“You bet I am, darlin’, and my wife is the luckiest woman in the world.” Steel’s response made me laugh and Creed grunt.
“She is the most tolerant woman in the world,” Creed mumbled. “Come on, let’s get the last of these boxes in the car and then Apollo.” The huge dog thumped his tail when he heard his name, but that was it, the big bugger didn’t move otherwise. Bloody mutt.
“Your dog’s name is Apollo? Oh, fuck me, that is gold.” Steel laughed outright. His laugh was beautiful, a deep rumbling happy laugh, which was infectious.
“Yeah, Creed tried to talk me out of it, but I would not budge. He told me your code names were supposed to be a secret, but I couldn’t resist,” I said, laughing with Steel. There was no laugh from Creed, just another grunt.
“Damn stubborn woman.” I heard from beside me.
From deep in my mind’s eye, I could see the handsome face of Creed rolling his eyes at me. I pretended he was smiling at me like he used to.
“I annoy him in case you couldn’t tell, Steel. I may not be able to see it, but I know he is rolling his eyes at me.” There was a moment of silence as tension flowed around the room. Not for the first time, I wished I could see. Any situation that involved Creed I wished for my sight to come back.
“Yeah, darlin’, that is exactly what he is doing,” Steel lied quietly. He was lying, and we all knew it, but I just didn’t know why.
“Let’s go now.” Creed growled, the anger in his tone telling me to leave it alone, so I would—or now.
“Please, don’t forget the box labelled Braille. It’s heavy, so use your legs, not your back,” I said as I used my cane to find my way to the front door. “Apollo, come on, buddy.” The thump, thump of my beloved dog’s heavy steps directed me to where he was.
“Use your legs, not your back?” I heard from Steel.
“Shut the fuck up and grab a box, dickhead.”
I stifled a giggle. This was going to be fun, for me at least. Creed? Not so much.
———
Seb was interesting. He didn’t talk much, was very polite when spoken to, and answered my hundred and one questions about his life. His favourite colour was blue. His favourite number was sixty-nine—not touching that one. His favourite TV show was Tour of Duty, although he did say it was because he had no choice in that one. I remembered Creed telling me about Shiloh’s obsession with the war show and her bodyguard, Darth. I had always been fascinated with the stories of Darth. Creed made him sound like a riot, all the trouble he got into with Shiloh, and that she put him in timeouts was hilarious, but meeting him for the first time on the day he was to bury his girlfriend saddened me.
I had felt loss too many times, too much sadness, so I knew how he was probably feeling. I sighed and moved in my seat. I didn’t spend much time in cars. The town I lived in was small enough for me to walk everywhere I needed to go. Practically everything was on the one street—the bakery I got my breakfast from, the pharmacy and the small corner store were all down the street from my bookstore. So there was no need for car trips. Three times a year, I went to the city two hours away to see my ophthalmologist. I killed two birds with one stone and used those trips to do some clothes shopping or get something special.
“Is Creed in front of us or behind?” I suddenly asked the quiet prospect. I could hear two throaty engines. Normally, I would pick Creed’s bike from a mile away, but with two? I wasn’t sure which was his, and that bothered me. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the familiar rumble that greeted me every time he came home to me. Well, not home to me, but home … well, not home.
Oh, shut up, Memphis, I admonished myself.
“He is in front. Hear that deep thump?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah, it’s like I can feel it in my chest.” Every time he came down my street, I felt that, much like my heart.
“Creed’s bike has no exhaust, just small pipes coming straight from the headers. His bike can set off car alarms at three in the morning,” Seb said with a chuckle. “Steel has longer pipes, which calls less attention from the boys in blue. Creed doesn’t give a fuck—um, shit.”
I laughed at Seb because apologising for swearing was like saying oops after the car had already gone over the cliff. So far, I had heard the word fuck in so many different contexts that I had taken a mental note to talk to my editor about them. She was going to be appalled that I was going to use more swearing in my next novel.
“Please, Seb, no need to change for me. I have known Creed most of my life. There isn’t much I haven’t heard over the years, although I am learning new and interesting ways to use swear words.”
“Just wait until you get to the compound. Between Darth, Mannix, and Shiloh, get ready for some more learning,” he quipped.
I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke of his family. A familiar pang gripped at my chest. Were they to become my family, too? Or was I just going to be there temporarily? Creed hadn’t mentioned a real timeline. He said a while, maybe a month or so, but what was going to happen then? The marriage was just for convenience, to satisfy the terms of my grandparents’ will. How they could put such conditions on me owning my family home was beyond me. They continued to mess with me even from the grave. A low growl left me as I tried to calm my rage. Honestly, what arseholes, complete and utter arseholes.
“You okay over there, Helen Keller?”
I spluttered a laugh, and in the process, I started to choke and laugh at the same time.
“Sorry, that was really inappropriate. Sorry, Memphis.”
“Oh, no, don’t be sorry, Seb. Too many people take my blindness too seriously. I am blind, and nothing can change that, so there is no need to tiptoe around it. It was very funny,” I said as I got myself under control. It was nice being able to laugh at myself. If I was going to fit in at the compound for the foreseeable future, I wanted every member to be comfortable around me. My handicap didn’t determine who I was. It had taken enough from me over the years.
I was met with more silence, but this time, it wasn’t uncomfortable. I settled back into my seat, closed my eyes, and concentrated on the thump, thump in my chest and in front of the car.
Chapter 5
CREED
I didn’t count the number of times I looked in my side mirror, checking that the SUV was still behind me. I was guessing a couple of hundred would be close to the number. The ride back to the compound took the right amount of time this trip. We took a different route than I had the day before. However, I stayed off the back roads and kept to the old highway, which was now known as a tourist route and had plenty of cars on it but only two lanes of traffic and no mountain hills.
The moment the turn-off to the compound came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed my white-knuckled grip on the handlebars. I stayed vigilant, though, because that fucker Rogue was not above attacking right at our front door. Poor Mia found that out more than once, and taking any chance that Memphis could experience anything like that pissed me off.
I tried not to think about the fact that the man trying to kill members of my family was actually the man who trained me to be a sniper, my former mentor, my hero, and inspiration—once upon a time but not anymore. I was going to rip his heart out with my bare hands. Let him feel the utter devastating pain of losing your own heartbeat just like I had when Lila Rose’s heart stopped beating, which was what happened to me. It stopped. Fucking broke.
How the fuck— No, not now, not today. There was going to be plenty of time later. In the war room with my brothers after I explained what was going on, we as a club were going to strategise how we were going to take the bastard out.
Everyone was going to want a piece of him, none more than Darth and me. And Booth. I could not imagine what my pres was going through now that Rogue’s identity was revealed. His own goddamn father was trying to kill his wife, her friends, and little Shiloh. He’d killed Vegas in an explosion we all witnessed. We didn’t know she was in there, and Rogue couldn’
t have known Rainn had figured out who he was and went to the worksite to tell us, so I had to assume he meant for the explosion to either kill Deck, Booth, Mannix, Darth, or myself. Or all of us. No matter who he intended to kill, another innocent woman had died.
I stopped in my reserved spot and walked my bike back into the park. Even though I could see Squid and Mannix on the roof with rifles at the ready, I wanted to get Memphis out of the open and into the relative safety of the compound. Judging by the lack of chairs and people out in the quadrangle, I surmised the funeral was going to be held indoors. Thank fuck for that. Memphis’s condition was enough to worry about without adding more variables to it.
“Seb, get Apollo out and bring him around to the passenger side for me,” I instructed the prospect as soon as I reached the SUV. The massive dog wasn’t your typical guide dog. In fact, he wasn’t properly trained in any way. Years ago, I had tried to get Memphis to get a Labrador, but she fell in love with the Newfoundland the minute she pushed her nose into his thick fur and had fallen to her arse a few seconds later when the overly large pup knocked her over in pure jubilation, so she chose to get him. It hadn’t been all bad. There was the apparent bond formed quickly, the protective streak he showed her, and as if he knew she was different, Apollo guided Memphis through life. Other than sleeping on her beloved boots, he never knocked anything over for her to fall on. The way he leaned into her with his body to help her past something and the way he put himself in front of her when someone came near her told me that no matter how weird, the right decision was made when those two chose each other.
I made my way to the other side of the car and opened the door.
“Hey, Angel. Have a good ride?” I asked as I leaned over Memphis and unbuckled her seatbelt. I didn’t miss how her whole face lit up and the blush colouring her checks when I used the endearment again. The vein under the delicate skin at her throat pulsed also, and I found myself liking it. Again, not going there, and the reasons could stay unanswered as far as I was concerned.
“Yes, I did. Seb likes blue, he hates Brussel sprouts, and wants to learn how to line dance but won’t admit that to anyone if asked,” she told me matter-of-factly as she put her hands in mine and let me help her down form the jacked-up SUV. Her legs got tangled in the skirt of her dress as she swivelled in the seat, giving me a delicious glimpse of her thighs. A freckle was temptingly positioned on the inside of her leg, close to the crease where her leg met her— Oh, fuck, her panties were all lace and white, showing me a cock-throbbing peek at the bare skin of her feminine mound.
“Creed? Brother, we gotta get her inside.”
I jumped at Steel’s voice. I never fucking jumped, got startled, or wasn’t aware of what was going on around me. One look at a pair of lace panties had me forgetting all my training. I moved more to the left so Steel couldn’t see Memphis get down, and I growled low in my throat, pissed off at myself for getting caught with a semi hard-on and at Steel for nearly seeing something that was not meant for anyone but me.
No! Not you, either, you sick arsehole.
Needing to get away, I made sure Memphis had the lead attached to Apollo in her hands then stood back from her. Again, I ignored the hurt look she gave me. It was something she was going to have to get used to because this was a marriage in name only. Protection was the only thing on my mind, not the hardness of my cock in my pants just from one sneak peek of my new wife’s lace panties.
“Yeah, Steel, I know. Okay, Memphis, right now we are in the car park of the compound. There are two large eight-foot high solid steel gates for vehicles to come in and out of, and next to them is a small wrought iron gate for people, which has a lock on it. The combination is five-one-five-three, and it is a standard keypad.” I waited for her to repeat the combination before I continued. “Twenty-five steps at three o’clock on your right will get you to a hedge and an opening to the quadrangle. From there, it is a straight walk of sixty steps to the main door. With me so far, Angel?”
“Three o’clock to the right, twenty-five steps and there is a hedge then the quadrangle. Sixty steps to the front door,” she repeated instantly.
Her ability to remember all the details she needed to store in her memory never failed to astound me. For anyone else, this would be overwhelming, frightening even. And on some level, it probably was for Memphis, too, but she just learned over the years to put the fears aside and pull the logic to the front. Her survival in everyday life depended on a calm thought process.
“Good. Later on, I will walk you around the entire property so you and Apollo can get a feel for things. For now, we have to get inside. We aren’t late, and I want it to stay that way.”
Being there for Darth was important to me. When I buried Lila Rose, all of my brothers stood at my side, and if it hadn’t been for them, I would not have survived—if that was what you called what I was doing. Darth needed to know he wasn’t alone. Whether he could survive without her was not up to anyone but him, but he wasn’t going to be alone until he figured that out.
I tapped Memphis on the hip to get her attention, and she held out her hand, which I took in mine. Memphis hadn’t gone to a blind school to learn how to be blind because her parents hadn’t allowed it. So, instead, Lila Rose, Memphis, and I had made up our own blind techniques while she still had some of her sight left. The house had been fashioned so she didn’t bump into things, and since she could still see, she stored everything in her memory. At first, I was worried her fuckwit parents would deliberately move shit just to see her fall, but Lila Rose had told them that she would go to the police and scream parental abuse if any kind of shenanigans—her word, not mine—took place. They agreed, and thankfully, they had surprisingly stuck to the rules we were enforcing to help Memphis. There were lots of other clever ideas we came up with, the tap on the hip being one. One tap meant we were going, two taps meant to stop, and three taps meant danger. Yeah, she could hear, so why the taps you ask? Simple. When she was in a new environment, she just listened for noises, for an echo if there was one, or she felt the area around her. She could feel how big it was, how small, and could smell the smells around her. When she got like that, speaking to her was useless because she got lost in her mind, so a tap meant to concentrate on me.
Apollo was on the other side of her, his big body snuggled protectively against her leg as we walked across the car park to the hedge. I made sure to take the exact way I explained to her. I knew how many steps, not that I had always planned to bring her here—because I hadn’t—but because it was ingrained in me to count the steps since she went completely blind at seventeen. No matter if it was in the desert on deployment or at the workshop going from the office to the bike lifts, I counted the steps. Just a habit I continued even though she didn’t need to know, but now she did. Good thing I was meticulous and just a bit anal about such shit.
As we walked slowly through the car park, I deliberately slowed my steps to let her count them for herself. Steel was behind us, and I knew without looking back at him there would be a smirk on his pretty boy face. The VP liked to rile me whenever he could—we had a love-hate friendship—okay, not hate, but more like love-annoy. Steel did love to annoy me, and the codename Apollo was his crowning moment. I grimaced at the stupid bloody name and tried to concentrate on getting into the compound for the funeral.
“It echoes here.” Memphis’s observation had me looking around the concreted area, which was used mostly by Shiloh for her four-wheeled bike and any other games she wanted us to play with her.
“Yeah, it’s all concrete. About one hundred yards to our right is a grassy area with picnic tables and swing sets. A cubby house to end all cubby houses and an outdoor workout area completes the picture.”
I pushed my aviator sunglasses higher on my nose. The glare of the sun was bright today. Memphis refused to wear sunglasses, and when I asked her why, she said simply, “It irks me that sighted people think we have to cover our eyes to make them more comfortable that they can se
e and we can’t. I have a dog and a cane; I bump into things, wear odd socks, and touch the faces of everyone I meet. I’m blind; get over it.”
It was funny because she did wear odd socks, but you just couldn’t see them inside of her boots, which she had on today as usual. Today, her dress was a deep shade of blue and was one of those wrap design dresses. Tight and fitted, the material overlapped at her waist and was cinched with a belt in the same colour. The skirt part floated around her legs, and every time she took a step, I got a great eyeful of firm thighs. These thoughts I was having were all wrong, so fucking wrong.
“Creed, the funeral is scheduled to start now,” Steel prompted me.
I didn’t want to miss any of this for Darth. With a nod of my head, I looked over my shoulder for Seb, who followed behind Steel, and I nearly laughed at the big leather handbag Memphis insisted on lugging around hanging off his hand like it was a poisonous snake ready to strike him. In his defence, the bloody thing was huge. The leather was a light tan and really worn. Memphis called it her lifeline, and I just thought it was too fucking big for her body to haul around. I had seen some of the things she carried in there, and personally, it scared the shit out of me. A woman’s handbag was not something a man should touch let alone look in.
“Seb, I need you to stay with Memphis. Do not leave her side,” I ordered. For the next few hours, I was going to be away from her, and that did not sit well with me. Logically, I knew she would be safe inside the compound with all the men around, but Rogue had infiltrated the main building already with the help of Callie, and her whereabouts were unknown. Yeah, we had improved security after the footage of Callie entering the club like she owned the joint came to our attention, but the irrational side of me, the side that had already lost at the hands of that maniac, was wound tight.
His Angel: The Wounded Souls Series Page 3