A glimmer of hope bubbles inside my chest.
“That means only one thing,” Summer continues.
“Really? Please enlighten me,” I ask sarcastically, not allowing myself to believe she could be right.
“He’s got it really bad for you,” Summer replies coyly.
Now I really roll my eyes. “You are sorely mistaken.”
“She’s right,” Raven agrees. “When a guy doesn’t just want to shoot a load,” that almost makes me cringe, “it means he cares.”
“I don’t know,” I shake my head no slowly. “He’s been teasing me about having ten babies.”
Both of their mouths fall open and their eyes get big and round.
“Bull wants to have ten babies with you?!” Summer squeals excitedly.
“NO!”
“You want to have his ten babies, then, am I right?” Raven looks almost deviant.
“What?! NO.” But, yeah, maybe I do.
“Well, somebody’s having ten babies, and it sure as shit isn’t me,” Raven looks me up and down.
“Okay, just back up you two,” I hold my hands up, palms facing them. “Nan made a comment about me needing to fill up the house with babies. Ten of them. That’s it. It was a joke.”
“Twas not, lass,” Nan chimes in from where she’s sitting at her table.
My hands fly to my face again. “Oh, Lord, not again,” I mumble behind my palms.
“Can’t you just see it, Raven? Gwen all round and pregnant with little Bulls?” Summer squeals again. With flipping glee!
“She’d look totally great glowing, barefoot and pregnant,” Raven even sounds pleased with my whole pregnant fantasy.
“Whoa, slow down,” I say.
“We’re going to be aunties,” Summer’s voice has risen a few octaves.
“We’ll be the best aunts ever!” Raven exclaims.
“Would you two stop!”
“We’ll have the baby shower right here,” Summer goes on.
“Balloons and streamers. They’ve got to be pink and blue. And a gigantic cake,” Raven is on a roll too.
“There won’t be any baby showers,” I’m shaking my head furiously.
“I’ve got tons of booties already, I do,” Nan joins in.
“No, no, no!” I have no idea how this happened. They’ve got me knocked up and celebrating!
“They’re going to make such beautiful babies. Five boys and five girls,” Summer states almost dreamily.
“We are NOT making any babies!” I exclaim.
“Congratulations,” comes an unfamiliar female voice.
All three of our heads whip around to face the voice. There’s a young woman on the other side of the counter none of us heard come in.
Raven gets a scowl on her face. “We’re closed. Come back tomorrow.” She’s glaring at her, silently demanding her to leave our party.
“Hush now. We are not closed. What can we get for you?” Summer is the epitome of polite. Even when she doesn’t want to be.
“We are too closed,” Raven argues, her eyes never leaving the unknowing intruder.
The woman’s gaze bounces back and forth from Summer to Raven, not knowing what to do.
“It’s fine, we’re not closed,” I interject, deciding to end the stand-off.
“Are you sure? I mean if you’ve got morning sickness…or whatever…from your pregnancy…,” she stammers.
“Look at what you two have done?” I huff, glaring at both Raven and Summer. I turn my attention back to the young woman. “I’m fine. I’m not pregnant,” I turn a scorching stare to my two friends, “I’m not going to be pregnant. THESE two just got carried away.” Ending my tongue lashing, I calmly turn back to the customer. “What would you like? I’d be happy to get it for you.”
Raven and Summer giggle behind me. I clench my jaw to refrain from snapping at them.
“Thank you,” she smiles, her glasses lifting a little from her nose. She’s dressed in a conservative blouse and skirt. Her dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail. The look defines her features and makes her appear almost…nerdy. But there’s something underlying her façade. She looks familiar, although I can’t put my finger on how I know her.
“I’d like an iced decaf mochaccino, please,” her smile is automatic and seems friendly.
“Coming right up,” I turn to start her beverage.
Summer and Raven remain where they are, although their conversation has stopped.
Thank God.
“Hi, I’m Summer. I recognize your face, but I’m sorry, I can’t recall your name.” I glance over my shoulder and Summer has her hand extended over the counter to the woman.
Raven is watching the exchange intently. There’s a strange expression on her face. She recognizes her as well. I glance at Snake, who has yet to make a comment on the whole pregnancy debacle. His eyes are fixed on what’s happening at the counter with us, completely aware of every word. Even Nan is watching.
“I’ve been in once before,” she shakes Summer’s hand.
“It’s fine,” Summer waves her off.
The girl still hasn’t told us her name.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” Summer asks again. She didn’t miss it either.
The smile is still on the woman’s face, almost painted on. “I’m Millicent, James Williams assistant. Sasha Williams ex-husband.”
My mouth falls open and I fumble with her drink, almost dropping it. To Summer’s and Raven’s credit, neither one of them miss a beat, their expressions never change.
Ex-husband?
I’m not sure it’s because they were already aware of the fact, or they’re really excellent poker players. Probably both, with their secret society and all of their inside information the rest of us are entirely unaware of, and are not privileged enough to know.
“Hi, yes, I remember now.” I think Summer’s lying. I believe she had no idea who she was. “It’s very nice to meet you.” She shakes her hand once more before releasing it. “How is Mr. Williams? And Sasha?”
Summer’s good, she can charm the pants off of anyone, and she lies beautifully.
Millicent has a genuine smile now. For some reason, that pisses me off. “He’s great. Sasha is doing very well since she moved away.” She waves her hand in the air. “I guess the small town life wasn’t for her.”
Bullshit!
I may not be privy to their insider information, however, I know damn well she didn’t just up and move away.
“I doubt that,” Raven sneers at her.
Millicent’s eyes slice to Raven, her smile never faltering. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
A cold tremor slithers up my spine.
A smirk lifts the corners of Raven’s lips. “Or they are exactly what they seem,” her words are icy.
Time stretches as everything that’s just been said hangs heavy in the air.
I can’t stall any longer. I’ve finished preparing her drink, so I turn back to her and place her coffee on the counter. “Here you go.” I ring her up. “It’ll be four fifty-nine, please.”
Tension is thick. I don’t know much, but I do know that Sasha and Gringo were very close. I also know that Gringo’s been walking death since she’s been gone. None of that supports what Millicent has just told us, that Sasha moved away.
She shuffles through her purse, pulls out a card, and slides it through the reader. We all stand quietly watching as she finishes her transaction. No one moves or speaks, you can hear a pin drop in the restaurant.
Millicent’s eyes meet mine with focus. “You must be Gwendolyn. It’s very nice to meet you.”
My heart jumps. There’s no reason for her to know my name. That’s just creepy.
“You too, come back and see us,” I mumble mechanically.
Raven’s already moved around the counter with Millicent’s coffee in hand. “Let me get that door for you,” she opens it for her and holds out her cup with a ‘Get the fuck out of here’ expression.
“Just a second, lass,” Nan is on her feet and striding toward her.
I gasp and watch wide eyed, riveted in place, as Nan approaches Millicent with quick, sure strides.
What does she think she’s doing?!
My gaze slides to Snake. He hasn’t moved except for his eyes and his lips. His attention is fixed on Millicent, and he’s smirking, apparently enjoying the fact Nan is about to lay into her.
“Shut the door, love, I’ve a question or two for Millicent,” Nan waves a hand at Raven.
“Gladly,” Raven drawls as she lets go of the door and lets it fall shut.
“Excuse me?” Millicent turns to my grandmother.
“It won’t be but a wee minute, lass. Now, why don’t you be telling me why you think we’d be believing our Sasha just up and left with not a word?” Nan glares at Millicent from over her glasses, practically nose to nose.
“Because she did,” Millicent juts her chin up.
“Horse shit, lass. Ain’t nothing Sasha did she didn’t boast about. And if the lass was leaving, she’d ‘ave bragged about it, ‘aving a right good chin wag, she would ‘ave. Not a one of us ‘eard a word about it.” Nan leans in closer, my eyes get wider, and I swear to God, everyone wants to yell, ‘Get her Nan!’ My grandmother does not stop there. “Something’s ‘appened to our Sasha, and you can bet your sweet arse we’ll be finding out. Now get out, and tell your precious Mr. Williams if ‘e’s ‘urt a ‘air on ‘er ‘ead, my boy Gringo will cut his balls off, ‘e will. HRRRRRMPH.”
“I…I…I never!” Millicent sputters.
“Then tis a fine time you did,” Nan waves her out. “Get the door, Raven love.”
“With pleasure,” Raven’s wearing a smirk from ear to ear.
Millicent spins around and marches out the open door. Without her iced decaf mochaccino.
Snake is the first to start clapping. We all erupt in applause whistling and shouting Nan’s praises as she shuffles back to her chair.
My grandmother is the baddest woman I know.
The door opens again and Bull walks in. I freeze, and so do Raven and Summer, both of them whip their heads to look at me. But I’m not looking at them. I only see Bull.
It’s like a vacuum has sucked everything out of the room. It’s just Bull and me, his eyes found me as soon as he walked in, mine were already fixed on him. My heartbeat accelerated and my breathing got faster. My entire body came alive, I’m hyper sensitive to his presence, the ghost of his touch and taste and smell exploded in my senses, now completely a part of me.
I am in so much trouble.
Just great.
With his eyes still fixed on me, Bull asks, “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Snake pushes the chair out next to him with a foot, still clapping, he’s the only one who is. “You just missed Mrs. Merriweather ream James Williams’ assistant a new asshole.”
Bull jerks his head to look back at the closed door. “That’s who that was? She looked familiar.” Bull takes the seat at Snake’s table. “She’s been in here before.”
“Yep. The last day Sasha was seen.” Snake’s leering.
It gives me some sense of comfort they feel freely to speak of what happened to Sasha in front of me. Like I might just become part of their club after all.
Bull and Snake recognized her immediately, they knew she’d been in here before. And when. I have no clue how Snake can remain so calm and unaffected, I’m literally shaking, I’m so angry. I glance first to Summer, then to Raven. I can sense they’re both angry, but they don’t seem surprised either. Even Nan. When my gaze finally returns to the man I’m dreading going home with, the contained fury I see in his eyes that are fixed on me once again takes my breath away.
“What did she want?” Bull asks, his tone deadly.
Snake leans closer to Bull. Raven and Summer get back to work as if on cue. Refrigerator and cabinet doors open and shut, silverware and servers clang as they get washed and put away. All around me is noise, conveniently blocking out the men’s conversations.
Apparently this is a part of their secret club information I’m not privy to.
Taking a deep breath, I join the women in the closing duties. As I get the stock ready for tomorrow and all the work areas cleaned, my mind goes over everything that just happened, dissecting it.
Why would she come in here and say Sasha moved away? Did Sasha’s husband have something to do with it? Is she really divorced? And how did she know who I was?
I steal a glance at Bull talking quietly with Snake. Their heads are bent together and they’re both tense. A tremor ripples through me.
Something’s going on, and not just with Sasha. That’s why Bull’s been sitting outside our house. He’s protecting us. But from what or who?
I should be frightened. I’m not. Bull may hate me; he may not want to have anything to do with me. None of that matters. He’s protecting me, and protecting my family. That speaks volumes, much more than I can attempt to imagine. It sends a warm glow through me and a feeling I can’t describe. He makes me feel safe and protected. Alone, he’s an army. My army. Nothing’s going to get by him.
No one does what he’s doing if they didn’t care.
I make up my mind that tonight, no matter what, I’ve got some questions for Bull, whether he wants to talk to me or not.
CHAPTER 17
Bull
I’m avoiding them. Plain and simple. The truth is I’m avoiding Gwendolyn.
She’s got to have questions I’m not prepared to answer.
Millicent, James Williams’ assistant. Just what in the actual fuck?
On the one hand, it’s understandable why a man would make up a story that his wife moved away when she up and got a rush divorce. That is if it were under normal circumstances.
There ain’t a damn thing that’s normal about any of this.
Sasha may be divorced, but she didn’t get a divorce. It was organized and she had to go through with it. I’m sure she wanted it, but there had to be a reason she hadn’t filed prior if she was so unhappy in the marriage. If I hadn’t been in a special position to get to know her, it might be believable that she’d move without a word to anyone. But I had been. Hell, I’ve had my dick in her more times than I can count, her mouth, her pussy, and she even took my monster in the ass.
Gringo loves her, they were together. They loved each other. We were a threesome many times.
She’s not the first woman we’ve shared.
All four of us have always shared women. Even Summer.
The most beautiful sight is a woman getting lost in pleasure when her body is being worshipped.
We’re filthy bastards, there’s no denying that. Some may even say we’re perverted. We’re not. However, I’d tell a woman who is at the receiving end of all four of us to suck that cock deep down her throat as I fucked her tight cunt while her ass was stuffed full of another man’s dick. We’re open and honest and uninhibited, maybe a bit raw, some might think we’re unrestrained, but definitely filthy. If what happens between us and a woman is done with mutual respect and admiration, if that’s what we all want, we do it. I don’t necessarily always have to be a gentleman while it happens.
Rock and Summer and Snake and Raven are still in a relationship together. All of them.
Do I want to share Gwendolyn? That’s not where my feelings for her stem from, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a shit ton of them, because I do. I’m not a liar. But if that’s what she wanted, I would do it, I’d give her that, but only with one of my brothers. Or all of them. If that’s what she wanted. All of us together at the same time.
What the four of us share, me, Gringo, Snake, and Rock, is more than respect and admiration. It’s a bond that came from all of that and more, it’s a special kind of love. Because we’ve been tortured together, survived
together, and were forged from the same fires together. I would give her the gift of that special intimacy. If I could.
But I can’t.
That would mean I’d have to give her myself. I can never do that.
She deserves so much more than me.
She deserves a family, a real family, happiness, stability, a future. She deserves someone who hasn’t destroyed all of that. It’s obvious family means a lot to her, she’s living with her grandmother. They take care of each other. What did I do for mine? I gave them hell on earth.
That doesn’t mean I won’t take care of her, of both of them, I will any way I can.
I waited outside in my truck until I thought both of them were in bed. I put in a call to the president of the Steel Brothers MC club. He didn’t answer. They helped us out the last time because he owed me a favor. When I was a kid, I saved his younger sister from some really bad guys. I didn’t do it for that. I did it because it was the right thing to do. He never forgot it. He sent his men here to help out when Rock, Snake, Gringo, and Summer went out of town. The MC club were security detail.
At least that’s what we all thought until the shit went down with his vice president. It turned out the vice president of the Steel Brothers club had arranged a deal on the side with Raven prior to the expo. It went wrong, so the club was looking for her. Apparently the vice president liked to get into side ventures, because he’d also taken a contract to retrieve Summer and return her to her father and The Club. When things went down and Snake was shot, everything came out. The vice president had turned on his club. Twice. That’s not a good place to be. They’d have probably killed him, that is if Raven hadn’t first.
That is if the Steel Brothers weren’t a part of Summer’s contract. Or rather are still a part of Summer’s contract. I’m sure we’ll find out this time if they take me up on my offer, and try to kidnap Summer.
That’s one thing about the Steel Brothers president. Family is important to him. The club is family, along with his sister. They protect what’s theirs. Summer, Raven, Gwendolyn, and even Mrs. Merriweather are our family. We’ll offer them payment if he agrees to come do back-up because this time it wouldn’t be to pay-off a debt. This time it would be business. However, we don’t know if they’re connected to this situation somehow. That’s where everything gets complicated. My assumption would be if they are a part of the mill situation, it’s for the entire club, not one rogue member. Previously, the contract was for only the vice president. Now, setting up a trade deal with whoever’s behind the mill would be club business. Money’s a very powerful thing. And whomever James Williams is involved with the mill deal is extremely powerful. The Club has very wealthy members who’ve got influence in different sectors of society and politics.
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