He’s grinning knowingly. “Anything interesting happen since I last saw you?”
I shrug my shoulders, playing dumb. “Not that I can recall.”
“Oh, really?”
“Really.” I give him a wink as I walk past him inside.
My eyes find Jaxon immediately. He’s surrounded by a group of men listening to him talk. He’s such an alpha and everyone in the room knows it. I can feel his commanding presence from here.
“Hey, Stella!” Nixie calls from where she’s sitting at the bar playing on a phone. I go over to her and start playing with her blonde hair as I watch her beat the computer at chess. “How odd that Uncle J didn’t come home last night.”
“That is odd,” I answer as I feel my cheeks start to burn. “I wonder where he slept?”
She turns to me with a look that says ‘how stupid do you think I am?’
“He does look happy,” she says when she turns back to her phone and takes the computer’s queen. “He must have met someone really special.”
“I wonder who that could be,” Roxanne says as she arrives behind the bar.
At first, I think she’s going to be jealous, but then Gage comes behind the bar and slides his hand on her lower back and whispers something in her ear that has her blushing.
I don’t know what’s going on there, but something is going on…
Gage leaves and it’s just us girls again. The bar looks great. All of the broken glass is cleaned up and there’s a bunch of construction guys around repairing shelves and plastering the holes in the walls.
“So, when is he leaving?” Roxanne asks. It’s an innocent question, but it sends my stomach sinking like a stone.
Jaxon said he’s not giving up on us, but what exactly are we?
Is he still going to be interested in a few days or weeks? Is he really willing to move here for me when he has a life back at home?
I get a tenseness in my stomach as I look at him. He’s so hot. He could have any girl he wants and I’m wondering what is going to happen when he crosses one of the gorgeous girls of the town. Is he still going to be interested?
I need some air.
Nixie looks up as I hurry through the bar and out the back door. I take a few big gulps of the warm summer air when I step outside.
“You okay, Stella?” T-Bone asks. He’s sitting on an upside-down crate and smoking a cigarette as he watches me. “Your eye is looking better.”
“Thanks,” I say as I force out a smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. I think.”
Jaxon comes out a few seconds later and asks T-Bone to give us a minute.
“No problem,” T-Bone says as he crushes his cigarette against the brick wall and tosses the butt into the dumpster. “I got to get back to work anyway.”
The tenseness starts to dissipate when I see the way Jaxon is looking at me. His eyes are full of desire. His gaze is full of need.
“Running away are we?”
I shake my head as I look down at his boots. “I just needed some air.”
“Feeling sick?” he asks as he steps up to me and places a hand on my stomach. “Don’t worry. That’s normal.”
I look up at him, confused. What’s normal?
He gives me a deep passionate kiss on the mouth and then heads back inside, dragging his palm across my stomach as he goes.
That’s when it hits me…
He thinks I’m pregnant.
And that’s when it really hits me.
Am I?
Did he use a condom?
And why is that thought not scary?
Why is it so intriguing?
And why am I desperately hoping that he’s right?
Chapter Nine
Jaxon
A week flies by and I spend every second I can of it with Stella. She is the girl for me.
I’m fucking sure about that.
No one makes me feel the way she does. It feels right.
Nixie loves the town too and has already made a friend. A boy her age named Zhu who she met at the library. Beckham and me don’t like the idea of her hanging out with a boy, but the kid seems innocent enough and she hasn’t had a friend before so we’ve let it slide.
Beckham likes it here as well, but you would never know it from his face. The guy never smiles, but I’m his brother and I know when he’s happy.
I’ve been too busy falling in love with my girl to even think about revenge. Although, when I do think about the way that Gunner punk put his hands on my girl, it sends me spiraling into a rage that only Stella can bring me down from.
“Jaxon!” Bulldog calls out from the door of the bar. “You have a delivery.”
I catch Stella’s eye from where she’s working behind the bar as I head to the door. It’s the middle of the afternoon and quiet here, but I have something for her to make it a little louder.
“Yes,” I whisper when I see the truck backing into the parking lot.
She walks out beside me and slides her arm around my waist as she leans into my ribs. “What did you order?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“For who?”
“For you.”
She looks up at me with a shocked look and I can’t help but kiss her on the lips. She tastes like candy.
“That?!” she says with a gasp when the deliveryman starts carting down a huge wooden box. “What the hell is it?”
I walk down the stairs and grab a crowbar from the guy’s truck and get to work. “You were so sad that the jukebox got busted up, so I got you a new one.”
The planks of wood tumble to the ground and Stella lets out a squeal of delight when she sees the new jukebox I bought for the bar. “It’s yours, so we’re only going to fill it with songs that you love.”
“I love you!” she says as she runs and jumps into my arms, wrapping her legs around me.
She kisses me on the lips and then jerks her head back, looking nervous. “I mean… I didn’t mean to say… it just came out…”
“I love you too, Stella,” I tell her and it’s true. “I love you more than any man has ever loved a woman. My heart beats for you. Only for you.”
Tears start streaming down her cheeks as she looks at me with all the love I’m feeling for her. “I did mean it,” she admits. “I love you too, Jaxon. I don’t want you to go. This has been the best week of my life.”
I’m about to bring her back to her place and show her some more loving when Gage and Saint pull up on their bikes.
Gage looks right at me. “It’s time, Jaxon. Get your brother.”
“No,” Stella gasps. “Don’t go.”
But I have too. Not just because these men are my brothers and I’d die for them, but because that fucker Gunner laid hands on my girl and I have to make him pay. I need to make him pay.
It takes a few minutes to peel her off me and calm her down. “This is what I do,” I tell her. “This is what I’m good at.”
“You’re good at loving me,” she says as she clings onto my hand. “Why can’t that be enough?”
“It is enough,” I say as I let her go and head to my bike. “It’s always enough. But I have to do this.”
She heads inside crying and it kills me to see her go, but I know I’ll be all right. Beckham has got my back and he won’t let anything happen to me, just like I won’t let anything happen to him.
Beckham comes out a few seconds later along with the rest of the crew—Killian, Buzz, Ranger, and the rest of the guys. They’re all ready and sitting on their bikes.
“Your friends from Cali delivered the guns,” Troy says. “We’re going to swing by the warehouse, arm up, and then wait until it gets dark to storm their clubhouse. We’re not going to hit them when they’re hammered off their asses like they did to us. We’re not pussies. We’re going to go in hot.”
“The President is mine,” I hiss through clenched teeth. I look around at all of the faces to make sure they know I’m serious. “If anyone touches Gunner before I get to him, they’re going
to have to face me next. Got that?”
They all nod as my blood starts boiling.
I’ve been waiting all week to get my hands on this guy.
And the wait is over.
Chapter Ten
Jaxon
The guns are for protection only. Troy doesn’t want a bloodbath hanging over the club’s head. Especially after all the work they’ve done to stay clean.
This is going to be an old fashioned bar brawl and I can’t wait.
“Ready?” I ask Beckham as he makes sure his brass knuckles are on nice and snug.
He nods.
My brother doesn’t speak much on a good day, but when he’s in his Terminator mode, he doesn’t say a word. It’s like he doesn’t want to waste any energy on talking when he can add it to his punches.
The two of us walk up to the clubhouse like we own the place. The Outlaws don’t know us, so we’ve left our cuts with our bikes and are walking in the front door while the rest of the Heartlands prepare to ambush them from behind after we’ve distracted them.
A few of our prospects are stationed across the street with the guns, ready to hand them out if things get hot.
It’s around eleven o’clock at night and the bar is loud and packed. Shiny bikes are lined up along the outer wall and I grit my teeth, wondering which one belongs to Gunner. I have a strong desire to shove it up his ass.
I’m picturing the black around Stella’s beautiful green eye as we walk into the bar and look around. It’s a standard biker dive bar. Shitty music. Empty beer bottles everywhere. Bikers getting hammered.
A big burly biker with an Outlaw cut on and a big long red beard steps up to us almost immediately. “Who the fuck are you guys?”
Beckham stares him down as I look around for Gunner.
“You pussies lost?” he asks in a threatening tone.
“Where’s Gunner?” I ask.
He steps up to me and pokes a finger into my chest. “Who the fuck is asking?”
I grin as I look down at his finger that’s digging into my left pec. “If you want to keep your finger, I suggest you move it and tell me where Gunner is.”
“What the fuck are you going to do?” he hollers.
“Nothing,” I say with a shrug. “But my pit-bull of a brother here will bite it off if you don’t remove it in three, two, one…”
The big lug doesn’t remove it, so Beckham grabs his beard and yanks him forward. The rest of the bikers start to notice and begin crowding around, looking for trouble.
I’m scanning their leather cuts, looking for a name, looking for a title, looking for the man who’s about to have taken his last breath.
The big guy starts to fight Beckham and my brother knocks him out cold with one hard punch to the temple. He falls to the floor and the bar erupts.
I kick a guy in the chest as he advances on me and then grab a beer bottle and break it over the head of another guy.
It’s chaos as the women and non-bikers flee out the door. The Outlaws swarm us.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone hit Beckham on the head with a glass ashtray.
I clock two men in the chins, dropping them both. A third guy rushes at me, but just before he arrives, the man who hit Beckham with the ashtray comes flying through the air and collides into him.
I’m taking a couple of hits as I fight back. They’re everywhere.
One name keeps repeating in my head, urging me on.
Gunner. Gunner. Gunner.
I want my vengeance.
The back doors explode open and the backup pours in, attacking the advancing bikers from behind. Finally, we get a bit of room to move. Beckham is bleeding from his temple, but he’s in the zone, dropping every biker he can get his hands on.
Sometimes, I think my brother would have been better suited to be born in the Roman Gladiator days. He would have been the most famous man in Rome.
I step back for a second and just admire his work as he slams a man’s head into the bar and then elbows someone else in the face. I’m lucky my older brother has always been nice to me or I wouldn’t have survived my childhood.
It’s then that something catches my eye.
President is written on the cut of the man swinging a pool cue at one of my Heartland brothers.
My eyes are locked on him as he swings it, hitting nothing but air, and I see his name.
Gunner.
My jaw clenches. With fists squeezed tight and blood boiling, I storm over there.
I cut through the chaos and focus on him. There’s a pounding in my ears as adrenaline rushes through me.
I was born to protect Stella. This is what I was put on the earth to do.
I was made for this moment.
Buzz is fighting him, dodging the swinging pool cue with his fists in the air.
“Buzz,” I say as I put my hand on his shoulder. “This fucker is mine.”
He doesn’t argue. He just looks at the rage in my eyes and moves on.
“You want some too?” Gunner asks as his grip tightens on the pool cue.
He swings it and I raise my forearm letting it slam into me. I grin, feeling the stinging pain and letting it amplify my rage.
“You laid hands on my girl,” I growl as he swings the pool cue back, ready to hit me again.
“That skank waitress?” he asks with a snarl. “I should have fucked her on the bar. She was begging me for it.”
The rage snaps inside me and I lunge on him. He tries to fight back, but there’s no way. I’m overpowering him in every way because I’m fighting for my girl.
A few hard punches, sends him falling to the floor with me landing on top of him. I crack my elbows into his jaw and then he reaches into his boot and pulls out a knife.
I grab his wrist as he tries to stab me with it.
“All this over a stupid club slut?” he hisses as we fight over the knife. “Fuck her and fuck you!”
His arm shoots up and my grip slips. He’s about to stab me in the stomach when I block his arm with mine and plunge the blade into his heart.
“No one touches my Stella,” I whisper as I stand up over his body and watch him die.
The rest of The Outlaws are fleeing out the door as the Heartland boys take over. The bar is trashed. Gage and a few other guys are carrying out the guns and supplies they robbed from the club, plus some extras. They had it all stashed in the basement of the clubhouse.
“What the fuck?” Troy whispers as he comes over and sees the dead body at my feet.
“It was his knife,” I tell him. I don’t know why I’m explaining. The man got what he deserved. “Stella is under my protection.”
He nods, knowingly. “And you and your brother are under ours. You’re both welcome to stay.”
We hurry up and leave, riding our bikes through the town and I only have one thing on my mind…
Getting home to my girl.
“What happened to you?” Stella asks in a panic when I show up at her door.
My shirt is covered in blood and she’s staring at it with wide eyes.
“It’s not mine,” I say as I walk in and peel it off. I toss it in her trash can along with the rest of my clothes and she takes it out back to burn it while I take a shower.
She’s going to make a good Old Lady.
When I come out with a towel wrapped around my waist, she’s sitting on the couch with a beer waiting for me.
Fuck, she’s going to make a great Old Lady.
“I guess your business is done here?” she asks as I sit down on the couch beside her. “Does that mean you’re leaving?”
I shake my head as I stare at her. “I still have business here.”
“Troy needs you for another job?”
“No. My business is with you.”
“Oh…”
“I want to marry you, Stella. You’re mine. I want to make it official.”
Her cheeks go pink as she smiles at me.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Rea
lly. I love you more than anything and I want to marry you. Will you marry me?”
She leaps on me with her arms wrapped around my neck.
“Yes!”
I grin as I breathe in her beautiful scent.
I’m going to marry this girl, buy her a house, and fill it with a ton of babies.
My hands slide up her shirt as her fingers start unraveling my towel.
And it looks like we’re getting started right now…
Epilogue
Stella
Two months later…
“Are you nervous?” I ask Nixie while we’re waiting for the school bus.
“No,” she says with a shrug. “Why would I be nervous? I’m going to be one of the smartest kids there.”
I can’t help but laugh. I think she got some of her Uncle J’s cockiness.
It’s the first day of school and Beckham offered to drive her in on his motorcycle. I thought it would be better for her to take the bus. She’s already the type of kid that’s not going to fit in easily and riding up on the back of a loud Harley clinging onto her intimidating uncle Beckham won’t help matters at all.
“Just remember,” Jaxon says as he drapes his arm over my shoulders. “Pick the biggest, baddest guy in the schoolyard and kick his ass.”
“That’s prison, not elementary school,” Nixie says with a roll of her eyes.
“Really?” he says with a playful grin. “It worked for me.”
“You’re going to do great,” I say to her as she fiddles with the straps on her new backpack. “You already have a friend.”
The bus comes rolling around the corner, and I swear, I’m more nervous than she is. We say our last goodbyes and she climbs onto the bus and sits down beside Zhu who is waving at us through the window.
My eyes are tearing up as the bus drives away, taking our little girl to her first day of grade five. It’s only been two months and I’m already so attached to her. I love my little family.
Jaxon bought us a gorgeous duplex on the outskirts of town. Beckham lives on top by himself and we have a room for Nixie in our place. She’s always bouncing up between the two spots.
Jaxon (Heartlands Motorcycle Club Book 5) Page 6
