by Jamie Magee
Adair shook her head in frustration, having a hard time controlling her emotions. “Talley loved life.”
“Because of Finley. Before her he wasn’t a fan. Trust me.”
Adair sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m not going to let you accuse him of horrid things.”
“I’m not accusing him. I saw it, and so did you.”
She glared. “How did you jack with my head? Why did you do that? Is this some game to you? How did any spell you laid on me last five years?”
Judge looked down, squinted his eyes closed seeing it all again, feeling that same rage as he did when he saw Talley moving to thrust into Adair, all the blood, all the pain she was in.
“Undo it, right now,” Adair demanded.
Judge shook his head slightly. “You don’t need to see it.”
She pushed against him getting nowhere—the man was too strong. “Because you’re guilty.”
Judge lifted his chin. “I’m guilty of pushing you out of this MC, of defending you, and honoring a brother of mine. I’ll own that.”
His dominance, his strength, the emotion in his eyes, the feel of his body against hers, every angelic chiseled feature in his visage was all impacting Adair in the worst way. She didn’t want to be drawn to him, to have one sliver of trust for this man.
“There’s nothing he could have done that would deserve death,” Adair argued, again.
“There is,” Judge said, stepping back and letting her go, savoring the last electric feel of her skin against his.
“The only chance you have of getting any of your memories back is by going to the Boneyard—which is exactly where you’re going.” Judge clenched his jaw before he spoke his next words. “Talley will come back, and he’s the same as he was before. He’ll hurt you, and I won’t stand for it.”
“Because I’m yours,” Adair bit out.
“Yeah,” Judge said as his deep voice cracked, liking the sound of her statement more than he had a right to.
“I got news for you, buddy. I’m nobody’s property, and I sure as hell am not a girl that runs scared at the first sign of trouble.”
A dark, sardonic grin came to Judge. “If you were that kind of girl you wouldn’t be mine.” He stepped back. “The MC is on lock down, we need to go.”
“I’m not in an MC, ask Rush.”
“You are now,” Judge said, reaching to grip her arm to guide her out.
Adair went to pull away but he held her tight. “Adair, either you’re going to drive another man’s bike back to the Boneyard, or I strapping you to mine. Either way, you’re going there.”
“Whose bike?” Adair asked, furrowing her brow up at him.
“Who is King to you?” Judge asked, halting in the doorway seeing the others below. Rush had been kind enough, or pissed enough, to go and get Adair’s ride.
“I don’t know,” she said, pulling her arm away. “Some asshole took my memories away.”
She held her head high as she walked down the steps and then mounted her bike. Right then she had no way of processing what she knew and last thing she wanted to do was go to the Boneyard, but getting away from this entourage of bikes was an impossibility, and she knew that.
Chapter Two
That short, swift, passionate, ‘don’t you ever fucking scare me like that again,’ kiss was as far as Shade and Gwinn had gotten along the lines of communication.
When Shade broke away from his kiss he went to speak but Gwinn held her finger to his lips and closed her eyes. She was eavesdropping, something Shade didn’t see as right, but arguing with her would do nothing but draw Adair out of the stillness Judge and pulled her into.
Instead, they both listened. Shade’s heart broke when he heard the pain in his boy’s voice, when he could taste the grief and agony from where he stood. Gwinn grew angry, mad that her best friend was aching with grief and confusion.
When Adair stormed out Gwinn had tried to reach out to her but Adair jerked her arm away, and all but ran to her bike. The second she was on it, Rush and Judge followed her out, basically corralled her.
With a disheartened expression strapped across her face, Gwinn looked back at Shade who had sat astride his bike, looking as he always did—pissed at the world.
“You just got on the back of King’s bike and drove away,” Shade said finally.
Gwinn lifted a brow. It wasn’t the first time she had heard the bite in his tone directed at her, but it had been awhile.
“Reveca gave it to Adair.”
Shade locked his jaw, enhancing his dominant profile, as he looked away.
“What?” Gwinn asked, bridging toward anger. Of all the shit that just went down that’s what he wanted to talk about? How she got to the Quarter? It didn’t make any sense to Gwinn.
“And here I thought you had an issue with bikes, apparently it was just mine,” Shade said after a tense moment.
“You’re jealous,” Adair concluded, once she registered his words, his emotions.
“Yeah, I fucking am. You should try the emotion now and again, it makes people feel wanted.”
She knew when he spoke like this he meant more than he said, but most of the time his secondary meaning was lost on her. “Wanted? How about insecure.”
Shade shook his head cursing under his breath. “I’m insecure? That’s what you’re saying,” he said with snap, knowing out of the pair of them he was the champion when it came to audacity.
“What has gotten into you?” Gwinn asked as she stared him down like he had lost his damn mind.
“Me? One second you won’t even go near the dock the bikes are parked on, much less leave your room. The next you peel out of the drive on the back of another man’s bike and I find you here, apparently seconds after you were attacked. I’m supposed to be okay with it? Is this your normal, Gwinn?”
“It’s Adair’s bike. And it wasn’t easy to get on it, and when I did I thought you’d be proud of me. That it would help us.”
“Help?” Shade asked, lifting his brow above his glasses.
Gwinn hated those things—his shield. When they were alone and he took them off the pair of them could speak without words. She could read his soul. With them on he was in character, a hardcore, walking heartbreaker on the back of a bike, armed and dangerous.
“Yeah, help. I thought maybe it would get you to see I was not made of glass.”
“Made of glass,” he snapped. “I tried to put you on my bike more than once.”
Gwinn shook her head in frustration. “I’m not playing this game with you. I didn’t know who the hell I was. I’m still not entirely sure. The sight of Adair opened me up, made me remember a time when I wasn’t this scared, this lost. It gave me strength, and I used it. I’m not apologizing for it.”
“And who is this new Gwinn? Does she belong with me or not?” he all but yelled back.
Before she spoke Gwinn’s mouth dropped in shock. “If you expect me to remain weak an innocent then…no.” Her gaze fluttered over his glasses, wishing she could see his eyes. “My soul fell for you…memories or no memories, that stands the same.”
Shade dropped his head, feeling a surge of relief, but Gwinn didn’t see it that way. She saw his temper, which was always present and accounted for.
“What do you want from me?” she asked in dismay.
Shade smirked and lifted his head. “I don’t know, Gwinn, understanding you would be a fucking stellar start.”
His statement hurt. She was sure he was the only one that got her, really understood she was trying to find herself. “Until this afternoon you knew everything I knew, and if you doubted I would tell you all I remembered. I have no idea how to be more open with you.”
Shade glanced away then back to her. “Even if you had every single memory that belongs to you, you have been born into a new world, and you don’t know how dangerous it is, what I’ve seen, what I’ve done. You don’t realize at any second hell can descend on earth.” He lifted his chin. “I don’t care if it makes
me sound like an asshole—you should’ve told me before you left the Boneyard. My enemies are yours now.”
“So now I need your permission? Is that what this Ol’ Lady business is about?”
He leered only to ward off his temper that was flaring. “Do I not tell you when I leave? Do I not pull you to me each and every time?”
“Mostly,” Gwinn admitted. “But you don’t tell me where you’re going, what you’re doing, and Star made it very clear to me before I ever had the nerve to get past this asshole persona of yours that I shouldn’t ask you, tell you to betray your boy’s trust.”
She was cussing now, that was new, the dominance was too, and Shade would be a liar if he said it wasn’t turning his ass on just then.
“Reveca was the one that told us to get Adair’s things, my things. Do you seriously think that she would send me to do something that was dangerous?”
He moved his glasses down, so she could see his emotions, ones he didn’t know how to speak without sounding like the pissed-off control freak he was. “And do you think Reveca is of sound mind right now?”
Astonishment filled Gwinn’s expression as she stared into the lavender flames of his eyes. She knew he was worried about Reveca, knew that in the past when Talon and Reveca went their own ways, he’d always gone with Talon; Reveca had all but made him. If that had happened now, there was no way Shade could take Gwinn with him. When Talon struck out he found every fight there was, and engaged.
Shade knew if this deal moved the way Judge and the others had already predicted, there was no fixing Reveca and Talon again, and if the past replayed itself Shade was going to have to stand up and state he was staying behind, or leave in a new direction all together with Gwinn at his side.
His family was falling apart and he was bracing himself for the worst as he strained to understand the mysterious beauty that had crashed into his life.
Gwinn had told him over and over King wasn’t there to start trouble, he wouldn’t. She knew somehow King’s presence was going to keep both Talon and Reveca in one place. She couldn’t explain why she knew, why she was sure of it, but it eased Shade in some way.
Enough so that in his own way Shade had said the same to the other guys. Gwinn had kept the peace at the Boneyard, made all the guys resist the temptation of blaming King and Tisk for fucking their lives up. And she did so by whispering her feelings to Shade when they found a moment alone, which was few and far between.
That didn’t mean that Shade trusted King. He didn’t like how the fucker looked at him, like he was dissecting him with that regal stare of his. And Reveca, well, she’d done this before, and each time it sucked. She was so deep in her own thoughts, her own plotting, and ensuring she wasn’t saying goodbye to anyone, only a, ‘I’ll see you later,’ that she didn’t see the haze of danger until it was upon her.
A risen dead man, one as threatening as Talley was when he did die should’ve been cause for alarm. Instead of bringing the Sons in on what Reveca knew, she sent Gwinn out with Adair, the very one the dead man was after. Shade was going to say his piece about this, one way or another. It was wrong.
“Shade, do you know Adair?” Gwinn asked, somewhat fearing he might know her better than Gwinn wanted to realize. Half the reason Adair was armed and dangerous was because of the constant advances made on her by men.
Shade narrowed his eyes on Gwinn, understanding what she was really asking and daring to hedge around. His past was going to be a constant thorn in his ass when it came to the likes of Gwinn, he was sure of it.
No. He had never touched Adair or thought about it. He had far too much respect for Talley and Finley to turn Adair into a fast fuck, and beyond that, the second Judge laid eyes on her, the claim of his was in place.
Immortals never see time the way others do and in all honesty the short time Finely and Talley did allow Adair at the Boneyard was momentary. It should have only been scarcely noticeable, but it wasn’t. Everyone knew Finley would become immortal one day, and by association alone, so would Adair—the loss of them grieved them all.
“No. To both your questions,” Shade said, before clenching his jaw.
Gwinn struggled not to let the relief show in her eyes as she spoke. “I only know the Adair that existed after whatever went down. I know how much grief she had, how alone she was, how lost she was. Everything you have helped me through—she had it worse.” Gwinn let out a nervous breath. “I shouldn’t have to explain loyalty to you. She didn’t need a friend this afternoon, and I needed to get over my stupid fears.”
“They’re not stupid, Gwinn,” Shade bit out. He wouldn’t stand for anyone saying a negative word about her, even herself. “You went through hell.”
“What did Adair go through, what’s she going to remember?”
Shade shook his head before he glanced away, stared into thin space. “She won’t.”
Gwinn had trusted this MC almost instantly, naturally, but right now seeing them through Adair’s perspective, an outsider looking in, she doubted that was a good idea, even though her gut said otherwise.
“Judge said if she went back to the Boneyard she’d get her memories back,” Gwinn argued, knowing that very well may be the only reason Adair left there without lodging a bullet in both Rush and Judge. There was no real fear in Adair’s eyes when Talley attacked, which meant she would face him again on her own if she had to and not think twice about it.
Shade creased his brow. “No one at the Boneyard, even Reveca, is going to allow her to remember precisely what happened to her.” He looked back at Gwinn. “Even you, if you knew.”
Shade paused as he looked over Gwinn. He never thought he’d find gratitude for what Gwinn endured, but right then he was grateful that it wasn’t as bad as what Adair survived. Newberry may have assaulted Gwinn over time, but Holden did deliver her a swift death. Talley was going to ensure Adair died slowly in absolute agony.
“Thames is skillful, he can still block out what she saw and let her remember what happened before, remember whatever Finley was up to—how she thought she could save Talley.”
“It was bad?” Gwinn asked, seeing so in Shade’s eyes.
Shade squinted, briefly fighting the emotions. He knew Judge’s reaction was just, that his would have been the same if not worse if the tables were turned. “After Talley nearly beheaded Finley in front of Adair, he tried to rape Adair, cut her up bad. If Judge was a second later he would’ve.”
Gwinn covered her mouth in shock, in horror. “He was going to do that today, too.”
Shade reached out to her, when she didn’t move his energy pulled her to his arms. Carefully he laid her head on his shoulder and held her against him. “That wasn’t Talley, but whatever it was is back.” His hand eased down her back. “I’m going to be an ass ‘bout this, but I mean it when I say I need you to think twice and tell me when you leave the safety I think you’re in.”
She squeezed his shoulders, trying to quell her imagination as she thought of what Adair went through, as she understood that deep down, Adair knew exactly what had happened to her. The agony in her eyes made sense now. “I need a phone and a gun.” Gwinn knew Adair would not sit still behind the Boneyard walls like she had. Adair would leave and Gwinn would follow.
Shade leaned back to look into her eyes and grinned slightly. His hands ran down her sides, taking in the hum of her. “Sure, right after I teach you how use one.” His fingertips rose to her arms and grazed her dark, heated flesh. “Teach you how aim, handle a machine.”
The surge of warmth his touch had, how it only took a glance of his to cause desire to drip from Gwinn’s very soul brought forth her next words. “I gotta get my bag from Adair’s other place.”
Shade nearly grinned as his lips brushed across hers before he raised his glasses to cover his eyes once more.
“Why? Got your weapons all packed up?” he taunted.
Gwinn bit her lip so she wouldn’t smile. “Yep.”
“You’re serious?” he asked
, knowing in all the emotions he had tasted around her not once had he seen a memory of her armed, but then again her best friend was clearly trigger-happy.
Gwinn didn’t answer, instead she slid herself on the back of his bike—her bare thighs hugged his as she wrapped her arms around him. “Oh I am.”
Shade sucked in a sharp breath, one full of dark desire, and roared his bike to life. “Good thing your bags are already at the Boneyard, then.”
***
Reveca had all but passed out after her and King fell from their imperial orgasmic rush. She’d fallen limp in his arms, gasping for breath and mumbling words that even with King’s all powerful sense he couldn’t make out, because he too was high on the power of their energy.
He’d wrapped a towel around her and laid her across the bed in the room. When she started to rise he sent another wave of vim through her soul. She needed to Zen out—even if it was only for a short time—to finish healing. He was as tender as he could be with her but that woman pushed him to lose control by just breathing.
He was worried they had slowed the internal healing down, and even if they didn’t she had lost a lot of blood and needed time to get her head clear, for if she didn’t she was going to make another irrational decision that was sure to get her hurt again.
King had no idea who those people who hurt her were—why she went there alone or even how she ended up getting shot. He was pointblank furious the fuck who fired the gun was still breathing and as soon as Reveca had her sense about her again, he was going to tell her that he wasn’t going to stand for it. The man had to pay.
He’d cleaned all the blood up in the bath, tossed her clothes, but the scent was still heavy in the air, a constant reminder of how detrimental her injuries were, that if she were mortal she’d be long gone.
King needed clothes. His were ruined just as badly as hers. So he manifested himself to his room to gather a few things, only slipping on his jeans before he went to her room. Going through her closet—all her stuff—was something he didn’t care to do. So he took an arm full of clothes from the closet, everything she had in her bathroom, and placed it on top of her dresser then moved the entire damn thing to the room she was in with one thrust of his energy.