by Brook Wilder
Neil’s eyes were on me as he gave Leo a nod.
“To family.”
***
I snapped out of the memory, remembering the way I had felt when Neil bestowed his warm smile on me. For years I had waited on his attention, something that would give away that I was the one he needed, not the girls who had come in there after the fact, pushing me further into that corner I had always been in.
Still, we had been family. There had been trust in the room that night, and I thought nothing was ever going to tear it apart. A week later, I had walked into that bike shop and the rest was history. My time with Neil had been everything I had hoped it would be, and I’d thought that for once everything was going to be looking up.
Until Leo’s death.
Picking up one of Leo’s leather jackets, I slid it on, enveloping myself in my brother’s smell.
Leo had always been there to protect me, though in the darkness there had been evil lurking, waiting for the right moment to tear our family apart. I had thought my brother would live forever, that he was bullet-proof, and even when the word ‘traitor’ had been attached to his name, I had known it wasn’t true. I had known it would all come to light and everything would go back to being the way it had been.
Except my brother was not here, and nothing was ever going to be the same.
I huddled under his jacket, feeling the tears prick at my eyes once more. I had lost everything. I had lost my brother; I had lost the love of my life and my future.
Drying the tears with the cold leather sleeve, I rose from the clothes and slid my arms out of the jacket, laying it aside to keep. I would keep the jacket as a reminder of the brother I was never going to hug again, the brother that wouldn’t walk me down the aisle or play with my kids when that time came.
It was also a reminder that Neil was my enemy now. He had killed my brother, the most important thing in my life, and I was never going to forget that. Neil was going to pay for what he had done to my brother, no matter what Leo had written in that letter. It didn’t matter. He hadn’t seen the writing on the wall of what was to come. The letter proved that Neil had made a mistake in killing Leo, and I wasn’t going to let him forget it.
Chapter Six
Neil
I stared at the letter in my hands, scrutinizing each and every word that my best friend had written. Leo had been working undercover to bring Grayson down himself.
I still couldn’t believe it.
That, and the fact he had trusted me so much that he had wanted me to protect his sister.
I had failed him in every imaginable way.
“Shit,” I breathed, placing the letter on the coffee table in front of me.
No wonder Rox was so pissed at me. She had every right to be. I had ruined her life, and I didn’t know how to fix it. I had told her the truth that day on my front lawn; I couldn’t bring it all back for her. I couldn’t make the pain go away or take the haunted look in her eyes and turn it into that tenderness she used to look at me with.
I couldn’t make her love me again.
Running a hand over my hair, I leaned back on the sofa, brooding over the last few days. There had been a time when it seemed like everything was going right in my life. I had my club, I had my family, and I had Rox. She had brought something to my life that I hadn’t known I was missing, bringing the joy into the darkness. Hunting Grayson and his associates down wasn’t the first time I had killed. When Grant Travis learned of my sniper skills, he had personally put me on retainer as his assassin, and while for the most part the president wasn’t a violent man, there were times he had called me up.
Never, though, for his own brothers. Not until Grayson had forced us to do so.
And I had hunted them down, not thinking about the families I was tearing apart or the kids that would no longer have both parents in their lives. Those men had made a choice, and damn if it wasn’t the wrong one.
Rox had never shirked away from my job with the club. Many a night we had lain in my bed, and I had told her stories, feeling her hand in mine, giving me the strength I never thought I had been missing. One of the nights right before Leo’s death particularly stood out in my mind.
It was the night I knew I had fallen in love with her.
***
Rox’s fingernails scraped over my chest lightly, in a circular pattern, sending goosebumps over my skin as I thought about the nail marks she had left on my shoulders, marking me as she had done many times over. I didn’t care. I liked her marks on me.
“So,” she said, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “When are we going to tell him?”
I sighed, running a hand down her bare back, knowing what she was talking about. She wanted to tell Leo so that we could stop all this running around together, hiding it from the entire town, and pretending in the company of others that we were just friends. I was tired of it, and so was she.
But there was the matter that Leo might shoot me dead for sleeping with his baby sister.
“Can we wait another thirty years?”
Rox laughed as she slapped my chest, gazing up at me with those intense blue eyes.
“I don’t want to wait that long to tell all those other women that you are mine.”
I grinned and flipped her on her back, rising above her.
“I never pegged you as a jealous one.”
She gave me a saucy smile.
“What if the shoe was on the other foot, Neil? Right now, I am single to everyone that looks at me.”
She had a point there. I growled, thinking about the other men that watched as she walked past. She was mine.
“You’re right.”
“Told you,” she grinned, reaching up to cup my cheek. “Leo deserves to hear it from both of us before he finds out somewhere else.”
“We’ll tell him tomorrow,” I answered, knowing she was right. Leo was my best friend and I owed him that much. “But not before, alright?”
“Alright,” Rox said softly, her eyes growing soft. “I love you.”
Her words caused my heart to stop in my chest. She loved me? We had been together for four months and every minute of that time together I had learned who Roxanne Tate truly was. I was humbled by the petite woman under me. She made me feel human, like I could have a future like my Ma had always dreamed of.
“I want to take you to meet Ma for real,” I whispered pressing a kiss to her lips.
She laughed against my kiss.
“But I already know your mom.”
I pulled back, so she could see the tenderness in my eyes.
“But not as the woman I love.”
Her eyes filled with tears and her lips parted.
“Neil… I mean, are you sure?”
I nodded, covering my body with hers.
“Hell, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life Rox. I love you.”
She hugged me tightly against her, her tears wetting my skin.
“No matter what Leo says, we are going to be together.”
I gathered her close against me, my heart doing triple duty. Leo would understand. I was going to protect her with my life.
***
I shook out of the memory, the rawness of my emotions that day slamming into me full force. I had loved Rox more than life itself and was ready to defend it to Leo.
Only, I hadn’t anticipated what was to come and what I would lose as a result. Once Leo had been branded a traitor, Rox and I fought more than we got along, and eventually we just stayed away from each other, my time on the road not helping any at all.
She hadn’t wanted to speak to me, and I really didn’t know what to say to her. We were on two sides of the fence, my loyalty to the club driving me further and further apart from what I thought was my future.
But now the damn letter… I looked at the paper sitting on the table, contemplating what I should do. I had to protect Rox. That was a given. But I also had to figure out if Leo’s words were true.
I needed to talk to Rox.
&n
bsp; Chapter Seven
Rox
I swept the hair into the dust pan and picked it up, dumping it into the trash can. After a long day of hair cutting and styling, I was looking forward to going home and crashing on my bed with some takeout food. I didn’t have the energy to go back to Leo’s tonight. I had made progress cleaning out his stuff, though the furniture was going to have to be the next to go. The years of smoking had permeated the fabric, and instead of trying to salvage them, I had thought about having the teenagers down the street help me just move it out.
Placing the broom and dustpan back behind the door, I moved to the money bag tucked in the drawer and pulled it out, transferring the money into my own bag. The cash I made in this shop was my livelihood, and if anything ever happened to the shop, I would be screwed. I enjoyed making women and men alike feel good after a fresh cut, trying a new color to brighten their day. My own hair was a product of my handiwork, though it had always been red in color. Growing up, it was more of strawberry blonde, but as I got into the cosmetology business, I dyed it brighter than ever.
After all, I hadn’t got the nickname ‘Red’ for nothing.
The door opened behind me, and I sighed. I had forgotten to lock the door after the last customer again.
“I’m sorry,” I started, turning around. “We’re…”
Neil stood in the doorway, his vivid green eyes watching me from afar.
“Hey, Rox. Hope I didn’t scare you.”
I narrowed my gaze as I shoved the rest of the money into the bag, zipping it up.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He had the grace to look apologetic.
“I’ve read the letter in detail.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, not budging an inch.
“Good for you. You can still read. Now get the hell out.”
He chuckled, the sound filling the small shop.
“You aren’t going to make this easy on me, are you?”
“You took my brother from me,” I answered flatly. “What do you expect?”
He held up his hand, attempting to stop my tirade.
“I didn’t come to fight with you. I came to tell you I want to investigate what Leo said in the letter.”
The words I had ready died on my tongue, and I stared at him.
“Y-you believe him?”
He shrugged.
“I’m not sure if I believe him or not, but I owe it to him to at least look into it. I’m going to take it to Grant today. I just wanted you to know.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t feel the need to thank him, as he wasn’t doing anything that I wouldn’t have done in his place.
But he was going to move it forward, and that was what I had hoped he would do.
“You’ll keep me in the loop then?”
Neil wiped a hand over his face, tucking the letter back into his back pocket.
“Of course. You can come with me if you like. You will always be welcome in the clubhouse.”
I laughed harshly.
“Really? Even as the sister of a traitor?”
He sighed.
“I knew Leo all my life. If he says he wasn’t a traitor, then I will do my best to prove it to anyone who believes otherwise.”
I hated the fact that I needed him to do anything for me.
“Then I would like to go.”
Neil gave a slow nod.
“Whenever you are ready.”
I gave him a jerky nod.
“Let me get my things, and I will be ready.”
Turning back to the counter, I shoved the remaining things into my bag, my movements choppy. I could feel his eyes at my back, watching my every move, but that didn’t bother me as much as him just being there. He was in my domain, my shop, as he had been many times before. After we had started sleeping together, Neil would always come at the end of the day to pick me up, a ready smile and a searing kiss to end a hard day. Sometimes we made it out of the shop, sometimes we just shut the door and went at it like horny teenagers. Neil had taken me in every crevice of the small space, from pressed up against the door to bent over the very chair that my clients sat in, making me blush every time I glanced at it.
“You look good, Rox.”
I angrily grabbed my stuff and threw my bag over my shoulder, not even responding to his comment. I was far past getting moon-eyed over his comments, the way they had made me feel. I wasn’t that same girl anymore.
Turning around, I glared at him.
“Let’s go.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, his expression stone cold with no hint of playfulness or tenderness in those hard eyes.
“I need to get into Leo’s house,” he finally said. “To see if there are any clues to what he had found. Those things will go far with the club in clearing his name.”
“I’ve been going through his stuff,” I admitted. “And haven’t found anything.”
Neil ran a hand over his hair, loose and falling around his shoulders like a cloud of molten gold. I had given him that term once, joking that he was like the Fabio of the Horsemen and that he should run his own line of smut books. I had been rewarded with a long, torturous session in his bed that had left us both exhausted.
“I don’t know what we are looking for really,” he answered. “But something has to be there. Did he give you anything for safe keeping?”
I shook my head.
“Not that I can think of.”
He smiled grimly.
“We will find something. I swear to you, Rox.”
I believed him. No matter what had happened between us, Neil had never been one to make a promise and break it.
But that still didn’t account for him killing Leo in cold blood.
“How did you do it?” I blurted out, swallowing the emotion in my throat. “Did he look at you as you fired the shot?”
“Rox,” Neil said harshly. “Don’t go there. Not now.”
I took a step forward, clenching my hands at my side.
“I need to know if you saw the fear in his eyes before you shot him. I need to know that you gave him a minute to run before you gunned him down like you didn’t care about him at all.”
“It’s not like that,” he ground out, anger on his face. “We aren’t going to talk about this.”
“The hell we aren’t!” I shouted.
I had waited too long to have this conversation with him. I needed to know. I needed to know he wasn’t the monster he was painting himself to be.
I needed to know he cared just a little.
The rawness in his eyes startled me, and he opened his mouth to speak. But his words were drowned out by the shattering of the plate glass window behind me. I felt the shards prick my skin before I was knocked to the floor, a warm body protecting me.
“We have got to get out of here!” Neil shouted in my ear, hauling me to my feet and pushing me to the door.
I barely had time to think as he pushed me outside into the Texas heat.
The explosion rocked the air, and I was thrown forward, my hands scraping across the asphalt as I fell hard. Neil was on me in an instant, shielding me from the raining debris. I didn’t know what was happening.
The smell of fire and smoke caught my attention, and I pushed Neil off me, staring in horror as I watched my salon go up in flames. Neil’s arms encircled me, and I realized I was attempting to get in there, to save my livelihood.
“No,” he said roughly, pulling me back across the street as sirens filled the air. “It’s gone, Rox. Let it burn.”
I dissolved in tears, anger and hurt raging through my veins, tearing at my heart.
Who had done this? I hadn’t done anything to anyone.
Neil pulled me against him as I watched the firetruck pull up in front of the burning building, the fire-fighters pulling out their hoses to battle the blaze.
“It’s going to be okay,” Neil murmured into my ear. “We won’t let them get away with this. I swear it to yo
u, Rox. I swear it. I’m going to protect you.”
I pushed out of his arms, tears streaming down my cheeks. My arms burned from the cuts from the glass window, my hands nearly raw from the skin that had been scraped from them on the asphalt.
But the angry words died in my throat as I looked at Neil. He head was bleeding, and there were small cuts all over his arms and face. He had shielded me from the brunt of the attack. Realizing my bag was somehow still on my shoulder, I reached in and got the scarf I kept in there, pressing it to his head.