by April Lust
Slender hands clutched his shoulders and she tilted her head. Her tongue delved between his lips with a wildness he hadn’t entirely expected, and he damn near dragged her to the ground. She went up on her toes and made a low purring sound in her throat. He was so done for.
There were cheers, and that was all that saved him from doing something bad.
“See?” she whispered when they had stopped kissing each other breathless. “Being married to me won’t be so bad.”
“You are going to get me killed.”
She kissed him again and his already thick shaft started to ache. He didn’t even hear the priest announce them as Mr. and Mrs. Kellan Mathers. All he could think about was Emma. She was getting under his skin. It happened from time to time. A pretty girl got in his way and all he could do was think about her.
She slithered against him and he barely managed to keep himself from groaning in front of a priest. This was not a great way to start this marriage.
Chapter 6
Emma wasn’t entirely sure how she wound up sitting at a picnic table with a bunch of women she didn’t know while her new husband had been shuffled off to enjoy rounds of whiskey, but that was where she was. Her plate was filled with perogies and meatballs and really small sandwiches.
“Emma, I haven’t seen you since high school! How have you been? Tell me everything!”
The Hannah Emma had known was a quiet, sedate broomstick of a girl with an overbite. That girl had defined the word mousy. The woman who sat in front of her, with a trio of heart tattoos on either shoulder, was not mousy, nor shy. She had kissed Emma full on the mouth in greeting and had smiled so big that Emma couldn’t help but return it.
“Han? God, I didn’t recognize you.”
“Oh yeah, sweetie. The new and improved.” She put a hand on either hip. Emma refused to believe the woman had given birth to any children. “You look so beautiful!”
“Thanks for standing in as a bridesmaid.”
“Oh pshaw.” She waved one hand. “You’re basically my sister now. As close as you and Rudy were growing up and all. It was the least I could do. I hear you are an animal doctor now.”
“Almost, still got a little college left.”
“That’s so exciting! What’ll you do when you graduate?”
“Well, I’d have to work with another doctor for a few more years, but eventually I wanna open my own place.”
Hannah fanned herself. “Gosh, I love a lady who owns her own business. I opened up a shop right on Main Street not three years ago. I sell shoes and accessories and things. All those girly bobbles I was too afraid to wear when I was a little twig of a thing.”
“But you wear them well now.”
Hannah threw her head back and laughed. It was a wild and unrestrained sound that was infectious. Emma decided, then and there, that she liked this new and improved Hannah.
“Wow, I hope the joke is a good one,” said a new voice. Emma glanced up and wondered if a centerfold model had stepped out of a magazine.
Hannah, whose smile didn’t quite meet her eyes, motioned to her left with a set of excellently manicured nails. “This is Samantha.”
Samantha was taller by a good two inches, and the stilettos she was sporting put Emma at eye level with an impressive chest, tanned to California perfection. A corseted blouse in a deep burgundy helped it along. Though why a girl who was clearly a size zero needed to corset anything was way beyond Emma’s understanding.
“Hi, Samantha.”
Samantha’s big brown eyes rolled over Emma with aloof dissatisfaction. They stopped on her plate and Emma found herself noticing that Samantha’s had nothing but a few slices of cucumber and a single slice of turkey. Samantha’s mouth curled into a smile and she flipped her ruby red hair over one shoulder. “Wow, you have a great appetite.”
She sauntered off before Emma could respond.
“Wow,” Hannah said to the retreating back. “Samantha’s even bitchier than usual.”
“Guess she doesn’t like the food.”
“Please, that food isn’t gonna stay down.”
Emma laughed. “Oh wow. That’s mean.”
“Yeah, I’d feel bad if it weren’t true, and if she wasn’t a terrible excuse for a person. Typical biker bunny type. Now, I’m all for a girl exercising her right to say yes, but that girl abuses the right and the men she exercises with. She’s just plain mean.”
“So why is she still around?”
Emma watched as the woman in question sauntered over to a table of men. She laughed and leaned over the lap of one in order to say something that had them all laughing. Emma would have been bored by her antics, but the girl was leaning over Kellan’s lap.
“Sweetie, you are looking at why she is still around.”
“Yeah,” Emma said as the girl flipped her hair again and flashed Emma a catty smile. “I see.”
Hannah reached out a hand and put it on Emma’s shoulder. “Hey, sweetie, if it helps any, they’ve never been together, least as far as I know. I’m not saying Kellan hasn’t shown a few of the groupies a good time for a night or two, but I don’t think she’s ever been one. She’s the kind of girl who loses interest once that happens.”
“Looks like she’s interested to me.” Emma knew she sounded bitter. She couldn’t help it. The marital kiss had rocked her, and she had thought it had rocked him, too. But he hadn’t seemed to be able to get away from her quick enough, and now there was a pretty thing two inches from sitting in his lap and he wasn’t pushing her away.
“What are you going to do about that?”
“Hmm?” Emma asked, still watching the display. “What do you mean?”
“That’s your man, isn’t it?” Hannah tapped the table, the sound of painted acrylic sharp on plastic. “You gotta make that claim known.”
“I just married him. How much more known could it be?”
“Plenty. Lots of guys think it’s all right to get some on the side. You gonna be one of the old ladies who’s all right with her man sticking it somewhere else?”
“That’s crude.”
“You wanna come up with a prettier word for cheating, be my guest. But take my advice, hon, figure out how to mark your territory, or she’s gonna keep sniffing.”
Kellan looked up, and his eyes found Emma’s instantly. Her skin felt too tight, humming with a feeling she had no name for. Her lips felt full, and all she could do was think of their kiss. She hadn’t meant to kiss him back so hard, but apparently a decade of unrequited feeling could pack a more powerful punch than she was willing to admit.
On the one hand, she couldn’t blame Samantha for wanting to get Kellan naked. He was the kind of guy who turned heads and broke hearts just by existing.
“Well, I mean, I guess looking at him like you are going to eat him is one way to do it. She might not realize he’s off limits, but I’m pretty sure everyone else does.”
“Hannah, I like you.”
“Oh good, ’cause I’d hate to have to pretend we weren’t friends.”
Emma agreed. The two women chatted companionably while the sun began its trek down the afternoon sky. For the first time since her attack Emma felt relaxed and comfortable. It was strange how much a little friendship could do. The purple and orange of late evening were making their way across the horizon when they heard it.
The booming bass of rap music, and as it grew closer one could tell the lyrics were not in English. A week ago Emma would have just rolled her eyes at a person playing their music too loud, but a lot could change a person in a week.
The lightheartedness of the reception faded as everyone became aware of the music. Club members shifted their positions, hands to their guns carelessly hidden beneath shirts. Women shifted to the back of the party. Those with kids went inside. Someone left the door open a little too long and Rocco, who hadn’t wanted to be locked up in the first place, came charging out.
Emma found she was too afraid to move.
“Emma, com
e on.” Hannah wrapped her pretty nails around Emma’s arm and gave it a firm tug. “Let’s go inside.”
It was too late. The cars, and there were several of them, came to a halt. She could see the hoods of at least two of them, an Impala and a Lincoln if her fear-addled brain could be believed. Some artistic hand had scrawled the image of the Virgin Mary across the hood, her gleaming halo bleeding into the windshield.
From all those cars only two men stepped out. The first was dressed in a suit so dark red it looked like half-dried blood. She wondered if that was done on purpose. His tie was whip-slim and hung down a very long body. A scrap of a beard was on his chin. His smile was brilliant, more gold than white.
“Mac Ketchum!” he called, his voice barely tinged with Latin flavor. “I guess our invitation got lost.”
They came to the shortest part of the fence, but they didn’t cross it. Ten men clad in the vest of The Beasts stepped between the fence and Emma.
The second man she didn’t recognize until the scent of cheap cigarettes and cheaper liquor swarmed over her. She started to shake. His eyes, dark as a volcanic lake and twice as heated, fell on her. Even from the distance of a ten-man guard she felt sick to her stomach. There was something wrong with that gaze, something that lacked humanity.
The man, she could only guess it was Michael, ran his tongue across his teeth before blowing her a kiss. A sick shiver ran down her spine, but she didn’t look away. She could see a bruise on his brown brow and knew she had put it there. She didn’t have to look away. He blew her a kiss and she felt her lips curl into a grimace.
“You weren’t invited.”
Emma didn’t know how he did it, but her father’s voice lacked all the weariness she had come to expect to hear. When she chanced a look over her shoulder she saw him standing there. He had taken off the breathing tube that wrapped around his face and was standing up. He had drawn himself to his full height. Some trick of his presence made him look bigger and stronger than she knew he was. She wondered what it was costing him to have this show of power.
“Now, man, don’t be like that,” Gabriel—who else could it be?—said. “I thought we were family now, what with how you are selling my shit.”
Emma looked at her father. He wasn’t flinching, but there was a tightness around his eyes. A heaviness settled on the exchange. Hands went to guns. Car doors opened and she could see the long barrels of semi-automatic weapons.
“You lost your shit, fair and square.”
Gabriel let out a series of Spanish curses and then spat. “Man, you know nothing was fair about it. But, hey, that’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here?” Kellan demanded. Emma hadn’t seen him move; she hadn’t even realized he was behind her until he spoke. He took another step and put himself neatly in front of her.
“Just wanted to pass along our blessing to your lily-white bride, ese. My brother here, he gotta thing for smart-ass blondes and just wanted to give her a gift.”
There was something about the way he said it that had Emma’s skin crawling. Rocco must have heard it to, as the dog circled around and plunked himself in front of her. He gave a warning growl.
“Well, it’s only fair,” Emma called out. “He’s still wearing mine.”
There was a chorus of laughter from the gathered throng. Michael surged forward, spewing foreign obscenities. It was amazing how much bitch sounded like bitch no matter what language a jerk said it in. Gabriel slapped a hand in the center of his brother’s chest, and Michael stumbled back a few inches. Enough to get the message.
Kellan was smiling. “I don’t think my lady needs any gifts from you. Why don’t y’all pack it up and go home?”
“All right, all right. We get the message.” He held up his hands in apparent surrender. “Just stopping by to say hi and offer my congratulations on your fortuitous union.”
“Ain’t that word a little big for your mouth?” Mac called.
Gabriel said nothing. He bowed and led his brother away.
Emma waited until she heard engines turning over and wheels screeching. “What was that about?”
Kellan exchanged a look with Mac. “It was a show. That’s all. He knows where we are, where we live.”
Mac whistled. “Prospects.”
Joe and another man with a young face stepped forward. She thought she had heard someone call him Phantom; he was smaller than she, and so pale she wondered if it was a condition. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard him speak.
“Follow them, and be quiet about it. No bikes. He knows where my home is, we are going to know where his is.”
“Yes, sir.” Joe paused in front of Emma. “We’ll keep you safe, princess.”
Phantom said nothing, just nodded in her direction.
“Emma, why don’t you and Han go inside?” Kellan asked. “We are going to talk some shit out.”
For a moment Emma thought about arguing. It was clear they were going to be talking about her and deciding things on her behalf. But the fact was she didn’t feel like deciding anything right this moment. What she wanted was to go back a month when her life was as simple as writing papers and taking notes.
“Yeah, all right.”
She stopped by her dad and he gave her a hug. “We are going to keep you safe, Emma. I swear it.”
She nodded. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, Emma believed he’d try, she just didn’t know how much good it was going to do.
“Come on, hon. Let’s get you out of all that white. Your pup has gone and put some paw prints on the hemline.”
“It’s not my dog,” Emma said even as she placed a hand on the broad head of the mutt.
“Yeah, whatever you say.”
The house was surprisingly empty when she and Han went inside. Guess no one wanted to stick around after a near shoot-out.
“Why don’t you get changed? I’ve got enough nervous energy to clean a whole house, so I think I’m gonna start with yours,” Hannah offered.
“Yeah, all right, thanks.”
Boxes of her things were still stacked in Kellan’s room. She pawed through them until she found a t-shirt and jeans. Her wedding dress, which did, in fact, have Rocco’s prints along the hem, slid off with more ease than she had expected. She had imagined, from time to time, how her wedding dress would come off on her wedding night. A man’s hands had usually been involved.
She tried not to dwell on it as she changed into her own clothes.
When Emma came out into the living room Hannah had a trash bag half full of garbage.
“You need help?” Emma offered.
“You wanna rest?” Han asked.
“No,” Emma shook her head. Her smile didn’t quite meet her eyes, but she hoped it was honest. “Apparently your nervous energy is catching.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Hannah set the plastic aside and crossed the living room to wrap her maternal arms around Emma. “It’s all right, the club is gonna keep you safe. Kellan is going to keep you safe.”
Emma couldn’t quite stop herself from snorting. “Yeah, right. He had to be bullied and manipulated into getting married to me.”
“Maybe,” Hannah said, sinking down to the now clean couch. “But he did marry you, Emma. And that means something. It means more to these guys than it means to most. It’s a title. It’s a promise.”
“How barbaric.” Emma couldn’t quite keep the sneer out of her voice.
Hannah laughed. “Yeah, a little. But it works for them.”
Emma flopped down next to Hannah, pulling a recently fluffed pillow into her lap. “Goodie. I’ve got criminals protecting me from other criminals.”
“Don’t be like that. You got some of that criminal in you, too.”
“What?”
Hannah smirked. “What was it you said? You’re still wearing mine?” She started to laugh.
Emma felt a strange sense of pride. “Yeah, well…”
“What did you do to give that boy a shiner that big?”
> “I may have flipped him over my shoulder.”
“Tell me.”
So Emma did, she talked about that whole night, and Hannah listened. She gasped and giggled and before Emma knew it she was feeling better. She knew Hannah had pulled it out of her on purpose.
“Thanks.”
Hannah shrugged one pretty shoulder. “You needed to feel better. Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t friendlier to you in high school.”