I handed my flowers to my mom and stepped back over to the bed, bending down for the box. My fingers just barely grazed it. The dress was just a little bit too tight around my back.
I looked up at Katrina, just as the first few notes of the wedding march filtered on the breeze from the open window. “I can’t reach it!”
She rushed forward, yelling at the girls as she did, “Stay put!”
I laughed. “Katrina!” I said. “They’re going to think I’ve run off.”
“The mystery of the box must be solved!” she declared.
I lifted an eyebrow at her as if to say, Who’s being the bridezilla now?
She dipped and picked up the box, handing it to me with determination. “Open it! Quick!” Then she turned to the door, where the flower girl was nervously looking back at us. “Go now, Sierra!” she commanded. “But walk really slow!”
My little cousin nodded, opening up the door and sliding out. Harriet closed it behind her.
I pulled off the lid of the box and tossed it aside. My eyes began to water.
“What is it?” Harriet asked, shifting from foot to foot. She didn’t like deviating from any plan, which was what made her an amusing match for Niles and a jittery bridesmaid. Her curiosity was definitely doing battle with her urge to follow the flower girl.
“It’s a black rose,” I said, picking up the stem and holding it in front of me.
“Creepy,” Katrina commented.
“Is it a good thing?” Panic now laced Harriet’s tone. “Seems kind of like the wedding equivalent of putting a horse head in someone’s bed.”
I nodded at her through bleary eyes. “It’s a very good thing. Get out there, champ.”
She blew me a kiss and was out the door in a flash. As the line of women began to file out, I quickly had Katrina break off the longer part of the stem and arrange the rest of my rose in my hair.
“What does it mean?” she asked.
My mom simply smiled at me.
“Everything that’s happening today,” I said. “Zane. This house. My mom.” I smiled. “It would have never happened if a biker hadn’t walked into Fancy Florals and asked for black roses.”
Katrina grinned back at me, hand reaching for the door handle. “I’m going to jump David’s bones.”
I laughed. “Thanks for ruining the moment, Katrina.”
She winked. “No problem.” Then she was out the door.
I stared at the wood as I waited, my mom clutching my hand in hers. “You picked a good one,” she said.
I reached for the handle. I had picked the best one.
THE END
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OTHER BOOKS BY CLAIRE ST. ROSE
F*CKING HER WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF THE DEAL.
I caught her snooping around our turf with cameras.
She tried to talk her way out with her innocent eyes and soft pleas.
F*cking her wasn’t supposed to be a part of the deal.
But it was the only way I can keep her alive.
Erina was looking for the person who killed her brother when she wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time.
I could have tossed her to bastards worse than me.
Instead I saved her.
But don’t let that fool you.
I saved her for all the wrong reasons.
I saved her to see her innocent eyes begging me.
I saved her to hear her soft whimpers each time I press her against me.
I saved her to take control.
To make her moan. Make her gasp. Make her scream.
Until she forgets who she used to be.
Until the only thing she knows is that she’s mine.
SHE KEPT OUR BABY A SECRET FROM ME, BUT NOW I’M COMING FOR WHAT’S MINE
I saved her from that den of animals and made her my property.
I marked her like an animal—took my claim and ruined her for any other man.
I thought I had her leashed. I never expected her to run.
But that was before I found her again—and the baby she kept from me.
When I first saw Callie in that den of animals, I acted purely on instinct.
I saved her from them, but I had no intentions of letting her go.
I don’t play by the rules, and I know better than to believe in love.
I made her my property, a plaything at my beck and call.
Her unforgettable curves. Her big innocent eyes.
I devoured every inch of her and marked her for myself and no-one else.
She had her own demons and her own share of secrets.
Those demons drove her to run, and made her hide everything from me.
Even our baby.
If Callie thought she could get away, she thought wrong.
Because when I get my hands on them, I’m never letting go.
I LEFT HER A GIFT SHE’LL NEVER FORGET—MY UNBORN CHILD.
She was looking for a way to escape.
I offered her the chance… for a price.
But after a single night with me.
I left her a gift she’ll never forget.
She was a bikini barista trying to save up enough money to escape.
I was carving up the streets of Seattle as the president of the Blue Wave MC.
I saved her when one of her customers went too far.
But I don’t work for free.
There’s a price that she has to pay.
A price she has to bear.
And my child growing in her belly is just the first step.
I WON’T STOP UNTIL I GET WHAT’S MINE
I’m a monster who likes it rough.
She’s soft, pure, and innocent.
But that didn’t stop me from claiming her.
And once I had her in my arms, I’m never letting her go.
I was busy running a war for my club, the Apaches MC.
She thought we left her friend bloodied and bruised.
I’d never thought I’d ever be challenged by someone like her.
So innocent.
So pure.
So unaware of the danger she’s in when she stepped into my world.
She doesn’t know it yet.
But I’m everything she didn’t know she wanted.
Everything she never realized she craves.
She chose to put herself in the devil’s cage.
And now the devil is laying his claim.
I’m going to break her walls.
I’m going to take what I want.
And I won’t stop until she’s mine.
SHE WON’T STAND BETWEEN ME AND MY BABY.
She was a bartender at a New Orleans bar.
I was in town to do a weapons deal for the Hellhounds MC
I thought the one night stand was where it started and ended.
But that was before I found out about the baby
I spend my days committing every kind of sin under the sun.
Moving guns for high-profile clients has left me with more money than I know what to do with.
Correction. I know exactly what I was going to do.
A reckless night out.
More girls and booze than my wildest dreams.
F*** em and leave em, I always said.
But Alexandra Berndhart was something else.
She was supposed to just be a one night stand.
But after that night, I knew I had to have more.
I had to feel her luscious curves in my hands again.
Her sweet lips pressed to mine again.
But when I saw her again, everything had changed.
I’d left a baby in her belly and now she wants nothing to do with me.
She thinks I’m a monster, a thug.
A criminal that she needs to keep away from her baby.
Our baby.
I’m not going home empty-handed.
And there�
��s no way in hell I’m letting her stand between me and my child.
Devil's Property: The Faithless MC Page 62
