Lock and Key

by Cat Porter

  “Vig… please.”

  “I’ll have eyes on you, but you won’t see me again. We’ll be in touch through email and unregistered cell phones. I’ll set you up.” He planted a kiss on my lips. “You open that sexy mouth of yours or anything goes missing… your sister pays the price. And I’ll come for you. You know how all this works. I don’t have to explain it. Do I?”

  I shook my head slightly.

  “You do this right, keep it between us, she stays safe. So do you. Just stay away. No contact with your club ever. Or I let them think that Dig betrayed them. I’m very creative that way.”

  “No…”

  “You in, pretty?”

  He was keeping me alive and killing me all at the same time. That was sheer fucking poetry.

  “I’m in,” I whispered.

  Vig brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. He picked up the styrofoam cup filled with stale ice water from the table by my bed and held it to my mouth. He watched as I took the straw between my lips and drank.

  I kept my word.

  I didn’t want to stay in Meager anyway, and Ruby had insisted I leave and start fresh somewhere new. She wanted to come with me, but I knew that wouldn’t work. So I sent her back home after the first month in Denver to sell off my and Dig’s small house and everything else we owned. She sold our parents’ house too and moved to Rapid City.

  In every city and town I landed in I immediately opened a safety deposit box in my name and one of Vig’s aliases, and put in five diamonds. I would send him the bank card to different post office boxes each time. He would sign the card and mail it back to me for the bank. I kept the keys, so there was no physical proof at his end. There was no trail between us that the Russians could trace. I had become Vig’s bandit concierge for his ill-gotten mafia gains.

  And now it was finally finished, thanks to cancer, thanks to Butler spinning out of control. And thanks to me wanting more out of my life with Miller and Jakey in it. I just wasn’t sure what living without that particular hell hanging over me anymore would be like, did I?

  “Pull over!” Boner’s booming voice snapped me out of my reverie. My eyes flicked to my mirror. Clip was following me.

  I sped up, cut off Boner, and made a reckless left at the fork in the road. Away from the club.

  Boner’s name flashed on my cell phone.

  I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or go out of my mind. I silently made twisted bargains with the powers of the universe for positive news.

  “Talk to me” I practically barked into the phone.

  “Didn’t you do that custom paint job for Creeper? That silver dragon with the red eyes?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Sister’s on her own driving Creeper’s bike, man! I just saw her. Get me now?” Boner screeched.

  “Where she headed?”

  “Looked like she was on her way back to the club, but then she saw me and took off.”

  “And?”

  “Blank, man. Her face was fucking blank. Blank and determined,” Boner said. “Reminded me of when she—”

  “Of what?”

  “Shit. I’ve gotta find her!”

  My every nerve was on the edge of a knife. “Boner, what the hell are you talking?”

  “Years ago in the hospital, right after… she wanted to… she tried to… Goddammit!”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and took in air. My brain went to the pills she carried with her. “Are you on her?”

  “Clip’s on her trail. Soon as I get off the phone with you, I’m on my way. How’s Dawes?”

  “Still in surgery,” I said. “Tell Clip to stand off. I know where she’s heading. Neither of you talk to her or approach her. You got me? Stay on her, but back off. I’m on my way.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? No way, I’m not taking any chances!”

  “I’m there in five, you stay put ’til I get there! You hear?” I yelled.

  “Hurry up! This is fucking with my head… I’m not letting her do this again!”

  I shut down my phone and grabbed my jacket. My taped up arm screamed in pain as I shoved it through the long sleeve. Being stabbed in the arm was definitely better than being stabbed in the chest or the side. Luckily, I had been wearing one of my thickest leather jackets so the knife that Peg had stabbed me with didn’t penetrate too deeply. I was functioning, bleeding a bit through my bandage and in pain, but functioning. I had only taken a few ibuprofen while Willy sewed me up, and I waited for Boner to call.

  “You good to ride?” Jump was in my face. “You bleeding again?”

  “Move!” I pushed him out of my way.

  Jump charged out to the lot behind me. “Vig just called me. She’s fine. He let her go. He also said she shot Creeper and took off on his bike. She’s got his gun.”

  My heart skidded against my ribs. I roared out of the club on my chopper and hit the one lane road that circled Meager that would eventually lead me straight to the town cemetery. Creeper’s bike stood in front of the tall iron gate. My red-eyed silver dragon on his gas tank glowed in the overhead lights. I hopped over the low stone wall that circled the cemetery. Boner and Tricky flashed their headlights at me, and I signaled them with two of my fingers.

  I ignored the jagged throbbing that burned up my arm and charged around the headstones that gleamed in the moonlight. A brittle thin laughter rang in the air. A chill stole down my spine.

  “Congratulations to me!” Grace’s voice cried out. I stopped. She stood maybe four yards from me. She drank from a bottle, then turned it over and poured the rest of its contents over her Old Man’s headstone. I quickly closed the distance between us.

  “End of Story, Dig,” Grace said. “Thank God Ruby doesn’t have to look over her shoulder anymore. But that’s ‘cause she’s dead now. Like you.”

  She raised the bottle in the air and smashed it over Dig’s gravestone. I stole behind her, wrapped my arm around her waist and swiftly pulled her into me.

  “Grace!”

  She howled and kicked. I clutched at her hands to keep her from punching up at me.

  “Baby…”

  “No!” she spit out. “You can’t make this better. Hell, no!”

  “I got you, Grace.” The side of my face pressed against hers. Faded traces of her perfume wafted up to me from her neck. “Not letting you go,” I said.

  She squirmed and pushed against me. “No!”

  “Stop it!” I raised my voice. “Grace!” I shook her.

  Her head fell back against my shoulder. She fought for air.

  “It’s over,” I murmured. “Whatever it is, it’s all over now.”

  “Wreck’s death shook him up, you know. It made him even harder. Made him take some strange risks.”

  “I know how that is.”

  She twisted in my embrace and gripped my arms, her eyes wide. I clenched my jaw against the pain shooting up my arm.

  “I want to tell you everything. I need to.” she whispered. “I want us to be nothing but honest with each other. Always. Is that too much to ask of you?”

  “No.” I held her steady gaze. “Tell me.”

  I held her close and she told me everything in a long whisper standing there together over Dig Quillen’s grave.

  Jesus Christ.

  She finished, wrapped her arms around my middle, and took in a deep breath. We stood in silence. I pushed back her hair. My lips brushed her forehead.

  The image of Grace bleeding, wounded, knowing she was losing her baby, and not giving in to the hysteria, to the chaos seared into my brain. Her keeping it together to crawl around her dying husband and take care of business blew me away.

  “You protected your Old Man, Grace. From the cops, from a killer, even his reputation with his club. And you kept your sister safe.” My hand rubbed over the cold, smooth skin of her back. She settled in my arms, and I pressed her in closer to me.

  “All these years, you’ve been feeling angry, resentful, hav
en’t you?” I said against her hair.

  “We had it all—at least I thought so.”

  “Dig took risks,” I said. “That’s who he was.”

  She pushed against me. I tightened my grip on her.

  “And I should have protected my baby instead,” Grace said. “I should have stayed put… pretended I was dead.” Her head slumped against me. “Something, for God’s sake!” She groaned up at the night sky. “Instead I was thinking about the fallout with the police, and the FBI, and Vig and his precious stash.”

  My jaw set. “And you will never know how that might have turned out, Grace. The killer might’ve shot you at point-blank range to make sure you were dead.” I tucked my face in her neck, my lips moved against her ear. “You’ll never know. You made a bold, ballsy choice out of love. You didn’t hesitate. And you survived. Cling to that.”

  A bitter chuckle bubbled out of her. “Bold and ballsy just about bled me dry.”

  “It didn’t though, Grace. You’re here, baby. Alive. Breathing. With me.” Her body shook in my embrace.

  “I came here to share the good news with my husband. Lucky for me, Creeper had a bottle of bourbon in his pack.” Her trembling transformed into shakes.

  Christ, she was laughing. Laughing hard.

  “Grace?”

  Her head fell back. “Dig hated bourbon!”

  Her fingers curled into my shirt underneath my jacket. I tilted her face up to mine in the moonlight. Her lips parted, her wet eyes blinked up at me.

  My beautiful Grace. My Sister. My lost girl. My determined survivor. My vivid bright in all my cloudy grey.

  I swallowed her whimper with my mouth. Her fingers pressed into my skin. I took her tongue over mine and drove through every corner of her silky mouth. The taste of her salty tears drove me on. I wanted to sandblast that sadness out of her for good. She wrapped her arms around my waist and arched into me.

  My head reeled. I didn’t give a damn that we were standing over her husband’s grave. Grace was mine, and I was hers.

  I dug my fingers into her thick hair. “All this shit’s done with. All of it. You made that happen,” I said. “Be proud of that. I’m proud of you. You’re done with the agonizing and the fucking guilt. You did good, baby. You took on huge burdens, and now it’s over. Let it go. Let the rest of them scramble over their scraps now. You live your life. You hear me?”

  I wiped away the streaks of wet that stained her cold face. She studied me. I loosened my hold on her hair, my hands swept down her shoulders.

  “Are you going to scramble for scraps too?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “There’s only one thing I want.” My heart jammed against my ribs.

  “What’s that?”

  My breath stalled. “You, baby.”

  Her round eyes searched mine.

  “You going to cut out now that everything’s over?” I asked. “Now that Ruby’s gone?”

  She shook her head. “I have Jake.”

  “You got me, too.”

  “Yes, I do.” Grace’s eyes softened. Her thumb reached out and brushed over my cut lip. “You’re bleeding.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  She took my mouth and sucked on my cut lip. The sting darted over my face.

  “Tastes good,” she whispered. My insides pitched at the husky tone in her voice.

  “You’re going to taste my everything when you get in my bed tonight,” I said. Her lips parted, and she made a little breathy noise I felt all the way in my cock.

  My hand slipped down her lower back and swiped the gun from her jeans. Her eyes flared at me. I held the gun up. “After we clean it, we’ll consider giving it back to Creeper in the name of good faith. Or maybe you want to hang onto it as a souvenir?”

  Grace’s eyebrows lifted.

  I grinned at her. “That’s what I thought.”

  I inhaled her warm scent as if it was life-giving oxygen.

  To me it absolutely was.

  “Miller…” A sob heaved from her lips.

  She had gotten on the back of my bike at the cemetery, and we shot straight to the club with Boner following us. Clip called Dreddy and Tricky and got Creeper’s bike back to the compound. Butler was recovering from himself under Bear’s watchful eye. Boner charged towards us once we got inside.

  “Tomorrow, not fucking now!” I said.

  “Okay, okay,” Boner muttered, hands in the air.

  I locked us in my room. We fell on the bed together.

  Grace’s fingers dug into my shoulders. Her cheeks were streaked with blood from my gashed lip. My tongue licked over the smudges. She trembled in my arms. We tore off each other’s clothes.

  “Yes, yes,” she murmured over and over again.

  My hands slid down over her fantastic ass, and I pulled her down harder over my cock. Her eyes glittered at me. My mouth devoured hers. I would never tire of that mouth, my personal fountain of life. My hands tugged her hair back, so I could taste her throat.

  She let out a cry and moved faster over me. Her eyes slid closed. My fingers swirled over her clit, her legs tensed, her back arched. I slammed into her and her whole body tightened around me.

  “Oh… baby—”

  I exploded with her.

  And so did everything I thought I knew. That huge part of me that had never before let go, did just that.

  “I missed you so much Grace, every minute of every goddamn day,” my voice shook against her skin. Her arms tightened around me.

  I stayed inside her for a long time after. I held her against my chest. Her warm body melted in my embrace.

  Her fingers skimmed the bandage on my arm. “You need more meds?” she asked.

  “In a little bit, I’m good now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m not moving.” I planted a kiss on her cheek. “So tell me, hot-shot Harley Lady, you haven’t been just selling t-shirts and boots all these years have you?”

  “No.” She smiled. “I sold bikes and managed several stores.” She brushed her soft lips down against my chest. “There are a hell of a lot of women riding these days, you know.”

  “I know,” I said. My fingers traced lines up and down her damp back.

  “You have your brother to blame,” she said. “He got me on a bike first. He even yelled at Dig for not teaching me sooner.”

  “Good man,” I said.

  “Dig was nervous about it. He said I’d be a lamb out among sharks on the road. So he taught me how to use a gun.”

  I filled my hand with one of her beautiful breasts. “Thank fuck for that.”

  “They taught me how to keep my cool in dire situations,” she said.

  “Again, thank…”

  “Miller?

  “Hmm?”

  “I missed you too,” she whispered. “I tried really hard to ignore it. I’ve always been good at ignoring it and coasting on numb. It didn’t work this time though. This time it just kept hurting.”

  “No more numb, no more coasting, missing or hurting. We’re going to live this. Together. Every goddamn day,” I said.

  I dug my fingers into her hair and drank from her sweet mouth. Her fingertips traced dizzying circles around my nipple and a tight shiver wound through me. My cock hardened inside her once more.

  I pulled her underneath me. “Second time,” I said.

  “Wh-what?” Her warm hands slid up my back. I pulled up her knees so they were bent at my sides, then I rocked inside her.

  Oh shit, there it was… that little gasp from heaven escaped her lips.

  “Second time you got taken, and my life flashed before my eyes.” I ground into her.

  Her walls pulsed and throbbed around me as she took me in deeper. Her eyes were glued to mine. Every cell in my body was set to bursting. Only Grace did this to me. No pretenses, no holding back. Only my beautiful Grace.

  “I can’t lose you.” I barely recognized my tense voice.

  I drove into her again, and she took me all the way
inside her.

  The bolts inside me loosened for good, the bars unhinged, the latches fell.

  “I need you, baby. Can’t lose you.”

  “You won’t,” she said.

  “God, how I love you.”

  “Miller…”

  My heart soared out of my chest. “Love you, Grace, love you so goddamn much.”

  Her hands dug into the flesh of my back, her hips rolled up towards mine. “I want to feel all of you. Please, baby… more.”

  I pounded faster into her. Heat rushed through every inch of me, and I drilled it into her. Her head flew back into the pillow. Her wet eyes stayed on me. Her body squeezed around mine.

  This is genuine, total, absolute.

  And I’m taking it and holding on.

  I let out a hiss and poured myself into my woman’s luscious body and stayed rooted inside her.

  “Goddammit, I love you.”

  My head rested on Miller’s practically hairless chest. His steady heartbeat filled my ear, and I listened to it as it revealed its secrets to me. His fingers grazed through my hair. I took in a slow, easy breath and enjoyed the looseness in my every limb and the lazy caresses of Miller’s hands down my back.

  I raised my head up and kissed his nipple, my tongue swirled around it. His breath hitched and heat flared inside me at the sound. I licked and nuzzled the wing of the tattooed eagle on his upper chest all the way up to the hollow at the base of his long throat. He cupped my ass, pulled me up his body and settled me in his warm embrace. I inhaled the musky scent on his sleek, damp skin and it smelled like… us.

  That carefully constructed hollow, empty glass box I had lived in for so long had been rendered useless, unnecessary, pitiful even. In fact, it could no longer hold me in. I liked this new fresh, sweet air in my lungs. I breathed out and the glass walls disappeared around me. I stood on the edge unfettered and looked over.

  Without a trace of fear or hesitation.