She wasn’t mine. I wasn’t hers. Yet. I couldn’t even get the courage to ask a club girl to do my fucking laundry—without feeling like I was betraying her. How fucked up was that?
But right now, I was thankful for that feeling always stopping me from asking a club girl to do it. I was getting a fantastic fucking view right now all because of it. Holly was bending over, pulling my washing out of my machine.
Woke up to her gone and the anger I felt didn’t even cover it until I realised how spotless the room was. The lack of washing told me I would find her here. Wasn’t sure how I could thank her, but with her bending straight over like that, I was beginning to think of one way.
She hadn’t even realised I was standing there. Her headphones in, bending at the hips like that, she was fucking asking for it. I softly closed the door, keeping my eyes on her as I walked up behind her.
I wasn’t even surprised as I approached her that she hadn’t heard me. Knowing Holly, she would be listening to a lecture. Wasn’t sure what I wanted to do first, so I placed my hands on her hips, and she stilled. I knew she had seen my finger tattoos as soon as she relaxed. Moving my hands over her hips, I pulled her back to me. Her head went to the side, and I couldn’t fucking stop myself as my lips went to hers. She wasn’t mine, yet I was kissing her like she had always been and will always be.
It was the soft moan from her lips that snapped my willpower. I spun her around and lifted her in one fluent movement, placing her on the laundry bench. She raised her arms, her fingers weaving into my hair, and all my sensors were suffocating, her scent, the feel of her soft fingers running up my arms. I couldn’t stop myself from pulling her closer into me.
Was I still high on Hades’ whiskey to think that Holly and I could work? I invaded her mouth with my tongue, and she pressed her breasts into my chest. Just as I was about to lose control, the communal laundry door swung open.
I was a fucking man, but seeing her brother standing there—I felt like a teenager being caught by the teacher for kissing in the hallway.
Kobra’s eyes ran over Holly. Maybe it was the fact I had pushed up her T-shirt to the point it was just covering her breasts, or perhaps it was the fact that I had her pinned between my legs. But nah, I think the determining factor to his smouldering rage was Holly’s hands on my belt.
Seeing his eyes harden on her was as if he had thrown gasoline on the flame known as my protection for Holly.
His breathing became sharper, and he was either a second away from roaring at her or punching me. If he even raised his voice at her, I’d be the one starting the fight.
“What the fuck you want, Kobra?” I snapped at him, seeing as he wasn’t fucking getting to the point of why he was there.
His eyes of rage slowly went from Holly to me. It was at this moment I knew Kobra’s and my casual friendship was over. He knew, and so did Hades that Holly’s friendship always came first for me, but I was I lying to myself if I said that all we had was a friendship.
“Holly, can I have a word with Creed for a minute?” Kobra asked, his eyes locked on me. Knowing that there was a chance this would get physical, I let go of Holly, forcing myself to act like everything was fine as she gave me a questionable look.
“Go, darling. Everything is fine,” I reassured her, to which she just nodded her head and slowly left. I couldn’t stop my smirk when she took my basket of clothes and left. Kobra knew right away that she was heading back to my room, and as soon as he said whatever threat he had to say—I was going there too.
Holly walked out, and Kobra closed the door before crossing his arms, looking me up and down and then finally shaking his head.
“You’ll never be good enough. You know that, right?” He asked a mocking question to which I kept my lips shut. “Dad isn’t ever going to approve, and you know why, Creed?”
“Because I’m at his table?” I shot back at him because that was the reason Taron was sent away.
“No.” Kobra tilted his head slightly. “Because you haven’t earnt respect in his eyes. Haven’t ya noticed how he has always kept you at arm’s length?”
“You trying to threaten me, Kobra? Is that it?” I asked, already bored with this subject.
“Holly likes you,” Kobra said and then sighed. “But Dad isn’t ever gonna let you two be anything. Because he believes a man has to have loyalty.”
“You saying I’m not loyal to Holly?” Now that was insulting me on a level that would make me lose my shit.
Kobra’s lips twitched up. “Nah, brother. I’m saying if Hades doesn’t think you are loyal to the brotherhood, ain’t no way in hell he is letting you near his daughter.” Kobra’s gaze landed on mine. “If you want Holly, you need Hades to approve. So if I was you, I’d start thinking on how you show Hades that yer loyal to the club more than his daughter.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t he want me more loyal to Holly than a brotherhood patch?”
Kobra shrugged his shoulders and didn’t say another word. He just turned, opened the door, and left.
Decisions. I was normally good at making them. I normally knew by my gut what to do, but this one was harder. Wrench rode in the day after Hades birthday. He and I had history from before my time as a biker when I was just a street kid with money.
Wrench was the one who had encouraged me to join the club, though he wasn’t counting on me prospecting to Hades’ Mother Chapter. Wrench had just offered me a chance to be his VP. I knew there was no chance in hell I’d get a shot at that position in the Mother Chapter. After all, Kobra was a good fucking VP.
It was a promotion. All week I’d debated about going or not. Weighed it up and knew I’d lose her, but I couldn’t be the man she needed if I was the guy at her father’s table, someone he had little respect for.
So here I was at the table with Hades, his eyes on me, and I was sure he had heard of Wrench’s offer to me. I knew there would be some code or something when it came to Hades’ table members. Which I was, but I didn’t have his respect. He knew I could keep shit in line. That was the reason I had the enforcer position.
“Taking the offer.” I finally said it and looked him in the eye.
Hades’ gaze remained on me, and I waited for a reaction. Finally, he nodded his head. “Was expecting as much.” He looked slightly regretful about it. “Wrench is a good president. Learning from him is a smart move.”
I nodded my head. I knew that too, but it didn’t make the knot in my stomach any less painful.
“Guessing yer riding out tonight with them,”
I nodded my head.
Hades stood up, extending a hand. “Then ride safe, brother.” That was the first time Hades had called me brother and didn’t look at me like I was a cockroach. I shook his hand, then turned to leave, realising I wouldn’t be coming back into this boardroom as a table member again.
“Tell her.” Hades’ words made me freeze. “Don’t just ride out, leaving her wondering.”
I didn’t turn around or say anything. But I did nod my head. The truth was, telling Holly hadn’t stopped rolling through my head, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I wasn’t a coward. I wasn’t just going to ride out tonight and not tell the woman I loved that I was leaving.
But I wasn’t ready to do it yet. I had all day, right? We weren’t riding out till nine. Fuck. I was saying I wasn’t a coward, but I felt like one because leaving her after she had just let me in seemed like a coward move.
Family dinners weren’t usually a thing during the week, especially on a Friday. Normally, Dad would be at the club, and Kobra was always at the club, apart from Sunday family dinner. However, tonight they were both eating with us girls.
It was the tense and quietness in the air I didn’t understand.
I glanced at Kobra, whose eyes were on Dad, then I looked at Dad, and he was looking at me—giving me a forced smile.
“Okay, what is going on?” I asked while Mum and Ivy were pretending like nothing was wrong with them.
I opened my mouth, ready to apply pressure to get an answer when the doorbell rang. And no one moved to answer it. “Okay then, I’ll get the door.” I rolled my eyes, putting the napkin beside my plate and walking away from the table.
It was nearly nine at night. Who would be coming here? I opened the front door, and my eyes lit up when I saw the Chevy parked in the drive.
“Oh, my God, you finished it!” I said with excitement as I rushed down the steps towards Creed and the completed muscle car, which he had been working on since he arrived here.
Creed’s gaze ripped from the car and over to me.
“So you came to take me for a drive?” I moved towards the passenger door. “You are saving me from the twilight zone in there.” I was going to explain more about my brother’s and father’s weird mood when Creed didn’t move. My eyebrows knitted together. “You okay, Creed?”
It only occurred to me now that he hadn’t said one word to me.
I closed the passenger door and walked back towards him. It was dark, the lights of the Chevy had turned off automatically, and the streetlight was the only thing casting light on us.
“The Chevy’s yours,” he said and tossed me the keys. I caught them out of reflex and stared down at them. Slowly, an ice feeling went through my veins as I looked back up. “Wrench offered me a VP patch at his chapter.”
And that ice slowly got overpowered with pain as I continued to stare at him. I heard the roar of bikes coming from the clubhouse, up the side road. I turned to look up the driveway, seeing Creed’s bike at the end.
“So you’re leaving,” I said, and my grip on the car keys got tighter. I felt myself breaking. The walls I had around my heart weren’t there to protect me because I’d let them down, allowing him in. So the pain suffocated my heart with no shield around to defend it.
The bikes got louder now being in the street.
“With minutes to spare, I hear.” I couldn’t stop the bitterness coming out. My eyes were filling with tears. “Well, then go,”
“Holly—”
“Can’t you hear that, Creed? That’s your chapter, waiting for you to leave,” I snapped at him and pushed past him, to which he grabbed my arm. “Let go of me—”
But his lips were on mine, and his kiss was claiming me. As he pulled back, he looked me in the eyes, and I swear I saw tears in them, but it could have been the shadows of the night.
He didn’t say a word. He just let me go. I was forced to watch him walk away from me as I stood there, numb. That was until I heard his bike roar to life.
And just like that, Creed Winston rode out of my life on a steel horse.
It was as they pulled away that I walked back into the house.
I saw my family standing in the lounge room. My gaze found my dad, and I felt nothing but rage. Blood boiling rage. “You happy he’s gone,” I shouted at him, and instead of running upstairs and crying, I stormed towards him. “You did this, didn’t you?” I shoved him in the chest. “After all, the famous Hades couldn’t let someone be happy!” I shoved him again, rage consuming me and all directed at him.
I went to abuse him more, but he gripped my hands, pulling me into his chest. I couldn’t stop the flood of tears that overpowered me as I broke, and it was my father’s arms holding me up and keeping me together.
Two Years Later
Doctor rounds were exhausting some days—especially when I hadn’t had enough coffee. I was about to walk into my flow-up case when a nurse buzzed me, telling me there was someone at the nurses’ station for me.
Working in the emergency department wasn’t easy. You always had to be switched on, and sleep was non-existent.
I was juggling my patients’ files as I rounded the corner. Seeing my brother, Kobra, standing there, a sigh of relief escaped my lips when I saw the coffee in his hand. I dumped the files on the desk and grabbed the coffee, not saying a word to him, taking a large mouthful. Then the liquor of the gods flooded my tastebuds.
“That was mine,” Kobra said as I took another gulp.
“Sure it was. That’s why it’s the exact way I drink it and slightly cooled so I can gulp it.” I then flashed him a big grin. “You’re the best brother ever.”
Kobra shook his head but had a small smile on his face as we turned and walked down to the only private waiting room in the emergency department.
“Everything okay?” I asked while walking beside him. I flashed him a look of concern. “Or has something happened?”
“Calm down, little sis. Dad was getting concerned when you hadn’t come home for over a week.” Kobra gave me a pointed look before holding the door open for me. “Started to think you were avoiding us, or someone…”
My eyebrows knitted together. “Who?”
“Creed’s chapter is in town,” Kobra said it slowly like he thought I might possibly explode into tears or something.
“Oh,” was all I could say. Then he looked at me for more. “I didn’t know.” I wasn’t even lying about it. “You guys hadn’t mentioned it.” Or had they forgotten that they hadn’t told me?
“We thought he would reach out to you, seeing as it is his first visit to the Mother Chapter since he left.”
I shrugged. “Well, he hasn’t.” I wasn’t sure what else to say as Kobra’s intense eyes were still staring at me. “So is the family good? Sorry, I’ve been stuck here with extra workloads.”
“All good. Ivy’s out of town, working on a high-profile case or something. I suggest if you are attached to breathing you, don’t forget to give her a call this week.”
“Our sister, the lawyer. Who would have thought?” I said, bringing the coffee to my lips.
“Makes me wonder what Ollie will end up being,” Kobra said, sitting down beside me.
Olenna, my nearly two-year-old sister, had the sass of us girls but the confidence of our dad. She was a walking strong-headed troublemaker. You would think Dad would have wanted a boy, but when he saw Ollie, well, she had us all wrapped around her finger. Including my tough anti-baby brother, who stayed up for endless hours looking after Ollie when she couldn’t sleep.
“We both know she’s the bad egg.” I smirked at Kobra, to which he grinned. “So, you have come to summon me home for the weekend?” I was assuming he came here with a purpose.
“Just saying your family misses ya.” He nudged my shoulder before giving me a wink and got up to leave. “Try to get some food in, would ya. Starting to think you have an eating problem,” he said before walking out.
I flashed him a smile and nodded my head.
But only one thought was running through my head. Creed was in town. I didn’t know what annoyed me more—that he was in town for days and hadn’t reached out or that he was in town, to begin with. Then again, we were history. I gulped the coffee, finishing it, and got up. I refused to let my mind focus on a man who walked so easily away from me.
“You need something reliable, Holly,” Trey said as he indicated into the club lot. It was the middle of summer, and every biker and their woman were outside. Also, the lot was more filled because of the bikes from visiting chapters. Trey’s eyes shot to me. “Party on this weekend, hey?”
I unclipped my seat belt. “Something like that, but we both know I’m tired.”
He scoffed, unclipping his seat belt and getting out too. Trey wasn’t my boyfriend, but he wasn’t just a friend, either—we had benefits. I suppose, when it came down to it, Trey was the guy trying to get me to let my shields down again. But I knew better. Yet he didn’t give up.
Dad was at one of the bonfires and was talking to someone intently when his eyes flashed up.
“Well, if it isn’t my long-lost daughter!” Dad shouted at us. “Started to think you bought ya own house with all that money and moved out without telling me,” Dad said as he pulled me into his side for a hug.
“I’ve missed you too, Dad,” I said while seeing Dad’s eyes going to Trey.
“Doctor Trey!” Dad said, extending a hand. “You the one t
o convince my daughter to come home?”
Trey grinned. “Nah, Hades, can’t take the credit for that. Her American muscle, which she refuses to trade in, broke down on her again,” he said while shaking Dad’s hand. “Was just telling her to get something reliable.”
I rolled my eyes. “He wants me to get a Japanese sports car.”
“You do need something reliable though, Holly, with the hours you work. Can’t have you broken down on the side of the road in the middle of the night.” Dad went into protective mode. “Thanks for picking her up, Trey.” But the real thanks was in Dad’s tone as he said thank you to Trey.
“Holly’s problem is also one of my problems.” Trey’s eyes flashed to mine. “Which is why we need to go car shopping.”
“I like my car!” I defended it. It was a known fact I was attached to it, regardless of its previous owner.
Kobra appeared, and he handed Trey a beer, which he declined. “Can’t drink, mate. I’m on call.” He gestured his head at me. “This one isn’t, so, by all means, give her the beer.”
Kobra’s face lit up. “About time you came to a club party, Doc.”
I swiped the beer from him. “Miss me, Kobra?” I taunted him, but I watched Kobra’s eyes dart to the person next to Dad. Following his eye line, I froze—with one word flashing through my head. Run.
Creed’s gaze was glued to me, with his cold, calculating stare. I watched him take a sip of his beer, his eyes not breaking from me. He didn’t say a word, and a tightness drifted in the air behind us. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking he was just as fucking handsome as I remembered. Only his head had a number one buzz cut all over, muscles slightly more defined and on display in that tank top, with his vest over it. I felt myself being pulled back to a time I would have liked to forget when a screaming little blonde came running at me, causing me to break our eye contact.
Creed's Honor: Satan Bastards MC Book 1 Page 6