Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  He had a skull tattoo on his bicep, and a US flag just underneath that.

  And he was sexy.

  Oh, so sexy.

  “You know he gets bored easily, right?” Titty…or whatever her name was, said.

  I ignored her and kept my eyes on Silas as the man in the middle of the ring with the referee shirt held up his hand and started to speak.

  “No hair pulling, scratching, guns, knives, ball grabbing, or bitch slapping allowed. Ready?” The referee called out.

  Both men nodded, grinning, and all I could do was snort.

  Ball grabbing or bitch slapping?

  I mean, they really had to spell that out in the rules?

  At the nods of both men, the referee held his hand up and said, “Start.”

  I blinked when Silas’ fist shot out and connected immediately with Stone’s face.

  “Ohhh,” I said, putting my hands over my mouth as my stomach knotted.

  That had to hurt.

  And it wasn’t over, because Stone returned the favor two seconds later.

  Then they proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of each other.

  ***

  “Does that hurt?” I whispered, wincing when he hissed a breath in through clenched teeth.

  “No, not at all. I don’t know what would give you that idea,” he said sarcastically.

  “You’re gonna need stitches,” Rue said from beside me.

  “And possibly a new face,” Baylee quipped from my other side.

  “I don’t know about that,” Kettle drawled. “I’m pretty sure he’s happy right where he’s at.”

  I laughed.

  “Yeah, I’m sure he is,” I said, leaning into him.

  His hands went around my waist and he pulled me in close.

  “So I have a question to ask you,” he asked.

  I leaned in, aware that the women at my sides hadn’t moved and were now leaning in, too.

  “Yeah,” I asked with a laugh.

  “So…what are you doing…for the next fifty years?” He asked nonchalantly.

  I inhaled swiftly, but his twinkling eyes made me suspicious of what he was going to ask next.

  “N-nothing,” I said. “W-why?”

  He didn’t spare the women at my sides a glance as he kept his gaze on me, his swollen eyes looking like they were going to hurt for the next couple of days.

  But his eyes were all for me as he said, “Because I want you to be my woman. In front of my family and friends, my club, I want you to know that I love you, and I want you to be mine forever.”

  I was crying and I didn’t even realize it.

  Crying hard, too.

  He leaned forward until my face was in his hands, and his baby blue’s were staring into mine.

  “You got anything to say?” He asked after a while.

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I whispered.

  “Not even a yes?” He confirmed.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes what?”

  “Yes, I have something else to say.”

  “Well?” He asked, sounding like he was starting to run out of patience.

  “Are you asking me to marry you…or just be with you forever?”

  He grinned and pressed his split lip against mine.

  “Little bit of both.”

  “Then yes.”

  “Yes to which?”

  I laughed.

  “Yes to both.”

  Cheers, whistles, applause and hoots erupted behind me, and I turned to find every single one of the Dixie Wardens MC, Benton Chapter, thundering their approval.

  I laughed through my tears as I threw my hands around Silas’ neck.

  It wasn’t long before the two women at my side did the same, and we gave Silas one big woman sandwich.

  “I love you too,” I whispered into his ear.

  He growled and rubbed his bearded face against the sensitive skin on the inside of my neck.

  “Good,” he rasped. “Because that’s kind of a requirement.”

  “Bossy man.”

  “You know you like it,” he whispered into my ear.

  I shivered when those words penetrated my brain.

  Yet, I couldn’t disagree. Not even a little bit.

  I did like it!

  Chapter 22

  I love food. But I hate my fat pants. The dilemma is real.

  -Fact of Life

  Sawyer

  I woke up to a ring on my finger and a leather vest similar to Silas’ in my size lying next to me.

  On the back of it was a rocker stating I was the ‘Property of Silas.’

  I was freakin’ ecstatic.

  Although it wasn’t the most romantic of gestures, I knew he’d really meant it.

  He’d had the vest made.

  He’d gotten me a ring.

  He wanted it all, and I was so happy I could burst.

  There were about a million and one things that went bad from the night I’d decided to go out with my friends, and I couldn’t name one single thing that I looked forward to after I was sentenced to prison.

  Now, though, I had my whole life ahead of me.

  If someone had told me I had Silas waiting at the end of the tunnel as my prize for making it out, I would’ve never believed it.

  Why?

  Because people like Silas just didn’t exist.

  They weren’t real.

  Or at least that’s what I’d thought.

  But Silas was real. And he was really mine, and mine alone.

  And he was everything I’d never even dared to dream for.

  Getting up, naked as the day I was born, I slipped on the vest and smiled at how soft the leather felt against my skin.

  And it fit me perfectly.

  Buttoning the three buttons at the front, I walked to the dresser drawer that I’d commandeered from Silas, and slipped on a pair of panties.

  They were hot pink and said ‘Pink!’ across the back.

  They were from high school, of course, but they still fit.

  And I wasn’t picky right then.

  Practically skipping out of Silas’ bedroom, I walked through the house with a stupid smile on my face.

  “Silas!” I yelled as I skipped around the corner.

  And I ran into the kitchen skidding to an immediate stop at the sight of the entire room filled with Dixie Wardens.

  “Shit,” I hissed, turning tail and running back out of the room.

  I could hear the laughter following me as I dashed back into the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me.

  I went straight into the bathroom and turned the water on, warming up the shower.

  Shucking the vest, I hung it up lovingly on the door and smoothed my hand down it, all the while my face flamed at all those men seeing me in nothing but my panties and a vest that barely covered my breasts.

  “Shit,” I laughed. “That man needs to warn me when people are coming into the house!”

  I hadn’t heard them at all, either.

  And Silas’ place wasn’t so that large I wouldn’t have been able to hear them unless they were intentionally being quiet.

  “Silly man not warning a woman when…eek!” I screamed when I turned around and saw Silas staring at me with an amused expression on his face.

  “You were saying,” he drawled.

  I laughed, placing my hand over my chest where my pounding heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest.

  His eyes went down to my bare chest, and I saw his pupils dilate as he started to move forward.

  I put my hand up to stop him, but he ignored it, walking around my hand and crowding right up against me so that my back met the shower door with a soft thud.

  “We can’t,” I tried, knowing that there were about five men in the kitchen that were probably very aware of what was going on in here.

  “You’re going to come out there,
wearing what you were wearing, and expect me not to touch you?” He asked, pushing his hardness into me with his body.

  My back was chilled from the cold glass my bare back was pressed against, causing my nipples to pebble in reaction.

  And Silas didn’t miss it as he brought both hands up and gently cupped each one in his hands.

  My lips parted on a soft pant as I watched his eyes move up from my breasts to connect with mine.

  “So no complaints?” He asked. “You said yes?”

  I groaned as he pinched both nipples.

  “I wasn’t aware that you’d asked me a question,” I panted out.

  His reply to my comment was to pinch the very tips of my nipples as he pulled slightly down, causing me to follow his movement and press my body even further into his.

  “Silas!” I gasped.

  “You were saying?” He urged, letting go of my nipples and gliding his hands down my body until they rested against my hips.

  I shook my head. “I can’t reply until you ask.”

  He growled. “Is that right?”

  I nodded. “That’s right.”

  And then he dropped to his knees in front of me, pulling my panties down to my ankles.

  “I don’t think I heard you right,” he continued.

  I watched him as he leaned forward and pressed a chaste kisses against each of my hips before looking up at me, watching as his hands slid up from my calves all the way to the apex of my thighs.

  I bit my lip as I looked down at him and watched as he slowly leaned forward and pressed a kiss at the top of my pubic bone, right above the lips of my sex.

  His beard tickled my clit as his thumbs traveled down and in, spreading me apart for his tongue to tickle the little bundle of nerves.

  I gasped and instinctively spread my thighs for him, and he took full advantage by shoving two thick fingers inside of me and curling them towards my front.

  “Fuck!” I hissed, hips jumping as he slowly tapped his fingers against that sensitive spot inside of me.

  The steam from the shower was starting to fill the small room, and I could see the silhouette of my body in the mirror when words rising through the steam on the glass began to appear.

  Thanks for the show.

  “Silas,” I said, pulling his head away from me. “Did you write that?”

  He pulled away, his lips glistening in my juices, looking over his shoulder to where my eyes were pointed, and he completely froze.

  His muscles locked tight, as he suddenly exploded away from me, gathering a towel from the rack beside the shower and wrapped it around me.

  “Get dressed,” he growled, walking to the door and yanking it open.

  The tone of his voice told me that this clearly wasn’t just one of Silas’ moods, and I hurried to do as he instructed.

  This was serious, his whole demeanor told me so, and I wouldn’t be screwing around.

  I rushed into the bedroom and got dressed. Quickly.

  And it was good thing I did, too, because within two minutes of him leaving the bedroom he was walking right back into the room with some type of electronic box in his hand, all of the men that had been in the kitchen following behind him.

  I sat down warily on the bed, scooting to the middle and crossing my legs in front of me as I pulled my knees up tightly to my chest.

  Wrapping my arms around my legs, I watched as each man methodically searched the room, moving things around and generally making a colossal mess in their quest to find whatever it was that they were looking for.

  “In here,” I heard Kettle yell.

  I blinked and watched as Silas moved to the closet, which was between the bathroom and the bedroom.

  “Motherfucker! Goddamn motherfucker was in my house!” Silas growled low.

  I looked down at my hands, remembering all the things I’d done in this room with Silas.

  When had whatever he’d found gotten there?

  Was it there since the beginning? Only since last night?

  Where’d it face?

  “Looks pretty new,” Trance said, inspecting what looked to be the smallest camera in the world. “Ran off a battery, too. Has a memory card in here. Looks to be one of those ones that he’d have to come back to the housei love to check the footage.”

  I was relieved at hearing that news, it was definitely better than the alternative of it being a live streaming device allowing the person who placed it there to check in anytime they wanted to.

  Now my hope was that it’d been put in very recently and hadn’t yet been checked.

  Which was a realistic hope, given the fact that I knew for certain that the maid cleaned the bathroom mirror when she was here last.

  “You know,” I said, interrupting the intense conversation that was going on in front of me. “The maid came last Tuesday, and I know for a fact that she cleaned the bathroom mirror. The note that I left on the bathroom mirror is gone. Remember Silas?”

  His eyes went far away for a minute while he thought back to the note.

  I’d left in a hurry that morning with him in the middle of the lake fishing from his boat.

  So I ran around inside the house like a chicken with my head cut off looking for a piece of paper to tell him that my phone was dead and I had to go into work to get the charger for it. In my haste to leave, I’d written him a note on the bathroom mirror knowing he’d see it.

  It’d been there for two days until the maid had come and cleaned the house, since apparently Silas didn’t even own a bottle of glass cleaner.

  I remember being embarrassed at the thought of her reading what I’d said: I’m going to the office to get my charger. Your ass looks sexy in your boat.

  I hadn’t even been able to see him from where I’d been.

  But I knew it to be a fact, so I’d written it to him knowing it’d make him smile.

  “That was Tuesday,” Silas said, eyes again going far away as he looked at the camera in his hand. “Today is Sunday.”

  I nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Then Silas hauled back and threw the camera across the room, shattering it as it smashed against the wall.

  Pieces of glass and plastic littered the floor, and I closed my eyes, knowing that Silas was worrying.

  Worried Silas equaled bad mood Silas.

  Something I’d come to recognize since we’d met and started dating.

  “Can you just…get her out of here for a little bit? Take the boat,” Silas said roughly, pulling his hands up to sift through his hair.

  Sebastian nodded and pulled away, walking to the closet and pulling out a pair of shoes.

  He tossed them on the bed and I slipped them on to my feet, watching Silas’s chest heave as he drew in breath after breath.

  Never once did his eyes turn to me, and I knew the best thing I could do right then was leave.

  Standing up, I moved in between big bulky men that were taking up the space of our bedroom and stopped in front of my man.

  “So, do I get to call you my old man?” I whispered, pressing my lips against his strong jaw.

  He finally looked down at me, and his muscles immediately softened.

  “Yeah, you do,” he said simply.

  “I love you.”

  His eyes closed.

  “I love you too, which is why it pisses me the fuck off that I have to get you out of here while we figure this out,” he growled.

  I hugged him around the belly.

  “Don’t leave me over there for too long. Your grandkids are hellions,” I teased.

  He huffed out a laugh. “They take after their daddy.”

  “Hey!” Sebastian said indignantly.

  I smiled and pressed my lips to his.

  “Be safe.”

  Little did I know that those words would haunt me hours later.

  ***

  “You have to tell her, Sebastian. She’s going to figure it out eventually,
” Baylee hissed.

  I woke from sleep almost instantly, but my years in prison had finely honed my faking sleep skills.

  I knew that I’d learn more from them now by eavesdropping on their conversation while I pretended to be asleep instead of waking up and demanding they tell me what was going on outright.

  Or, at least, that’s how I’d get the most information from Sebastian.

  Baylee would probably just tell me whatever it was that I wanted to know.

  My stomach was in knots as I listened to the two argue back and forth.

  “But we don’t know anything. We only found his bike in fucking pieces. He’s nowhere to be found,” Sebastian said in exasperation.

  But I heard the hint of fear in it.

  And I knew fear when I heard it, believe me.

  Sebastian was worried about something.

  “Yeah, but if Silas’ bike was broken up like that, then most likely Silas is too. Even if he’s not actually at the scene of the crash,” Baylee whispered a little too loud once again.

  This time I knew she was trying to wake me, so I sat up, only opening my eyes once my feet were on the floor next to the couch.

  “Tell me,” I whispered.

  Sebastian was across the room from me leaning against a wall in the kitchen.

  Baylee was directly across from him standing beside the kitchen island staring at him like he was the school-yard bully.

  Sighing, Sebastian leaned forward until both elbows rested on the countertop before saying, “Dad’s bike crashed in between Longview and Kilgore. He left on his own while we were all doing our own thing around five this evening, and we haven’t heard from him since.”

  My heart froze as I looked at Sebastian, hoping beyond hope he would tell me he was joking or that they knew exactly where he was.

  But he wasn’t and he didn’t.

  “You didn’t have any GPS or anything on him?” I asked worriedly.

  Sebastian shook his head. “No.”

  “But…but…what are we going to do? Are you going to look for him?”

  Sebastian nodded. “We’ve been looking for him since we realized he left. Kettle was the one to find his bike. I’ve got a few friends working magic on their end, but dad’s normally the one using his contacts to find people we need. We’re not sure where to go from here.”