“That’s awful,” I admitted. “I may have been neglected and all, but at least they didn’t hit me.”
“I can’t even imagine,” Beckham said. “Your father and the way he treats you? That’s not something that I’ll ever be able to comprehend. My father would move heaven and earth to make sure that I was happy. Even when I was a little asshole teenager, he didn’t totally and completely write me off. If anyone deserves their dads to dislike them a little bit, it is us at the age of thirteen when our hormones are all out of whack.”
I snorted. “There was one time that my father and stepmother refused to buy me tampons. I hadn’t done something that day for them. I’d forgotten. I don’t even remember what it was now. But I do remember the fact that I had no way to take care of that particular problem. Nor did I have any money to go get my own. I had to steal some from the neighbor’s house across the street. She had a box in her car.”
“I hate your dad,” Blaise said, having spent the last thirty minutes being given the super-quick version of why we were all there, what had happened to me today as well as in the past, and had come to the conclusion that I should disown my family.
And yes, even my brother and sisters.
I wouldn’t give up on them, though.
Not now, and not ever.
Even when it hurt when they continuously went back to my father after his treating me like shit.
One day, it wouldn’t hurt so bad, or be so fresh.
But that day definitely wasn’t today.
“I’ll get a better look tomorrow with the little girl.” Zach went back to our earlier conversation, I was sure because if he went with Blaise’s line of conversation, he’d get mad as fuck all over again. And he’d finally calmed down. “I have to leave for my parents’ house the day after tomorrow. But when I get back, I’ll start a bit of surveillance.”
Sin jerked his chin up in thanks, and I shifted in my seat, causing Zach’s hand to inch impossibly lower.
“I do speak another language!” Six yelled from a few chairs down, catching everyone’s attention.
Lynn looked at her skeptically. “Which one is that?”
“Shit.” She winked at him. “I talk English and shit.”
Lynn burst out laughing at that announcement, reaching for the crust that she was holding out to him with a grin on her face.
“I’ll be damned,” Trick murmured lightly. “You’re right. You are fluent in talking shit, too.”
Six pulled up her fist and Trick fist-bumped her.
CHAPTER 15
People sit around on their phones, but when I pull out a book, I’m the one that’s anti-social.
-Zach to Crockett
ZACH
Despite the long fucking day, I was wired.
That was usually how it went when I had something on my mind.
I’d spent the last few hours with Crockett in my arms, pressed up against me, and barely covered in a scrap of fabric.
She’d gone inside to get dressed, and I’d followed after her a few minutes later to find her fully clothed.
In my clothes.
Or, at least, my shirt.
She looked at me over her shoulder and said, “You can go shirtless underneath your motorcycle vest, right?”
“Cut,” I corrected her automatically. “And yes, I can.”
I eyed her sexy, strong legs. Allowed my eyes to roam over the shoulder that peeked out around the shirt collar. Then stopped when I realized that she wasn’t wearing any clothes underneath that shirt.
My dick, that hadn’t gone down despite the more than perfect orgasm it was given earlier, went electric all over again.
I groaned and shucked my swim shorts, hanging them up in the bathroom before going to my clothes.
As much as I’d like to take her right then and there, I wanted to spend the night devouring her.
I did not want to spend the night devouring her in Lynn’s pool house.
Which meant I got dressed, even though my dick didn’t want me to, and then shrugged my cut on over my bare skin before gesturing to her.
“We’ll go get my bike in the morning, take your grandfather’s car home,” he said. “I don’t want you driving just yet.”
She was already shaking her head.
“No can do,” she said. “Murphy drives himself to two places, the only day of the week that he drives—illegally, might I add—and that’s tomorrow. If I don’t have it there tomorrow morning by six when he’s ready to go, I’ll never hear the end of it. I’m getting it back to him. Tonight.”
My dick was not happy with that answer.
“He can’t put it off for just tomorrow?” I asked, sounding like a whine was building up in me. “That’s an extra hour that we’ll have to be driving tonight.”
Crockett smiled. “It’s fifteen minutes out of our way,” she corrected me. “I’ll drop it off, then hop onto your bike.” She paused. “You just have to deal with me doing it in your t-shirt, because I found vomit on my dress.”
“You can’t drive in a t-shirt only,” I found myself saying.
She scoffed. “I can and I will.”
“What if you get pulled over?” I asked. “What if they pull you over and then ask you to step out of the car? You’ll be on the side of a road in nothing but my t-shirt.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’d be wearing more than when I run down the damn road in running shorts and a tight tank top. And I won’t get pulled over. I go the speed limit. I don’t drive erratically. And, just sayin’, but I’ve never had a ticket before in my life.” She shot me a look. “Now, why don’t you really want to go now?” She looked down at my crotch where my dick still hadn’t gone down. If anything, it’d gone up. “Or did you forget how to control yourself?”
I groaned and reached for the phone and keys I’d left on the counter before shoving them into my pocket. She did have a point.
“Let’s go,” I grumbled.
She walked to the door, but I caught her before she could actually get out of it, wrapping my arm around her upper chest so that her unbound breasts were resting on my arm.
“Are you wearing panties?” I wondered.
She licked her lips. “Yes, my boy shorts.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled her scent, wishing beyond reason that we were going straight the fuck home. I wanted—no, needed—her in my bed. Now that the dam had burst, all of the things I’d been dreaming about were going to happen. One of which was waking up in the morning to her sprawled out in my bed, hair everywhere, legs splayed, with my cum dripping out of her.
“When we get home, I want you to leave this t-shirt on while I fuck you.”
With that parting comment, I let her go. When she took too long to get going, I smacked her on the ass to get her moving, causing her to startle.
“Hey!” She jumped, turning around to glare at me.
I grinned and then urged her forward. “Let’s go. I have things I want to do with you.”
She looked at me over her shoulder as she pushed out of the door. “Don’t you mean do to me?”
After waving goodbye to the few stragglers that were still hanging out by the pool, the two of us headed home in Murphy’s car.
We made it to Kilgore where my bike was the only vehicle in the parking lot, and I bailed out, watching distractedly as she climbed over the middle console instead of getting out to walk around. After making arrangements with Crockett’s brother to get my bike home, it hadn’t worked out when I’d forgotten to give him my keys.
Grinning, I started the bike up and headed for the exit, being sure to watch her in my mirrors.
At one point, she passed me because she’d gotten into a different lane, and a slow motherfucker in front of me had kept me from catching up very quickly.
Meaning that I got a front row seat to her sort of running a red light.
And I say sort of only because she hadn’t realized that she ran it due to the big ass truck that was blocking her view of the ligh
t until she was halfway into the intersection.
I wasn’t the only one to see it, either.
The cruiser that’d been on the side of the road checking for speeders saw it, then immediately flipped a bitch and turned his lights on, rolling right up behind her.
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed.
All of her ‘I don’t get tickets’ and ‘I won’t get pulled over’ replayed in my mind as I watched in fascination as she pulled into the driveway that was off a gas station, put her car in park, and placed her hands on the steering wheel.
The police cruiser with the pulsing blue lights pulled in after her.
I burst out laughing.
She was so damn adamant about driving the damn car home that I almost decided to drive straight to her store.
Instead, I drove to the gas station and decided to fill up my bike while I watched and waited.
I was kind of unsurprised to find Ford Spurlock being the one to get out of the cruiser.
Ford was one of my childhood best friends, along with Ashe Trammel, now known as Ashe Spurlock.
I hadn’t seen them since I’d gotten out of prison, and that’d not been for their lack of trying.
I just… needed a break from Kilgore. Kilgore being where it’d all gone down—me breaking my medical oath, and the law, as well as committing a mortal sin, all at once.
Today had been my first real trip back into the city, which had also been the real hesitation on my part for why I hadn’t taken Crockett up on her invitation to the wedding sooner.
But, as I filled my tank up, then leaned against the seat as I watched Ford approach Crockett’s driver’s side door, it was with a smile on my face.
I’d missed my friend.
And I knew the moment that Ford saw her he’d know that she was mine.
I mean, the t-shirt she was wearing said ‘Dixie Wardens MC’ on it in big bold print.
The Dixie Wardens MC was the motorcycle club that my father had been a part of since he’d gotten out of the service over twenty years ago now.
Ashe and Ford, like me, had been Dixie Wardens kids all born around the same time.
That t-shirt was in red, with black lettering on it. Once a year, all of us got together and all of the families chose a color so that we could all tell each other apart when we went to the Big Dixie Wardens reunion that happened between all the clubs in the fall every year.
Red had always been the Caruso color.
So when Ford walked up to the car and saw the shirt, he visibly took a step backward.
His frown was ferocious when he saw the shirt, then said a few words to her that had her reaching for the door.
I took that as my cue to walk up.
“Don’t you dare make her get out of the car,” I called out to him.
His head snapped up upon hearing my voice, and then his face transformed from one of indifference to one of fucking happiness.
Yeah, I’d stayed away too long.
I was such an ass.
I hadn’t even gone home, either.
And his wife, Ashe, had a new baby.
I was such a fuckin’ jerk.
“Stay in the car,” Ford ordered her as he rounded the front of the car.
Then he was on me, pulling me into a hug so tight and fierce that it was hard to breathe.
But I gave just as good as I took, and he was wheezing right along with me seconds later.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he rasped against my head.
I slammed my hand down hard twice on his back, thankful when I felt the body armor underneath his police uniform, then pulled back.
“Getting my head on straight,” I admitted quietly.
His eyes went hard then, narrowing dangerously. “When are you going to come meet your godchild?”
I felt a rawness to my throat when I said, “Tomorrow, if you want.”
He looked back over his shoulder at the woman. “She the reason you’re back?”
I looked back at her. She was staring at us through the windshield of Murphy’s car.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “She is.”
“Then you’ll both come,” he ordered. “But tomorrow isn’t good for us. We’re headed to Benton for the week. When we come back.”
I grinned then. “We’re headed there ourselves this weekend for my mom’s birthday. How about you come over Saturday and help us celebrate. I’ll meet him then.”
Ford narrowed his eyes. “Swear?”
I held out my pinky, and he rolled his eyes. “I’m not Ashe, loser.”
Ashe and I always pinky-promised.
Ford always thought we were weird.
“But you’ll take it anyway, or I’ll tell Ashe that you’re breaking your pact,” I said.
He poked me in the bare chest. “Why she wearing your shirt and your shirt only?”
The grin fell off my face. “We were at a wedding tonight when she was poisoned with some cookies. I had to take her to get some fluids in her, and we had to come back for my bike because this is her grandfather’s car. We were headed home.”
“What do you mean poisoned?” he grumbled, sounding pissed like I was.
I told him the rest of the story of her father, and by the time I was through, I knew that Crockett had yet another protector on her side.
When she met my dad this weekend, and some of the other Dixie Wardens, I knew that she’d have even more.
That’s just how these men were.
“If you need anything, anything at all, let me know.” He paused. “She know about Juniper?”
I nodded my head. “She knows.”
“She’s been trying to call me. To get me to talk to you.” He paused again. “I guess I see why she was so frantic to get that done now. You’ve moved on and she doesn’t like it.”
“She can not like it all she wants,” I said. “It won’t change anything.”
“You fuckin’ love her, don’t you?” Ford accused.
That’s when Crockett started to get worried and made to get out.
I pointed at her. “Don’t you dare.”
She curled her lip up at me in anger, causing me to smile.
“She’s not happy with you, bro.” Ford chuckled. “Looks like you might want to go home and take care of that attitude.”
I laughed then, thinking that was exactly what I’d been intending all along.
“I’m gonna do that,” I promised. “Just gotta get home first.”
Ford gave me another pounding slap on the back, but before I could go back toward my bike, he fisted my hair and said, “If you so much as think about backing out on me this weekend, I’m going to find you, then kill you. Then you’ll hold my baby.”
The sincerity in his eyes had me losing my grin.
I moved even closer, then wrapped both of my arms around his head and squeezed as tight as I could, causing him to laugh.
“I’ll be there.” I paused. “If I’m not busy with her, that is.”
When I let him go, Ford made his way back over to the car, leaving me there staring at him in bemusement.
He said something that made her laugh, then she turned and looked at me, her face turning into a pinched line.
“Uh oh,” I muttered to myself.
After a few more words, Ford tapped her roof, pointed at me, then headed to his cruiser.
I got back on my bike and followed her the rest of the way home.
She went two and three under the speed limit the entire way.
And when she finally arrived at Murphy’s place, dropped his car off, did something with the keys near the front door, and made her way to me, I could tell she was pissed.
“I can’t believe you’d do that,” she grumbled.
My brows rose as I pulled my helmet off and handed it to her.
She took it, yanked it down onto her head without an argument, then glared at me as if I’d been the one to do something wrong.
“Can’t believe I’d do what?” I as
ked. “I had nothing to do with him pulling you over. I swear.”
She pinched me. “That’s not what.”
It didn’t take a genius to see where this was going.
When I started the bike, she angrily wrapped her arms around my stomach and held on for the two minutes it took us to get home.
When I stopped the bike in front of my house, not intending on taking her home, she all but jumped off.
She didn’t try to march her ass home, though, which was the only thing that saved her from getting bent over my bike and having her ass spanked.
“I wasn’t purposefully trying to avoid them,” I told her. “I just didn’t have my head on straight. I may have only spent a very short time in prison, but I swear to God. My head was really fucked-up for a while. Not to mention Juniper left me really fucked-up, too.”
She whirled, marching her way back toward me.
“Are you still hung up on her?” she asked again.
And, like last time, I answered her. But I also made sure to pull her into my arms as I did. “I haven’t been hung up on her since the day I saw you.”
She licked her lips, her eyes going soft for a few moments as she digested the news.
Then she leaned in, pressing her unbound breasts to my chest, and making me momentarily forget where we were.
“He said that you weren’t coming to see him, and he wanted me to bring you,” she murmured, smoothing her hand up my bare chest, pushing it underneath the leather cut and squeezing onto the muscle of my shoulder.
“Go to my parents’ house with me this weekend,” I urged. “You can make sure I do.”
“As you wish.”
A fissure opened up inside of my heart, allowing even more of her through. “You want to know what else I wish?”
She leaned forward even more, this time giving me a lot of her weight. “What?”
“I wish that you’d climb into my arms.” I grinned wickedly.
She didn’t even miss a beat. One second she had her arms around me, her feet flat on the ground, the next she was climbing up into my lap.
Then her forehead was knocking against mine as she leaned in and pressed one hell of a kiss to my lips.
“Helmet,” I said when she pulled back.
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