by Jenika Snow
She didn’t know what was about to happen but it couldn’t be good.
20
Weasel just couldn’t stop hitting the fucker. He wasn’t even a full Patch, but a fucking Prospect, and that fucker had touched what was his.
“Stop! Weasel, stop!” He heard Renee beg, but all he could see was the violent thug putting his hands on his woman, and that shit pissed him off more than anything else. Pulling his fist back, he slammed it over and over again into the man’s disgusting face until finally someone tore him off.
“What is the fucking meaning of this?” Demon asked.
His Prez looked ready to kill but Weasel didn’t care. His hand was covered in blood and when he looked toward Renee, he saw that Vengeance was there. Fuck. This shit wasn’t supposed to go down like this. He felt sick to his stomach, and it was driving him crazy.
“He thought he could put his hands on Renee.”
Demon looked toward Renee.
“He was hurting her. Last time I checked, we don’t let shit like that happen. Not to our own women, not to anyone.” He was yelling now. The adrenaline rushing through his body made it hard for him to focus. He wanted to kill. The blood on his hands wasn’t enough. He needed more.
Fuck, this was supposed to be fun, a party, and when he looked toward Renee, she was terrified.
“He’s out cold,” Demon said.
“He’s dead?” Renee asked, her voice high-pitched.
“No, but I want to know what the fuck went on here.”
“He-he-he grabbed me and shoved me back. He didn’t want me here.”
“I’m taking you home,” Weasel said, intent on reaching out for her. He stopped when she recoiled. “Renee, what the fuck?”
“I’m sorry. It’s fine. I’m just a little shaken.”
He didn’t like that. The fact she recoiled from him left him a little sick to his stomach.
She went to step toward him, and Vengeance held her back. “No, you’re not leaving just yet.”
“Please, I really just want to go home. I didn’t want anything like this to happen, so please, don’t make a big deal.”
“Renee, he shouldn’t have fucking touched you,” Demon said. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“He was just being honest. I don’t have a right to be here.”
“No, that shit isn’t right,” Weasel said.
“Weasel’s right.” Demon spoke up. “This is your family. This is your home. I’ll make sure this fucker pays, and pays dearly for ever coming near you.”
She nodded, but Weasel saw the tears in her eyes. Her gaze fell on him. “I’d like to go home now.”
With Vengeance following close behind them, Weasel grabbed his bike and pulled it around to the front.
“You take care of her, okay?” Vengeance asked.
“With my life. I’ll protect her.”
“Good. I love you, baby girl.” Vengeance held her close, hugging her tight.
They were going to tell Vengeance the truth but that asshole inside the clubhouse had stopped all that, and Weasel was pissed off that he was going to have to wait.
Renee climbed onto the back of the bike, and he watched as she tucked some hair behind her ears and wiped away the tears. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“It’s not your fault, babe. It’s never your fault.” He headed back home and took her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said over the roar of the engine.
“He just seemed to come out of nowhere and the hatred … I’ve never seen that before. I’ve never seen him but he knew who I was.”
“We’ve got a lot of hangers on, and he was a brand-new Prospect.”
“Did you ever hate me that much?”
“No, I didn’t. I could never hate you.”
She was crying, and it wasn’t doing anything good for his anger. The fact he got stopped from killing that fucker pissed him off, and with each tear spilled, it just made him even angrier.
When he got home, he parked the bike and helped her off the back of it. He lifted her up into his arms and held her close. He wouldn’t be stopped, not when he carried her inside and into the living room.
“He ruined our announcement,” she said. “Vengeance was in a good mood as well. He may not have killed you.”
He burst out laughing. “Your brother is going to try to kill me no matter what time we tell him.”
“Will they kill that guy?” she asked.
Weasel hesitated in answering. He didn’t want to upset her any more than she was.
“Please, just tell me the truth.”
He pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “They’ll see what the fuck is going on with him, and he’ll be punished severely. Demon will see it as disrespect to the club. Vengeance will see it as a hit on him because you’re his sister. Hell, they might kill him for that alone. If he’s not dead when I see him, I’ll fucking kill him.”
“I don’t want it to go that far.”
“I don’t want you worrying about that at all. That shit is over, it is done. You’re back home with your family, and you’re going to start behaving like you deserve to be here, because I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He dropped another kiss to her head. “You’re mine, Renee. That’s by my side, as my old lady, and no one is going to say otherwise. Not even your brother when he finds out the truth.”
She sighed and settled against him as they sat on the couch.
“I never want you to pull away from me again. I’ll never hurt you. I guarantee it.”
“It’s not that. Everything was happening so fast. I didn’t know what to do.” She glanced up at him. “Hold me and don’t let go.”
“Never.” He kissed the top of her head a third time, so thankful she wasn’t hurt.
21
For the last few days Renee had been worrying about what would happen with that man. True, he’d tried to hurt her, said horrible things to her. But she didn’t want anybody dead because of it. She’d tried to talk to Vengeance about it but he had been closed shut, telling her it was club business and she didn’t need to worry about it. It had been the same thing Weasel had said to her.
She stared down at her coffee, the cream swirling and mixing with the darkness, creating a caramel color. Her thoughts were lost and she didn’t hear the door opening and closing until heavy footsteps sounded.
Renee turned and saw Vengeance standing there. He walked over and sat across from her at the table. For long seconds he didn’t say anything, but it was a comfortable kind of silence, the kind she embraced even.
“How are you doing?”
She looked down at her coffee and shrugged. “Fine, I guess.” He didn’t respond and when she lifted her head and looked at him, he was smiling. “What are you smiling about?”
“Let’s go for a run,” he said instead before she had time to respond. “Like we used to. Remember when we used to hit the pavement and run for hours?”
Yeah, she remembered. They had done it to “escape.” Their childhoods hadn’t been the greatest, but they always had each other. Running had been a way for them to get their energy out, the frustration and anger at all the crap life had thrown at them.
“Right now?” It had been years since she’d done this, but she was actually looking forward to it.
“Yeah, why not?” He was still grinning as he held his hand out for her to take.
Renee found herself smiling as well, slipping her hand in his and letting him pull her up out of the chair.
Well, looked like they were going for a run.
Sweat ran down the valley between Renee’s breasts, along her spine, and she was gasping for air. They finally made it back to Weasel’s place and her throat was so dry it was like she’d swallowed sand.
It had been years that she’d run like this with her brother and when she looked over at him, she could see that he barely broke a sweat. He grinned at her and clapped her on the back, and toge
ther they made their way inside.
When they entered the house, she could hear somebody rustling around in the kitchen. They made their way toward the sound and saw Weasel opening the fridge and grabbing a beer out of it. He glanced over his shoulder at them, turned back toward the fridge, and grabbed two more beers out.
She headed over to the sink and filled up a glass of water, drinking the entire thing before she even moved away from the faucet. When she turned around she saw Vengeance and Weasel staring at her, both of them wearing grins.
She rolled her eyes when they started laughing at her.
So what, she was out of shape. She hadn’t run like that in a long time. But it felt good, freeing. She was making a promise to herself to run more frequently, not just for the exercise but also because it helped to clear her mind.
Renee looked between Vengeance and Weasel, and all she wanted to do was tell her brother how much she cared for the other biker. She found herself taking a step closer, the words on the tip of her tongue, the need to be honest with him and to tell him that being with Weasel made her feel alive.
“Vengeance...” she found herself saying, her mind foggy with the need to be honest. Her brother had been the only solid thing in her life before Weasel came along. He’d been there for her, protected her, made sure she was always safe and looked after above anybody else.
And keeping this from him was eating at her.
“What’s up?” Vengeance was staring at her, clearly not knowing what she was going to say because he seemed so easy-going.
Would he be upset about this? Would he hurt Weasel because he was so angry about the situation? Or maybe he’d accept their relationship with open arms?
She looked over at Weasel and saw he say up straighter, the expression on his face telling her that he knew exactly what she was about to say. But she couldn’t lie anymore, not to the one person she loved more than anything else, the one person who was her only family. She couldn’t lie anymore and saying what was going on right now was the best option.
At least she hoped so.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she glanced back at Vengeance. Just say it; just tell him what’s going on. Don’t be afraid. This is your brother, the one person who loves you no matter what.
“What’s going on?” Vengeance looked concerned now, his focus trained right on her.
Say it. Don’t be weak.
“I love Weasel and we’re together.” There, she’d said it. But the silence stretched on, the air becoming thicker, electrically charged.
God, had this been the right idea?
22
“I really thought it would be a good idea to just tell him,” Renee said.
Weasel winced as she pressed an antiseptic wipe against the cut on his forehead. He glanced across the room to where Constance was also tending to Vengeance’s cuts and bruises.
“Wow, you guys really know how to fucking trash the place,” Demon said.
He didn’t even know when the club Prez had arrived. He’d been too busy dealing with blows coming at his face. The moment Renee had told her brother that they were together everything had turned to hell.
“You’re paying for that shit,” Weasel said, spitting out a little blood into a bowl that Renee had given him.
“I’m not paying for shit. I’m going to kill your fucking ass. Renee, get away from him.”
She didn’t stop tending his wounds, but she glared at Vengeance. “You were supposed to be happy about this, not try to kill him.”
“Guess what? I’m not that highly evolved. He touched you and he shouldn’t have. He should have come to me first and talked about it.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” Weasel said, glaring.
“Wow, we walked into some family drama all right,” Joker said.
From what he’d heard, Renee had panicked after they started fighting and called the club for help.
He was pissed about having the club witness their fight but it wasn’t like it was anything new.
Weasel winced as she placed the wipe against his cut. Alcohol free? Yeah, right, they were stinging as if she’d poured fucking whiskey over the damn things. His face was swelling up, and out of one eye, he couldn’t see.
“I can’t believe you couldn’t talk this out,” Constance said. “Look at you. You’re a mess.”
“I was protecting my sister,” Vengeance said.
Constance glanced at him. “If you ask me, she doesn’t want protecting. She’s happy.”
“Thank you. At least someone gets it,” Renee said. “I didn’t tell you so that you’d start hitting each other. I told you because I didn’t want to sneak behind your back, or for you to find out from someone else. I’m not going to hide my feelings for him, Vengeance.” She sighed when she looked down at the wipe that was covered in blood. “Look at all this mess.” She glanced around the room.
Furniture was broken, and it looked like a tornado had come through. He’d thrown Vengeance across a table, and under the excess weight, the thing had given completely out and now lay in bits on the floor.
His house was trashed.
Renee put her hands on her hips and glared. “No one else but me is going to be cleaning this up. Ugh, I don’t even know why I bother. I’m so pissed at you both right now.”
Weasel glared at her. “Why the fuck are you pissed at me? I didn’t throw the first punch.”
“No, you didn’t, but you also fought back.” She glared at him, grabbed the bowl of dirty water, and stormed off. “If you would have just surrendered and backed off, he would have done the same.”
The only people laughing in the room were Joker and Demon, and he didn’t have the energy to wipe the smirks off their faces.
He may have cracked a few ribs. Fuck, he was hurting all over.
Finally, Weasel looked toward Vengeance and waited.
“I’d offer to clean up the mess if I was either of you,” Demon said, taking a seat in one of the spare chairs. “When Renee called and said you were killing each other, I thought for a second she was lying.”
“He touched my sister when he should have been honest from the beginning. I wasn’t going to let that shit go. The fact he’s still breathing is a fucking miracle.”
Weasel didn’t say anything. His jaw was hurting and was probably swollen as hell. It had been a long time since he’d been in a fight like this, and his body was showing it.
“Are you two done with this fight? Or do we need to referee another one?” Joker asked.
He looked toward Vengeance, and for several seconds he didn’t say anything. What was there to say? Still, Vengeance was his club brother. He would die for the fucker no matter what.
“I know I’m not the guy you want for her, and I get it, I do. You can tell me she deserves someone better, someone not part of the club. She went away because someone who wasn’t part of the club got into her life, and you lived without her.” Weasel ran his fingers through his hair, and he was sure there was blood matted against his scalp. “The truth is, the only person good enough for Renee is the guy that will love, protect, and cherish her no matter what. Hate me all you want to, Vengeance, but I can promise you, no one else is ever going to feel that shit the way I do.”
Weasel stared at his club brother and bared his soul. He loved that woman in the kitchen. When she left, he’d done everything he could to hide how fucking hurt he was that she didn’t stay, that he couldn’t win her back.
The moment he saw her again, he vowed that he wouldn’t let her leave. He’d give her a reason to stay.
He didn’t want his decision to claim Renee to hit the club. Nor did he want to cause a fight between himself and Vengeance. All he wanted was the right to have his woman by his side. He was tired of all the same shit and wanted her as his old lady. The last thing he wanted was for them both to be sneaking around.
She deserved better than that.
23
Several days later
Renee had let Vengeance cool
off, given him a couple days to calm down before she came to talk to him. But the time had come. She couldn’t allow them to just stay on silent terms again. She couldn’t stop communications with him over this misunderstanding.
Renee knocked on the door twice before she heard Constance calling out for her to enter. Once inside she headed toward the living room where she saw Constance sitting on the couch, her legs propped up, a book in her lap. She smiled at Renee and although she hadn’t asked where Vengeance was, Constance gestured out toward the back.
“He still licking his wounds?”
Constance rolled her eyes and gave one sharp nod. “He’ll get over it. It’s only been a couple days and you know how these guys are. His ego is bruised.”
Yeah, Renee knew how stubborn they were. She lifted her hand in a wave toward Constance and headed toward the back yard.
She pushed the door open and stepped out onto the deck and let the door close quietly behind her. Vengeance was sitting in a patio chair, his legs kicked up so they rested on the banister, the acres of property they owned spreading out before him. He had a beer in his hand and rested it on his knee.
He didn’t turn around, but the she didn’t doubt he knew she stood right behind him. After a few seconds, she moved closer and sat in the seat beside him. She stared out at the scenery, the land beautiful, the sun starting to set.
“You’re still upset?” she asked but didn’t look at him. She could see out of the corner of her eye that he brought his beer bottle up and took a long drink from it. Finally she did look at him.
“I’m fine,” he said without looking at her. She could see a muscle under his jaw ticking and couldn’t help the exasperated sigh that left her.
“You do know that you’re acting ridiculous, right?” He looked at her then, his eyes the same color as hers, his focus stern, almost a little bit disappointed. She hated that she hadn’t told him right away, but she was an adult, could make her own decisions, and he should respect that.