Free

by Kristen Ashley

  Hmm . . .

  Tack might be a great dad, but he had his limits and they were short.

  “No,” Rider pushed out.

  “No,” Cutter mumbled.

  “We act this way in your sister’s home?” Tack kept at them.

  He got two grumbled, “No”s.

  “Rebel is Rush’s, and she’s too old for you and you’re both too young to like girls yet, so cool it,” Tack ordered.

  Boy.

  The Allen men liked redheads.

  “I’m gonna be big like Rush one day,” Rider told his father.

  “And Lord help us all,” Tack muttered then gave them both a gentle shake. “You gonna cool it?”

  They glared at each other.

  “I asked my sons a question,” Tack said low.

  “I’ll cool it,” Cutter forced out, not very convincingly.

  “Me too,” Rider grunted, totally unconvincingly.

  Tack let them go.

  They both looked to me.

  Rider froze to the spot and blushed.

  Cutter raced again to the back of the house and disappeared.

  Rider jerked out of his freeze and followed him.

  “Yep,” Tyra said loudly. “Time to start taking Valium.”

  I turned to the adults in the room and was saved from having my dress yanked down when Rush swooped low in front of me to scoop Playboy up from the floor.

  Eyes on Tabby, I said, “I’m so sorry. This is ruining dinner.”

  “I didn’t slave over the beef casserole right now in the oven that’s gonna knock your socks off. But even if my man did, you dress great and you’re obviously super cool. I was all geared up to disapprove and throw shade. I’m not gonna get to do that so the night was gonna be boring.” She was looking at me over the back of her chair and I saw her shrug at the same time smile. “Now I figure it won’t be boring.”

  Tabby liked how I dressed and thought I was super cool.

  I wished I could be super happy about her thinking I was super cool.

  Instead, my ticked-off brother was showing out of nowhere at a family dinner, so I could only feel super freaked.

  I still shot her a grateful smile.

  Shy got up from the arm of her chair, saying, “Best make more salad and get Chill to go out and buy more rolls.”

  Oh no.

  They were going to ask D to stay for dinner.

  “You really don’t have to do that,” I assured him. “I’ll talk to Diesel outside and get him to leave. We’ll connect later and I’ll explain everything.”

  “And spoil the show?” Tabby teased.

  “Well, yeah,” I said.

  Her face gentled and she replied, “It’ll be okay, Rebel. We’re kinda used to drama. If you didn’t bring it, you would so totally not fit in.”

  “That’s the fuckin’ truth,” Tack muttered.

  Rush tossed an arm around my shoulders and led me back to the grouping, carrying a screeching-with-joy Playboy under his other arm like the baby’s grandfather had held him.

  I looked up at Rush and said under my breath, “I think for the first time I’m really freaking mad at you.”

  “You’ll get over it,” he replied nonchalantly.

  Okay.

  Now super really freaking mad at him.

  Though I had to admit, he probably wasn’t wrong.

  I huffed.

  He took me to the couch, handed me my beer and put Playboy on the floor.

  I sat.

  Rush sat too.

  “Need tequila?” Tabby asked.

  “Do you have case?” I asked back.

  More smiling and, “Sadly, no. But if Chill is going out to get rolls, we can get him to get us one.”

  “I’d say with how pissed your brother sounded, it might be a good idea you stay sober,” Rush advised.

  I glared at him as I lifted my beer and guzzled down a huge swallow.

  Now he was smiling at me.

  Jerk.

  “Good you got a brother who loves you so much, he hears you’re up to something that worries him, he hauls his ass up from Phoenix,” Tack said, and the way he said it made me realize why his children were so devoted to him.

  It was firm, but gentle and kind.

  It said he got I was feeling freaked, but I needed to get over it and just deal with the problem that I created my own self.

  “Yeah,” I muttered.

  To say I didn’t enjoy the next ten minutes of chatting was an understatement.

  So when the doorbell rang, I leapt from the couch, even if it wasn’t my door to answer.

  I still didn’t get to the door before Rush, who had longer legs and a shorter distance to lift his butt off a seat.

  I felt them all gathering behind me as Rush opened the door.

  And it got worse.

  Because it wasn’t just D.

  Mad was behind him.

  And Sixx stood next to Mad.

  What was Sixx doing there?

  And D had already opened the storm door.

  Not wasting a second.

  Shit.

  D glanced at Rush then his eyes swept to me and narrowed.

  Shit!

  Rush opened the door fully, stepping back, an indication my brother could come right in.

  Goddamned shit.

  I started to move forward, saying swiftly, “Diesel—”

  He stepped in, and his angry energy was so pervasive it made me stop moving.

  “Have you lost your mind?” he asked quietly.

  “D, just listen—”

  “Have you lost your goddamned mind?” he roared.

  “How did you find out?” I asked.

  “Not from my sister,” he answered.

  “D,” I said low.

  “Sixx knows people,” he shared. “A body dump in the middle of some sick-ass shit involving death and picnic tables and porn and MCs, people in her biz buzz about. Your name came up as to where the most recent dump happened. She looked into shit. Some of her people know some cops. They shared. She told Maddox and me.”

  I turned accusing eyes to Sixx.

  I didn’t know her very well. She was friends with D, Maddox and Molly, and to my understanding the relationship was relatively new. But I’d had dinner with her and her man when I was down in Phoenix last month.

  I liked her. She was cool.

  Still.

  “Sister, with this mess?” She shook her head. “No. I had to tell them.”

  She might be right.

  I still glared at her.

  “Do not give that attitude to Sixx,” Diesel ordered. “And I asked a question. Have you lost your mind?”

  “Can we talk about this elsewhere . . . later?” I requested. “I’m in the middle of something.” I paused. “And where’s Molly?”

  “Bodies are being dumped, Rebel,” Diesel reminded me. “Do you think we’d bring our woman here when bodies are being dumped?”

  They would not.

  She might be in Australia, they’d want her so far away from something like that.

  Probably where they intended to send me.

  “Whoa, you’re huge.”

  I looked behind me and down and saw Rider standing there, gazing up at Diesel like he was a superhero.

  “And you’re like, ripped,” Rider went on. His dazed-with-little-kid-admiration eyes strayed to Maddox, those eyes got bigger and he whispered, “Whoa.”

  I looked to Maddox.

  Pitch-black hair. Full black beard. Black eyes. Not as tall as Diesel or as big, but he was a seriously fit guy. Wicked nasty handsome face in the sense he looked like a classic villain from a comic strip, the one you wanted to win over the good guy, mostly because he was the one you wanted to fuck.

  Another world that didn’t have D or Rush, I’d totally do him. And it didn’t make me feel queasy to think that. Maddox was just that hot.

  He turned his angry gaze from Rider to me.

  Angry, he went from looking villainou
s to murderous.

  That was hot too.

  I couldn’t appreciate the hotness in that moment.

  Oh boy.

  “We’ll talk later. You’re done here, you come right home, Rebel. Then you’re packing and we’re taking you to Phoenix,” Maddox said.

  Uh-oh.

  I didn’t get the chance to get justifiably uppity that Maddox was treating me like a naughty little sister.

  Rush moved to stand to my side, but partly in front of me.

  “We got her covered,” he declared, his voice very growly.

  “That’d make me feel a whole lot better if I knew who the fuck you were,” Diesel returned.

  “Diesel,” I snapped. “Kids.”

  D looked to Rider who had now been joined by an equally admiring Cutter and said, “Sorry, kid.”

  “Dad uses the F-word all the time,” Rider shared.

  “To my everlasting frustration,” Tyra mumbled.

  “Rebel and I are together,” Rush stated. “And I get you’re concerned, man, but she’s not going anywhere.”

  Diesel’s brows went up at me. “So you also got yourself a man and didn’t share.”

  “We met on Tuesday,” I bit out.

  Diesel’s torso swung back and he looked around, taking it all in, and with the Allen clan being obvious about coming from Tack’s loins, it didn’t take a genius to see what was happening.

  But my brother was sharp, intuitive, empathetic and I’ll repeat, sharp.

  He saw what was happening.

  “Yep, I’m the sister. Those are our baby brothers. That’s my kid crawling around. This is my husband. And that’s my dad and stepmom,” Tabby confirmed Diesel’s look.

  He turned back to me. “Meeting the family, Reb? Already?”

  “How about this,” Tack pushed in. “You come in. Have a beer. Eat. We’ll talk. You can get to know us, know we got Rebel covered, feel better about the situation. She’s out. Not doin’ what she was doing anymore, but we’re not taking any chances. We’ll explain more over food. That work for you?”

  Diesel looked behind him at Maddox.

  Maddox settled in and crossed his arms on his wide chest.

  That meant, “It’s up to you.”

  My brother then looked back at me before doing a top to toe scan of Rush and swinging his eyes through the group.

  “We’ll eat,” he grunted.

  I let out a breath thinking this might be good.

  It might be bad.

  But at that point, I had no choice but to let it be.

  And that was on me.

  I should have told him.

  Shit.

  Rush looked over his shoulder at me. “Straight up, sweetheart, you got off easy.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “Word.” Diesel was still grunting.

  “Who wants a beer?” Tabby asked.

  “I have things to do, no dinner for me,” Sixx declared, gave Diesel and Maddox a meaningful look and then said to me, “Rebel, good to see you.” And to all, “Enjoy dinner.”

  Then she was smoke.

  I didn’t even see her use the still open door.

  I had no idea what “biz” she was in or why she was there.

  But yeah.

  She was totally cool.

  Tyra moved in and closed the door.

  I again planted my hands on my hips, my attention on my brother.

  “Are you even gonna hug me?” I demanded.

  He gave me a look that would melt steel.

  After I successfully avoided becoming a puddle, he moved to me and gave me a bear hug.

  “You’re a goddamned lunatic,” he murmured in my ear.

  “I know,” I said, holding on.

  I saw Maddox watching us over D’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,” I mouthed to him.

  His cruelly handsome face got soft and he smiled at me.

  Right.

  There it was.

  It’d be okay.

  I knew that already.

  But I was glad to have it confirmed.

  I lay on my back in Rush’s bed, staring through the dark at the ceiling.

  Rush was lying on his back beside me.

  I knew he was awake.

  The sounds were distant, and muted, but unmistakable.

  In the room down the hall, Diesel and Maddox were fucking.

  “You awake?” I asked to confirm.

  “Yep,” he answered.

  Great.

  “This is rude,” I declared.

  “It’s late, Rebel. They probably thought we were asleep.”

  He was right, it was very late, and I had been asleep.

  Until my brother and his man woke me up with their fuck noises.

  The grunting got louder, and it sounded like a bed was being pounded into a wall.

  “Christ, they’re really goin’ at it,” Rush muttered.

  “Ugh,” I pushed out, turned to my stomach and wrapped a pillow around the top of my head.

  I felt Rush’s hand glide over the small of my back and the edge of the pillow pulled up.

  I kept the rest held down.

  “They probably heard us earlier,” he told me.

  Gulk.

  Suffice it to say, I forgave Rush.

  Mostly because he and his family were so cool with D and Mad throughout the dinner they’d crashed, to the point the men lazed around the table for hours chatting and chuckling and drinking beer after it while the women did the dishes then hung around the bar in the kitchen, also chatting and chuckling and drinking beer.

  I could not say that even with a rather thorough explanation of what was going on, they’d totally put Diesel’s and Maddox’s minds at ease about me. Mostly because what they had to share wouldn’t make anyone easy.

  I could say when we left, my big brother and his man were no longer pissed at me.

  “I hope not.” My words were muffled by the pillow.

  “You come silent, babe, but you make a lot of noise before I get you there,” he shared. “You like panting my name . . . a lot.”

  Gluh.

  “And I like that a lot,” he continued. “Enough not to make you stop doin’ it.”

  “Stop talking.”

  I heard his chuckle as his hand slid fully around and he pulled the side of my body into the front of his.

  I kept the pillow where it was.

  Rush stopped chuckling.

  “They’re free, and I like that,” he said quietly.

  I lifted one side of the pillow and tipped my eyes up to his shadowed face.

  “What?”

  “At dinner, after the drama, they sat down, your brother got tense. Maddox doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks about him, that’s clear. But your brother does. Because he loves you. And he knows you wouldn’t be at that dinner with my family if things weren’t the way they are with us. So he slid right on edge, probably tweaked we’d figure out where he was at with Maddox, not knowing we already knew. That didn’t go away until Tyra asked about their commitment ceremony and he got it that not a soul there judged. Then he relaxed. Now they’re here, down the hall, fucking. Free. And I like that.”

  I pushed off the pillow, got up on an elbow and he got up on his to come face to face with me.

  “You like that?” I asked.

  “Everyone should be free. Even if Maddox doesn’t give a shit, Diesel does. At least when it comes to you and the people around you, and what they might think of him and how that’d affect you. So he’s not. But he got that from us. He’s good. If he feels free to go at his man down the hall, he feels free around me. So yeah, I like that.”

  God, this man.

  I lifted my hand to his face, ran my fingers over the thick stubble at his jaw, and rested it curled around his neck, palm at his throat, murmuring, “What am I gonna do with you?”

  “You missed the obvious blowjob, babe, still asleep. They got distinctive voices, could call it, and by the sounds of it, your
brother gives good head. You could share that family talent about now.”

  “Bluh,” I moaned, dropping my head and shoving my face in his chest.

  “My cock is south of there, baby,” he teased.

  “I can’t have sex while my brother is having sex.”

  “Why?”

  Pounding sounded.

  And grunting.

  So I didn’t answer a question that had such an obvious answer.

  Because . . . gross.

  Instead, I declared, “And I’m gonna have a word with him about having sex while they’re staying with you.”

  “Why?”

  I yanked my face out of his chest. “Rush, it’s rude. Especially being that loud. The neighbors are probably up and listening.”

  He slid his hand up my spine and pulled me to him. “Rebel, babe, he was worried sick about you. I think we got him to the point he’s good about you bein’ safe. But he still felt that, and trust me, those feelings do not go away easy. He’s gotta work that emotion out somehow.”

  Rush stopped talking.

  The rhythmic pounding was getting faster.

  “He’s workin’ that out,” Rush finished.

  “This is why when we go visit them, we’re staying at a hotel.”

  “So you won’t hear it?”

  “That, and so they won’t hear us. We should have told them to stay at a hotel tonight.”

  “That was never gonna happen and you know it, honey,” he said. “Until he knows he can completely trust me, you’re not out of his sphere.”

  That was so true.

  “Or Maddox’s,” he went on.

  That was so true too.

  “And since, until this shit is over and I know you’re safe, you’re not out of mine, this is how it’s gotta be,” he concluded.

  And this was also true.

  “What biker has a guestroom?” I groused.

  “One that regularly has Chaos poker games and got sick of Speck getting loaded and crashing on my couch, making me wake up and find him there, snoring, with his hand down his shorts.”

  That would drive me to setting up a guestroom too.

  An unmistakable noise sounded along with low, gruff indistinct but distinctly encouraging murmuring, and I shut my eyes tight.

  “Well, Diesel just got his emotion out,” Rush muttered with amusement.

  I decided not to respond.

  Some slow rolling bed pounding and then quiet.

  I stayed tense listening to the silence.

  “Maddox blew earlier, during the blowjob. So you can relax,” Rush informed me.