose on his sleeve and sucked it up. Brave kid.

  “Okay,” he agreed, and stuck out his hand.

  “Okay,” I said and shook it.

  “Yay!” Lil cried and Backdraft grinned down at us.

  “Welcome home, brother.”

  I looked up at the building and then at Lys.

  “What do you think of our place, Chica?”

  “I think I’m going to love it as much as I love you,” she declared and just like that, my nerves were put to rest over it.

  I could do this. We could do this… and so we did.

  33

  Alyssa…

  Moving day had been the day before and Golden and I had collapsed into bed too exhausted to so much as kiss. I was extremely grateful to the rest of his club; the Indigo Knights had shown up, a tour de force, and had us moved so fast I hadn’t realized what had hit me. They’d simply put me in a car, said ‘See you on the other side’, and shipped me over to the brownstone.

  I’d stepped out of the car in front of our new place to find most of the club’s girlfriends waiting and ready to help me put things away once they arrived. Manolo had been with his father’s mother, hanging out with his friends and just generally being a kid while we accomplished everything, and though I loved the kid, I was grateful to be able to get things accomplished without him underfoot.

  It took the guys a while to get to us, mostly because they had to detour to Maria’s and clean out her apartment in addition to ours. The bulk of it went into storage, but Manolo’s things were on their way here, too.

  Chrissy, Aly, Lil, and Aly’s friend Dawnie helped me put the kitchen to rights first while the rest of the furniture and big things were brought in. Pasquale mostly made sure the boys were refreshed and made sexually-suggestive comments that had us all laughing until we cried when the boys couldn’t hear him.

  Today had mostly been me and Manolo, unpacking his room and the living room downstairs. Golden had helped as much as he could, but sadly, he couldn’t get any time off tonight and had to go into work, leaving around one, to make his shift at two.

  After dinner, I’d helped Manolo with his homework at the dining room table, which was now the informal kitchen table, before it was time for his bath and bed. He’d gone to sleep relatively easily tonight, for which I was grateful. I was tired.

  I was on the back stone deck, lounging on a folding lounge chair someone had found somewhere, drinking a glass of wine, and just waiting for Golden to come home. It was nice out, school was nearly over, and so with the warm evening, I’d thrown the doors to the kitchen wide, the lights from behind me illuminating the tangle of yard that I couldn’t wait to get sorted.

  I heard him before I saw him, the heavy tread and scrape of his boot as he stepped out of the brownstone and onto the deck.

  “Lys?” he called softly, and I realized he couldn’t see me, slouched as I was. I raised a hand and waved, and he came around to stand beside me, his gun still in its bag slung across his chest. I took a sip of wine and smiled up at him and he grinned down at me.

  “Look at you, right at home,” he said.

  “Mm, I really think you should put up your gun, change clothes, and come join me,” I said.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Mm-hm. You want a drink?”

  “Dunno, what’re you drinking?”

  “Moscato.”

  He made a bit of a face, and said, “Sure. I’ll have what you’re having, why not?”

  I smiled and got up, kissing him hello. He held me to him and we lost ourselves in it for a little while. He licked his lips, tasting the inside of his mouth and nodded.

  “Yeah, I’ll have what you’re having,” he said and I laughed.

  “Go slip into something more comfortable,” I murmured, and I know it came out seductive.

  He looked me up and down and grunted like he wanted some of me as soon as he got back. I wasn’t opposed, though I thought he was being funny. I had on a pair of cut-off shorts and a thin V-neck tee with no bra. I was home, Manolo was asleep, and I wanted to be comfortable.

  “Manolo go down without a fuss?” he asked, turning back from the doorway.

  “You know, the usual. He wanted to stay up until you got home, but he didn’t fight with me over it too hard. I think he was tired.”

  “Good deal, and probably. It’s been a busy couple of days. Be right back.”

  “Going to look in on him?”

  “You know it,” he called over his shoulder softly and I smiled.

  I’d wait a bit to pour more wine for me and a glass for him. I finished my glass in the meantime and sighed contentedly, debating on a second. I got up to get his glass just as he rounded the bottom of the stairs. I smiled at him; he was dressed as simply as I was, in an old ICPD white tee and matching cut-off ICPD indigo sweatpants. They’d been shorn off at the knee and yet still managed to look stylish. If I had to bet, I would bet Oz had a hand in that. Even helping us move he was very put together and fashionable.

  “I’m not sure I want another full glass,” I said and he said, “Just pour the one, we can share.”

  I refilled my glass and handed it to him. He took a mouthful, rolling it around and swallowing, the entire time making eye contact with me, turning the simple act of drinking some wine extraordinarily sexually suggestive in a way that sent my pussy throbbing with wanting.

  “Not as sweet,” he said darkly and I think I lost my breath.

  Holy hotness. “I missed you,” I whispered.

  “Not as much as I missed you, Chica. Come on.” He held out his hand and I took it while he led us back out onto the back deck, into the night.

  He settled onto the lawn chair first and pulled me down so I sat between his knees and lounged back against his chest. He handed me the wine and I took a sip, before handing him back the glass.

  He heaved a huge, cleansing breath, and I swear I could almost feel him leaving work off, letting it fall from his shoulders as if he was shrugging off a great weight, and just like that, he was here with me and there was nothing and no one else.

  “Welcome home,” I murmured, lacing my fingers through his, leaning back against his chest. He took a drink of the sweet wine from our glass and held me tight, swallowing then kissing the top of my head.

  “There’s no place I’d rather be than here with you, baby. There’s no place I’d rather be.”

  I chuckled and leaned way back, offering my mouth to his. He kissed me without complaint and we lay under the stars, bathed in the warm glow of our home behind us, the smell of green and growing things around us, the light, lazy chirp of cricket and frog song surrounding us.

  That made two of us, because there was no place I would rather be either.

  * *
*

  THE END

  Also by A.J. Downey

  The Sacred Hearts MC

  1. Shattered & Scarred

  2. Broken & Burned

  3. Cracked & Crushed

  3.5 Masked & Miserable (a novella)

  4. Tattered & Torn

  5. Fractured & Formidable

  6. Damaged & Dangerous

  * * *

  The Virtues

  1. Cutter’s Hope

  2. Marlin’s Faith

  3. Charity for Nothing

  * * *

  The Sacred Brotherhood

  1. Brother to Brother

  2. Her Brother’s Keeper

  3. Brother In Arms

  4. Between Brothers

  5. A Brother’s Secret

  6. A Brother At My Back

  * * *

  Indigo Knights

  1. Her Thin Blue Lifeline

  2. His Cold Blue Command

  3. A Low Blue Flame

  * * *

  Paranormal Romance (with Ryan Kells)

  1. I Am The Alpha

  2. Omega’s Run

  3. Hunter’s End

  About the Author

  A.J. Downey is the internationally bestselling author of The Sacred Hearts Motorcycle Club romance series. She is a born and raised Seattle, WA Native. She finds inspiration from her surroundings, through the people she meets, and likely as a byproduct of way too much caffeine.

  * * *

  She has lived many places and done many things, though mostly through her own imagination…An avid reader all of her life, it’s now her turn to try and give back a little, entertaining as she has been entertained.

  Stalker Information:

  www.ajdowney.com