by Siobhan Muir
Chapter Twelve
Scott
Life sucked. Not only did I have the hangover from hell, but Oriana had stopped speaking to me. She wouldn’t answer the phone or texts or her door. She hadn’t even come into the clubhouse for dinner the first night or meals the next few days. And when she called to let us know the FBI would be showing up, she’d called fucking Michael instead of me. That one hurt the most. She trusted Schnoz more than she trusted me.
With damn good reason, jackass.
She’d warned me when we first talked that I’d choose the club over her, and it looked that way when I did nothing about Loki’s interpretation of her contract. But I’d been hoping the contract would become moot because I’d convinced her to stay. That’s why I hadn’t bothered to tell her of the likelihood she’d be stuck here.
But I hadn’t convinced her. I needed more time. Time I wasn’t likely to get now.
I chugged some coffee in hopes it would stop the pounding in my head and staggered around my room to find cleanish clothes. It looked like a bomb had gone off and I knew I needed to do laundry, but I didn’t really give a shit. My body ached, but not as much as my heart, a heart I hadn’t known I had.
I threw on a T-shirt and jerked on my jeans, the denim stiff with sweat and vomit. Nice. I’m not gonna win any cleanliness awards. The filth disgusted me and I stripped them off again as I searched for my laundry shorts. I only wore them when there was nothing else. I tossed all the clothes I could find into my laundry basket and headed for the door. I might as well do chores while I felt like shit.
My phone rang and I scanned the caller ID as I headed out the door. Michael. Why the hell was he calling me?
“What?” I barked, making some of the Scooters jump and scramble out of my way.
“Good morning to you, too, Sunshine. Feeling a little grumpy this morning?”
“Fuck you. Whadya want, Michael? I got shit to do.”
“Right. We’ve got all the contraband moved out of the compound, but the concern is the warehouses Roy knows about.”
Fuck. Roy had been here at least two years and he’d become a useful member of the club. He’d gone to a lot of our storage spaces.
“Do we know how many he’s been to?”
“Yeah, Neo’s got records, but that’s a shit-ton of stuff to move. Half of them are cleared, but we still have three more to empty. One of them’s in Fort Collins. Near Oriana’s apartment.”
“No!” I shoved open the laundry room door and slammed the basket down on a washer. “No fuckin’ way. I’m not breaking into her apartment to bring her stuff. She already hates me. I’m not making it worse.”
“She doesn’t hate you, Scott. She’s just angry.”
“Gee, I wonder why that is? Maybe because Loki screwed her over and I didn’t do anything about it?” I shook my head and shoved clothes into the washer. “I’m not breaking into her place.”
“I didn’t expect you to break in, dumbass. I expected you to take her with you into Fort Collins so she can get her own stuff. Help her furnish her cabin with her own things.”
I snorted as I pressed start on the machine. “Oh yeah, that’ll make her feel better. I’m helping her get her stuff to make her incarceration better. Nice.”
“Yeah…” Michael sighed on the other end of the phone. “I can’t fix that, yet. But how about we work on your end of the relationship? Then at least the ride to Fort Collins won’t be too bad.”
I rolled my eyes. I was going to Fort Collins with or without Oriana. I didn’t think “with” would happen. “Yeah, good luck with that. I don’t know what to say if she’ll even talk to me.”
“Here, let me help you. Begin with “I’m sorry.” Continue with “Please forgive me.” And possibly add, “What can I do to make it up to you?” That should at least get the ball rolling.”
“Fuck you.”
“No, you want to fuck her, but you have to first make amends.” Michael managed to still sound amused even when I came across as stupid.
“No, I don’t want to fuck her. I want to make love with her for the rest of my life.”
A short silence echoed through the phone.
“Do you?” All amusement left his voice. “Then you need to talk to her. You need to make her understand she’s your priority and the first one you’ll stand with. Even against your friends.”
“I know. But I signed a blood oath of loyalty to Loki. When he screwed her over, I didn’t know what to say.”
“Why didn’t you tell her you suspected she wouldn’t be able to leave when you had the chance?”
I scowled at my feet and rubbed the back of my neck. “I dunno. I guess I thought I could convince her to stay before it reached that point. I should’ve said something.”
“If you had, it wouldn’t have been betraying Loki, you know. And she probably would’ve been able to deal with it better than just having it dumped on her like that.”
“Fuck, yeah, I know. Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.” I sighed and shook my head. “I just don’t want to lose her over something so stupid.”
“So talk to her.”
“She won’t talk to me!”
“Texting doesn’t count, mate.” Exasperation rumbled into my ear. “Take her with you to Fort Collins. Talk to her even if she doesn’t talk back. Glory, tell her how you feel, at least. She deserves to know, especially if she’s gonna be stuck around you for a while.”
“Why does she deserve to know? She doesn’t want to hear it.”
Michael took a deep breath as if trying for patience. “Don’t be stupid, Scott. She’s angry, but she’s always been honest with you. Try being honest, and frankly, vulnerable with her. Extend a little of that trust you wanted from her.”
I groaned and rubbed my face with one hand. “Fine. Give me an hour. I gotta clean some clothes or I’m going to smell like a nasty-ass sweat shop. Get the guys started on the warehouse and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Got it. I’ll have van ready for you.”
“Oh, come on. The van? I’ll look like a fuckin’ soccer dad.”
“How else are you gonna carry her stuff, you stupid git? She might want to take a lot. Speaking of which, take the Bug Detector with you.”
The Bug Detector was the unofficial name we gave to the little device one of our members had constructed to make sure rooms and buildings were clean of the cops. Viper was gorgeous in a predatory sort of way and she could strike as fast as the reptile for which she was named. She also was smart, sharp, and vigilant. She had items even Neo didn’t know about, and her cabin was the only one Neo couldn’t see into.
“Why would I take that with me? For the warehouse?”
“No. For Oriana’s place.”
Michael’s statement made my stomach lurch and my blood go cold. “You think someone’s spyin’ on her?”
I could almost hear him shake his head. “I dunno. But my gut says she might not have been as cut off from the FBI as she thought.”
Anger surged. No one should’ve been surveilling her but me, and not even I would do shit like that. “She’s gonna be pissed about that and think we knew before we go to her place.”
“Guess you’re just gonna have to actually talk to her, then, mate. Text me when you get to Fort Collins.”
He clicked off with that smug voice that made me want to thump him good the next time I saw him. As it was, I hated to admit he was right and there was nothing I could do about that, either. Instead I had to wait for my laundry to finish and that gave me plenty of time to decide what I’d try to say to Oriana on the way to Fort Collins.
Yeah, this is gonna suck.
****
Scott
I climbed into the cab of our van, the delivery kind seen more often in Europe than the U.S., and closed the door behind me. I didn’t want to look at the passenger side where Arctic cold seeped from the person seated there. Oriana sat, buckled in, with her arms crossed over her chest and her face set. She stared out the
window and refused to turn her head, for which I counted my blessings. She’d freeze my balls off with her anger.
I started the van and put it in gear, trying not to get frostbite in my right elbow. I thanked my lucky stars she wasn’t Viper or Calhoun. Both those women did vicious and permanent damage to those who pissed them off, though I wouldn’t put it past Numbers to make someone’s life financial hell. Who am I kidding? It’s my life she’s gonna fuck up.
I turned onto the main road and headed for Fort Collins in a silence reserved for desert wastelands and Arctic tundra. Somewhere in my head I could hear the sound of a lonely guitar and the scream of a hunting Red Tail Hawk. This was the essence of No Man’s Land and I was stuck behind the wheel of it.
“Why am I here?” Oriana’s voice cracked like a whip and I jumped.
“Uh, you’re comin’ with me to Fort Collins.” Why did she think she was here?
“I know that. The question is why. Loki made it clear I had to stay at the compound.” If her look had death-ray capabilities, I would’ve been half-way to hell by now.
“Yeah, I know. I was there.” I winced and bit my bottom lip as soon as the words left my mouth. So you’re goin’ for full asshole today, are you, Scott? “I mean, I know he said that, but I have to run down to one of our warehouses in Fort Collins and I found out it’s near your apartment. Michael thought we could stop and get some of your things to make your cabin feel like home.”
“My apartment is home, not the compound. I did what I said I would and y’all are liars and cheats.” She went back to staring out the window. “I was just stupid enough to believe otherwise. Not the first time I was wrong about men having integrity.”
I gritted my teeth at the venom in her voice. It didn’t help she was right. At least about Loki. I thought I had integrity, but evidently not enough to make Loki’s about-face clear from the get-go.
“I’m not a liar, but I am sorry I didn’t speak up about the likelihood of you leaving after you fulfilled your contract.” I tried to keep my voice even despite the anger at her words. She was right to be angry and I was a jackass, but it didn’t make it easy to admit. “I should’ve said something. I should’ve warned you what he’s like. But I didn’t think it would matter.”
“You didn’t think it would matter?” She widened her eyes as her lips pulled back from her teeth. “I made it clear how important my independence was to me. I made the terms of the contract clear as I could. Why wouldn’t it matter?”
“Because I hoped I could convince you to stay on your own.”
“How were you planning to do that?”
“I, uh. Well, I…” My ability to talk hopped a freight train to nowhere and left me hanging.
How was I supposed to tell this woman that I wanted her without sounding like a complete and utter moron? Oriana represented everything I desired in a woman. She was smart, intuitive, funny, kinky, bold, inquisitive, sexy, and beautiful, and I wanted to be with her for a long time. I hoped to give her my patch of ownership and call her mine.
But I knew deep down that she wasn’t a person to be owned, even if that’s not what the patch would mean to me. To her, she’d see “Property of Scott” as being an object, a possession, rather than as my partner and confidante. But I didn’t want anyone messing with her, and wearing my patch would save a lot of headaches.
“Whatever. Let’s just get this shit over with.”
Michael’s voice echoed in my head: Begin with “I’m sorry.” Continue with “Please forgive me.” And possibly add, “What can I do to make it up to you?” I’d accomplished the first part, I just had to grow a pair to continue.
“I was hoping to convince you to go out with me long term, then you having to stay wouldn’t matter so much because you already would.” There, I’d said it. Hopefully I wouldn’t get my head bitten off.
“You know I could’ve gone out with you long term without living in the compound, don’t you? It’s called having a girlfriend offsite. If you’d just made a little effort, we could’ve had a good relationship.” She scowled. “I wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Fort Collins isn’t that far from the compound, you know.”
“I know, but I just wanted you to stay.” Damn, I sounded like a whiney pansy-ass.
“Why didn’t you say anything? I can’t read your mind. Cocky bikers are incomprehensible to me.”
“I didn’t have time. You were focused on finding the embezzler and I didn’t want to push you into anything scary. I know what Hopkins did and I didn’t want to be that guy, the one who doesn’t listen to you or think about what you needed.” I shrugged as we drove into the residential areas outside of Fort Collins. “I thought I’d court you, y’know? I wanted to get to know you and make you like me without being too aggressive. And I, I dunno, didn’t think you’d give me that chance if you weren’t there where I could see you at meals and hang out with you.”
I had no idea where this touchy-feely shit was coming from, but all of it was true. I meant every word, and it felt like someone had scraped my heart raw. I wouldn’t have admitted it to any of the other women I’d been with over the years, but I couldn’t stop myself from telling Oriana.
I shot a look at her as we turned into the area of her apartment complex and she blinked back at me, her eyes wide. Glory, I hope that’s not a bad thing and she’s not trying to find a way to let me down easy.
“I—hmm. How long have you felt this way?”
I shrugged again and pulled the van up to the curb in front of her apartment building. “Pretty much since you dictated the terms of your contract to Loki. Damn, you were sexy, bold, and beautiful, and you weren’t gonna take anyone’s shit. That lit my fire right there.” I put the van in park and set the break, before turning off the engine.
Come on, you wuss. Tell her the rest.
I raised my gaze to meet hers and took a deep breath. “I really like you, Oriana. Actually, it’s more than that, but the word “love” makes me nervous because I’ve never loved anyone before. Not really. I’ve wanted to ask you to wear my patch lots of times, but I know how you feel about being someone’s property, and I couldn’t do that to you.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “But I want more than just a romp in the sheets. Hell, I liked getting my ass handed to me in pool by you. And I want more of that.”
“You liked that I beat the pants off you, literally?” She tilted her had and I hoped the smirk was ready to come out.
“Hell yeah. I liked playing and I liked what came after.” I tried my own grin. “To be honest, I like a lot of things with you. I’m sorry Loki pulled a fast one. I suspected he’d do something, but I didn’t know exactly what. But I want to make it better for you, as much as I can, because bein’ without you fucking sucks.”
She grimaced and looked out her window at the apartment building. “Yeah, I haven’t enjoyed being alone either.” She turned back to me. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain your side of things. I was just so mad that I’d believed Loki would honor the contract that I blamed you for something I should’ve known.”
She shook her head and rubbed her fingers over the hem of her shirt. “I don’t like being trapped or tricked, and Loki did both. I should’ve seen it coming. Actually, I did. I told Mel I wouldn’t go up to the compound with her because you can always check out but you can never leave.”
I nodded slowly. “The Hotel California reference.”
“Yeah. And now I essentially know too much. Loki can’t afford for me to leave.” She stared at her apartment. “It’s only been a week since I left, but it feels like a lifetime.”
“It wasn’t all bad, was it?” Glory, I wouldn’t handle it well if she was miserable with me.
“No. And according to the contract, I’m to be treated as a full member of the club, or he has to let me leave.” I winced, but she waved it away. “Oh, I know. That’s probably voided because the project he had me working on is over. But I think I’ve earned my place without being someone’s property.�
�� She gave me a half-smile. “What about giving you my patch?”
“What?” I must’ve blinked owlishly because she laughed.
“Sure. You could be the Property of Numbers. You’d be the Numbers’ Man.”
She grinned while I gaped like a fish. I’d never considered belonging to anyone, and despite the connotations of ownership, the idea warmed my chest unlike anything before.
I want to belong to her.
The thought slammed into me and stunned me. I must’ve looked like a deer in headlights because she patted my arm.
“Don’t worry. I was just kidding—”
“I’ll wear it.”
“What?” It was her turn to blink.
“I’d wear it in a heartbeat. I’d wear your property patch. I’d add it to my cut.”
“You would? Why?” She shot me perplexed look.
“Because I’d be fuckin’ proud to belong to you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Oriana
I think I stopped breathing for a minute in the cab of the van. Scott had just told me he’d wear my property patch. I wasn’t a biker. Hell, I’d never ridden on a motorcycle and didn’t plan to start. And I was a frickin’ prisoner of the club. But he’d wear my patch.
“You’re serious.”
“Yeah.” He looked relaxed and serene like when I arrived at the compound, totally sure of himself. “Yeah, belonging to you would rock my world.”
My brain fizzled to a stop. I’d never heard of a biker belonging to a woman, it was always the other way around. I stared at him, trying to figure out where the break in translation had occurred and I had to rewind the conversation a little to start again.
“I think I’ve missed something. What does wearing a patch really mean to you?”
“It means you’re my partner, someone I share secrets and dreams with, and you know, sex and stuff.” Scott frowned as he tried to find words to explain. “The property patch isn’t really an ownership thing for me, but it does save time with the other men trying to hit on you when you’re already taken.”
