Bones (Rebel Wayfarers MC Book 10)

by MariaLisa deMora

  “Our Mela, so strong.” With this whisper, her voice hitched again. “She’s always had to be. God knows she didn’t have a chance to be anything else, did she? So strong, Papi. So very brave.”

  She took a jagged, harsh breath in, blowing it out slowly and he knew from the sound that she was riding the ragged edge of control. “Girl seems to think she’s got nine lives, though. You know how she’s always been, looking past what she’s doing now to see the next challenge. I know you’re up there and got your eyes on her, steering her around all the bumps you can, Papi.” Her voice caught, and he heard her clear her throat, the struggle to hold back tears audible.

  Noise from the room, and the bedsprings groaned as Juanita moved around restlessly. “You should see to our Bella, too, Papi. I like this man for her, he’s strong, and she’s always needed strong. This Tater, he’s a man’s man. You were right, the patience he has with her is humbling to see. The love in his face when he looks at her.” Wet snuffling noises, then the brisk blowing of a nose. “She is right where she needs to be.” Another muffled use of the tissue. “I’m going to miss them both so much. Oh, Papi, what am I going to do all alone? Why did you leave me?”

  Bones turned, putting his back to the hallway wall, needing the support to keep his knees from buckling. Grief washed over him as she continued speaking, pouring out her worries and fears to her soulmate. He knew she would never recover from the loss, knew this would be something she carried the rest of her life. The idea of what it would have been like if he hadn’t found Ester in time turned his stomach, and his throat tightened at the thought. I found her, he reminded himself. She’s safe at home.

  ***

  Carmela

  Head on the pillow, Carmela watched Hurley as he slept. Safe, she thought, feeling herself beginning to doze off. She jerked herself awake, afraid of dreaming. The sense of being bundled into bales of wool was beginning to recede, as the drugs waned and lost their hold. It still didn’t seem real. None of it.

  I lost more than three weeks.

  There were pictures stuck in her head, most involving Hurley. He had protected her, cosseted and nursed her as much as Diamond would allow. She remembered him holding a mug to her lips, letting her drink gulp after gulp of warm soup. Remembered being so cold she couldn’t stop shaking, and he’d wrapped himself around her, trying to make it better.

  He’d told story after story, too. Words strung together to paint pictures in her head, distracting her from the fear that encompassed her days.

  “You were hitchhiking,” he’d said, and she’d laughed because he hadn’t known she’d done that before. Ridden rides captured by her thumb. Things her father and papa never knew. Papa Watcher, she thought, feeling hot tears welling in her eyes.

  “You were hitchhiking, and I picked you up and took you to this hotspot I knew about. A swank bar that let in people like me.”

  “And me,” she tried to fill in, not sure if the words made it past her thick tongue.

  “And you. Prettiest girl in the place.” Hurley leaned in and kissed her nose. “So, in this bar, there’s a guy.”

  “Swank bar,” she reminded him, and he smiled.

  “Swank bar,” he agreed. “And this guy, he’s a big movie star. Big, everyone knows him because he was in that movie. The one with Cher about that kid.”

  “Mask.” She nodded, feeling more alert than she had in a long time, words coming easier. “The biker guy?”

  Hurley grinned. “Sure, the biker guy. Big moustache.”

  “And a voice that melts women’s panties.”

  Hurley rolled his eyes, pushing close so his forehead rested against hers. “Sam Elliot.” She grinned. “And Mr. Elliot has a plane out back.”

  “A plane?” Carmela scoffed. “That’s kinda farfetched.”

  “Did you miss the part where it’s a swank bar?”

  It was her turn to roll her eyes. “Okay, swank bar, famous movie star, private plane. What’s next? He takes us to a castle in the mountains, and we live happily ever after?”

  “Something like that. We go with him to a lodge and eat the biggest dinner we’ve ever had. Steak and potatoes, five kinds of cake. Anything you wanna eat, it’s on that table and I pile it on your plate. Gotta feed my girl.” She smiled. “He’s got a bowling alley, and pinball machines, and a movie theater. Anything you’d wanna do, he’s got it covered, too.” Hurley brushed the corner of her mouth with his lips, kissing her softly. “Then the next day, he brings us back. But you’re done hitchhiking.”

  “I am?” she whispered, the make-believe fading away, leaving her with the fear again.

  “You are because you’re gonna ride with me. Always with me, Mela.” Lips to hers, he kissed her deeply, and she opened to him, tongue tangling with his.

  “Always with you,” she whispered, scooting a little closer to him. A cast on one arm, tubes in the other, Hurley looked like death warmed over, and Carmela thought she’d never seen a more beautiful sight.

  My beauty

  Bones

  Bones walked through his front door, pleased to see Road Runner already gathering up his jacket as it opened. The two men met in the middle of the room, and Bones saw the flinch when his brother took in his face, knowing that bone-deep exhaustion had drawn deep creases and shadows across his features. Wrists gripped, he let Road Runner pull him into a close clinch, felt a profound relief beating into him along with the pounding against the patch on his back. Affirmation of the nonverbal type, but still his brother reminding him how much the patch mattered.

  “Glad as fuck to see your goddamned face, Bones.” Words muttered into his ear, Bones waited to respond, giving Road Runner another moment to communicate his relief in this way, too. “Bad shit, brother.” Stepping back, Road Runner kept hold of Bones' forearm, keeping him close. “Heard you dealt with Diamond’s crew.”

  Indeed, I did. “My call, needed to send Mason home to his old lady.” Not something he wanted to do, tackle that duty alone, working as primary in charge. But also not something he had been willing to hand off to someone else. “I…” He faltered a moment, saw anguish race across Road Runner’s face, hated he had put it there by exposing his pain. Pulling in a deep breath, Bones shook his head. “I did what was needful.” Road Runner didn’t force him to say more, and Bones was sure all members had gotten a call or text about the decision. “Judgment they already knew was coming. It simply wore my face.”

  “Mason’s hands,” Road Runner agreed, and Bones nodded and held Road Runner’s gaze for a long moment. “Lighter note, Ester ate today. She’s a hard one to pin down, man.” With a glance over his shoulder to the stairs, Road Runner said, “Sleeping now. She has bad dreams a lot, really bad, brother. Hate like fuck being down here, but me being in there when she woke made things worse. I stay outside the room so she can come to me if she needs to.”

  “I am home now. Home for the foreseeable future. I will help her sleep.” Bones squeezed Road Runner’s wrist. “You kept her safe for me. I thank you.”

  “My pleasure, and when I say that I mean it, man. She’s a treasure.” Road Runner’s grip tightened and then released, and he was moving towards the door. “See you in about a week. Not a minute sooner, you hear me? Kitchen’s stocked up with my shit, and I can tell you she likes my shit, so be sure to cook.” He punched a code into the alarm panel, then hit the button that would arm it when the door shut. “Relax, brother. Take a few days and get right with the world again.” Turning in the opening to pull the door closed, Road Runner lifted one hand. Bones returned the gesture.

  Staring straight ahead at nothing, he lifted one foot, tugging until his boot came free, letting it fall to the floor with a quiet thud. Seconds later its mate joined it on the floor, and then Bones was jogging up the stairs, two treads at a time, suddenly in a rush to get to Ester.

  He opened the door, and a wedge of light entered the room from the hallway, advancing across the bed. He saw the moment Ester’s eyes opened, saw the instant sh
e recognized him, and knew it from the happy smile that stretched her lips from cheek to cheek, knew it from the way she called out to him, wordless joy falling from her open mouth.

  Knee to the bed, he stretched out, intending only to rest for a moment beside her, he needed to hold her, feel her body in his arms. A moment to convince himself this wasn’t a dream. Her fingers were immediately busy, untucking his shirt and pulling, plucking at it around the edges of his vest until he removed the heavy leather, throwing it towards a chair beside the bed. One hand behind his head, he reached, pulling the shirt over, tossing it away. “Beauty.” Home. That was the feeling he had been seeking, never finding until she stumbled into his life. My home.

  Her hands were roaming, sliding and caressing, slowly going from barely there touches followed by a firm grip as she held onto him.

  Bones groaned against the skin of her neck when she opened her legs, feeling how his hips notched into her. He lifted, intending to move away, give her some space, afraid he was moving too fast for her after being gone so long. Ester had other ideas and her hand pulling him back down to her severed the last bit of control he had.

  Silken and rough by turns, her tongue danced with his, pushing and twisting. Stroking into her mouth, he feasted on the taste of her. Calling his name, again and again, Ester burrowed into him, pushing as close as she could. Fast, too fast, when each moment was a memory he wanted to hold forever, until they were naked and touching, stroking and mapping each other. Mouth to her breast, he reveled in her fingers on his scalp, pulling and demanding more from him, his Ester not afraid to show him any part of her.

  Beauty he had seen, slept beside for never enough nights, but for Bones, this was all sacred ground. Places to tread carefully. He wanted to discover slowly, give her time to know in her soul that this was what she wanted, too. Somehow in his time away, he’d forgotten that Ester, being who she was, would never do anything she didn’t want. She held tight to her walls, her protections, but when she let him in, she’d let him into the heart of her. Now, she wanted more.

  Arms around his shoulders, one hand twining up the back of his neck, she put her lips to his ear and told him everything in her heart. “I’ve never felt so lost as when they took you away. Lost and down the path of left behind. I needed as hard as I could, casting those out the window every day. I knew you had to go, but I was lost, Bones. Lost farther than I’ve been since I was six. I can’t without you. Something in you matches me. All of me.”

  Her lips pressed to the side of his head, slid down his neck until she tucked her face against him. “Without you, it’s like I’m a stained glass window when it’s just a thought. An idea, all these tiny confused images and colors laid out for everyone to see, and anyone could see, any person at all, but no one sees. You, Bones, you see. You see me. I’ve been missing a piece so key, that without it, the glass couldn’t hold, couldn’t unconfuse. You’re the mortar, the framework within which I love.”

  Her mouth moved back to his ear, and she whispered, “I’m not lost now, Bones. You’re holding me. I’m home.” Her arms squeezed him as her hips tipped up, seeking and he groaned when he felt the heat pouring out of her. “I’m home, Bones.” Her hips pumped up again, and the head of his cock slipped between the lips of her sex, the wetness he’d felt earlier amplified. Slick and wet. “Come home.”

  “Beauty.” Bones moved, shifting, rocking his hips forwards as he glided partway inside her on a slow, steady thrust. “My beauty.” Face buried in her neck, he stilled and waited. She had gasped, tensing as he entered, arms convulsing around him, and was now silent and still. “My Ester.” Tight and hot around him, a silken grip strangling his cock. She moved, and he relaxed his hold, ready to let her go if escape was what she needed, but she did the burrowing thing again, pumping up against him with her hips.

  “Come home.” Her breaths came quickly, gasps in his ear. Voice jagged, she told him again, “I’m found, Bones. Find all of me.”

  Back arching, Bones pushed, feeling her pussy part for the head of his cock, taking the length of him, enveloping him in a sensation so exquisite it was unbelievable. “I find myself without words, beauty. You giving me this, giving me you. I see you, Ester. You will never be lost again.” This last was a vow he hoped she understood. “Forever found. All my life, I will hold you together.” Rocking his hips, he stroked out, then back in, deeper. “You are the thing I have looked for.” She’d been honest with him, so he handed her that same trust. “You see me. You see past the bars and barriers. You see me, and you are not afraid. Not distracted by the disguise. This is a precious thing, Ester.” Pace building, his words came in gusts on each hard breath. “You see me like no one ever has.”

  “I see you, Bones,” she agreed, one arm sliding so she could smooth across the skin of his back with a palm. “I’ve always seen you.”

  “Yes, you have. My Ester. My beauty.” Pushing an arm under her, he gripped her hips, holding her in place as he thrust hard, pulling her down and burying himself inside her with each stroke. “Mine.” She keened, stiffening beneath him, the muscles in her thighs tightening, her cunt gripping and milking his cock. Mouth to her neck, he kissed up across her jaw. “Kiss me, Ester.” She turned her head at his demand, and he plundered her mouth, feeling his orgasm circling closer, urgency in each hard thrust. “My beauty.” Resting his forehead against hers, he watched as her lashes fluttered, her eyes opened and stared into his. “Mine.” Thighs open wide, she curled her legs around him, holding him to her, handing him everything. His hands full of her, his heart fuller.

  One word undid him, pulling him to the edge and beyond, his movements uncontrolled and wild as she told him, “Yours.”

  Making love

  Ester

  On the twenty-eighth day, at four after five in the morning, the door opened and so did my eyes. I cried when he came to me, crawling in beside me, coated in fear and pain, grime from his skin smearing on the sheets and I didn’t care. He wrapped himself around me, held me tight, lay on top of me so I was entirely covered in him, and that I cared about. Very much.

  “Beauty.” He called me, and I answered with my mouth, stealing the taste of him from his lips. “Ester.” He groaned and tipped his head, branding me with his kiss. Hips pressing deep, I felt the impression of his metal belt in my skin and let my legs fall apart, welcoming him home, the hardness of his wanting pressed hard against the most intimate center of my being. He moved to lift away, and I curled my hand around the back of his neck, pulling his mouth back to mine.

  That was the first time I made love.

  Rescued

  Bones

  Hip to the kitchen counter, Bones watched as Ester busily trundled around the backyard, pointing here and there, ordering her helper around. Road Runner had bought her a couple of bird feeders but no seed, so Bones had called a prospect to make a store run this morning. Plowboy had shown up on the front steps a short time ago, bag in hand, and Ester had immediately enlisted him in her efforts to determine the perfect place for each of the three feeders.

  Bones was lifting a coffee mug to his mouth when the buzzing rattle of his phone on the countertop pulled his gaze that way. Swiping across the screen, he tapped to put it on speaker, and greeted with, “Gunny.”

  “Bones, brother, how goes it?” Gunny’s voice was rough, and he sounded as if he hadn’t slept in too long. “Heard you made it back to Chicago finally.”

  “It goes, brother. It goes. Stopped in to see Carmela and Juanita, Bella was there. They are healing. This is good.” He’d sat beside Juanita, watching the quiet interactions between the couples. Hurley, still recovering from his injuries, solicitous of Carmela in a way that said she might be more fragile in private than she wanted to let on. Bones knew Juanita saw it, too, because the worried frown never left her face while she looked at them.

  Bella was a different kind of wounded, because she missed her father more than she knew what to do with. She’d had longer to learn to cope, and Bones knew the
closure of Watcher’s funeral, as hard as it had been to live through, had helped her move onwards. Tater stood at her back, keeping one hand on her always, but for him, the closeness seemed less concern for her peace of mind and more something he needed.

  Bones, sighed, continuing, “I have information I need to pass along. A call from a contact this morning confirmed things Chismoso has told us.”

  “Good news, brother.” Gunny paused a moment, then said, “Me and Road got shit, too. I’m in town, so if you want, I can bring it in person.”

  “In person is always good. I would like my Ester to become comfortable with more of us. She knows Road Runner now, of course, a necessity. But I should like her to come to trust my brothers.” Bones grinned as he looked out the window where the prospect now had a double-handful of seed and Ester seemed to be coaching him on the most likely position to lure in birds, hands to his elbows lifting them up into awkward angles.

  “Lemme call Road. Think he should bring his old lady?” It was a thoughtful offer, and one that showed empathy for what Gunny knew about Ester.

  “You are a different man from before Sharon, did you know that?” Bones scanned the backyard, thinking it was big enough for a dog. I wonder what kind of dog Ester would like. “She and your girls are good for you.” The yard is big enough for a lot of things. “For now, let us keep the introductions to just you. She is already comfortable with Road Runner and his Aurelie, so perhaps the next time you come to my home, you may bring your Sharon.”

  Gunny grunted, then muttered, “Gotcha. Later.” Before Bones could respond, the call had disconnected. A minute later and his phone buzzed and rattled on the tile countertop again, and Bones looked over to see a text from Road Runner. Be there in 10.

  Movement through the windows pulled his attention back to the pair in the yard, and he watched, captivated, as Ester held out her hand towards Plowboy, two birds perched on her thumb, heads bobbing, beaks pecking wildly at the seed cupped in her palm. The smile she offered the kid was stunning, full lips stretched wide, unfiltered pleasure there for anyone to see. Similar, but different from the look that had been on her features when Bones woke her with his mouth that morning, as if he had given her everything she wanted.