His Lady: The Wounded Souls

by Leah Sharelle

  “It goes both ways, Beast. Talk to me, not at me, okay, handsome?”

  As his lips fell on mine, a groan vibrated through them and to mine. We kissed slowly, not in a hurry, just enjoying the afterglow of awesome, mind-blowing sex.

  “Okay, Rainn, I will talk to you next time I feel the need to lock you in our room and never let another man’s eyes roam your sexy-as-fuck body,” he said against my lips.

  Laughing at the absurdity of his statement, I rolled my eyes. What a typical response from a Wounded Souls man.

  “I appreciate your restraint, Mannix,” I replied sarcastically. “Now help me get some feeling back into my legs, then we can talk about how you are going to get me back to our suite without your cum seeping out of me,” I quipped as I leaned in and gave him one more chaste kiss.

  Mannix rubbed his hands sensually over my thighs as his body shook with laughter underneath me.

  “If that’s the only problem we have, Lady, life is going to be fucking great from now on.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  Chapter 27

  MANNIX

  I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face as I listened to my woman and Teach outline their plan for the dance school they wanted to start in a building the club owned across from the Bar and Grill. Sweet Lady School of Dance they wanted to call it. I smiled at the name, which was a cute play on the names Deck and I called our women.

  I also couldn’t help the fact that my cock was harder than a steel rod. Last night, in the dance room, Rainn seduced me with her sexy dance and the best sex of my life. It wasn’t the type of sex we had, because Rainn and I certainly had been very adventurous during our years together—nope, it was the shift in how I felt—suddenly nothing else mattered more than she did. My fiery dancer owned my arse. It was sexy as fuck the way she stood up to me and called me on my bullshit, but the way she resolved the issue with no crap and no drama just a sexy dance, earth-shattering sex, and a compromise—that was classic Rainn. My ex would have dragged the argument on for days, weeks even, until the tension was so unbearable and caused another round of nasty shit.

  From now on, whenever we argued, and we would because let’s face it, I was an idiot, I was going to insist we settle it with a lap dance and then some reverse cowgirl sex, Rainn style.

  “Mannix, are you listening, or are you eye-fucking your woman, who, by the way, just left the room,” Booth said to me with an amused and knowing grin.

  Huh, what?

  I looked up and saw that Rainn and Teach had indeed left the war room.

  Holy fucking hell. How long did I think about Rainn’s seduction?

  “I agree with their plans and will have Ford and Darth go over the requirements for the building to get it up to code for public use and see to any necessary insurance. Is everyone in agreement on Sweet Lady School of Dance being the newest business of the Wounded Souls MC?” Booth asked, his hand raised in the air.

  All hands went up, and cheers erupted. I wouldn’t lie and say that I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Rainn teaching dance was so much fucking better than her dancing for money. A thought best kept to myself.

  Booth’s hand landed down hard on the table, halting the celebrations.

  “Ford, bring up the security cameras for the main room. Someone entered the compound and left that note, and I want to see who.”

  The menace in my president’s voice unnerved me, not that I blamed Booth. The note left no doubt in my mind that Rogue was now well and truly desperate to kill one of our women. They were all in danger, and we had no idea where it was going to come from or when.

  All of their movements outside the compound had been severely limited, but with four of them pregnant, we had no choice but to get them to their scheduled doctor’s appointment. But other than those outings, the ladies of the flock were getting mighty familiar with the inside of the compound.

  “Okay, Pres, this is the day we found the note.” Ford pressed some keys on his laptop, and only a minute passed before the images appeared on the wall monitor.

  We watched Shiloh sneak into the kitchen, then come out with a large bowl of what looked like ice cream and fed it to her dogs, then we watched as she hid her half-eaten banana in the top left pocket of the pool table.

  “Remind me to get that,” Deck muttered, his head lowering to the table with a soft thud.

  We all laughed at the antics of the club princess. Ford fast-forwarded the tape and stopped when a figure came through from the back hallway. That hallway led to the supply area where Stella had a pantry for the bulk grocery items and was rarely used except for her or a member if he was helping her put shit away after a shop. The darkness of the hallway made it hard to see, but what was obvious was the figure was a—

  “You have got to be fucking shitting me!” Steel exploded. My brother vibrated with pure anger, and for good fucking reason.

  There, in plain sight and as bold as you like with the note in her hand was fucking Callie Stone.

  The meeting came to a halt when Steel jumped from his seat and ran out of the war room. I knew where my brother was headed. He needed to get eyes on his wife, Mia, who was going to be devastated when she found out it was her sister feeding club information to Rogue all this time. Her own sister had set her up more than once, and her own blood had deliberately put her in harm’s way. The rage brewing inside me threatened to consume me. One of our fucking own!

  I turned my attention to my former commanding officer, and now president, the man I would walk through a hail of bullets for, and in fact did, to see a look of complete fury.

  “Lockdown the compound. Now!” Booth shouted and stood abruptly. “Find that fucking bitch. Take the video to Jason, and tell him that if he finds her, he finds Rogue. Let him know we are looking for her, too, and he does not want us to find her.”

  It was not a threat but a promise that after all that had happened because of Callie’s betrayal, Booth was thinking about going outside the law to take care of her himself. I wasn’t sure that was entirely a good thing. Not because I gave a shit about Callie’s arse but because Booth had enough blood on his hands, none of it his fault. But if he went after her and found her? Was he prepared to commit a crime we swore as a club we would never commit?

  When Steel took out Shifty, it was justified because the lives of two women were in danger, so he did what he had to do. Jason had covered up the shooting and told his captain that Shifty must have been killed by the same person who shot Tori. No one would be able to put Steel or Creed on that roof that night. Their guns were untraceable.

  Ford grabbed a disc from the table and made a copy of the footage we had just watched. “Lucky is on his way back, Pres. His ETA is about two hours from now,” Ford informed us.

  “Good, we need all the extra help we can get,” Darth muttered, his face holding the same look as the rest of us, sheer and utter disbelief with a big helping of boiling rage on top.

  “Callie must have known Rogue was going to kill Tori,” I surmised. The fact that one friend could set up another for death was unfathomable. The only word that came to mind was evil. Callie Stone was a heartless, evil being and very dangerous.

  “She gave Rogue the route for him to attack Charlie, Shiloh, and Stella,” Deck said, his jaw clenched with unbridled anger. My SAA would never get over that day, none of us would.

  “And blowing up Mia’s car—all Callie. She was there for fuck’s sake! Hoping to see her own sister die in that explosion.” Creed’s black eyes got blacker. My sister-in-law was still important to him, no matter how mad he was at her. He would never admit to his true feelings about her, not now. Creed was a loyal man, and in the end, he knew deep down that the right man held Mia’s heart.

  “Everything, he knew everything because of her. What my wife had to endure that night when she was beaten and stabbed within an inch of her life was all because of Callie’s jealous, black heart,” Booth said quietly. He was standing behind his chair, and his
fingers gripped so tight on the back that his knuckles were white. “She stole Stella’s phone, stole club personnel documents, all for revenge.” Booth shook with anger, his face impassive as he heaved the chair up in the air and tossed it across the table with a loud, feral roar.

  “Booth, baby.”

  Booth’s head whipped up at the sound of his wife’s concerned voice. Tears streamed down her stunning face. It took Booth no more than a second to round the table and grab Stella. As his arms crushed her body to him, his body sagged with the weight he burdened himself with as the president of the club. A burden I for one did not believe he needed to carry.

  “Breathe me, Booth,” I heard Stella whisper.

  I felt like an intruder as I watched two of my favourite people in the world comfort each other. I looked over at Creed, Deck, and Darth and motioned with a chin lift. Without a word, the three of us stood up and left the war room. With all that had just transpired, we all needed to breathe our women and assure our hearts that we were all whole. But for how long… that I did not want to think about. Ever.

  Chapter 28

  RAINN

  “Shiloh Johnston, you are going to give me a migraine and a sore back,” I muttered to myself as I followed the trail of toys from one end of the main room to the other. I was on Shiloh duty because simply put, there was no one else.

  The compound was like a graveyard, and the eerily quiet was disturbing, to say the least. No one was manning the bar, no noises of pots and pans clattering came from the kitchen, and no laughter from the main room, just quiet other than my moaning and groaning.

  My daughters were going to learn from a very early age that if they didn’t pick up their toys themselves, mummy would unleash holy hell.

  “Shiloh, pick up your dogs’ uneaten treats, please.” I growled when I stepped on another bone-shaped dog biscuit.

  “What’s going on? Where is everyone?” Vegas said.

  My heart raced from the fright of hearing her voice. Apart from Shiloh and me, the only other person at the compound was Stella, who was currently in bed with a severe case of morning sickness.

  “Jesus, Julie, warn a girl next time, yeah?” I grumbled, annoyed and embarrassed by my reaction.

  Rogue’s threat to kill anyone of us was foremost in my mind. It angered me on a deep level that a person I considered sort of a friend had been the one who was helping Rogue get information on our whereabouts all because she lost a guy. Or meal ticket since that was all Steel really had been to her.

  When Mannix told me last night about the footage they saw, I was livid, for the flock and the men.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie. I wasn’t planning to come back until early next week, but I had to come home early for an appointment that got moved up,” Vegas explained, her gaze moving around the main room, concerned and a tad confused. Julie had left to visit with her mum after Darth insisted she still go. He wanted her away from the danger since Rogue had upped his stakes and decided any one of us could be his next target. It was unlikely it would be her, considering she wasn’t Darth’s officially, but she was part of the flock and because of that, a target, too.

  “What is going on, Rainn? I had to open the gate myself, and that has never happened—as in never, ever.”

  “Does Darth know you are back early?” I asked, worried.

  He would not be happy if he knew she travelled alone and without detail. Normally, his MO was to travel with her himself, but for that particular visit, he put her on a train with the idea to keep her off the roads and in public.

  “No, I can’t reach him. I borrowed Mum’s car, and since she barely drives now, she didn’t mind me taking it. Please, tell me what is happening.” She looked around at the empty room, her eyes stopping and widening at the guys’ pool table. “Is that … is that a banana in the pocket of the pool table?”

  I turned to look and saw that there was, in fact, a half-eaten banana in the white mesh pocket.

  “Shiloh,” we both said at the same time, and then broke out in laughter.

  “Come on, girlfriend. You make the tea while I will look for some of Stella’s yummies and fill you in on the latest shit that has gone on,” I said and wrapped my arm over her shoulder.

  “Oh, lord, do I want to know?” she muttered as we made our way into the kitchen.

  ———

  “Callie? It has been Callie this whole time?” Vegas whispered, tears forming in her eyes as she took in everything, from the BBQ that she missed out on when she went to her mum’s to Mannix’s and my argument and the sexy make-up sex afterwards to Charlotte’s and my plan for a new dance school and, finally, Callie’s betrayal.

  “Yep. It’s not believable, but at the same time, it makes so much sense now. All the personal information that Rogue knew, Tori may have hung around the club and worked for Steel and Mannix, but she wasn’t smart enough to get in undetected and accomplish what Callie had. This whole time it was right under our noses.” I felt the anger simmer again. I couldn’t even imagine how the men were feeling about it or poor Mia.

  “Holy shit, I really didn’t see that coming. How is Mia taking it?”

  “Steel won’t let her take any of the blame. Callie is bad from her core, and I don’t think anything could have prevented her from doing what she did. She never committed to Steel even before Mia. She is an opportunistic bitch. Just out to feather her own bed. Steel took Mia and Teach out for supplies with two of the prospects. He wanted her out of here for a while, but they couldn’t go too far. Shopping always seems to do the trick when thoughts of slaughtering your sibling bubble to the surface,” I joked.

  Vegas nodded her head absently, no laugh or even a hint of a smile at my funny but a little inappropriate comment.

  “And the rest of the club? Where are they?”

  I looked closer at my friend and noticed she seemed exhausted. Her face was pale and drawn, and she had dark rings around her eyes as if she hadn’t slept for weeks. I also noticed how thin she had become. Her usual sexy figure that was a lot like mine was gone. Bones stuck out from her shoulders and neck, and she looked, for lack of a better word, terrible.

  “Stella is in bed with severe morning sickness. Her doctor prescribed some new meds to lessen the vomiting, but she needs to stay in bed for a few days and rest. Shiloh is around here somewhere. You will find her if you follow the trail of dog treats and toys. The guys are at the construction site. They have an explosive job today and need all hands on deck.” Again, I chuckled at my joke—all hands on deck, as in Deck.

  Okay, enough is enough. I made two funnies in a matter of minutes and got nada from her on both accounts.

  “All right, Julie, what’s up? You haven’t been yourself since we went to the day spa,” I told her, my voice gentle.

  She looked like she was about to burst into tears, so I reached over and folded my fingers around hers.

  “Sugar, I’m a good listener, or if you prefer, we can go out to the site and get Darth.”

  At the mention of her lover’s name, Julie burst into the tears that only moments before she’d held back. Great big, gulping sobs tore from her throat, and my own eyes welled up as I watched my friend fall apart.

  “Oh, my God, Julie, what is the matter? Please, talk to me.” I got up from my seat and knelt in front of the crying mess that was my friend.

  “It’s too late. I w-waited t-too long. I should have i-insisted years ago, and now it’s too late.” Julie sobbed out the words, making no sense, but I had a feeling she was talking about her and Darth. She made a show that she didn’t mind that Darth hadn’t claimed her, but my lovely Vegas felt shit deep. She hurt every time Darth went off with other women—to be fair, she agreed to their arrangement, and I hadn’t seen Darth with another woman for months. The last, I believed, was Callie. Bitch.

  “Jules, you aren’t making much sense. Of course, it isn’t too late. Just walk up the big fella, and tell him he is marrying you and that’s it, enough said, and everything else the guys
say.” I smiled at her, hoping my humour would bring her back a bit from her despair, but no, she cried even harder. I stayed there, pregnant belly and all, on my knees on the cold floor and waited until she was ready to speak again.

  “I’m dying, Rainn. I have terminal cancer. My doctor gives me no more than a few months.”

  The softly spoken words were like a knife to my heart. No. Absolutely not. It was some sort of bad joke. I refused to believe it, but as I looked at my dearest friend, I knew it was true. Her appearance had changed far too much for it to only be a lack of sleep or upset over Darth. In my heart, I knew what she told me was true.

  “Cancer? Are you sure, Julie? Does Darth know?” I shot the questions out one after the other, tears streaming down my face.

  “Yes, it’s cancer. I had cervical cancer in my twenties, rare for that age but, nonetheless, I had it, and the doctors removed my entire reproductive system, a full hysterectomy. I had treatment and went into remission a year after I got the all clear. I then met Darth and came to the club with him. Childbirth was never possible for me. Darth doesn’t know about the cancer. Not yet and I don’t know if I’m going to tell him, so this has to stay here between you and me and Stella’s caramel slice,” Vegas said as she pointed to the plate of crumbs that was once six pieces of said slice.

  “You have to tell him!” I raged, mad at Julie for having bloody cancer, mad at Darth for being an idiot and being, well, Darth, and mad at the bloody universe. “You have to get a second opinion, then another and another. More treatments or something. You have to fight, Julie. Fight for a few more months. Fight so you can see your wedding day. I know he would marry you in a heartbeat if he knew,” I implored her, the very thought of losing my friend breaking my heart.

  “No, I don’t, sweetie. I came back to see my doctor for the last time and pick up some of my things. I’m going to leave the club on my own terms with the happiest of memories. I won’t have him marrying me for any reason other than he wants to, not because I’m dying.”