“Shhh!” I whisper-yell, not wanting her to wake up Cyle.
“Oops! Sorry!” she responds quietly, her hands flying to her face in surprise. “I didn’t know he was sleeping! I came to tell you the guys said to stay in the room and lock the door. They think something might go down and they want to make sure everyone’s safe.”
“Okay,” I answer, not really paying attention to what she’s just said. “Is the new girl okay alone in Spin’s room?”
“She’s actually in Cain’s room with London and Jameson. I’m going to camp out in my room to be with Lily. Scratch just took her for a walk, but I need to feed her dinner. That dog eats like crazy.” She grins and I can see right through it. She’s acting calm and blasé, but I know she’s just as nervous as I am about hearing that something may happen here today, and we’re all stuck inside with no idea what that is exactly.
“Okay, we’ll stay put,” I comply, and she nods, closing the door behind her.
I swiftly jump up and lock it, then lie back down in my warm spot in the middle of the bed. I was so close to sleep. Maybe I’ll get there again if I try.
I close my eyes and count to three hundred seventy-nine before my eyes fly open again. There’s no way I can take a nap now. I’m too wired wondering what’s happening and if Twist will be okay. I’m sure he will be just fine; he’s a strong man, but I still worry.
And what could be happening today anyhow? Frankly, I’m surprised Avery gave as much away as she did. Usually I’m kept in the dark about absolutely everything. I wonder if it could have anything to do with Ghost.
His texts magically stopped coming around the time I had Cyle. It had been in the back of my mind that Twist was looking for Ghost when he went on the run with all the guys, but then he came right back. I guess the other guys could have found Ghost and left Twist out of it, but I find it hard to fathom that Twist would sit back after Ghost came into the club threatening everyone. Twist and I could both hear all the shouting and fighting that went down that day. I was terrified that anything would happen; luckily after a fist fight and some crazy threats later, Ghost left. He did say he’d return.
Maybe I should grab Cyle and lock us in the bathroom too.
No. Who knows how long we could be in there. I’ll wait, and if I hear any strange noises, we’ll go in there. I can’t believe Twist didn’t come back here and let me know anything. I would’ve preferred hearing it come from him to gage how serious he thinks it could be.
I’m doing my best to adapt to his and my brother’s world. I’ve even grown accustomed to all the big scary guys here all the time, but I’m still not a hundred percent comfortable living here. Twist is planning on moving us into the apartment that Silas rented me once this all blows over; I just hope that ends up being soon and Twist doesn’t go crazy being around me and Cyle all the time. He’s with us now, but he has the club right outside the door to escape into if needed.
I want to have Twist all to myself sometimes and here I never feel like we’re alone, even if we do have our own room. Well, Twist has his own space; I just sort of overtook it. Then Cyle came along, and as I gaze around the room, I see he has taken over nearly every surface.
Twist declares he doesn’t mind, but he needs to have room to breathe. I don’t want to smother him so early on in our relationship, especially since things seem to be so amazing between us right now. Except for not being able to have sex. Being on this mandatory break is driving me just as crazy as it is him. I have to give my body time to recuperate, but honestly that’s the last thing I want right now.
Earlier in the hallway, when he pulled on my nipple, I thought I was going to cream my panties. I was so turned on. He’s beyond sexy. I don’t even have an accurate description of my feelings for him at this point.
My brother has backed off some. I’m guessing because of the baby coming. He’s been really excited about Cyle, more so than what I was expecting. I figured he’d be grouchy about it, but he’s been coming to visit him a ton.
Whatever his reasons are, I’m grateful. I keep falling a little bit more in love with Twist each day that passes and Silas needs to learn to accept that I plan to have Twist in mine and Cyle’s life as long as he’ll have us. He’s a good man, with a kind heart, who deserves nothing but to be loved, and I plan to be the one to give it to him.
Your mind is a powerful thing.
When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.
-Kushandwizdom
I send Avery back to let Sunshine know to stay put and lock the room door. I doubt shit will happen to be needin’ her secured back there, but you can never be too careful when it comes to pissed off bikers. That woman and little boy in my room mean the most to me, and I’ll die before I let any motherfucker get past to harm them.
“Still nothing,” Spin grumbles, holding his shot gun as he peers out the cracked open club door. He has an opening large enough to push his shotgun through, ready for whomever.
“Maybe we oughta send 2 Piece’s pretty ass out there, see if anyone will come steal him,” Cain chortles and we all chuckle, minus 2. He just glares, attempting to puff up, like he’s a badass.
We all know he’s the pretty one, getting the women to chase after him. Even being all hung up on Avery, women still try to get to him. Avery takes it in stride though as 2 Piece happily pushes them all away.
London comes in carrying food, making Cain flip out that she’s not locked away with Jameson in the room.
“Sugar tits, the hell you doing out here?” he grumbles.
“I brought you guys some sandwiches.” She smiles and sets a platter on the bar.
I give her a small hug. “Thanks, Cupcake.”
She kisses my cheek in response and walks back toward the rooms.
Snake and Prez both eat the food while the rest of us keep a look out.
After Prez chews his food, he speaks up, “I needed to talk to y’all about Smiles.”
“What’s the deal?” Snake asks, and the Prez continues.
“I was able to pick up his ashes. I was thinking about letting a little free when I ride over a different road. That way he’s out on the road like he enjoyed so much.” He clears his throat as emotion overcomes him, discussing his oldest friend and brother.
Ares nods, “I think that’d work pretty good.”
The brothers voice their agreeance, and Prez continues eating, putting the subject to rest.
“By the way,” he grumbles between bites of his sandwich, “we’re gonna have words eventually over you doin’ as you please with Blaze.”
Ares shrugs and we all pay closer attention.
“You can get upset if you want, but I’ve been looking after this club for awhile now, and Blaze was my decision. I was in charge of the California run along with handling the Iron Fist issue. You told me to take care of it and I’ve been doing that.”
“Yeah, brother, guess I’m not used to someone else callin’ the shots.” Prez nods and I think everyone’s heart rate slows down slightly at them coming to terms about the issue so quickly.
2 Piece glances around, talking to no one in particular, “All the Nomads take off after church?”
“Yup,” Spin answers.
“They gone or just hitting the bar?”
“Fuck if I know dude.” He shrugs and looks back out of the door.
“This fuckin’ blows, I feel like a sitting duck or some shit. I should go try to find this motherfucker myself,” I grumble and Ares shakes his head at me. I know he’s looking out for me, but it’s fucking annoying.
He turns to Snake, gesturing him over. “You watch here,” he orders, then turns to me. “Twist, you can go check out back with me, since we only have a few windows on that side.”
“Bet.” Pulling my Glock out, I follow behind Ares, making our way out the back door. We keep quiet, in case we sneak up on someone.
Only it doesn’t matter, because someone was waiting for us. An excruciatingly painful hit to the back of my head
has my legs buckling and me falling to the floor. I swear my vision goes black, and when I finally come to, I watch as Ares straddles a man, raining his fists into him ruthlessly for a few moments until he finally wraps his monstrous hands around the man’s throat, gripping and squeezing until Ares’ face turns bright red with the force he’s inflicting, finally choking the life out of our attacker.
I feel like it takes hours for the guy to finally stop breathing, when, in reality, it’s mere minutes. Ares hops up, coming to me, when another man comes from the side of the house, jumping on Ares’ back. The men stumble, falling to the floor. Ares is on his stomach as the guy braces him from the back, repeatedly punching him in the kidneys and soft spots.
I’m still dazed; my body shook up so that I can’t run to him and help. I watch—my adrenaline spiking and my stomach flipping—as Ares struggles to get the guy off of him. They eventually roll and the man has Ares in a clutch, attempting to choke him.
Ares reminds me of a turtle, stuck on his back, scrambling to get ahold of his attacker. Luckily, they’re close to me, so I crawl closer and pull my blade free. Once I have the right grip, I raise my knife high, driving it down with as much force as I can muster in this position, straight into the man’s eye socket. It does enough damage that Ares is able to slip free. Once free, he yanks the knife out and drives it into the man’s chest cavity again and again until he no longer moves, and we’re covered in blood.
“He’s dead brother,” I state, and Ares’ gaze meets mine.
“This is fucked,” he pants. “Can you walk?”
“I think so, but not yet. I feel like I have to puke.”
“Fuck, sounds like a goddamn concussion. We need to make you walk around with a helmet or something,” he mumbles, and I shake my head, causing the pain and spinning to return a little more. “Your knife, brother,” he declares, and thrusts it toward me.
Wiping the blood on the grass, I strap it back in my holster.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“You probably just saved my life.”
“No worries,” I grumble, not liking when people thank me for shit. I was just doing my job, helping my brother out. It was nothing special. “Who the fuck are these fools?” I gesture to the dead guy lying in front of me.
“No clue. Let’s get you back inside.”
“Just help me stand up. I think I’ll be all right once I’m on my feet and we can keep checking. If there’s any more fuckers back here, I don’t want them sneaking in somehow.”
“All right.” He leans over, quickly pulling me up to my feet with his hulk-like strength. That guy on the ground must have had a lot of strength to be able to overwhelm Ares. It’s pretty unusual for some shit like that to happen to him.
Getting to my feet was easy, minus the slight spinning on the way up. Now I have to concentrate on walking for a second, to shake off the splitting pain on the back of my head. I wouldn’t be surprised if my damn skull back there was bruised or cracked or whatever. Doesn’t matter anyhow, I’ll never see a doctor about it.
“You good, brother?” Ares asks.
“I’m straight, let’s go.” Only I’m not really. At least not one hundred percent, but I ain’t mentioning it to him.
We begin walking, coming around the side of the building and there’s nothing. I let loose a pent up breath I had no clue I was harboring and continue on.
We get around to the front of the clubhouse just as a bomb goes off at the opposite side of the compound, and Ghost runs across the parking lot to untie Blaze. Ares takes off in a sprint toward the men, his feet thundering against the ground in his powerful strides.
I pick up my pace a little, concentrating on walking quickly and not falling over as a shot rings out, and there’s a loud growl in pain. I have no clue who it came from, but it spurs me on to go faster, just in case it could be Ares and he needs my help again.
Ares and Ghost are fighting. When I get close, I can’t help but to wig out when I see him. Rearing back, I kick Ghost harshly in the backside of his head while Blaze sputters and moans, his blood gurgling out of his body, bringing me a minute drop of happiness to know it was indeed him who got shot and not Ares.
Ghost roars after my kick connects and Ares backs away a little, giving me some space. I told him I wanted to gut ghost, to be the one to slaughter the man, making him pay in torture and pain. With as much fucked up shit as I’ve done though, in this moment, I just want him gone.
Scratch comes hightailing it to me with my electric drill, like a proud puppy for bringing me my favorite weapon and the adrenaline spiking through my body causes my head to clear, the fuzziness and my daughter’s little voice disappearing.
“No!” Ghost screams in protest as Ares grabs his arms, and Scratch helps to hold him down.
“I heard you like to hurt people motherfucker,” I begin. “I also heard you hit my ol’ lady. Just how much of a bad fucker are you?” I ask, and take another step closer, the man’s eyes widening in panic. “Let me show you how twisted I am,” I declare, and come at him with my drill.
He squirms and screams, attempting to get away. I’m eventually able to shove the drill bit into his cheek, amid the loud whirring of the drill and Ghost’s screams, he rips his head back in horror as it tears a large, open gash into the side of his face.
I let loose a maniacal laugh and drive the drill into the middle of his throat, his yelps of pain getting cut off as I drill holes into him over and over, causing him to bleed out in horror.
The brothers rush out, Cain and Snake taking off to do perimeter checks as Spin unloads his shotgun into both men lying on the asphalt, confirming they’re truly dead.
“Holy fuck, Twist.” 2 Piece stares at me in shock. “You gonna be okay with my sister and the baby? I’ve seen you fuck some shit up before, but I’ve never seen you do that.”
“That’s because you’re never around when I take care of business like this. And let’s get something clear; I fuckin’ love your sister, man. I just killed for her and I’d do it a million times over if needed. I know you’re doin’ your duty an’ all, but it’s time you back the fuck off. She and Cyle belong to me now.”
He steps back quietly, clearly thinking over everything I’ve just said. After a few beats, he holds his hand out to me, offering his blessing. I shake it, welcoming his understanding on just how much Sadie means to me.
I love her. She’s mine and everyone finally fuckin’ gets that.
It’s never too late to live happily ever after.
-Unknown
Two months later…
The house actually sold. I’m still freaking out a little inside that my parents’ house, where I grew up, is gone and I won’t ever have to worry about it again. I’ll probably never go back to California, and as much as I believed it would bother me, now that it’s happened, I’m thrilled that it doesn’t. If anything, it’s a relief, and now Silas will get the money from the sale, which he completely deserves for always keeping the house up and for taking care of me. My poor brother deserves something.
I hope he’s happy about it. Knowing him, he’ll say he doesn’t want the money since it came from our parents’ place, but he better keep it. He, Ares, and Avery need their own house anyhow. I know they don’t plan on having kids for like ever, but someday one of them is going to knock her up as well, and they’ll need the space.
Never in a million years did I think my brother would admit to me that he’s in love with both a woman and a man. But after getting to know them both, I can understand why. Their love is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Avery’s ol’ lady cut looks intimidating as all hell, belonging to the VP and the Sgt. At Arms both. I finally got to show off mine, advertising property of Twist—The Unholy One. If people only knew just how crazy our men were, they wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Like I should talk about strange love. The biker I fell in love with has a truckload of issues himself. They’re nothing we
can’t handle, and we get through them together. He’ll get a little down occasionally, I notice, when he sees something specific. On days when the sky is an amazing shade of blue, he won’t even look at it.
Twist treats my sweet Cyle like he’s his own. You’d never know he wasn’t either. Cyle has my light blonde hair and Twist has dirty blond hair, so it’s like we all sort of match.
“Gimme the kid, babe.” Twist holds his hands out toward me and I pass Cyle over with his bottle. As fast as Twist approached, he and Cyle are gone into the kitchen, doing their own thing.
That man has been my saving grace when it comes to being a new mom. He doesn’t know everything, but he knows a lot about stuff that I have no clue about. I had no idea I’d meet someone who would parent with me as if we’re a team.
It’s never just me unless he has a run, and even then, Avery comes and stays with me. She brings her puppy which I absolutely love. London even stops over when the guys are gone to hang out. Her little boy Jameson is so freaking adorable and is quite funny. I love it when they’re all here.
When the guys aren’t out playing biker, we have dinners and barbecues at the club, but we also have plenty of time on our own. Avery, Silas, and Ares just had Cyle for the first time a week ago for an entire evening so Twist and I could have a real date night. We rode his bike into Austin and he took me out to a nice restaurant and then to see a movie. It was too chilly to ride around when we finished but it was amazing just to be up close to him that much. I had a wonderful time and Avery offered to watch Cyle once a month like that so Twist and I can have a day to just worry about being a couple in love.
Glancing at the clock, I notice it’s almost time, so I call for Twist. “Hey, babe, you have your doctor’s appointment soon. Did you want me to come to this one with you?”
He saunters into the bedroom with Cyle attached to his hip. “Nah, Sunshine, you don’t have to come to this one. I don’t know if I’ll be going as much anymore anyway.”
“I thought the doctor said you needed therapy at least once a week to keep your mind clear and not dream so strongly.”
Friction (Oath Keepers MC Book 5) Page 17
