by Franca Storm
I needed a little liquid courage first, courtesy of the bar over by the far window in there.
Walking inside, adrenaline ripped through me, a scream escaping me, as I realized for the first time that I wasn’t alone in my house.
“Oh my God,” I cried, slapping my hand over my heart. “What the hell are you doing here?”
14
~Spartan~
SHOCK.
Guilt.
Anger.
All of that was coming off Dani as she stood there taking in the sight of me lounging back in her fancy-ass golden chair. Some kind of antique, I was sure. Uncomfortable as hell too. I’d had worse though and I weren’t wanting to be relaxed right now, not with the shit I needed to talk about with her.
She folded her arms across her chest and walked closer. “Well?” she demanded.
She was trying to claim the high ground and make me out to be the bad guy, because I’d let myself into her home. That was the least of her problems. The fact she obviously weren’t getting that was real worrying. Her level of denial was shocking.
Glaring at her, I told her simply, “I’m saving your ass, love.”
Her eyes narrowed and she got all bent outta shape. “How many times do I need to reject this stubborn offer of protection from you before I manage to drive it home? I don’t need your help, Scott.”
“How much longer do I need to keep pushing it before you wise the fuck up?” I tossed back.
She tugged at her hair in frustration. “Oh my God! You’re driving me crazy! Do you know that? Is this what it’s like being your girlfriend? This unending, overbearing interference? Never backing off even when I tell you over and over to just let it go and stand down?”
I took in her blowup and one thing was coming through loud and clear. She was doing a good job of covering it up with anger, but I rarely took things at face value. Nah, it was glaringly obvious to me. She was scared. Scared for me, it looked like. So scared that she’d rather push me away than let me get involved with the threat against her.
I really fucking wished I’d gotten that shithead's license plate that day in the gym parking lot. But I’d only had one objective at the time. Protecting her. It was all that’d mattered.
I’d let my feelings for her override my training and street smarts. Just like Finn had warned me. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but thinking back on it now, it was undeniable. Goddammit. That didn’t sit well with me.
Making that mistake had me in the dark about Don. I’d found his name in her files upstairs when I’d come in earlier. But now I still had to wait until my contacts came back with the intel on him.
Until then, I was gonna have to rely on her to get at least a barebones report of the situation.
Asking directly wasn’t gonna work though. She was real sensitive about it and with her in a major state right now, there was no hope.
So, I’d have to be sly about it and coax it outta her.
Fuck. She was making me play games and I hated that shit.
But her safety was at stake. Her life, for all I knew.
I held up my hands. “All right,” I told her.
She cocked an eyebrow. “Really? You’re dropping this?”
“I got no choice if you ain’t gonna cooperate. Need that to take any kind of action.”
I strode past her, making it look like I was leaving her place. “Oh, right. I almost forgot,” I said, acting all surprised and looking back over my shoulder, telling her casually, “Just so you ain’t stuck waiting here for hours on end, you should know that he ain’t coming.” I turned and started back for the front door, calling out behind me, “See you back in Ridgefield.”
“Wait!” she called after me.
I stopped just shy of the front door, hearing the clack of her heels hurrying up to me.
I turned slow. “Yeah?” I asked, faking cluelessness.
“What did you mean by that?”
“You’re smart. You figured out he was tracking you and the common denominator was your car, right?”
She swallowed hard, anxious that I knew. “Yes,” she admitted. “My car is outside, so—”
“Ain’t the car, love.”
“It—what?”
“He tagged it with a tracer.” I eyed her carefully as I revealed, “Police issue.”
She didn’t react. So, she knew then.
“I guess he coulda picked it up on the black market or something.”
“No,” she murmured.
Okay, so the guy had a connection with the cops. He wasn’t just a plain old builder then. That made things more complicated. But complicated was kinda my thing.
“You know I can trace it back, yeah? So, if you wanna find him, you can.”
Interest sparked in her eyes. “Uh.. no. Thanks, though. I’m good.”
“All right, love.” I wrapped my arm around her, pulled her into me gently and kissed the top of her head.
As I went to pull back, there was resistance, and I looked down to see her clutching my leather jacket real tight, holding me to her.
Her body started shaking in the next second and I heard her crying, crying hard.
I wrapped my other arm around her, enclosing her in a protective cocoon, holding her as she cried. “It’s okay, Dani,” I soothed, stroking her soft hair, her back.
“I'm sorry,” she choked out through her tears.
“Ain’t nothing to be sorry for.”
She lifted her head to look up at me and my gut twisted at her red-raw eyes, the tears rolling down her cheeks. She was in so much fucking pain. I wanted to rip apart that fucker with my bare hands, destroy everyone and everything that was hurting her.
“I was a bitch to you. You don’t deserve that. I just… I was trying to protect you.”
Protect me? My first instinct was to tell her that weren’t the way shit worked. Hell, my whole life I’d been with women who were very submissive and easygoing, who wanted and needed that level of protection and everything from me. They’d been sweet and soft, but fragile. And I’d been okay with that. I’d wanted that.
But everything was different now.
After the tragedy with my wife, I couldn’t be with a woman who couldn’t handle herself and stand tall without relying on me completely.
Dani was the opposite of what I’d always been used to.
Feisty. Independent. Mouthy. Strong. Full of fire.
And I liked it a whole lot. It fit with what I needed now. A partner. An equal.
But it was still a lot to get used to. I’d been falling back into old habits every now and then and treating her the way I’d treated Andrea. And, unlike her, Dani didn’t respond to that well.
So, I took a different route, asking her, “You wanna tell me what you’ve been protecting me from?”
Tell me. Let me in.
She hesitated and I figured she was gonna back up and shutdown.
But then she wiped her tears away with the backs of her hands, caught her breath and revealed, “Don’s brother is the Assistant District Attorney.”
“Gus Wakefield?”
“Yeah.”
I eased her shirt up and traced my finger over her jagged scar. “That’s why you never reported this. He’s a bent ADA.”
“According to Don’s boastings, yeah. So, you see why I don’t want you getting involved? I know your club has… done things. If you got on his radar, he could dredge it all up, every single illegal thing you and any of your members have ever done. He could ruin you. And what about Finn? He’s a killer, isn’t he? On the run? I could imagine that would implicate your daughter too. Your whole life and those of everybody we both care about would be destroyed.” She reached up and stroked my cheek. “That’s why I’ve been so harsh with you about this. But you are one stubborn, determined bastard. Now that I’ve told you, though, I hope you’ll really get it and realize how vital it is that you keep out of it. I’ve got it handled.”
Well, fuck me. That was a lot to take in.
“How?
” I asked.
“What?”
“How are you handling it?”
She pulled back from me and dropped her gaze, unable to look me in the eye as she murmured, “I’m gonna pay him off.”
My fists clenched white-hot.
Rage burned through me.
It took every ounce of effort for me to force out, “And you have reason to believe that’ll satisfy him and get him off your back?”
She nodded, looking confident about it, as she explained, “I cost him his livelihood. By remedying the fallout of that he’ll drop it.”
Well that opened up a load more questions. Cost him his livelihood? Was that true, or just the claim of a psycho?
And as for her thinking that he’d just automatically back off and turn tail once she threw money at the situation, it was a dangerous assumption. He’d been after her for two years. After all that time, judging from what I'd witnessed in the gym lot, his determination to hurt her badly hadn’t weakened. That kind of hatred and thirst for vengeance didn’t just slip away. It was a goddamn obsession. And going on for that long woulda had it becoming a part of him.
I knew a thing or two about that.
“Well, good,” I told her, fixing her shirt back down and easing back. “You got a plan. Then you can get things back on track, leave Ridgefield, go back to your job and this sweet-ass home of yours. Get your real life back, the one you chose and didn’t just settle for.”
She shook her head and took my hands. “I want to get back to my real career and everything, but there are aspects of my new life that I’m very grateful for, that I didn’t just settle for.”
“Yeah? Is that right?”
She stretched onto her tiptoes and kissed me. Linking her arms around my neck, she told me, “Yeah, there’s this smoking hot, badass biker who has kind of gotten under my skin a bit.”
I leaned down to her, my mouth just an inch from hers. “Just a bit? We’re gonna have to change that.”
I had her yelping in surprise in the next second when I grabbed her ass, hauled her up against me and pushed her up against the wall by the door.
Our lips clashed, hot and heavy.
Her hands left my neck and tugged at my hair.
Damn, the way she kissed was like a slice of heaven on earth. It consumed me just like it had last time.
My dick was hard in a second, fire coursing through my veins, the urge to take her overwhelming. It was a fight to keep my head on straight. Her hands slipping under my shirt and feeling up my chest, was gonna push me too far. She had me growling like an animal as she raked her nails down my abs.
I pinned her to the wall with my hips so I could free my hands from holding her ass up.
“God, you’re so hard,” she moaned, grinding herself against my dick. Her eyes lit up. “And big. Jesus.”
Pleasure shot through me as she kept up her grinding.
And I lost it, fisting her lacy black blouse and ripping it open, buttons flying everywhere, making her gasp.
More lace greeted me with her sexy pink bra. I eyed the front clasp and freed her tits with a flick of my fingers.
“Wow,” she choked, impressed.
I savored the sight of her big perky tits. I cupped them in my hands, stroking up the sides as I leaned in and licked each of her nipples in turn.
She threw her head back, moaning and grinding against me.
I felt her hand playing with the belt of my jeans in the next moment.
And it was a wakeup call.
What the shit was I doing?
How had I let myself get caught up in her like this?
I’d made a promise to myself, for her own good.
“Sorry, love,” I gritted out, easing her down and stepping away before my control snapped completely.
“Scott, what’s going on with you? Why do you keep doing this?” she asked, pulling her shirt closed and folding her arms across her chest defensively. “One minute we’re hot and heavy, then you just slam on the brakes.”
“It ain’t the right time.”
“For what? Fucking?”
“Taking shit further.”
Hurt sparked in her eyes. “Oh.”
“I want to,” I assured her. “Believe me, that ain’t even a question.”
She looked real confused. “Then why aren’t we? Why are we in this strange paused state? I thought after we hung out at the barbecue with your club family and what happened in your office, that we were doing this thing.”
“There’s stuff I gotta deal with and stuff you gotta deal with. Until then, we gotta hold off with us.”
“Is this because I kept you in the dark about things?”
“One reason, yeah.” She was still keeping me in the fucking dark. She’d only told me a small part of the danger she was mixed up in.
“I explained that I’m doing it to protect you.”
“I think you’re doing it more to protect yourself. You don’t want to owe me one. You don’t want me taking the power. Even though I told you that ain’t the way I see it, or the way I’m ever gonna see it. It ain’t favors between you and me, Dani. It’s just support. But you ain’t ready to believe that. You got shit to sort out.”
She scoffed, but didn’t say anything.
Pain flickered in her eyes. It was all over her face.
I’d hurt her.
I hated it. It turned my stomach.
She had this fucked-up ability to rile me up like nobody else.
The urge to take it all the way with her, to fuck her like a goddamn madman, was stronger than it’d ever been. And, hell, I’d been tested more than a few times over the years. But I’d never come so close to giving in and screwing my personal code to hell.
Shit, though. If I did give in, what the hell would come of it?
She was closed to me in so many ways. And, I had to face it, I had secrets right now, too. The whole thing with Knox and the mercenaries, and the fact that I was gonna help her out no matter how hard she tried to push me away from it.
It was all fucked.
But even with things on my end sorted, how long until something else came along? The world I lived in meant there’d never be lasting peace.
Maybe Finn had it right, after all.
Maybe I needed to stop making excuses.
Maybe the way shit had gone with Andrea had been a tragic one-off.
And Dani weren’t her. They were a world apart, for sure.
But even if I could believe that, there were still her issues that—
“I’ll tell you.”
I eyed her in surprise. “What?” I asked, thinking I might’ve misheard her.
“You’re right, okay? Even though I’m prepared to deal with Don, I’m still running… from you. And I don’t want to be. I don’t want this apprehension hanging over me and making me freeze up all of the time. I want you, Scott. I want us to give this thing with us a real shot. It’s been two long years coming.” She stepped back up to me and took my hands in hers. “I want to drop my walls for you. I’m ready.”
Well, fuck me.
She must have realized what I had.
We’d reached an impasse and if something didn’t give, there weren’t nowhere else for this thing with us to go. It would be the end.
“Yeah?”
“Yes,” she answered, resolutely. “On one condition, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell me the truth about this thing with Knox.”
15
~Daniella~
“YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.”
I eyed Scott lounging back in the armchair in my living room, sipping at his third glass of scotch in the last two hours since we’d started this conversation. I’d been matching him glass for glass. It was helping me to absorb and swallow all the major revelations that had been thrown out into the open.
We’d both shared a lot of heavy secrets, things we’d been keeping locked up tight and trying to handle on our own.
The relief
at finally unloading it and sharing it with someone was so intensely powerful that the burden actually felt a little lighter.
I’d never needed validation from anyone on any of the decisions I’d made in my life. But, after so long with Don coming after me all in the name of me ruining his life, hearing someone actually confirm that I had done the right thing had me realizing how much I’d actually needed to hear the words.
“Thank you,” I told Scott. “That means a lot coming from you.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Why’s that?”
I tucked my legs under me, getting more comfortable, enjoying just talking openly and honestly with him. I hadn’t wanted anyone to know the truth for fear that it would put them in the line of fire too.
I smiled at his modesty. “You’re an accomplished man who’s seen and done pretty much everything. I respect you and I trust your judgment more than anybody I’ve ever known.”
“Means a lot, love. You telling me all this does, too.”
“I feel the same.”
“Good, because now you’ve told me the whole story, I’ve gotta tell you that your plan to buy Wakefield off ain’t gonna cut it. It’s actually gonna put you in a shitload of danger and open you up to accusations of wrongdoing with the money thing tossed in there.”
I took his words in and it had me admitting something I’d tried so hard to bury from conscious thought. “I’m just… desperate. I just want it to be over.”
He rose from his chair and crossed to where I was curled up on the couch. “I get that,” he said as he took a seat beside me. “And it’s gonna be.”
I shifted sideways to face him head-on. “You have a plan?”
“There’s rarely a time when I don’t.”
“Cocky.”
“You’d know all about that, yeah?”
I laughed. Touché. We really were a pair.
He reached out and gently stroked my cheek. “I’m here with you.”
I smiled. “Me too.”
He leaned in and kissed me softly. His tongue gently swept across my lips, long and lingeringly. His eyes were flaming when he pulled back.
Taking his hands in mine and running my fingers exploratively over each one of his many clunky rings decorating his roughened digits. “I want to help you with your problem too.”