by Jayne Blue
Dex nodded and looked back at me. “Tell them I’ll be out in five minutes.”
Sly shut the door and left. I took a step back, meaning to stop him again but Dex would have none of it. He snaked his arms around me and drew me close. My skin tingled at his touch, heat flared in my core despite all the warning bells going off in my head. He kissed me on the forehead and drew me in until my cheek rested against his chest. He smelled so good.
“I’ll be gone for a couple of hours. Then I’m coming back here. Will you stay? Please?”
He held me away from him a little, willing me to look up at him. When I did, the longing in his eyes still broke my heart. This was a face he showed only to me. I put a gentle hand against his jaw where it swelled. He turned a little and kissed my palm; his eyes were warm, tender but held a hint of the dark lust he’d only just begun to sate.
“I’ll stay until you get back,” I said, feeling more than a little defeated. “But only until then.” I knew my heart would be better off if I left. But I had enough sense not to do anything foolhardy. On the off chance Franco’s attack was directly related to Dex, I was safer here in the Den than home alone. As much as it chaffed me to admit it.
He kissed me again. “We can talk more this afternoon.”
“Oh, you bet we will,” I said as Dex finally let me go and headed toward the door leading to the restaurant. He turned at the last second and backed out. The gleam in his eye told me he meant to do a hell of a lot more than talk. Again, my body betrayed me as I felt an answering heat start to pool between my legs at the thought of just how much more he wanted.
***
When Dex left, I headed out into the main bar. The Den wasn’t open for business this early but Charlie, Mo and a few of the guys were either finishing breakfast or the hair of the dog. I sat on a corner stool a few seats from Charlie and reached over the counter to grab a rocks glass then filled it with water from the beverage gun.
“You know not to pay those two no mind,” Charlie said as he sipped his coffee.
I raised a brow. I hadn’t asked, but yes, whatever I’d walked in on between Sly and Dex was something else that troubled me. I ran a finger around the rim of my glass then I folded my hands on the bar and rested my chin over my knuckles.
“I don’t know, Charlie, if this is the start of any kind of trend, I’m going to need to bring Mo more supplies.”
I was trying to make a joke, but Charlie’s expression stayed pensive. He ran his hands down the wiry curls of his beard. He let out a belch before he continued. “They love each other like brothers. Now they’re more or less the only family each of them has left.”
“I know that.”
Charlie nodded. Mo had come to stand behind him, placing her hands on his broad shoulders. The gesture wasn’t lost on me. She was backing up Charlie’s speech literally and figuratively.
“They’re like their fathers before them,” she added. “Except they’ve both inherited the best of those two as well. That being said, Samuel and Declan come from a very long line of Irish brawlers. It’s in their blood.”
From Mo, the word blood came out more like “bluid.”
“You saying they like to show their love in the form of fists to the face?”
Mo and Charlie laughed heartily at that but they were also both nodding. “True enough,” Charlie said.
“Are you sticking around, Ava?” Mo also had a way of cutting to the quick of things. It was both a question and an accusation. Dex was back. She’d taken on the den mother role where the club members were concerned. She’d protect her cubs at all costs.
“Dex thinks it’s a good idea if I cool my heels here until he gets back. At least until they get a handle on what’s going on with the Franco kid.”
Mo nodded but she’d fixed a laser-like stare on me. She knew I knew that wasn’t what she meant at all. Except she was asking a question I was in no way ready to answer yet. Plus, den mother or no, it wasn’t any of her damn business yet. The cool look I gave her back seemed to convey my point. She smiled, nodded, then walked back to the kitchen after a quick peck on Charlie’s cheek.
“It’s good to have you here,” Charlie said. “We’ve missed you, you know that? You kind of stopped coming around.”
I smiled and moved two stools over so I was right next to him. I put a hand on his shoulder. “I know.”
Charlie patted the hand that I rested on his shoulder and squeezed it. “But you better figure out right quick whether you plan it to be permanent or not.”
I balked a little at the statement. “Charlie, I just got here. It’s way too soon to be talking about anything like that.”
Charlie nodded. “For you, maybe, honey. But Dex knows what he wants. Don’t forget, all those years he was in that place, I’m the one who saw him every other month. I’m the one who watched him go through it and noticed every new hard line show on his face. He’s made up his mind about you. If you haven’t—or hell, if you have—you need to let him know, and the sooner the better. I love you too, kid, but when it comes down to it, this club is going to protect its own.”
My heart raced in my chest. Charlie’s message couldn’t be clearer. The club still thought of me as Dex’s woman and so did he. Sly and the others had looked out for me over the years even when I didn’t feel like I needed them to. I was grateful, but even though he hadn’t been a direct part of my relationship with the club members for years, I was a friend of the club because of Dex first. They would close ranks around him if they needed to.
“Charlie, I don’t want to hurt Dex.”
He nodded. “I know you don’t. But if this is just a for-old-time’s-sake fling for you, you will hurt him. And I’m done watching him get tortured.”
Chapter Fourteen
Dex
There are few things that can cut to the quick of a man’s character more than taking a swift punch to the solar plexus. Fred DiSalvo was no exception. I hadn’t meant to get so rough so fast but he’d made one too many snide comments about Pete Franco’s medical condition and I’d had enough. Fred DiSalvo started to cry before I even laid a hand on him. And when I did lay a hand on him, he folded like a cheap card table.
“I swear to Christ,” he said as he clutched his chest and sank down into an easy chair in his living room. We’d caught him alone. No trace of Fred DiSalvo Jr., the kid Franco was slated to fight. “I wanted Freddie Jr. to beat that kid fair and square. I’m sorry what happened to him. It wasn’t me. I swear it.”
DiSalvo Sr. started to blubber in earnest. Tiny held his right arm behind the guy’s back and started to squeeze. He whimpered and sweat beaded his pasty skin. My fingers twitched; much as I itched to lay hands on him—on someone—again, this guy was hardly worth it.
“We’re gonna follow you, Fred,” I said, lowering my voice and getting within an inch of his nose. The guy couldn’t even bring his eyes up to look at me. Another few seconds, and he was going to piss himself. “I find out you so much as speak that kid’s name to anyone, then you and I are going to have an even more meaningful conversation than this one. Our reach is wide, you understand that, right?”
DiSalvo nodded and squeezed his eyes shut like he was some little kid who thought he could hide that way. “I do. Christ, you think I’m stupid enough to hurt one of your kids?”
The truth was, his stupidity was the reason I’d kind of ruled out his role in this from the second we walked in the door. He was just a small-time idiot who had the good fortune to have a kid who had some talent in the cage. Unless there was someone else pulling his strings, it didn’t feel like he had the balls to coordinate a hit on our guy. On the other hand, Tonya Harding didn’t exactly have a Mensa brain trust either. I gave Tiny a look. He squeezed DiSalvo’s neck once more for the road then heaved him forward and let him fall to the floor.
He stayed there on his hands and knees coughing and for a second I wondered if he wasn’t having a damn heart attack. He puked, but his
color was good and he seemed to be breathing just fine.
I bent down and patted him on the back. “I’m going to let you have some time to reflect on our talk, okay, Freddie? You think long and hard about everything we had to say. I’m thinking maybe Green Bluff isn’t such a good fit for you and your boy.”
DiSalvo shook his head while he kept it aimed toward the floor. “We’re gone,” he said. “I promise. You’ll never see us again. We’ve got prospects in Vegas anyway.”
“Good.” I stood up. I ran my hand across my throat, gesturing to Tiny. We were done here. If this guy had anything useful to say, he would have said it already. It was time to shut this down and get back to the Den.
I gave DiSalvo one last hard slap in the center of his back and then I left him there, wheezing on his hands and knees. Tiny and I left the house first and the two prospects we’d brought followed behind.
We rode out to the main road that took us past the bluff with me in the lead. I gestured to a side road that led to a small clearing when I was sure no one had followed us out. Tiny pulled up beside me and cut his engine. The prospects stayed behind to warn us in case any unwanted company decided to show up. God, this felt good. It felt simple even though I knew it was far from it.
Tiny peeled off his helmet. “You satisfied?”
I nodded. “I think we shook him loose about as well as we could. You satisfied?”
Tiny shrugged. “It doesn’t feel right. DiSalvo’s all bluster but he’s scared shitless of the club. And he’s an idiot but he’s not stupid, ya know? Is Sly really thinking he’s behind this?”
“We’ll see what he found out on his little field trip. He and Billy were supposed to reach out to Pagano’s man. You ready to head back?”
Tiny saluted me. “I go where you go, Dex. And it’s pretty damn good to be able to say that again.”
I looked out toward the horizon. The sun had begun to dip low in the sky. Off to the west, I could make out a cluster of clouds, heavy with rain. Tiny wasn’t just talking about following me back to the Den and I knew it. Soon Sly was going to have to put a vote before the members about me. If I hadn’t knocked it out of him this morning, he meant to name me V.P. Tiny was letting me know where he stood on the matter. I appreciated it and said a silent prayer that the coming weeks wouldn’t cause a civil war with the club choosing sides between Billy and me. I also prayed Billy had the good sense to understand where Sly needed him most.
I smiled. Tiny was one of the most loyal friends Sly and I had. He was big and blustery and good at scaring the shit out of people who didn’t know him. He was really just a big teddy bear. He was one of the members I’d missed above all. He wore his heart on his sleeve and I knew how hard it was for him to steer clear of me all these years. He had turned toward me and his eyes glistened with tears.
“Knock it off,” I said, but I’ll admit, I had to resist the urge to slide off my bike and give the bastard a damn hug. “Mo said she’s making potato stew tonight. Charlie’ll eat it all if we don’t get back before the sun goes down.”
Tiny wiped his eyes with the back of his hand but mercifully didn’t say anything else that would have choked me up too. He revved his engine and headed back to the end of the road to join the prospects. I shook my head and followed.
***
When we got back to the Den, Sly was already locked away in his office and I knew he was waiting for me. Charlie told me Ava had already headed upstairs. I wanted to go to her. As good as it felt to get back into the swing of club business today, I’d left things hanging with her and she had to be pissed about cooling her heels here. We were on precarious ground, Ava and me. I didn’t want to run the risk of her balking. As I was about to open the office door, Mo shot me a warning look. I put my hands up in surrender and silent promise that I’d behave and not repeat this morning’s drama with Sly.
Sly sat on the edge of his desk and set down a stack of papers when I walked in. The air was still a little thick between us although we’d cleared a lot of it this morning.
“I’m pretty sure DiSalvo’s clean,” I said.
Sly let out a breath and hung his head a little. “Damn. It’s a weird thing to say but I was kind of hoping this was going to be just that easy.”
“You and Billy didn’t get anywhere with Pagano’s guy?”
Sly shrugged. “Of course he said this hit had nothing to do with them. What else was he going to say? Sure, I’d have liked to knock a few of his teeth out just to see if anything else shook loose but we have to be more careful than that. DiSalvo’s one thing. Pagano’s entirely another.”
I nodded. “Well, I appreciate your giving me the fun job today then.”
Sly laughed but it didn’t reach his eyes. He leveled those at me and let the silence hang for just a moment.
“I’m sorry,” I finally said because it was my place to start. We’d been here a million times since we were twelve years old. But we were grown men now; I was still capable of acting like it.
“Me too.” Sly ran a hand through his hair. He still had those boyish good looks and tortured soul women went for. There was a weariness in his eyes though. I might have been the one on the inside, but being President of the Great Wolves M.C. was its own kind of prison too. He needed to know I recognized it.
“You know,” he started again, “I can’t help it but a part of me has been pissed at you all these years for not fucking being here. Even though I know it wasn’t your choice.”
I nodded. “I get it. I do, man. If I hadn’t got myself arrested on that cheap assault charge, maybe I wouldn’t have been in a position to be such a juicy target to take the rap for Pagano’s shit.”
Sly shook his head. “You know that’s not it. He would have found a way to pin it on you. Or it was only a matter of time before one of the rest of us got hauled in for something else.”
And that right there was the other thing I’d been ashamed to admit to myself. A part of me wondered what would have happened if Sly had been the one arrested. I took the trip to Chicago, straight into Pagano’s backyard for him. He was supposed to go but I volunteered at the last minute, seeing the opportunity to take Ava away for a little while. I didn’t blame him, not really. How could I? But I’d be a damn fool and a coward not to acknowledge that I’d thought about it. The shadow that crossed his face told me he had too.
He moved first. We slapped each other on the backs and I held him in a tight hug. It felt good and right and the thickness in the air evaporated. Sly was my brother in every way that mattered. It was time to look forward and not back.
He heaved a sigh and sat back on the edge of his desk.
“You know what has to be done,” I said. We’d edged around the issue since I got back and I knew that was the other cause of this morning’s problem.
Sly hung his head and nodded. “I know.”
Whether he was behind the hit on the Franco kid or not, George Pagano had to be dealt with and soon. Not in theory but in fact. For now, it was enough that I knew Sly fully understood. The balance Sly had struck needed to change. And now there was yet another thing between us.
“So,” I said, threading my thumbs through the belt loops of my jeans, “how pissed off is she?”
I arched a brow and looked up at the ceiling. Ava was up there, waiting for me. She and I were going to need a different kind of reckoning from this morning’s events and my cock stirred at the thought of it no matter what kind of mood she was in.
Sly laughed. “She wouldn’t talk to me so there’s your answer. Mo said she was pretty quiet today and helped around the bar. Went upstairs before everyone came in for dinner.”
“How long do you think I can keep her here?”
I pretty much wanted to tie her down if she tried to leave but I knew that wasn’t a practical solution.
“Pagano’s got to be watching you,” he said. “You know that. It would be better if she’d just stay at the Den for a few days but I don�
�t think that’s going to fly with her.”
I shook my head. “I feel like you know her better than I do now.”
As soon as I said it, I realized I hated the truth of it. So maybe that was really the last thing between us that needed airing.
“Ava’s kept her distance, Dex. Tried to carve out a life for herself. I’ve tried to be as good a friend to her as I know how to be. But she’s still in love with you. Of that I have no doubt. But she’s not the same girl you left and I think you’ve already figured that out. She learned how to live without you and it’s going to take her some time to feel like she can trust the fact that you’re back. And she may not get there.”
I shut my eyes tight and nodded. “I don’t want to hurt her. I did that before because I wasn’t honest with her. I tried to protect her from the club and this life.”
Sly came next to me and patted my shoulder hard. “And she got clobbered by it anyway. Probably harder because you did try to keep it away from her. But give her some credit. She’s got steel in her back, Dex. But I need you. I need to know if this is what you want. No one, least of all me, would blame you if you wanted to make different choices for yourself this time around. Hell, in your place, I’d be tempted to put that girl on the back of my bike and ride to a place where nobody knew me.”
“You breaking up with me?” I tried to joke but Sly’s eyes were hard.
So he would give me an out if I wanted it. If I wanted to turn my back on the club, on him, he would let me go. Guilt burned like acid through me at the thought of it. Could I do that? Could I choose Ava over the club if that’s what it took to keep her?
“It would kill me ... it would kill all of us if you left again. But there isn’t a guy out there who wouldn’t understand why you’d want to go, I don’t think. And if I’m wrong, it’s because there’s also not a guy out there who’s done time like you have. I need you, Dex, but I need you here one hundred percent. I need you as my V.P. and we both know what that’s going to take.”
