Vendetta Road

by Christine Feehan

  “You’re . . . extraordinary.” She sat up slowly and forced herself to face him.

  He gave a slight shake of his head, as if in complete disbelief, and she nodded. “You are, Ice. You’re this amazing man. The way you treat me is unbelievable, like we’re living a fairy tale. The world isn’t really like that. I may have been an outsider looking in, but I watched people. Because I didn’t have a family, I watched others. They seemed to start with love or wild passion, but it always ended fast. Like they just stopped caring about each other. It was so sad.”

  He took her hand and pressed it to his chest, right over his heart.

  Before he could say anything, Soleil continued. “It was so sad, and they were strangers to me. You’ve gotten inside me in such a short time. If we’re together longer, you’re going to take me over until I can’t breathe without you. I know everyone would say it isn’t healthy to love that way, but I don’t know any other way. If I’m with you, I have to give you everything. It terrifies me to see ahead—”

  “Stop, Soleil.” There was pure steel in his voice. “We’re not going to break up. I told you that when you signed on. We live by a code. You’re part of that now, and by marrying me, you consented to live by that code. We fix anything broken between us. You’re my first priority and I’m yours. I give you my everything, and I expect that same level of commitment from you.”

  He sounded more like a dictator than a lover, and somehow that reassured her more than his words. He meant them. The air in her lungs that refused to release rushed out of her all at once. She watched his eyes grow even more crystal blue as he lifted her hand to his mouth and gently scraped his teeth back and forth over the pads of her fingers. It felt erotic. Sensual. Strangely, as if she belonged.

  “Baby, you think I’m extraordinary, and I’m fuckin’ glad about that. I’m not. I’m not even a nice guy, but you go ahead and think that of me. Maybe it will make me have to live up to your standards and I’ll be a better man for it. To me, you’re the extraordinary one. You’re beautiful and funny and you want to please me. Believe me, that’s a new experience for me. You take care of me in ways I love. I think you’re sexy as hell, and when I ask you to do something, you do it with no hesitation. You’ve given me your trust and that’s priceless to me. Bottom line, we aren’t going to end this.”

  Soleil wanted to believe him. She touched her fingers to those three perfect teardrops. She loved them. They belonged on him. “I don’t think I could ever love anyone else the way I do you, and it’s growing every single day we’re together.”

  “You’re not alone in that. You aren’t, Soleil. What I feel for you is enormous. So much so that I can’t look at it sometimes. Talk about terror. Let’s just live. We’re good. Don’t worry about things that aren’t going to happen. This gets broken, we fix it. You get upset, don’t like something, you tell me and trust me to do the same. We don’t hold shit back from each other. That’s what fucks up relationships.”

  She held his words tightly to herself. Whatever he felt for her terrified him, and she knew that emotion. She nodded. “I’ll try. Sometimes I can’t help what creeps into my mind. I’m used to being thrown away because I’m not good enough. That I was lucky I had money.”

  He studied her face, seeing too much, and she looked away. He caught her chin and forced her to meet his furious gaze. “Who the fuck told you that, Soleil?”

  She shook her head, feeling humiliated, just as she had when she was a child. “Ice . . .”

  “No, I want to know because someone said it to you.”

  She shrugged, trying to be casual, trying not to let him see how much it hurt. Or how much she let it color her life. “An aunt who took me in for a short while, and Winston said something similar.”

  “Well, it’s bullshit. We haven’t touched your money and we’re not going to. I pay. I told you that. As for Winston, that little pissant is going to reap his rewards. We’ve got eyes on him and have almost since we came back from Vegas.”

  Her head jerked up. “What? You didn’t tell me that.”

  “You didn’t need to know. He’s not your problem anymore. But I will say, it might be time to get a lawyer you trust to take over your business. Code says you have a lawyer trying to file to ‘protect’ your trust as you’ve gone missing. You’ll need to surface soon.”

  A shiver crept down her spine. She wrapped her arms around her middle. “The moment I do, they’ll come after me.”

  “By surfacing, I mean file papers of your own. That’s why you need a lawyer.”

  She frowned. “I have no idea who to hire.”

  “There’re a million lawyers who deal with your kind of trust. Choose one. Or you could use Absinthe. He’d eat them alive. He’s that good.”

  “Absinthe is a lawyer?”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  She liked that he didn’t push her. She was intelligent enough to know that when Absinthe had sat next to her in the clubhouse when they’d asked her questions, that he had some special talent. Since then, she’d heard several times that he was a human lie detector. She liked him. He was quieter than most of the others. Sometimes he seemed apart from them. She knew Ice not only liked and respected him but also admired him. Still, Ice hadn’t insisted she choose Absinthe as her lawyer.

  “Don’t you think that if I hired Absinthe as my lawyer, he’d become a target? That it would be painting a huge red bull’s-eye on his back?”

  He grinned at her, and for a moment, the way the light shimmering off the ocean hit his face, he looked a predator, like a hungry wolf eager to bring down his prey.

  “We have to draw them out. Code has gotten to them, found them online. They exchange emails all the time, and they have a private group chatroom they go into sometimes. There appears to be eight of them and Winston. He isn’t very popular right now. The others are holding him accountable for you getting away. He got very angry at one point. It seems he doesn’t have a handle on his temper at all. In the heat of the moment, he admitted he believes that you overheard the conversation with Harbin Conner, and might have heard another name, but you know they’re plotting to kill you.”

  She pushed her hair back behind her ears and drew her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “His temper is a lot worse than they realize.”

  “This is your business, Soleil, but you need to let the world know you’re alive and file papers to stop Donald Monroe from stealing your trust out from under your nose. We may not need it, but our children might be grateful to have it.”

  “You keep saying that, Ice, and you don’t know how much I appreciate that you want to pay, but I’m in this too, and I’m capable of contributing.”

  He caught her chin between his thumb and fingers. “Really? You’re going to go there again while we’re having a serious conversation?”

  “I am serious. You give me everything.”

  “I like buying you things. I like clothes shopping with you.”

  She blushed. He’d gone shopping with her just a few days earlier. He was especially fond of dresses. She obliged by trying them on. Each time she came out of the dressing room to show him, he had her turn around in front of his chair, then he stood and reached down the bodice to caress the upper curves of her breasts before sliding his hands up the backs of her thighs to cup her bare cheeks. He preferred her to wear thongs or no panties at all. She went with the thongs most of the time.

  He made everything they did together fun and sensual. She looked forward to every day. She looked forward to just being with him. Her heart hurt sometimes just looking at him.

  “Do you think Absinthe will have time to meet with me?”

  “First, Absinthe only works for Torpedo Ink. You’re now property of Torpedo Ink because you’re my wife. That means he works for you.”

  “Whoa. Back up the bus, Ice.” She couldn’t admit that little thrill that shot through h
er at his casual statement. She wanted to be his in every way, but property? “I’m Torpedo Ink’s property?”

  He slung his arm around her neck and pulled her to him. “You’re my property, but Torpedo Ink will protect you. Every member. Every prospect. I’m having your jacket made. We’ll be going on a run with the Diamondbacks and a few other clubs and I’ll want you wearing it or the denim vest I’ve had made up as well. That’s important. You can’t just walk around unclaimed in that situation. You have to stick close to me.”

  “I always stick close to you.” She did. She loved being with him, and she didn’t care where they were.

  He nodded his head. “So, talk to Absinthe later this morning and we’ll get the ball rolling. Once he files the papers, and proves you’re alive and hired him, we’ll be able to take these fuckers down. Three of them are ‘married’ to their victims and looking to kill their spouses off soon. They joke about it. Code said it made him feel sick reading their dialogue. These women think they love them, when their ‘husbands’ are really after the money. If it hadn’t been for Lana . . . I’m so fuckin’ grateful to her.”

  “Me too.”

  “I’ve got some other business with the club to take care of before the run, Soleil. I’ll be gone for a day or two at the most, but it hopefully won’t be long. I’ll want you close to the house or clubhouse. You can visit Breezy or Anya. Both places are very protected. If you need anything like groceries, give a list to whoever is here looking out for you. I’m not certain who we’re leaving behind this time.”

  Another shiver slid down her spine. “I don’t understand. Where are you going?”

  “Club business is something we don’t talk about, babe. I didn’t explain that and I’m sorry. I should have before hitting you with it. We take jobs and work them out, that’s how we make our club money. Only fully patched club members are privy to what we do. It’s to keep things confidential. It’s no big deal.”

  “I couldn’t care less what you’re doing, Ice, but I don’t like the fact that you’re going someplace where I won’t know where you are.”

  “You’ll get used to it.” He stroked a caress down the back of her head as if that could fix things.

  Soleil wasn’t buying it. “How would you feel if I disappeared for a couple of days and you had no idea where I was or what I was doing?”

  “That isn’t going to happen.”

  His voice had turned pure steel again, something that sent butterflies winging in her stomach. His eyes had changed again, going pure glacier blue. Pure ice. He was dead serious. She put a hand defensively to her throat.

  “Can you not see how unfair that is?”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck whether it’s fair or not, Soleil,” he snapped. “You don’t ever disappear on me.”

  His eyes blazed with blue flames. She found that fascinating and kind of hot—a bad thing because he really meant what he said. There was a razor edge to his voice. Suddenly he wasn’t the easygoing man she’d married.

  “Honey”—she tried to be reasonable—“I’ve been on my own for a very long time.”

  She could see the effort he made to push down those hot, blue flames. She almost didn’t want him to, fixating on them. He was such a beautiful man, even angry. She didn’t like him upset with her. That didn’t sit well, but the way his eyes looked as he ran his gaze over her . . .

  There was possession, as if she belonged to him. There was that dark lust that was never quite gone when he looked at her. There were those blue flames that leapt in his eyes and focused on her as if she were the only woman in his world and he burned for her. She’d heard angry sex was explosive . . .

  “You’re not on your own anymore, Soleil, and you have a pack of murderers looking to kill you. You aren’t being reasonable. Why the fuck aren’t you being reasonable?” He raked both hands through his hair, messing it up more so he looked like a wild surfer instead of a biker.

  She tried not to smile, knowing that wouldn’t make him happy. She couldn’t help rubbing her finger over his lips, tracing that little intriguing frown, trying to soothe him because he was genuinely upset. Suddenly it was no longer about sex, angry or otherwise; it was about fixing the problem and getting him to understand so he wasn’t upset and neither was she.

  “You could try asking, Ice. I pretty much would do anything for you. I don’t want to be treated like I’m ten and not quite bright. What would be the point of me going anywhere without you? I have a million things to do in this house, or I can go visit the other women. I want to get to know them. What I don’t want is to be treated like a child. I may have made a few mistakes, or maybe even a lot of them, but I did learn from them.”

  He froze, his turbulent eyes completely focused on her face.

  She nodded. “I was making a point that you wouldn’t like me to disappear for a few days without your knowledge of where I am. You had a rather visceral reaction, so I’m fully aware you wouldn’t like it. But you’re doing the same thing to me and expect that I’ll be okay with it. Do you see my point?”

  “I see it,” he conceded. “I can’t change my work, baby. It’s what I do.”

  “I’ve heard what men do on runs. Whatever happens stays there. I don’t like that, Ice, and I’m not living with it. You do that and we’re done.” She stated it irrevocably.

  “First, princess”—he cupped one side of her face with his palm, his thumb stroking gently—“I told you, I don’t cheat. That’s not who I am. I would never disrespect you that way. Second, we aren’t going on a run. If we do that, I’ll take you with me. We’re working. It’s going to happen that we have to leave every now and then. This is one of those times. I need you to be okay with it whenever I’m gone on club business.”

  Her eyes searched his. She didn’t really care about knowing his club’s business, but she didn’t like him somewhere she couldn’t reach him. “Can I text you?”

  “Sure. I might not be able to answer right away. You can send me nude pictures too.”

  Immediately she felt hot in her stomach, as if a fire smoldering there suddenly burst into flames. Color crept up from her stomach to her breasts, heating them to an aching point and then moving up her neck, framing the pulse beating so madly there, to her face, coloring her a soft rose.

  He grinned at her. “You like the idea.”

  “I like thinking of you hot and bothered looking at the pictures. I don’t think I could actually take pictures of myself to send you.” She turned her head to face his hardening cock. The size and shape of him were beautiful. She circled the girth with one hand, making a fist.

  “I love how perfect you are. So thick and hard, yet like velvet.” She licked up his shaft and then swirled her tongue over the head, collecting pearly drops. “I also love how you taste.” Her eyes met his as she turned over onto her stomach, her mouth inches from his groin. “You have no idea how beautiful your cock is, Ice. It suits you perfectly.”

  He reached down and smacked her on the bottom. Heat blossomed and spread. She let out a little mock cry, but truthfully, it didn’t matter what Ice did, she was always turned on. Instantly.

  “Get up for a minute.”

  His voice had turned wicked. She sat up and watched as he got up. “I’ll be right back.” He raced up the stairs. She found it extremely exciting to watch his body move, all those delicious muscles she’d traced with her tongue. The scars on him that only made him look awesome. He came down with his phone.

  Soleil started laughing. “What are you planning?”

  “I want pictures.”

  “Once you have them, anyone can see them.”

  “No, they can’t. I’m not sharing them. I want them, though. My sexy wife. I love saying that. I love that you’re mine. Come on, pose for me.”

  “I’m not a model. I’m too self-conscious to pose nude or fully clothed. I never look that great in pic
tures.”

  “I’ll direct you.”

  He sounded so eager she found herself smiling, suddenly uncaring that he wanted nude photographs of her, no matter how awful they turned out. He pointed to the thick rug in front of the fireplace. He turned the flames on low with the remote and they danced to life, a long line of them recessed into the wall.

  “Sit and let your shirt drape off one shoulder and unbutton all the buttons so your tit peeks out. That’s sexy as hell.”

  “Is hell sexy?” she teased, complying with his instructions.

  “Look up at me with your innocent face. That little angel face.”

  She wasn’t sure she had an innocent face. She certainly didn’t have an angel face, so she just looked up at him under her long lashes and hoped that was good enough. She parted her lips and then looked directly at him as he snapped away. When he didn’t give her further direction, she swept the shirt open and cupped her breasts like an offering to him, throwing her head back so the line of her throat showed.

  “Shit, baby, I’m getting as hard as a rock.”

  That was nothing new, but it inspired her. She lay down on her stomach, legs bent into the air, a distance apart. She turned her head to look at him, propped up on one elbow, so he caught her breast hanging down, nipple rubbing the warm, thick carpet.

  He tossed her a pillow and she thrust it under her bottom, lifting her butt for him. “That’s so beautiful, princess. Turn over and lie back, arch your back and bring up your knees. Legs apart so I can see all that wonderful honey you feed me in the morning.”

  He devoured her at least twice a day. She didn’t contradict him because she didn’t want to sound as if she were complaining.

  “Get yourself off, Soleil.”

  She slid her hand down her belly and then curled her fingers into her slick heat, her eyes on his. With one finger, she circled her clit. She couldn’t believe how hot it made her having Ice watch her with hungry eyes while he took pictures.