I ran my fingers through my hair and looked out the back door. Wren was sitting in one of the rocking chairs reading a book. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Call me if anything else comes up, otherwise we’ll see you Wednesday around noon.”
I disconnected the call and leaned against the counter. Things were finally starting to fall into place to get rid of the pieces of shit.
Things between Wren and me were fucking fantastic. My nights of sleeping on the couch, or praying she wouldn’t kick me out of the bed, were done and over. Hell, the past few days, we had barely left the bed. And if we weren’t in bed, we were on the couch watching TV, which always led us back to the bed.
She looked up from the book she was reading and waved to me.
How the hell I had been so lucky to get this woman in my life was beyond me. It was a bumpy road to finally get her over all the fucked up shit the Captains had done to her, but I thought we finally made it far enough down the road that things were taking a good turn.
I grabbed a beer then one of her froufrou drinks and pulled open the sliding glass. “You lonely without me out here, darlin’?” I drawled.
She eyed the bottle in my hand and reached out for it. “No. You just read my mind that I needed a drink.”
I held the bottle to my chest and shook my head. “I think I’ll just keep this one for myself.”
She rolled her eyes. “You think you could put the alpha away for a little bit?”
“You and that alpha shit,” I muttered. “Sounds like you’re calling me a wolf or something.”
“I’ll stop saying it if you hand me my drink.”
I sat down in the chair next to her but held the drink away from her. “How do you feel about moving back to Weston?”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
“Things are going to be wrapping up with the Hell Captains soon, and after that happens, we won’t have to hide out here anymore.”
She looked around the backyard and sighed. “Is it weird to say I’m going to miss this place? I know it’s tiny, but it’s really become my home.”
“Not weird. This place is special to me too. I forgot how much I missed coming here.”
“This is where you grew up?”
I nodded and handed the drink to her. “On the weekends. During the week, we lived over Mom’s flower shop.”
“That is why you have a rose on your shoulder.”
I nodded. “It was my mom’s favorite flower. She always had vases of them around the house.”
“That’s beautiful, Maniac.” She giggled. “Although, I feel like I should call you Dalton when we are talking about your parents.”
“Before I told you my name, I hadn’t heard it in over ten years. Before I joined the Lords.”
She closed her book and set it on the grass. “What do you think your parents would think of you being a part of the Fallen Lords?”
“Honestly?” I have never thought of what they would think. “My mom and dad were some of the nicest people around, but I really don’t know what they would have thought.”
She leaned her head back in the chair. “What does them being nice have to do with the fact of you being in an MC?”
“They liked everyone. Didn’t matter who you were or where you were from.”
“Then I think they would have been okay with it, right?”
I looked out into the woods. “I guess you’re right, darlin’.”
She cleared her throat. “Do you think they would have liked me?”
I looked at her and smiled. “Pretty sure my mom would have loved you, and my dad would have told me I was one lucky son of a bitch to land you.”
“Land me?” she giggled. “I think I really would have liked your mom and dad.”
“They were good people.”
She sighed heavily. “My mom was an alcoholic, and I never knew who my dad was. She always told me it was between these two guys, but both of them had overdosed before I was able to figure out which one it was. When she had a job, I never saw her, and when she would get fired, which was always inevitable, I still didn’t see her. Booze was always more important than I was. I always wished for a mom and dad who wanted me.”
I reached out and threaded my fingers through hers. “I’m sure she wanted you, darlin’.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Sure, she wanted me to keep the apartment clean and to cook.”
Dammit, Wren had a shit life before she had met me. “You had Jezebel, and then you had Cora though, right?”
A smile crossed her lips. “Those two were the only good things I had in my life for a long time. Jezebel always let me stay at her house when my mom would disappear. Her mom and dad never asked questions. Just pulled out the air mattress, fed me for about a week, and then I would go back home.”
“I’m sure they knew something was going on, Wren.”
She rolled her head to the side and looked at me. “They did. The whole school knew about my mom. Who she was and what she would do for her next drink.”
Pretty sure if Wren’s mom were still alive, I would have swung by her house and stuck a little C-4 in her basement. “How old were you when she died?”
“Nineteen. I was working three jobs to pay the rent and her bar tab. Once I hit that golden age of eighteen, she saw me as nothing more than a paycheck. Quit her job and told me it was time for me to start paying the bills since she had done it the past eighteen years.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.
“He didn’t help me,” she laughed. “Nobody helped me besides Cora when I moved to River Valley.”
“But you got me now, plus everyone back at the clubhouse.” She would always have me, and as long as I was a Lord, they would always have her back.
“I know. I was just having a pity party for some reason. You having amazing parents made me take a trip down memory lane that I normally don’t take.”
I tugged on her hand. “Stand up.”
“What? Why?” she asked.
“Because you’re too far sitting all the way over there.”
She stood up, walked the three steps to my chair, and fell into my arms. “Is this better, Dalton?” She pursed her lips, and I think she tried to look sexy but instead looked like she needed to take a trip to the bathroom.
“Three things.” I held up one finger. “Don't make that face again. I can’t decide if you need to take a shit, or if you’re trying to look like a dying fish.”
She slapped me on the shoulder and laughed. “I’m not sure I want to hear what the other two things are you want to tell me if that was the first one.”
I added another finger. “Two. Whenever you’re not in my arms, you’re too far away.”
“That was way better than the first one,” she sighed.
I added one last finger. “And three. With all that shit that happened to you in the past with the shitty parents and the Hell Captains, I can promise you nothing like that will ever touch you again. Before you, the club was my life, but since you fell into my life, everything has changed.”
“Maniac, the club is still your life.”
I pressed a finger to her lips. “It is, but now, so are you. I just want you to know nothing will ever be more important to me than you.”
“Not even your bike?” she snickered.
“The bike is a close second, but if it came down to it,” I cringed and thought hard about what I was going to say. “You come before the bike.”
She threw her hands up in the air and hooted. “That is huge! I know how much you bikers love your bikes.”
I grabbed her arms and wrapped them around my neck. “Yeah, but I love you more than my bike.”
“Dammit, Maniac. I had gone four days without crying. Why did you have to go and mess it up?” She wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I’m leaking. Don’t look. I vowed you wouldn’t have to watch me cry ever again.”
“I hate to break it to you, darlin’, but you’re a crier.”
/> “No, I’m not,” she sobbed. “You just can’t out of nowhere tell a girl you love her more than your bike. That is huge.”
“You know what would be even huger?”
“That’s not a word,” she mumbled.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it is because I just said it. You know what would be even huger?” I repeated.
“What would be even bigger, Maniac.”
“If you would actually say out loud you love me too.”
“I’ve said it,” she insisted.
I shook my head. “Bullshit, Wren. Those words have never come out of your mouth.”
“Yes, they did. Just this morning I said them.”
Now she had me thinking maybe I was missing it. “Uh, when was that?”
“When I woke up.”
I blinked once. “Darlin’, you were awake and in the kitchen making coffee before I even opened my eyes.”
“I know.” She reached around and rubbed her back. “That mattress is kind of worn, Maniac. I think you should replace it if you want to spend any more time here.”
“Stop avoiding what we are talking about, Wren.”
“I’m not. We’re talk about mattresses.”
Jesus Christ. When Wren didn’t want to talk about something, she really didn’t want to talk about it. “Fine. Whatever you want. You don’t want to say it out loud, then that’s fine.”
She twirled her hair around her finger and smiled. “Can we go mattress shopping before we leave for Weston?”
Lord help me, this woman was going to drive me crazy, but man, did I love her.
*
Chapter 20
Wren
“This morning?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Maniac rolled his eyes. “We’re headed back to the clubhouse, Wren.”
“But we’re coming back though, right?”
“To pack up the rest of our shit, yes. To live? No.”
I looked around the small cabin that had become my home. “But where am I going to live?”
He looked up from the bag he was packing full with his clothes. “With me.”
“With you where?”
“At the clubhouse for now, and if you want to get our own place, we can do that. I really don’t care what we do as long we’re in Weston.”
Weston. A town I had only lived in for a week, and now it was going to become my home. “I don’t want to stay in your room.”
“Why the hell not?” he demanded. He was getting mad at me. I didn’t like it. This morning, he had sprung on me we were going to Weston, and I was just expected to nod my head and smile.
“Because I tried to kill myself in the bathroom, asshole.” My words came out harsher than I had wanted.
He brushed my words off. “Then we’ll stay in one of the other rooms, or if we have to, we’ll get a hotel for a bit ‘til we can find somewhere else to live.”
I didn’t understand the urgency he had to get back to Weston. Just yesterday, we had lounged around the cabin, went to dinner in town, and spent the night making love. What had changed from the time we had fallen asleep to now?
“I left you some room in the bag. Just pack what you need for a couple of days, and we can come back for the rest.”
Something was different with him. He was distracted and wasn’t able to focus on anything. “Tell me what’s going on.”
He laid the backpack on the bed. “Nothing is going on. I just have to get back to Weston to take care of some club business.”
“The club business seemed to be taking care of itself the past couple of months. Why do you suddenly have to take care of it?”
He shook his head. “You know I can’t talk about this with you, Wren. You’re not part of the club.”
“What happened to you saying you loved me more than the club?”
“This has nothing to do with love.”
My heart dropped at his words. “Then what does it have to do with?”
“It has to do with things you don’t need to know. Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Because I guess I’m not good with being bossed around like a sheep.”
“You’re not a sheep, Wren.” He moved into the kitchen area. “Make sure you wear a jacket. We’re taking the bike because I need it tonight.”
“What’s tonight?” I asked. I looked down at the space left in the backpack. I was going to maybe be able to fit one set of clothes if I was lucky.
“Club business.”
I turned from the bed and watched him pull his gun from his waistband. “Club business that involves a gun?” I wasn’t okay with what was going on. Whatever he had to do tonight was dangerous if he needed his gun.
“You know I always have my gun on me if we go anywhere.”
“Yeah, to protect me. Something tells me I won’t be going with you for this club business.”
He shook his head. “You’re staying with Nickel and the other girls.”
“How come Nickel gets to stay back, and you have to go.”
He slammed his hand down on the counter. “Dammit, Wren. Why the hell can’t you accept anything I’m saying?”
I jumped back and held my hand to my chest. He’s never hit me, but my heart raced in my chest and my breath caught.
“Shit,” he muttered.
Yeah, shit was right. The man who I had fallen in love with and thought would never hurt me had just scared the living shit out of me.
He moved toward me, but I put my hand up. He stopped in his tracks.
I didn’t know what to do. My heart told me Maniac would never hurt me, but my head yelled at me I had thought the same thing about Rack.
“Wren, I’m sorry. I didn't—”
I shook my head. I didn’t want excuses. I didn’t want any of this. “I was just asking simple questions.”
He dropped his arms to his sides. “Wren, they may be simple questions, but the answers to them are far from simple.”
“Is this what being with you is going to be like when we get back to the club? Have the past two months been a façade? It’s all been fake, hasn’t it?” A sob worked its way up my throat, but I held it in. I wasn't going to cry. Not again.
“Nothing has been fake, Wren.”
“Then what in the hell was that?”
He looked back at the island like it was going to give him the answer he needed. “That was me being human, Wren. I can’t tell you what is going on. It’s safer if you don’t know. You kept asking me questions I can’t answer.”
“Bullshit. You can answer them, Maniac, but you and your club have to keep secrets. Secrets you say could hurt me, but who really knows what is going to hurt someone?”
He hung his head. “Dammit, Wren. I don’t know what to do right now.”
He was trying to be with me, but he also needed to stay true to his club. You’re the one who told him he couldn’t give up his club.
I had told him that, but I had never expected his club to come between us. “I don’t like what is happening right now.”
“I promised to you I would always keep you safe, no matter what. That all of the bullshit that touched you before would never get close to you again. Tonight, I’m doing everything I possibly can to make that happen.”
“You’re going after the Hell Captains tonight,” I whispered. Why didn’t I realize that before? While Maniac and I had been playing house in the cabin, the Hell Captains had been looking for me. How insane was it I had been able to forget about them for the most part?
“Yes, Wren. Just please don’t ask any other questions, because I’m not going to answer them. I don't want to argue with you over something that is going to be over by the time you wake up in the morning.”
I clutched my hand to my chest. “But what if something happens to you?” What if the Hell Captains got a jump on Maniac and he didn’t come back to me?
“Nothing is going to happen to me.”
I shook my head. “You can’t go, Maniac. I
can’t let you. The Hell Captains took so much from me, I’m not going to give them the chance to take you away from me too.” The tears were coming. The thought of losing Maniac was too much to bear. Arguing with him, I could handle, but knowing he might not come back to me was too much.
He closed the short distance between us and wrapped me up in his arms. “Only you could go from wanting to leave me to crying about losing me in two seconds.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you,” I hiccuped. “Well, I would if you tried to hit me, but I know you won’t do that. I was being really naggy with my questions.” I had been a dog trying to get a bone. I wasn’t going to give up until I got the answers I wanted. Now I had an inkling of what those answers might be, I wanted to take everything back. Not knowing what Maniac was walking into tonight would have been better than knowing that when he left me tonight, he might not be coming back.
He rubbed his hand up and down my back. “There went your record for not crying. You’ll have to try again tomorrow.”
I should have kneed him in the nuts for making fun of me, but it was sadly true. “Maybe I should count by hours. That would give me a bigger number, and I would feel better.”
“You could try that, darlin’. If that doesn’t work, you can always try minutes, if not seconds.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m supposed to be mad at you.” I buried my face in his neck, and inhaled his familiar scent. Was it possible to think of a person as being home?
I didn’t want to go back to Weston, but I knew as long as Maniac was with me, I would be okay. Home was wherever he was. “Are you sure I can’t come with you tonight?”
His body shook like he was laughing. I leaned back and looked into his eyes. “You can’t come tonight. Karmen has a huge girls’ night planned for you, Nikki, Cora, and Jezebel.”
“What about Alice?” I asked. I missed the crazy girl.
“You’ll have to ask Nikki. Nickel was the one who told me who would be there.”
“Are they there because they want to be there, or because you guys are making them be there so they don’t get in the way of whatever you’re doing tonight?” I was going to have to work my angle a little differently if I was going to find out exactly what Maniac was up to tonight.
Maniac Page 14
