by Drew Elyse
“Not the first time I’ve had broken ribs, doc,” I replied. “And I know there ain’t shit you can do to fix them, so I’m not staying.”
He backed off, but Ember wasn’t ready to.
“Are you sure? Maybe we should stay just tonight,” she suggested.
“Babe,” I said low, just to her, “I don’t like hospitals.”
Her eyes widened and I knew she got me. I’d sat by Jamie’s side, watching my little sister die in a place like that. No fucking way I was going to get any rest there.
“Okay,” she capitulated.
We got out of there, emerging into the waiting room packed with the Disciples. Daz came at me first.
“Fuckin’ A, it’s good to see your surly ass.”
He started the damn love fest I let my brothers have until I noticed Ember was completely dead on her feet and shut that shit down.
“Time to go,” I demanded, pulling her into me until she had no choice but to give me the weight she was barely keeping upright.
Ace took off on cue, bringing Roadrunner’s pickup around to the front doors. I got Ember up on the bench seat with me and we drove off with a caravan of bikes at our rear.
We weren’t even halfway back before Ember knocked out, her body going lax against me. Adrenaline crash. Her weight there fucking ached, but I wasn’t about to move her.
“You wanna fill me in?” I requested from Ace.
He did, telling me all about them showing Ember pictures of Kuznetsov’s place, bringing the feds in, her reliving all that shit to get me out.
“She gonna get blowback from that?” I asked.
“Nah. Roth’s a good character. He’s not an idiot, he knows there was more we weren’t sharing. He also gets she didn’t come forward sooner because we intended to take care of shit ourselves, but we have assurances from him already that it won’t be an issue. Victims don’t always report right away. His records will chalk it up to that,” he explained. “Attorneys battling Kuznetsov’s side might try to make a different case, but that’s only if shit goes to trial.”
“Which it won’t,” I muttered.
“Not after the call Stone made that’ll assure the right folks are aware of what’s become of that little thorn in their side.”
“They get anyone else out of that place?” I asked.
“Four women,” he answered. “Three, I’m told, match the descriptions Ember gave of the women she’d been housed with, one they must have grabbed after that.”
They’d all made it. I hadn’t lied when I told Ember Kuznetsov hadn’t had the opportunity to sell, but I’d been worried even still that all three women might not make it out of there. Knowing they were safe, that Ember would be able to know she was the reason they were free when she’d harbored guilt for abandoning them before, almost made that shit of being taken and not knowing whether I’d be able to come home to her worth it.
“Got one other piece of news,” Ace offered.
“Yeah?”
“They found your bike,” he told me, a grin in his voice. “There are a couple of scratches to see to, but it’s all in one piece.”
Thank fucking Christ.
It was light out when I was finally in bed with my woman beside me, her dog sprawled on the floor next to the bed. Ember was drifting off again, but I had something to say before she could.
“I was fucking terrified,” I said, and felt her surprise. “Not about what they might do to me. That didn’t matter. I was terrified I’d never get the chance to be right back here.”
She nuzzled against my chest, being cautious of my bruised body.
“Even death didn’t scare me, just the thought of leaving you behind.”
“Jager,” she whispered.
“We both had to survive that shit, but you got us both out. You’re the reason we’re both where we are right now,” I told her.
“Home,” she said.
“Yeah, pet. Home.”
Warmth moving down my back woke me. Jager and I were in bed at his apartment. As I came to, I felt the softness of his lips trailing kisses along my spine. The tickle of it made me arch and I felt him smile against my skin.
“Good morning, pet.”
Oh, it definitely was. How could it not be waking up like that?
How could it not be when I was waking up with Jager safe beside me?
Even though more than a week had passed, I still woke with that being the first thought in my head. I wondered if it would always be.
Of course, as he was prone to do, Jager moved my mind elsewhere in no time.
“Dammit, I want to fuck you,” he growled as he settled back up behind me.
I rolled forward onto my stomach and lifted my hips a touch. A sharp crack sounded as he landed a smack on my ass, the sting sending a ripple of pleasure through me. I gave a small gasp, pressing my ass up higher in hopes of getting another.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“Please,” I replied.
I felt him move away, and then I was being pulled around. He settled me over him so I was straddling his hips as he reclined on the bed. He’d put me on top, something we’d never done.
“What?”
He gave me a devilish grin. “Supposed to be resting, pet. Fucked you hard last night. I do it again this morning, that’s not resting. We have places to be, but not until after you bring it home riding my dick.”
I rocked my hips against him, rubbing my clit along his already hard cock. It was almost embarrassing how fast I was wet and ready for him, but I felt nothing like shame. Jager loved how I wanted him. That was all I needed.
Taking him in my hand, I slid down on his cock. I loved the way he filled me. At first, I was so caught up in the feeling, I didn’t even move. I just sat astride him, feeling his cock stretching me.
“Ember, you don’t start moving, I’ll take a crop to your ass until you can’t sit down for days,” Jager threatened.
Oh lord, why did that sound so good?
I rolled my hips, getting used to him. Then, I started an easy rhythm, moving up and down his length. I planted my hands along his ribs to hold on as I bounced on his cock, taking him deeper.
“Faster, pet,” he commanded, but this was my show. I was going to enjoy it.
I gave my head a little shake and kept my rhythm. Up and down, slow enough that I could feel the drag with every nerve ending. Each time I took him all the way in, I rocked forward a bit to rub my clit against him.
It was amazing.
I wanted to stay right there riding his cock all day.
“Fuck, Ember. Take me faster,” he repeated.
I ignored him. Jager didn’t like that. He started to shift under me to sit up, but I planted both hands onto his chest hard and pushed him down. Closing my eyes, I went back to focusing on the feel of him.
That was a mistake.
Jager surged up, his cock never leaving me, then flipped us over so I was on my back. He grabbed onto both of my wrists, pinning them to the mattress above my head.
“I told you to go faster,” he chided, circling his hips and making me moan. “Now, you’re going to take what I give you.”
What he gave was deep, hard thrusts. He unleashed everything on me, each inward motion pushing my body up the bed. He was relentless. He was overwhelming.
I fucking loved it.
In a matter of minutes, I was crying out my climax as he drove himself there with me.
Still panting out harsh breaths, his dick still twitching inside me, Jager leaned down to my ear. “Even when I sit you up there, you don’t top me, pet.”
No, I didn’t.
With the way he took me, I’d never need to.
“Up, babe,” Jager said after a while. “We’re on a schedule.”
There was no part of me that felt like leaving the warmth of that bed. After what he’d just given me, I was ready to doze back off. I grumbled some random noises at him, hoping that would suffice. It didn’t.
One minute, I was
lying down, and the next, I was in the air and he was carrying me out of the bedroom.
“Jager!” I screeched. “You’re not supposed to do any strenuous activity!”
He chuckled and I almost forgot I was pissed. I wondered if I’d ever get used to that sound. If someday, way down the road, I’d grow accustomed to the fact that I gave that to him.
I doubted it.
“Ember, carrying you is hardly ‘strenuous activity’.”
“I think your doctor would disagree,” I argued.
“That guy was a moron.”
Ugh. There he went with that rant again. “All he said was it would be easier to take care of you, thereby get you better faster, if you didn’t have me all over you.”
Jager deposited me on the bathroom counter as I said the last word and went to turn the shower on, getting the water warm.
“Exactly,” he replied when he came back to me. “Anyone who would think having you across the room would be better for any man than having you in his lap is a fucking moron.”
This wasn’t an argument I was going to win. It also wasn’t one I really felt all that inclined to win. If he wanted to think that about me, I was just going to take the compliment.
“Whatever.”
After our shower, which Jager kept disappointingly PG—well, not PG, seeing as we were both naked and there might have been a little bit of grabby hands on my part—he told me to get ready. In this, included the instruction that I “had some time” but not enough to do one of my “fucking crazy sexy get-ups”. Accordingly, I blew out my hair and put it up in a ponytail. I tacked on a few minutes to add some lift to my pinned back bangs and tie a headband on.
When I was dressed in jeans, my kick ass biker boots, and t-shirt, I found Jager in the living room with Roscoe. It was clear I had used up every minute he was going to give me.
He got to his feet as soon as I entered, moving right to me.
“Gotta do this quick. We need to get on the road.”
Only then did I notice he had something in his hand because he lifted it up. The black leather tumbled out until it hung from his hold. It was a vest. A leather vest in my size. The air got thin. He turned it around so I could see the back, displaying the patch for me.
“Property of Jager”.
Not knowing what to say, I decided to act. I turned around, lifting my arms behind me. He took the hint and settled the property cut onto my shoulders. I spun back to him, not trying to contain my smile.
“Doesn’t go with your look,” he mused.
“Of course it does,” I disagreed. “I’m yours. That’s part of my look.”
He grinned and shook his head at me before hooking me around the neck with one hand and pulling me in for a kiss.
“We need to move,” he said after. “We’re behind schedule and if I look at you in that thing much longer, I’m going to strip you down and fuck you in just that and your collar.”
“Do we have to go?” I liked his plan way better than whatever we would leave the apartment to do.
“Later,” he promised.
I could live with later.
We took Jager’s bike. As much as I loved my hotrod, his bike was my favorite way to get around. My baby was just that to me, but taking her didn’t come with plastering myself against Jager, so she lost the battle on that fact alone.
We’d been riding for a while. I was pretty sure we’d passed into Washington, but I wasn’t paying much attention to where we were. I was content to watch the scenery fly by.
I was confused and a bit worried when we got off the highway and started driving through suburbs. I had no clue where we were headed, but it didn’t seem much like Jager to be going anywhere like this.
He stopped on a quiet street. It was a typical neighborhood, maybe slightly below middle class. The houses were small and a little weathered, but not rundown. The lawns were all trimmed, but they weren’t manicured with perfect gardens.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
He didn’t answer as such. He just pointed to a house across the street and up a ways. “That house,” he said.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Just wait,” he instructed.
I waited. Minutes passed and my confusion grew. Then, a car pulled up, parking in the driveway. From it, a man in his very early twenties—twenty-two at the absolute oldest—alighted from the driver’s side. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask again why we were there when the passenger door opened.
A girl stepped out, and I recognized her instantly.
The last time I’d seen her, her light brown hair had needed washing, her skin had been dirty, and she’d been hiding behind her own hands in fear.
“Oh my god,” I whispered.
She looked better. Maybe not as healthy as a normal fifteen-year-old should—she’d need time—but her transformation just from being out of that wretched place was astounding.
She moved around the car. Her approach was hesitant. I guessed that would be a part of her for a while. Maybe forever.
The guy who’d been driving went to her, despite the fact that the front door was the other way. He grabbed onto her hand. He didn’t tug her on, just walked beside her with his hand in hers for support.
“The others?”
“Both of them are safe,” he assured me.
I swallowed to stop the choking tightness in my throat.
“Who is he?” I asked.
“Her brother,” Jager answered.
Her brother. She had a brother who obviously cared.
“Her parents?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Already gone before they took her. Car accident took them both. Her brother was her guardian. When she disappeared, the cops didn’t take it seriously at first. Thought she was just a troubled teen who ran off.”
“When did they take her?”
“About a week before you.”
They’d had her so long. I hated that she had to experience that, that she’d have to live with that for the rest of her life.
“Her brother never stopped trying to find her,” Jager went on. “Ran himself ragged doing everything he could to find her, blew the insurance money they got from their parents’ accident paying investigators to look for her.”
I was glad she had that. She would need it.
“In the next few days, they’ll find those funds have been…restored.”
I squeezed my eyes tight and took a deep breath. I let the knowledge that she was safe, she was loved, and that Jager had already made sure the two of them would be okay settle over me.
For the first time since I woke up to the sound of a picture frame knocking against the wall, I felt at peace.
“Thank you,” I told him, hoping I could convey with just those two words the weight of everything he had done for me.
“Love you, pet,” he replied.
I let that settle in too, feeling the peace become much more.
“Let’s go home.”
Without a word, as my man was wont to do, he revved the engine and we rode back to Hoffman, the Disciples, and home.
I was kicked back in my chair, my station already cleaned after my last client left, taking a minute to rub out the tension in my hand. Only one more appointment left for the day, then I’d get home to my girls. I loved my job, couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but that didn’t mean I didn’t relish the moment I got out of the fuckin’ shop each day.
Looking to my left, my eyes landed on the painting I did of Emmy months ago on the first day I brought her to Sailor’s Grave. I’d let her go to town with paints, and my princess hadn’t held back. The smear of pink on her cheek lay testament to that.
“Your next appointment is here,” Jess said from behind me. When I turned to her, she was already strutting away. I told her more than once she didn’t have to wear those tall ass shoes, but they definitely played well with the men who came in. Half our repeat customers were there to try to get in her pants as much a
s they were for the quality of work we put out.
I followed her up to the front a minute later, hoping this would be a short, simple appointment. The last fucking thing I was expecting was the sight that greeted me at the reception desk.
There was only one person in the front of the shop with Jess. One gorgeous fucking woman leaning over the desk with a smile on her face as she chatted with my tricky fucking head of house.
“Ash?”
My woman beamed up at me. “Surprise.”
Well, it was definitely that.
I went to her, wrapping her up and taking her sweet lips. “What’re you doing here?”
She shrugged, but it didn’t entirely hide her nerves or the emotion just beneath the surface. “I thought it was about time you gave me that tattoo we drew up.”
That was it then. That emotion was about the tattoo.
We’d been talking about it for months. Ash wanted a tattoo in memory of her father, but she’d struggled with what to get and where to put it. Then, I drew up an idea and the tears had been immediate. I fucking hated that shit. Ash had come a long way in moving past Indian’s death, but it would never stop hurting her. Every time she had to remember her dad was gone, it was going to tear her up.
I cupped her cheek, loving the way she responded by nuzzling into my touch.
“You sure you’re ready?” I asked.
Tattooing was a painful process without the added emotion Ash would have. With the weight of what that ink meant, it was going to be a trying experience for her.
“I’m sure,” she said with that determination she always seemed to pull from within.
Every fucking time she did, it made me want to pull her into my arms, take her somewhere private—or private enough, anyway—and fuck her until she saw stars. For the moment, I settled on stealing another kiss.
“Where do you want to put it?”
Like the beginning of a very real fantasy I’d had more than once, she started lifting her shirt right there in the shop.