by A. M. Myers
“There is nothing here,” he calls to Fuzz before shutting the door and I laugh to myself quietly. Stupid. Just fucking stupid. Although watching him struggle to figure this out makes me realize I’m glad I didn’t act impulsively and just murder both of them right here because seeing their frustration is so much more fun for me. And shouldn’t I have a little fun with this? Besides, they deserve any and all pain I can dish out to them.
I wait a few more minutes before I hear the truck doors slam and I watch them drive away from the cabin, thinking of the next step in the plan. The action is about to ramp up and I am so going to enjoy ripping apart everything they hold dear.
Chapter Ten
Rowan
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I sigh as I set the knife down on the counter and pull it out as I glance at the chaos around me. Shaking my head, I turn back to my phone and roll my eyes when I see Ash’s name on the screen along with his dumb smiling face. Silencing it, I shove it back in my pocket as I try to brush off my irritation but I’m not very successful. This is the third time he has called me today, which is less than the five times he called yesterday, but it’s still three times too many. I haven’t answered a single call since I spoke to him in Texas but he just keeps trying, leaving me increasingly agitated and rude messages. They started out innocent enough, with him saying that he hoped I was ready to talk and that he missed me but the last couple have been endless rants about me leaving him and what a cold-hearted bitch I am for leaving him and throwing us away.
Whatever.
You wanna know what I don’t give a single fuck about? Ash’s opinion of me. Besides, he doesn’t have a single goddamn leg to stand on after I found him, dick deep, in Holly, the skank.
“Who was that?” Tate asks, nudging me with her shoulder and I sigh as I glance over at her, rolling my eyes to emphasis my annoyance.
“Ash, douchebag ex-boyfriend extraordinaire.”
She makes a face as she looks up from her cutting board. “Are you still speaking to him? After what he did to you?”
“Absolutely not. The last time I talked to him was when I was in Texas and that was just to tell him that we were done and he needed to move on with his life but he’s not getting the hint.”
“How many times has he called?”
I arch a brow. “Today? Three times.”
“Do we need to be worried about him?” she asks and warmth spreads through my chest. When she says “we”, she’s not just talking about her and Lincoln. She’s talking about this club as a whole and every single one of its members. I haven’t been here all that long but that doesn’t seem to matter because as soon as I walked through the front door, I found myself a new little family. It doesn’t diminish the pain of the ones I’ve lost but it is nice to feel like I belong somewhere and that I’ve got people who have my back. After feeling so alone in Alaska, it’s absolutely incredible and this place already feels like home.
“No, Ash isn’t like that, at all. It’s just annoying that he can’t get a fucking clue. Besides, you would think Holly would be keeping him so busy that he wouldn’t even have time to worry about little old me.”
“Is that the girl he cheated on you with?” she asks and I nod. She makes a stabbing motion with her knife and I can’t help but laugh. “Were you direct with him?”
“Like a fucking lightning bolt.”
“Well,” she muses as she starts chopping again. “You could always just hand the phone to your brother and let him deal with this loser.”
“Ah, yes, but then I would have to tell him what this loser did and I thought we were trying to keep him from jumping on a plane.”
She purses her lips before her smile turns devious. “You’re right… but I could always have a little chat with him.”
“Are you even scary over the phone? Without your gun or taser?”
“Oh, don’t you dare underestimate me,” she warns with a heated look and I hold my hands up in surrender. Truthfully, I’m just giving her a hard time. I have no doubt that Tate could make Ash piss himself with her words alone and if it comes to it, I’m not above letting her do just that. I want to be done with the whole damn thing.
“Okay, I won’t and if he doesn’t leave me alone, I promise to let you loose on him.”
She grins and does a little shimmy next to me. “Christmas has come early this year.”
“Speaking of, is anyone planning on doing anything for Christmas? I mean, I realize everyone is feeling the stress of this threat against the club right now but we should at least put up a tree, right?”
“Maybe we’ll bring it up at dinner,” she says, motioning to the chaos around us. I look around the room and sigh. All of the girls have been running around this kitchen for the last two and a half hours, working their asses off to make some big family dinner for all of us and I know the guys have been super stressed the past few days but I don’t know that this will help. Actually, I’m not even sure exactly what happened but I did hear something about a cabin, some photos, and the threat to the club. The whole thing has every single member on edge and their paranoia has been getting to all of us. The tension has been almost unbearable and on top of all that, Travis has been locked in his room almost twenty-four-seven since yesterday morning and I haven’t gotten a chance to be alone with him since our little rendezvous in his car two days ago. My cheeks heat as I think about that morning. Honestly, I don’t know what came over me but I couldn’t stop myself.
Neither one of us could.
“You know what I really need?” I ask and she arches a brow as she glances over at me. “Everyone to take a damn chill pill. I mean, have they ever considered that they all are playing right into his hand?”
“Just give it a rest, girl. I tried the same speech with Lincoln and he damn near tore my head off. They’re all worried and us being so flippant about it isn’t helping.”
I sigh. “I’m not being flippant but there is no way that any of them are thinking clearly right now and it just seems like they are letting this guy get the best of them.”
“Has anyone explained the whole situation to you?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, my mind drifting back to the diner with Travis two days ago. “Streak did.”
“Then you know how serious it is.”
I nod. “I do. But I also think they need to be smart about how they handle all of this. Whoever this guy is keeps winning because they are all wound so damn tight and scared of the next thing that is going to happen.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, girl, but all we can do is try to help them chill out and think clearly. Which is why this dinner is so important… well, and we have an ulterior motive…”
“You do? What is it?”
She smiles. “The girls all want to be able to go out and celebrate Piper’s bachelorette party but we need to butter the guys up and convince them of that.”
“Good fucking luck,” I shoot back with a laugh. I’m new here but even I know this is a damn long shot and that’s putting it mildly. Hell, when Tate, Emma, and I ran to the store earlier for supplies, Blaze insisted on driving there so he could protect us. I considered protesting but, after the mood in the clubhouse over the past two days, I decided against it. She shakes her head.
“No, listen…we have a plan.”
“Well, I hope it’s something at the clubhouse because that is all the guys are going to agree to,” I tell her and she shakes her head as a smile stretches across her face.
“That’s why we’re going to suggest that we all go, even the guys. How can they say no when they will all be there to protect us?”
I roll my eyes. “Like this, ‘absolutely fucking not’.”
“That was actually pretty good. If I didn’t know better, I might start looking around for Lincoln.” She laughs and I join her, nodding.
“It better be. I’ve been practicing my Lincoln impression since I was old enough to speak.”
“Rowan, are those vegetables ready?” Ali c
alls and I nod, grabbing my cutting board and holding it up. Tate and I are apparently “useless” in the kitchen so we were both assigned chopping duties which hasn’t been all that bad considering the craziness on the other side of the kitchen. “Throw them all in that bowl there and then y’all can go relax until dinner.”
I carry my cutting board over to the bowl she pointed out, scraping them all inside before I turn back to her. “Are you sure you don’t need help with anything else?”
“Um… maybe if you get the tables put together and set. I think this will all be ready in about fifteen to twenty minutes.”
Tate nods and loops her arm through mine. “We’re on it.”
We walk out of the kitchen and stop when we see the tables all laid out in one long line with plates and silverware already set up. Blaze looks up from the bar and follows our gaze before nodding. “Figured if y’all were doing the cooking, the least we could do is set up and clean up.”
“Aw, Blaze,” Tate coos, smacking his arm. “You shouldn’t have.”
He laughs. “I didn’t. I made the boys do it.”
“Well, in that case, you definitely should have,” I tell him and he laughs again before nodding toward the stairs,, where all the guys are presumably holed up in their rooms.
“Y’all go relax until dinner and I’ll deal with anything else that needs to be taken care of.”
As Tate and I nod and start walking toward the stairs, I lean in and whisper, “You think he’s on to our plan?”
“No,” she whispers back before glancing over her shoulder again. Blaze smiles at us and there is something about the look in his eyes that makes me think he knows exactly what is going on. But, let’s just hope that he doesn’t ruin it by saying anything to the rest of the guys. I don’t think he will, though. He’s been trying to keep this club together just as much as anyone else and he knows that besides our little plot, this dinner will be good for everyone. Tate and I walk up the stairs before she releases my arm. “I’m gonna go hunt down my husband.”
I nod. “Yeah, have fun with that.”
“I will,” she answers with a grin before her expression turns serious and she points a finger at me. “You let me know if that fucker calls you again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She smiles before ducking into the room she shares with my brother and when the door closes, I look down the hallway, wondering where I should go even as my feet start carrying me forward toward Travis’s door. I don’t know if he wants to see me since he’s been locked away up here for so long but the truth is, I miss him. Sucking in a breath, I stop in front of his door and knock.
“What?” he snarls from the other side and I arch a brow as my lips part in a silent gasp. Opening the door, I step inside and cross my arms over my chest.
“Wow. Rude, much?”
“Row,” he breathes as he glances up at me and sighs, his body deflating in his office chair before he holds his hand out to me. “Come here.”
I narrow my eyes and shake my head. “After you just snapped at me like that? I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t know it was you…”
“And?” I ask, closing the door behind me before leaning back against it. His gaze drags down my body and I’ve never felt sexier in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He licks his lips and it takes every ounce of my strength to stay where I am.
“So you’re not going to come over here?” he asks, his tone a mixture of playfulness and seriousness as he turns his chair to face me. My belly does a little flip and I shake my head.
“Nope.”
“You’ve seen what I’m willing to do to get what I want in public so are you really going to push me when we’re all alone?”
I shrug, trying like hell to look unaffected but my entire body is humming. “Maybe I want to see what you’ll do. Did you ever think of that?”
His eyes flare in response and a shiver twists down my spine as my heart hammers in my chest. Every fiber of my being is strung tight, on a hair trigger, as I wait for him to make his move.
Fuck.
I missed this.
Our eyes meet from across the room and he grins just before he lunges out of his chair, straight for me. I squeal and try to get away but he’s on me in the blink of an eye, caging me in against the door as he presses his body up against mine. I look up at him and move up onto my toes as he swoops down, slamming his lips to mine in a scorching kiss. The feel of him against me, the feel of his kiss… it all makes me want to melt on the spot and every cell in my body is singing with relief as I wrap my arms around his neck and thread my fingers through his hair. He groans, wrapping an arm around my waist as he presses me up against the door and grinds his hips into mine.
“Do we have time before dinner?” he asks, dragging his lips down the side of my neck and I shake my head. Honestly, I have no fucking clue how much time before dinner is ready but I don’t really care. I’ll happily skip it. Giving his hair a little tug, I reach down between us and grab his jean covered cock.
“Screw dinner.”
He groans, pulling us away from the door. His lips find mine again as he guides us over to the bed and falls back onto it, dragging me on top of him. I straddle his hips and he cups the back of my head as he nips at my bottom lip.
“Fuck,” he whispers as he grabs a handful of my ass and thrusts up off the bed. “I want you so fucking bad but we can’t skip dinner.”
I pull back. “Why not?”
“Because then your brother would come looking for you and find us like this… and because I want to show you something.”
“What?” I ask as he sits up and wraps his arms around me with a grin. Before I can ask him anything else, he stands up with me in his arms and I let out a shriek as I cling to him. He just laughs. The sound is incredibly infectious and I find myself smiling despite the fact that I’m certain he is going to drop me on my ass. With his arms securely wrapped around me, he carries me over to the desk and sits in his office chair with me still straddling his hips as he scoops a stack of photos off of the desk and hands them to me.
“What are these?” I ask, staring down at the first image. It’s in front of this cute little house that I don’t recognize. Storm, Ali, and a big brown dog are sitting on the sidewalk in front of some house and I turn to Travis with a scowl. He sighs.
“Warren… the name Tawny gave us when we went to visit her?”
I nod. “Yeah…”
“He owns a cabin way out in the woods and Storm and Fuzz went to check it out two days ago. They found all those photos inside and they insinuate that Warren has been watching us for two years now.”
Glancing down at the photo again, I shake my head, confused. “Okay… And? I mean, you already knew he was watching you, right?”
“Yeah,” he answers with a sigh. “But this combined with the things Veronica, the girl who was kidnapped, said in her interview makes us think that he had a hand in way more things than we realized, like the shit that went down when Storm met Ali.”
“Oh…”
He nods. “The thing is it’s impossible to prove and there is still a possibility that he’s just messing with us, trying to drive us all crazy… and it’s fucking working. I’ve been going out of my goddamn mind and…”
Grabbing his face, I press my lips to his and his arms wrap around my waist almost instantly as he groans into my kiss, his entire body relaxing beneath me. When I pull away, he presses his forehead to mine and releases a breath.
“Thanks. I fucking needed that.”
I nod, cradling his face in my hands. “I could tell.”
“You make everything better,” he whispers so quietly that I almost don’t hear him and despite the fact that I really want to say something, I remain silent. After a moment, he pulls back and sighs. “Dinner is probably going to be ready soon, huh?”
“Yeah, probably.”
He leans in and presses another quick kiss against my lips before pulling back. “You’d bette
r head downstairs now, then. We don’t need people seeing you come out of my room.”
“Okay,” I agree, imagining the hell that would ensue if my brother caught me sneaking out of Travis’s room. It would be a nightmare and the clubhouse doesn’t need anymore stress right now. Leaning in, I steal one more kiss before I climb off his lap and turn toward the door.
“Wait.”
I glance back at him as he stands. “Come see me tonight once everyone is in bed?”
“Maybe,” I answer with a grin even though we both know I will absolutely be up here just as soon as the clubhouse is quiet. He grabs my hand and pulls me back into his arms, spinning us so he’s closest to the door as he presses his lips to mine. “You know, in order for me to leave, you have to stop kissing me.”
“I’m fucking trying,” he growls as he steals another one and I smile against his lips. Finally, he pulls away. “Let me check the hallway before you go.”
“Okay.” I watch him walk toward the door, pulling it open just enough to peek into the hallway before he turns back to me and nods.
“You’re good.” He smacks my ass as I walk by him. “See you later, Princess.”
I shoot him a look as I slip out into the hallway and as I walk away from his room, I hear the door click closed behind me. Grinning to myself, I practically run down the stairs and slip down the hallway to the movie theater where I’m staying without being noticed. Just as I walk into the room, I hear a banging sound coming from the bar area.