Reign sucked in a breath, looking to the side for a long minute. “She was the chick who was screaming up the gates about a favor owed, wasn't she?”
Well, at least that probie hadn't given me up fully. I owed him a marker for that shit. No one lied to Reign, no one. “Yeah. Did they tell you about her face?” Reign winced and I had my answer. “Whatever they said it was, it was worse. And she could barely move her ribs were so bruised. I took her to my place because, for reasons I didn't know at the time, she didn't want to involve Hailstorm in her mess. And we did owe her.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “But that was my place to repay that debt.”
“You have more to lose than I do. And I was there. And she was in bad shape. I made a decision. Try to tell me you didn't do the same exact fucking thing with Summer.” I paused, taking in his tight jaw, knowing I was pushing it. “Tell me it wasn't just as against the code for you to do it.”
“It was different.”
“Yeah, given that I actually knew Lo, and Summer was just some random chick in the middle of the road in a hurricane.”
“Careful.”
“Know you love her and I love her for you, but at the time... she was no one to you. You went ahead and pulled some crazy shit, some action movie shit to get her out of her situation.”
“I'm assuming there's a point to this.”
“I didn't bring any possible trouble to the club. This was just me, Lo, her fuckhead of an ex and some of the Hailstorm guys.” There was a cough to Reign's side and I saw the person in the security booth was a young woman named Katie who was giving me a brow raise. “And girls,” I clarified.
“Her ex?” Reign asked and I felt a small stab of guilt. Lo would probably be pissed that I was sharing that shit.
“Yeah,” I agreed, needing to tell him despite the hell she was going to give me about it. “She married young. Wasn't long before he started beating her. He was especially fond of a belt.”
“Fuck,” Reign said, looking down at his feet.
“One day, she had enough, stabbed him, then got shot of him. Or at least, that was what she thought. Apparently, he was just hanging out around here, setting up the basement of the old carpet store to look like their old apartment, waiting for her to make a mistake so he could get her. Caught her alone at her old safe house, beat her. I took her. He found my place and took her back.”
“Kill 'em?”
I shook my head. “Chained him down in that basement like he did to her after going at him with his belt for a while. Figured once Lo is up and moving, she'd want a go at him.”
Reign nodded, an evil little smirk toying with his lips. “Should send Wolf down there if you want some real vengeance.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “He almost went postal on me when he thought I was the one who fucked up Lo.”
Reign smiled slightly before it fell. “You're fucking her,” he guessed, rightly.
I looked down at my feet, not able to face him when I admitted, “More than that.”
“Eyes, bro,” he commanded and I reluctantly looked up. “Oh, you're so fucked!” he broke off laughing. “Lo, man? Fuuuuuck.”
“She's not who everyone thinks she is.”
“She got your balls in a vice grip, she'd have to be something pretty fuckin' exceptional.”
He had no idea. Stripped of the chance to run away from me, pain making it impossible to keep her shields reinforced, she had opened up to me. She told me about her shit father and his shit gender roles, the way he used to punish her when she fucked up- making her do endless hours of push-ups, sit-ups, force her to do suicides until she puked or fainted, made her clean up the vomit, then start all over again. She told me how she saw the boy next door asking her to marry her as a way out of the prison she was raised in. She cried when she told me about the first time he beat her, how she almost killed herself to be free of him, how she was terrified anyone knew those things because she thought everyone would look at her differently then, like she was a victim instead of the badass bitch (her words) she had worked so hard to be.
She let me in.
I got to see the whole person for the first time and I realized with the same kind of clarity that Reign did, that I was so fucked.
“Repo ain't too happy about you slamming him up against a wall the other day.”
“He's a loyal fuck. Gotta appreciate that about him. I'll talk to him.”
“He's keeping this between us, but he's gonna have some major trust issues, you picking a chick and Hailstorm over us. Especially with Wolf being off doing fuck-knows what too. Things aren't looking good at the top over there right now.”
“Wolf's business is Wolf's business,” I specified, not willing to break that trust either, “but we all know we can trust him to make the right decisions too.”
Reign sighed, his shoulders slumping a bit, barely noticeable if someone didn't know him as well as I did. The weight of leadership, he was feeling it. “Whatever he's got himself into, is it bad?”
My gut was telling me yes. He was edgy and being way too protective of Janie. He wasn't showing up at the clubhouse. It was all pointing to something serious. “He's got his head on straight from what I can tell so far.”
Reign snorted. “So far.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, both of us knowing there were times, albeit infrequent, but no less terrifying, that Wolf flew off the handle, went full on ape-shit crazy, nearly blacked out in his rage and did shit we didn't even want to think about.
“I get that you got shit going on here,” he allowed and I felt a wave of relief. He wasn't going to directly order me back and force me to defy him which would lead to all kinds of problems. No, he saved me from that. Yet again, fuckin' looking out for me like always. “But I need to see your face, the men, fucking Repo need to see your face in church. And I need to know you're keeping an eye on the Wolf situation. Last thing we need is his bloody, law-enforcement-attention-grabbing trouble at our doorstep. Now you got your shit sorted, things are calm again. Don't want to be rocking the boat.”
“Got it,” I agreed.
“And answer your god damn phone,” he added with a smile.
“Will do.”
“She alright?” he asked after a long pause.
“It was fucking bad, man,” I admitted, not caring that the emotion was leaking into my tone. If there was one person who understood how it felt to see the woman you cared about battered by another man, it was Reign. “Her entire back was ripped open and her face was busted again. But she's stitched up and healing fast. She'll be up raising hell in no time.”
“Sometime like now?” he asked, nodding over my shoulder.
I turned, curious, to find Lo standing by the front door to the compound talking to Malcolm. She had on a loose-fitting white tee that must have belonged to one of the men and I had a sneaking suspicion it was Mike's and a pair of black yoga pants tucked slightly into her heavy-looking black combat boots.
“Fucking seriously?” I asked, looking up at the sky.
“Gonna have your hands full with that one,” Reign remarked and it sounded like he was smiling.
I turned back to him to find he was. “Like you should talk. Still got fuckin' bullet holes in the side of the compound.”
“Lucky I don't have bullet holes in me,” Reign laughed, shaking his head. “Never met a woman so infatuated with guns.”
“Good she's shacked up with a gun runner then,” I smiled back.
Reign nodded, his face soft at the idea of Summer. “Go see to your woman. Get her fuckin' ass back in bed before she falls over,” he said, getting back on his bike. “See you at church.”
I gave him a small wave, waiting for him to pull away before I turned to stalk back over to Lo.
“Serious, woman?” I asked, shaking my head at her.
“I'm fine.”
“Twenty minutes ago you were lying against my chest, too sore to move.” And I fu
ckin' liked having her there too.
“Yes, well, twenty minutes ago I didn't have an elephant's dose of feel-good meds coursing through my bloodstream,” she smiled. But her eyes weren't cloudy and her words weren't slow. She wasn't flying high on any pain killers.
“Baby...”
“I want to see him, Cash,” she said, lifting her chin.
“He's got food and shit down there. He'll live a couple more days.”
“You're taking me or I'll have one of my men take me,” she warned, brow raised, daring me to push it.
“One more day,” I tried to reason as Malcolm grinned down at me like an idiot knowing, like I knew as well, that I was going to lose.
“One hour,” she countered, looking a bit like she was trying to stop a smile.
“Listen here,” I said in a very dad-tone, trying not to laugh when her eyes widened, “Willow 'Lo' Swift, I am absolutely not taking your ass all busted up into town to pound on the guy who put you into a hospital bed. You need to heal up.”
“Know what I don't need?” she started, lifting that damn brow again. “Aside from time to 'heal up', that is? I don't need a man thinking he can be telling me what and when I can do things. So tone that shit down, get in on this, or get the fuck out of my way.”
I was annoyed, sure, that she was risking her healing by getting up so soon, but I respected her stubbornness, her urge for revenge. They'd have to strap me to a bed if I were in her position. “Oh, I'm in on this,” I agreed, rocking back on my heels, slipping my hands into my pockets. “Just wanted to make it clear I wanted my woman to get her ass back in bed and heal and all that shit that I'm supposed to say.”
“Your woman?” she asked, forehead wrinkling up, but there was no mistaking that melty-softness I saw in her eyes. She liked that. She wanted that... to be mine.
“Yep.”
“What if I don't want to be your woman?”
“Well that's just too damn bad because you already are, Wills.”
She stiffened suddenly, her whole body going ramrod straight and fuck if I knew for what. She took a breath and noticeably forced herself to relax. “You think so, huh?” she asked, but the teasing was out of her voice.
Beside her, Malcolm was pressing his lips together to keep from smiling as I closed in on Lo, getting my front all up against hers as I pressed my fists into the wall behind her, caging her in. My head tilted and dipped toward her ear so only she could hear. “Second I got a taste of that sweet pussy, baby, you were mine. And, what's more, you wanted to keep being mine.”
Her breathing was a little shallow and I felt my cock twitching at the idea of getting to be inside her again once she was all healed. “Pretty sure of yourself, huh?”
I pressed a kiss against her neck and smiled there. “Fuckin' A.”
Her chest shook with a little silent laugh.
I pulled back, still caging her in, and laid it down. “I get you gotta do this. Can't blame you. I got my shots in and I'm still itching for more and the fuck didn't do shit to me.” Her hand raised to the side of my face and touched the outline of my cut, her eyes like a challenge. “Like I said... ain't shit.” She smiled and rolled her eyes at me. “Like I said, I get it. I ain't gonna try to keep you here. But we go, you say your piece, you put a bullet between his eyes... whatever the fuck you need. But you don't do anything to rip open those stitches and then you get your ass back here and get back into that bed, yeah?”
“Depends,” she said with an almost dainty shrug.
“On?”
“Are you gonna be in that bed with me?” she asked with a coy smile.
“If I ain't got somewhere better to be,” I teased and tried not to smile when her face went hard. Her emotions were like a switch being flicked and it was fuckin' cute as all hell. Not that I would ever tell her that. She'd probably balk at that word, but it was the damn truth. “Babe, there ain't nowhere else I'd rather be,” I leveled with her, my tone soft, my eyes on hers.
Her shoulders slumped a little and she gave me a ghost of a smile. “So are we done gabbing like a couple chicks so we can go kick some ass?” With that, she took off toward the cars parked to the side of the property.
“Any chance I can keep her from kicking shit?” I asked Malcolm, knowing what the answer was going to be.
His smile was almost paternal as he watched her walk away for a second before turning his gaze to me. “I'll let Mike know she's probably gonna need to be stitched up again,” he said, slapping a hand on my shoulder then walking away.
“Fuck,” I said, shaking my head at life in general as I ran to catch up to her, pushing her reluctantly toward the passenger side. “Babe, you can't even sit back. Not safe for you to drive.”
With that, and only a small grumble at being 'treated like an invalid' (that was her new favorite phrase when she got into a mood about people telling her she shouldn't do something), she got in and let me drive.
“Just saying... if this is some macho 'my ass is in the car, I'm driving' bullshit... it's not gonna fly long term. I like to drive.”
“Of course you do,” I smiled at the windshield.
“What's that smile for?”
“Nothin', babe,” I lied. “And don't worry. I'm comfortable enough in my masculinity that if my woman wants to drive, I will happily plant my ass passenger. But we're on my bike? I'm driving.”
“That's reasonable,” she said, nodding for emphasis.
“I'm nothing if not accommodating,” I added with a wink, pretending to ignore the fact that we were outlining some parameters to a relationship. Yeah, I didn't need to be thinking about that shit right then. Or ever. It was all new and foreign to me and if I gave it any kind of god damn thought at all, I'd probably be freaking out about it. My only saving grace seemed to be that Lo seemed as equally awkward and uncomfortable with the idea too. So we had that going for us. Though I was pretty sure having a mutual fear of commitment was probably not the greatest trait to share, but whatever.
I pulled into the parking lot with a weighted feeling in my stomach. True, I wanted to see the fucker hurt. Hell, I wanted to make him hurt again. And I damn sure wanted to see Lo get her payback. But something just didn't feel right. As we climbed out of the car and made our way in through the cracked front window where a pool of water had gathered from the torrential downpour we had had the night before, I tried to convince myself it was only fear for Lo's well being that was making me feel almost queasy.
“You know the code?” she asked as I punched it in, her brows drawn together.
“Leo changed it,” I clarified with a shrug as I pulled the door open. “Need help down?”
Her head snapped to me with what I could only describe as horrified shock. “Not a fucking chance,” she said, like I was an idiot to offer. It was then that I realized sickbed Lo was gone. Hell, she wasn't even normal day-to-day Lo anymore. No, she was Lo, the badass lady boss of Hailstorm and offering her help was insulting. She could handle her own shit, no matter how bad she was hurting, she was going to go in there like she didn't have a care in the world.
Fucking sexy as hell.
“After you,” I said, waving a hand out dramatically and she smiled at me before making her way down the stairs, slow, but steady. She even managed to make it look like she was casually holding the railing instead of using it to help her keep her footing.
“Ah... Cash,” she said when she reached the bottom step. I was several feet above her, the half wall of the ceiling to the floor above still blocking my view.
“Fuck... is he dead already?” I asked, but voice too light. “It's cool. Won't judge you for beating on a corpse.”
“Oh my god. No no no...” she cried out as she moved around the room.
My heart skipped up into my throat as I flew down the last few stairs and took in the scene before me. That scene being... an open fucking ankle cuff and no Damian in sight.
“No fucking way. No fucking way,” I s
aid, looking around helplessly, my fists curling up. “The door was locked. New code, all that shit. No fucking way.”
“There must have been another way out,” she said, almost too calmly and when I turned to face her, she was sitting on the side of the bed, looking down at the floor, her shoulder slumped forward and I knew it was hurting like fuck to sit that way, but I guessed whatever she was feeling was hurting worse so she didn't even register it. “He was smart like that. I didn't have a lot of time to look around but there must have been another way out.” I picked up the ankle cuff, seeing the scratches near the lock and throwing it down in anger. “He used the belt,” she offered.
“What, babe?” I asked carefully, wondering if this was going to be her recounting some of the trauma again. I thought she purged that, crying into my neck as her body shook violently. But maybe that poison buried deep. Maybe she would always need to let it out, little by little.
She sighed loudly and lifted her head to me, waving a hand toward the floor. “To pick the lock. I wasn't able to find the way out, but I had done enough snooping around to know that there was literally nothing in here to use to pick that lock. So he had to use something he had on him.”
“Fuck,” I growled, wanting to hit, kick, smash something. I left him the belt. I was such a fucking moron. Why would I leave the belt?
“It's not your fault, Cash,” she said, her voice suddenly softer, losing all of the badass lady leader and going right back to sweet, soft Lo. “There was so much going on. I was carried out of here. You were worried. The other guys didn't think to secure the area either and I trained them to do that shit. Everyone was all over the place. It's not your fault.”
“He got away,” I said helplessly.
“Yeah, but it's alright. We'll find him eventually. We have all the time in the world to track him down.”
“You shouldn't be so calm about this,” I said, sitting down next to her, my hand landing on her thigh and squeezing.
“I've spent a hell of a lot of time being angry with him, Cash. Honestly, I'm just sick of it now. I want to move on.” She leaned into me, her head resting on my shoulder and I heard the words she left unspoken: she wanted to move on... with me.
Cash (The Henchmen MC Book 2) Page 19