by Stacey Lynn
“Like hell I’d ever step foot into your house again,” I snapped back. “I need Daemon. Where is he?”
My dad took a step backward, turning to the side so I could pass. Finn let my arm go, and handed my gun to me.
“You’re mighty quick with that thing.”
I winked. “Lots of practice.”
He gave me some manly head nod thing that I was sure meant something in man-speak, but I had no clue what it was. I left him and my dad, and walked through the club ignoring the wary and wide-eyed looks I got from everyone else. Out of the corner of my eye, I was sure I saw Jaden crack a smile, but he covered it quickly, dipping his head and running a hand through his light brown hair.
I was almost to Daemon’s room near the end of the hall when I heard someone behind me call my name. I paused, and slowly turned on my toes until I was facing her.
“Hey, Vicki.” She looked like she had aged even more than my dad had. Vickie had been a club bunny since before I was born. I knew my dad had used her often when he came to the club after arguing with my mom. It didn’t surprise me she was still hanging around the place. Where else would a fifty-some-year-old washed up stripper go with no skills other than blowjobs? It did surprise me, though, that she’d have the guts to approach me inside the club walls. Club bunnies stayed away from old ladies and family.
Apparently, I wasn’t either. Not in her eyes at least.
“You got some nerve, girl,” she said. Her voice was kind but her eyes dripped disdain as she leaned casually against the wall.
I scoffed. “Pardon?”
“You—thinkin’ you can walk back in here and not have shit to answer for.” She looked back down the hallway before speaking again, this time her voice was gentler. “Your dad’s missed you. He wants you home—”
“My dad’s a dick,” I interrupted.
She simply smiled a fond smile that showed how much she truly cared about him. “Your dad’s an asshole and doesn’t know how to talk to women. That doesn’t make him a bad man, just makes him a man. He’s missed you like crazy, and this shit you have goin’ on with Travis has been drivin’ him fuckin’ crazy. I just want you to consider hearin’ him out before you shut him out completely, yeah?”
Whatever. “Sure, Vicki.”
Her smile grew and it struck me that at one time, Vicki had probably been incredibly beautiful. Not as pretty as my mom, no one could match my mom’s classic beauty with porcelain skin and dark hair like mine. Still, I could see why men had a hard time keeping their hands off Vicki. “It’s good to see you, honey. I missed you, too. You were always so good to everyone around here.”
She turned the corner and left me alone, feeling slightly sorry for flipping out on my dad. What else did I expect from him? For him to wrap me in his arms, cry, and tell me how sorry he was that when I needed him, for the first time in my life, he abandoned me? Hell would freeze over first.
I rested against the wall, regaining my bearings and what little self-control I had. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Daemon and what was left to be said still.
I heard the sound of rustling behind his door when I knocked. Something didn’t feel right in my gut at the noises I heard coming through the closed door. The quiet moan, the squeak of a bed, but I was too wired from everything that had just happened to think properly.
If I had been, I would have knocked louder. I would have waited. Come back another time or called him from the damn burner phone he gave me.
Because the last thing I wanted to see when I opened the door while saying, “You missed a hell of a party out there—”
Was the sight of Missy, on her knees, Daemon gripping the back of her head with his hand, and her pink lips wrapped around his dick.
“Shit.” I spun away immediately. My heart jumped into my throat at the same time it crashed to my feet. How was that even possible? The reality of Daemon’s life, the biker life, slammed into my brain at the same time my fingers curled into fists.
Like any biker, Daemon would live his life, regardless of what else was going on. He would take what he wanted, when he wanted it, and make no apology for it. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them rapidly when I realized how much that hurt.
It was so disgusting; so much a part of the life I had tried to leave, but somehow, I kept getting pulled back into. The irony that I had just been with Travis hours earlier, and now I was fuming angry over Daemon with another girl wasn’t lost on me, either.
And because I was there, it took me one more second to realize that even though I’d always liked Melissa, she was now just a club bunny and I didn’t have to respect her.
Somehow, in the last two hours since I pulled a gun on Finn, I had become the princess I was always intended to be. Which meant I was apparently tough as nails and cranky as hell.
Awesome.
When I spun back around, Daemon had already pushed Missy off him, his shirt pulled over his head, and his hard dick was still sticking straight out. Proudly. Glistening wet from Missy’s spit.
I swallowed down my urge to gag, shook my head, and said, “Seems like you had your own party goin’ on in here.”
I put my hands on my hips and looked directly at Missy. She was still on her knees, her eyes on Daemon as if she was expecting him to kick me out.
I wanted to laugh.
As if.
“Get out, Melissa. Go to school or get a job. But you’re not going to be sucking Daemon’s dick anymore.”
One side of Daemon’s lips twitched into what looked like it a grin. His eyes were directly on mine when he said, “We’re done here, Missy.”
I didn’t look at her again, at least that gave her a modicum of respect and decency while she threw her clothes on and slammed the door behind her.
“Sorry,” I said. “Did I interrupt something?”
“Nothing you can’t finish for me.” Daemon winked and walked toward me, grinning like a mad man—like the boy I used to love—and my heart skipped a beat. I took a step back, falling into his desk. My hands braced my fall on the edge and I rested my butt against it.
“Zip up your pants. We need to talk.”
“Distracting, is it?”
I closed my eyes. Yes, it was. “Just put it away.” I waved my hand in front of me, gesturing like a lunatic.
That was suddenly how I felt, and I had just walked right back into it. Willingly.
It all hit me. Everything that I had been through in the last forty-eight hours opened like a dam with a crack that finally exploded. I gasped loudly, and then covered my head with my hands. My shoulders shook as I pressed my fingertips against my closed eyelids, pushing the tears I didn’t want to fall, back into my eyes.
Not like it worked.
My body that had been coiled with adrenaline just… crashed. It all left me. The high from earlier when I ran into Finn outside Penny’s. Hearing Travis. Hell, even just walking into Penny’s and seeing Faith again. My dad. The club. The guys. Vicki. Missy’s lips on Daemon. The weight of everything I had seen. Everything I had left behind that had resurfaced and smacked itself straight in front of me.
I felt Daemon’s finger on my chin. The same move my dad did earlier, but this was softer, gentler. I responded to his touch almost immediately, and raised my head to his, slowly opening my eyes.
“What the hell was that?”
I shook my head, trying to arrange my thoughts into pieces that would make sense, but they didn’t. Nothing did anymore.
I blew out a breath and pulled my hair back from neck.
Daemon’s eyes immediately darkened as they dropped to my neck. “What in the fuck did he do to you?”
His hand reached out to my neck, and I suppressed an involuntary shiver as I dropped my hair. It was too late. He had already seen the bruises.
“Nothing.”
“Liv. What did he do?” His hand shook with rage against my skin and his green eyes darkened. “Did he fuckin’ hurt you?”
I slid off the desk, aw
ay from Daemon and his touch that ignited everything in me that I wanted to fight.
“Maybe we just like it rough.” I watched his lip curl into a sneer. My hands crossed protectively over my stomach, holding the lie inside of me.
I schooled my features so he wouldn’t see how affected I was by his narrowed eyes and his angry expression. It was possessive and five years too late; but my body responded to it anyway.
I closed my eyes right as a vein bulged in his temple. He stalked toward me angrily from across the room, and I drew in a breath.
It was this damn club. Everyone who walked through the damn doors of this place became savage beasts. Where men fought to prove they had the bigger dicks and women tried to out-bitch one another. Every word spoken became a truth dipped in lies and manipulation.
Everything was about revenge.
The realization forced a heavy sigh from my chest. I could feel him close to me before I opened my eyes. I forced down the hungry look he threw my way earlier, and the expression on his face when Missy was on her knees in front of him.
I reminded myself why I was there.
I opened my eyes and stared directly into his angry ones. “I overheard Travis talking to someone today.”
God, she was sexy. Sexier than any woman I had ever seen before. Five years had only made her hips widen slightly and her breasts grow even larger. They were perfect, and I had wanted to do nothing else besides grab hold of one and suck it into my mouth while I touched her all over.
Until, I saw the damn bruises. She liked it rough, my ass. Travis may not have hurt her intentionally, but there was no way Liv would put up being handled like that.
Not willingly.
Unless the club really had sucked all the life and confidence out of her, like I feared.
Then I saw the fire in her eyes. They were sharp and pointed, able to cut you with a single look straight into the chest.
I saw the way she stood, waiting for me to say something about Travis. If she was expecting it to be something different than what I said, she was too damn naïve.
“His ass is in the ground.”
I had no more patience for the dickweed who thought he owned this town because he was a deputy with a shiny new badge. Being local didn’t make you powerful in Jasper Bay. Being a Nordic Lord did.
“Daemon…” Her voice trailed off softly. It was sweet mixed with anger, and I wanted to tell her to say it again; except, I wanted to hear it when I was deep inside of her, rediscovering every inch of her gorgeous skin. “You can’t kill him. You don’t even know what I heard.”
I waited, hands on my hips, for her to tell me. I swear her eyes lit up like a carnival at night with the way she rolled her eyes. She was amused at my frustration. I wanted to see her eyes light up in a completely different way, while she was under me.
Jesus, if she would have come in just ten seconds later, Missy would have gotten me off; then maybe, I wouldn’t be such a distracted, horny asshole right now.
“Well?” I bit out, my patience long gone.
“I went to Penny’s-”
My hands flew to my hair and I tugged so hard my scalp stung. “You went into fuckin’ Penny’s? Jesus, Liv! Do you have a death wish?”
“I was meeting Faith for lunch.”
“Do it somewhere else!”
“Can I fucking finish my story?” She spun away from me, and her hands flew to her neck. Her fingers clasped behind it.
Damn it. Would we ever have a conversation that didn’t end with both of us pissed the fuck off? Through gritted teeth, I barked out, “Fine.”
“I overheard him talking to someone, I think from Black Death, but I’m not sure.” I opened my mouth and she raised her hand, stopping me with that pointed look that silently told me to shut the hell up. For maybe the first time, I listened. “I don’t know who it was. I didn’t stick around long enough for them to know I was eavesdropping. Anyway, all I heard was Travis tell the guy that I wasn’t supposed to get hurt. Or be there.”
“And?” Swear to God, I was five seconds from hopping on my bike and beating the shit out of him. Screw the fact that he was a cop. He had let someone blow up the building where Olivia lived. For that alone, I wanted him dead.
“The guy just said that Travis did what he had to do, and they did what they had to do.” She shrugged and her hands fell to her sides. “That’s all.”
We stared at each other silently while I tried to calm down. That would take a millennium. “His ass is in the ground.”
All I saw was Liv’s bright pink tongue dart out to lick her lips. I think she might have rolled her eyes. I’m sure she did, I just didn’t see it. I wanted nothing more than to suck her tongue into my mouth and then have it all over me. My brain went fuzzy and my other head hardened. Painfully.
“You can’t kill him.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because he’s a cop! And he’s the father of my baby!”
My head exploded. I swear to God, my brains flew all over my dumpy as shit room in the club. If I heard that mentioned one more time, I was going to lose my shit completely.
“He. Blew up. Your building.” That alone was enough and I was tired of having the same damn conversation with her all over again.
I moved to walk away, but she grabbed my arm, pulling me back. When I faced her, her chest brushed against mine. It was all I needed to feel before my arms were around her waist, plastering her against me.
Her hands went to my chest, trying to push me away, but I gripped her tighter. My fingers splayed all over her perfect round ass and I pulled her even closer. Not that it was possible, but I needed to let her know what she did to me.
“There’s something else,” she said. I smiled as I leaned down and breathed in her scent on her neck. Her pulse was racing against her skin.
“What?” I whispered in her ear.
“He kicked me out, so using me to get close to him won’t work.”
My eyes flew open and my head snapped up so I was inches from hers. “What do you mean he kicked you out?”
Her hands pushed against my chest again and this time I let her put space between us. It would be the last time I allowed it.
“He just did.” She ran a hand through her hair and then did some chick-wrappy-thing until it was on top of her head in a messy looking pile. “It’s over between us. So, I’m sorry.”
I laughed. Sorry? That was the best news I’d heard in weeks. She scowled, clearly frustrated at how happy this fucking made me.
“So glad I could amuse you,” she muttered and sat down on the edge of my bed.
“C’mon, Liv,” I said, walking to her and standing right in between her legs. I looked down at her in amusement. She was almost right where I wanted her. “You’re too jaded for the straight life.”
I nudged the inside of her knee open a little wider with mine. She sat straight up and glared at me, but the heat was missing in her eyes.
“Well, whose fault is that?”
I wanted to ram my head into a wall. I was not having this same conversation again. “Already told you I wouldn’t change a thing about what I did, Liv. You might as well get over it now.”
“What if I can’t?”
I grinned and leaned over her so far she fell straight back onto my bed. Her hair fell from the ugly ass bird’s nest into a pile on my messy sheets. Best sight ever. “Can’t or won’t?”
She smirked and I leaned closer, my lips just inches from hers.
“You will. Because right now, Liv, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. You’ve always known it. Now, you’re just done fightin’ it. And God, I want you here.”
My lips brushed against hers and she sucked in a quick breath. I wanted to push it but didn’t want to push her away. Not when I finally had her right where I wanted her. My hands on either side of her head, my body leaning over hers. All I’d have to do is crawl onto the bed, bend my knees and I could enter nirvana in seconds.
She want
ed me just as much as I wanted her. I could feel it seeping from her skin directly into mine. I flicked my tongue out, tasting her soft lips and when she moaned, I pressed against her further. My resolve flew out the damn window.
Until she stopped me. Her hands pushed against my chest and her lips curled into a smile against mine, and I opened my eyes, staring directly into hers.
“What?”
“I pulled a gun on Finn today… and my Dad.”
My head dropped to her neck as the laughter poured out of me. She really was coming back. I loved it. Fucking loved her own personal brand of craziness. The girl who wouldn’t kill a spider but had no problems pulling a gun on two men that scared the shit out of almost everyone they met. She had guts.
“You’re fuckin’ crazy, Princess.”
I felt her silent laugh in her stomach below me. “That’s what Finn said. My Dad didn’t seem too pleased.”
“He’ll get over it. He’s just glad you’re back.”
She stiffened for a moment before relaxing and I stood up, pulling her with me. The moment was done; and now that I knew Travis had something to do with the pipe bomb, we had shit to handle.
“You’re staying at my place until this shit is sorted.” I picked up my phone, not giving her a chance to answer, but I did notice she didn’t try. “Jaden,” I snapped when he answered. “Get your ass to my room.”
I hung up before he said anything else.
Tossing my phone on my bed, I think I exhaled for the first time in years. Liv was back, and she was going to be in my home. And in my bed. Then she’d be all mine.
I just had to kill her baby daddy first.
“So, Daemon was kind enough to let you out of his house today.”
I returned Faith’s sarcastic smirk accompanied with an eye roll for good measure. I wouldn’t call it being let out of the house when the only place I was allowed to go was the mall with Faith to shop for clothes. With baby-sitters. However, we were finally able to get together and it hadn’t been nearly as awkward as I thought it would be.