When she saw my face, hers dropped. “Oh, did I do something wrong?”
“She’s the girl,” I muttered, praying for divine intervention to keep me from throttling her.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Malia. She’s the girl who broke my heart as you women so romantically put it.”
Geraldine put a hand up to her throat. “Oh Lord, I fear I’ve overstepped and—”
“Made things worse!” Gigi shouted. “Because she’s already gone.” I turned my head to her like it was on a turntable. “I just sensed something was wrong and got to her as she was making a run for it.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you stop her?”
“Language, Wave.” Both Gigi and I glared at Geraldine. “Yes, okay probably an acceptable time to curse, but still.”
She was lucky that was the only obscenity she was subjected to.
“Did you want me to sit on her?”
“If you fucking had to,” I shouted at Gigi, and the bustling of conversation around us quietened. Like a magic act, Gears appeared at her side, his eyes telling me he’d kill me with his bare hands if I spoke to his wife like that again.
“Wave, I’m sorry. I let her take my car. It has a tracker and I did tell her I’d be coming straight to you.”
“How long ago?”
“Uh… cake plus speeches and singing. Maybe thirty-five, forty-five minutes at the most.”
“Fuck!”
I took off like a bat out of hell, hearing Geraldine begin an apology that started off so formally it probably could have been penned on fancy paper, sealed with wax and delivered by a butler on a silver tray. The first place, the only place I hoped she’d head for was Shadow’s. All her stuff was there and if she wasn’t there I was fucked and relying on the car’s tracker. Gears’ insane need to keep his wife safe could well be my salvation.
Less than twenty-four hours ago, I’d been unsure about where this could go, afraid of anything but a positive outcome to our paths crossing again. Then when I’d made my announcement, I felt at peace with the idea taking shape. It was only now that she was off and running again that the idea of Malia and I really felt cemented. I was beside myself with fear that I might actually lose my second chance with her.
Malia needed to trust that I knew this was the best thing for both of us. Otherwise, I’d be forever worried that she might run.
I squealed my truck to a stop outside Shadow’s and was relived to see Gigi’s car parked up. So much so that when I climbed out of the cab, I had to put my hands on my knees to steady myself. If I didn’t, I’d burst into the place like a wrecking ball and fuck knew what that would do to her. She was already jumpy.
That right there showed just how much I wanted this.
My chance at a future with her.
I was calm until I was inside the front door, because the first thing my eyes saw was her in my brother’s arms.
Searing pain lanced through my body at the thought that she’d chosen someone else over me.
Shadow looked at me. “Brother.” She was tight up against him with her head burrowed in his neck.
“Put her down, Shadow. We’ve had this bust up once before.”
“And you jumped to the wrong conclusions then, too.”
“Just. Stop. Fucking. Touching. Her.” Each letter, syllable and word were delivered with such intensity that I needed him to know I wasn’t joking around. Where this woman was concerned, if someone pressed the wrong button, it wasn’t just a case of reacting badly. It would be like using a stick of TNT to light a candle.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Reef, can’t you see he’s just consoling me?”
“That’s my fucking job!”
Finally, Shadow understood the tenuous grip I had on my temper. “Babe, you need to work this shit out with him.”
She huffed and puffed before spinning in my direction. “Fine. What do you want me to say? That Gears’ mom was right? I deserve everything life kicks at me for not choosing you years ago? That I’m not and never will be worthy of your love? I’m not worthy of anyone’s love.”
“She also said you made me happy.”
“Until I fuck that up, too.”
“So, that’s it. You don’t try? You just run?”
“It’s not running if I’m saving you from a repeat performance.”
“Why?” I asked, trying to beat back the panic. “You going back to him?”
“Hell will freeze over before I ever do that.”
“Finally, something we agree on.”
Shadow coughed one of those fake coughs, reminding me he was still there. “We need to talk.” He turned on a boot, leaving me to sort things out with Malia, and giving me a look that told me to make it quick; shit was going down.
“You don’t know me anymore, Reef.” Malia’s words quickly brought me back to the present.
“Yes, I do.”
“Not really. I’ve changed. He changed me,” she whispered, on the verge of tears.
“Close your eyes.” My voice was firm again, firm enough that she obeyed. I stepped in close and whispered back to her, “Keep ‘em closed.” My breath fanned her face, causing her body to sway. “That motherfucker never knew what he had when he had you. He just knew you meant the world to me.”
I kissed her softly once, her eyelids fluttering with the desire to be open.
“Closed.”
“Those days when it was just us in the ocean were the best times of my life. You and me exactly where we were meant to be. Floating in the water, swaying in the current. Like no one else existed.”
I kissed her again.
“But I threw it away.” Her words were choked and raw.
“No, I did. I could have fought for you. I should have fucking fought for you, but lashing out, holding a grudge, blinded me. That’s on me.” I kissed her longer this time, no tongue, just feeling the softness of her lips until I felt them part, desperate for me. “You’ve punished yourself enough. You’re gonna let that shit go.”
“What if I can’t? I don’t know how. I’ve flogged myself for so long I don’t know who I am without that guilt.”
I cupped her chin and put my lips close again. “Feel this, us. Together. It’s right. Like we’ve been drifting at sea and we’re finally found. Tell me you don’t feel connected to me.”
She couldn’t.
“We’ll deal with your shit and then that life is over. Done. You and me, we make up for lost time and do it by leaving that shit in the past and living every fucking day.”
This time I let my tongue tease hers until she swayed and chased it when I pulled back. “Deal?”
“Umm.”
“Words, Mal. Let me hear the words.”
She opened her eyes, locked them with mine and said her next words like a vow. “With everything inside me, every strand, every fiber of my existence. I’ll never make you feel that way again.”
“Mal…” I felt caught up in her promised words.
“There’ll never be enough time to make it up to you, but just know I’ve suffered. I’ve suffered for so long I don’t know how it feels to not suffer for my mistake.”
“Because we need to do it together. We heal together.”
“Together.” That one single word left her lips with conviction, like it was an iron-clad guarantee, and even though it was just one single word, it made my need to get inside her greater than it had ever been before.
“Need to fuck you, baby.”
I slammed my lips down on hers and felt the same urgency to seal our iron-clad vow return.
When she started to tug at my pants, I remembered where we were, in the middle of Shadow’s living room. “Bedroom,” I grunted and picked her up.
Without kicking the door closed, I dropped her on the bed. If Shadow came back and heard me fucking her, he’d know two things. One, she was definitely and always would be mine. And two, he needed to turn his ass around and give us more time to seal our vow.
Malia hissed when I parted h
er legs and sunk my cock deep inside her. “Gonna be fast, beautiful.”
“Fuck me, Reef.”
And that was all it took, my old lady—she was absolutely that—talking dirty and using my proper name. Minutes later, her pussy clamped tight sending that final tingle through my spine, into my groin, ending with me pouring every physical morsel of emotion inside her.
We were both a breathing, sweaty mess. “You go take a shower. I’ll go wait for Shadow.”
This time, she palmed my cheek and smiled. Her face was different, changed, because it was missing that stress she’d sentenced herself to. The look on her face was similar to many I’d burned into my memory from the past, when we’d been surfing and riding waves. Malia was content, satisfied, and living life for the simple beauty of it. It was the first time I’d seen it since we’d reunited, and I knew I’d move heaven and earth to keep it there. “When your shit is done, we’re taking a vacation. I want us back in the ocean, baby.”
It shouldn’t have been possible, but her smile grew bigger and I’d never seen anything prettier. With tears in her eyes and a happy smile on her face, she kissed the corner of my mouth and sashayed her naked ass to the bathroom.
“We good?” Shadow asked when I hit the living room. He was sat facing me, perched on the coffee table in the middle of his ‘desperately in need of furniture’ house.
“We’re good.”
I sat down and saw him smirk and nod at my chest. I followed his eye line and saw I was covered in nail marks. It looked like I’d been raked.
“You’re back. Must mean you know what’s going down with Mal.”
“Oh yeah. It’s fucked up. Followed him to his porn factory and while he was busy, I got busy.”
“How?”
“Well, as he has a kink for testing out the goods before filming starts—and sometimes after, sick fucker—I went and took a look at their place.”
“What did you find?”
“Just more copies of the shit she brought with her.”
“Kink?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know.
“Partakes in some of the shit with very specific tastes. He auditions them.”
“What? So, he stars in his own productions?” I began to feel queasy.
“It’s a good job she didn’t do a thorough sweep of the house. Some of the stuff I found opened up a new line of enquiry.” Shadow leaned forward. “He has some still photos from a secret camera that showed him and a lot of seriously important people raping girls, minors or girls made to look like school girls. Let’s just say, I’ve seen vets treat cattle better. In a lot of cases, he sets up the shoot, the whole kit and caboodle for the wealthy depraved who wanna get their freak on. We’re talking serious snuff territory.”
I shook my head, my hands trembling. “Mal’s been living with that? Fuck. Always knew that cunt had a switch that was ripe for flippin’, but fuck, but not that flipped.”
Shadow got up, pulled two beers from the refrigerator and returned, handing me one.
“Have we got something we can use?” I rested my elbows on my knees; it was my thinking position.
“Spent a night sitting opposite his best actress, Charmayne, and she gets loose lipped when a handsome guy buys her one too many mojitos.”
“Don’t mention that girl’s lips. Either set is probably loose and flappy.”
“Dean’s got some trouble on his heels, owes money for a snuff set up that didn’t go to plan.”
“Snuff?” I could barely get the word out.
“He’d promised the rights for the film to a third party. The bitch they were gang banging was a wanted woman. As in, wanted back by her sugar daddy, who just so happened to be a member of the Mafia. We’re talking Cosa Nostra. The tape was due to go to some rivals to help turn the screw of capitulation and it didn’t go to plan.”
“The Mafia? Fuck. Me.”
“He should have picked up a pay packet from facilitating, but didn’t deliver. Not only that, he was the one who set up and took a real active part in someone’s princess getting a rough seeing to, under what I’m told were horrific conditions. This wasn’t no porn hub gang bang.”
“So, the regular porn is a front?”
Shadow nodded.
How in the fuck was Malia living with this guy and not in the know? Surely, no one was that blind that they didn’t see something, feel something, even a change in behavior, just to clue them in that the man they’d shacked up with was a fucking freak.
“Why involve her?”
“Only way he can stump up the money for his botch job is to cash in on a policy was my guess. He owes serious people serious cake.”
“He was gonna kill her.” It turned my stomach to realize how close I’d come to losing her. If he’d been in front of me, I’d have ended him and not even blinked. It would have been a kindness because if I thought about it too much, I’d see the benefits in arranging my own sort of film and he would be the main star.
“Why the policy for him?”
“Less suspicion. Talked to a fed in fraud, and a couple taking life insurance out on each other is normal. Just taking one is something the insurance firm would look into if he tried to cash it in. It would more than likely mean he’d end up being his own leading lady in a prison scene.”
I didn’t know whether it was comforting or scary that Shadow thought like me. Shadow was a terrifying motherfucker and he was proving that right now. He’d been away a few days and managed to dig all this up. I needed this done with, her safe and us getting on with shit as a couple. Malia was gonna be my old lady in more than just reference, even if I had to drag her to Vegas and force her.
“Do you think he’ll get past his desire to see her dead? Find another way?”
“Not while there’s a price on his head. Sources tell me she’s his easiest and only way to come up with the cash.”
Fuck.
“What do we do?”
Now Shadow leaned forward, a rare smile, one that said, ‘this is gonna be fun’ formed on his face before he finished with, “We move fast, attack first and we don’t get caught.”
With a furrowed brow, I asked, “That’s it?”
“Basically. You still all in?”
I didn’t even think about it. “Absolutely.” I was firm and steadfast.
“Then the fun is only just beginning. I’ve called in reinforcements.”
“Malia’s life hanging in the balance ain’t fun,” I growled.
“Not for you, brother, but this shit? This is what I was born to handle.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Malia
“My life is in the balance?”
It wasn’t the way I’d planned to make it known that I’d overheard some of their powwow, but color me shocked, so shocked that I just blurted the words out.
“Come here, babe.” I wanted to be flippant, but with the serous subject matter and the fact that we’d just come to an agreement about us, I figured now wasn’t the time to be all, well, me. When I folded myself onto his lap, I knew I’d made the right decision. Being near him brought me calm. We fit together and if we were about to discuss my imminent demise, I figured there’d be no better place.
“Honey,” Shadow began, grabbing my attention. “The threat is real. Your ex has got twisted up in some extreme shit and you look like a viable way out for him.”
I sucked back what must have been all the available oxygen in the room, so much so that I wasn’t sure my lungs had any extra room for expansion inside me. “Right. Okay. Fucking asshole.” Then the rage kicked in. “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t basically give him everything he has or flunk out of college to make sure he was okay. No, I mean, let’s face it. Every girl wants to be treated like shit, slapped around and belittled, not to mention cheated on by a secret porn king.”
“Sweetheart, I’m thinking you should probably stop talking.” I looked at Shadow, wondering why his words were so insistent, to see him eyeballing Reef. I’d completely missed how
rigid he’d gone beneath me at my words. In my thoughtless temper tantrum, I’d forgotten the effect my words would have on him.
“I’m gonna skin that motherfucker alive,” he growled.
My best way to turn this around was to bring the conversation back on track. “Okay, what’s the plan?”
“Got a nomad with some experience. He shouldn’t be much longer.” Shadow looked at his watch.
“What’s a nomad?” I turned and asked Reef as the door to Shadow’s place opened and slammed shut with no one bothering to knock for permission to enter.
We all looked to the hallway.
“Fuck me.” I heard the grin in Reef’s voice before I was unceremoniously tipped out of his lap, while Shadow got to his feet, too.
“Well, she’s a wee pretty lassie,” came the most velvet, smooth accent from a man with insanely long hair, wearing a black and red skirt, biker boots and a leather cut.
“Are you wearing a skirt?” I blurted out before remembering my manners. “It totally suits you. I mean, you’re killing it.”
“Kilt,” he corrected.
“Bet that’s breezy on your bike.” What the fuck was wrong with me? All of this commotion meant my brain to mouth filter was on the fritz. It was then that I took in the utter randomness before me. Reef, all muscly, shirtless and sun tanned, with his sun-bleached hair. Shadow, with his buzz cut, so buzzed his head was almost blue, mysterious and beyond edgy, and this newcomer, with long hair, a foreign accent and wearing a skirt. All of them were uniquely different, all tied together by their love of motorcycles, their need to belong binding them together.
“Mac, this is my old lady, Malia. Malia, this is an old friend of the family, Mac.”
“Is Mac your biker nickname?”
He fought a smile while Reef shook his head with exasperation.
“Real name.”
“Are you a Black Sentinel?” I looked at his cut and didn’t see the same patches I saw on Reef and Shadow’s. The one Mac had said the word ‘Carnal’ but through it was a dagger dripping with blood.
“No, he’s a nomad, babe. Doesn’t belong to a club, but wanders.”
“But if I had to, I’d pick the Sentinels every time. Me and the Prez go way back.”
Malia: A Black Sentinels MC Novel Page 18