by A. E. Fisher
“How can you know that after just a day?”
“I don’t need to know you.” She grunted, and it slightly pissed me off. “I know Anna. And Anna wouldn’t trust just anyone. You wouldn’t be wrong to consider yourself special.”
Ash tilted her head at me, and I could hear the soft undertone of her voice as she said the last words, the sadness in them unmistakable.
“Anna was...” Ash paused, her head cocking to one side as she struggled for words. I watched as her head gravitated upward, and I was reminded of Anna’s story about the constellations. “She was the last important thing to me in this world,” she said, a wistful smile on her face. “She gave up everything to take me somewhere safe. Her family, friends, country. I know it wasn’t easy for her. I wasn’t easy for her, either. But to know she’s cared for here, even if it’s not the safest place or with the most competent people”—I felt my leg throb in response to her jibe—“I know this is where she’s chosen to be. And if there’s one person I trust to make the right call, it’s Anna. That’s why I won’t worry anymore. I don’t have to.”
Her feet hit the floor and a cloud of dust fell off her boots. She turned and picked up her bottle, her brown hair brushing across her face as she looked down to tuck it under her arm and headed toward the door.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, stopping her at my side. I didn’t look at her or even turn in her direction. My feet stayed firmly planted north, my eyes looking over the car lot and into the darkness of Fellpeak as the town turned in for the night.
I heard the faint sound of cars on the main street a few blocks over.
“Take care of her,” was all Ash said before she picked up her boots and continued toward the door.
I wanted to grab her and ask her what she meant by that. But my body didn’t move. Because somehow, I knew. I knew, and in the future, I would probably regret not stopping her. Not asking exactly what she meant.
But that wasn’t today. That wasn’t now.
Now, I just watched her walk away and pretended I didn’t know.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Anna
“So, you’re both from England?” Mallory asked, her big brown eyes wide as she stared at Ash, scanning her from head to toe.
Ash smirked. “Childhood friends. Known the bitch for years.”
“Said bitch is sitting right here,” I snapped, glaring at her. She only shrugged.
“Said beep is holding my child,” Mallory snapped between us, “so stop with the B-word.”
I looked down to the wriggling child on my lap, his blond curls brushing my chin. He was happily playing with my cell phone on an app I had downloaded for him. He was four years old now and found it fascinating to paint in the bike pictures that the app provided. When he finished one, he’d jump up and down on my lap and present me his amazing artistry before I put a different one on. This one was being painted a ruby red color, which made my heart warm in my chest, considering that his father’s bike, one he was practically married to, was a ruby red Harley.
“Good color, buddy.” Hunter’s voice came from over my shoulder, drawing mine and Mallory’s attention. Adair’s didn’t stray as he continued to scribble in the lines.
Hunter was Adair’s uncle, though he acted more like a father the more time he spent with the boy. He ruffled his hair before dropping onto the other couch where Mallory had parked herself. He chucked his arm over her shoulder and planted a long, deep kiss on her before he faced us again, leaving Mallory a little flushed.
I stared into his deep green eyes before saying, “You know, if you wanna go do something about that”—I gestured toward Mallory’s hot, red cheeks as she gave Hunter the “fuck me” eyes—“I’m quite happy to look after the munchkin.”
I didn’t miss how Hunter’s eyes cut across to where Ash sat, nursing a bottle of rum after Lamb had managed to take away her last bottle of whiskey. She had only drank a little bit over the course of the morning and wasn’t anywhere near drunk, but I wasn’t surprised when Hunter said, “Nah, I gotta take him out in a bit. Gonna go check out the old garage on the other side of town; wondering if Mrs. Meyers would be interested in selling up, since her husband passed away a few months ago and her son looks like he doesn’t even know to change the oil.”
“And you’re taking a four-year-old child?” I scoffed. “Good luck with that.”
Hunter rolled his eyes at me, flicking his black hair away from his face in the process.
“I would take him with me, but I’ve got somewhere to be,” Mallory said with a soft sigh, giving her little boy big round eyes, and I knew it was because she was jealous about how attached Adair was to Hunter. The boy idolized him.
“I’ll take him,” Jax popped up behind Ash a second later. She didn’t flinch, instead just turned her chin up to look at the supreme southern hotness. His dark, unruly hair was a lot shorter than Hunter’s, but it only served to highlight that gorgeous tan and add to the dark matrix of the tattoos covering him from head to toe.
“No way.”
“No way in hell.”
“Like fuck.”
Jax turned to look at us three with upturned eyebrows as we all simultaneously shot him down.
“Sorry, brother.” Hunter chuckled, getting up from his seat to slap Jax on the shoulder. “But one of you is bad enough. I don’t need Adair to turn into you, too.”
“Looks like I’ve got a free afternoon, then,” Jax grumbled. He shook off Hunter’s hand, propped his own onto the back of the sofa where Ash was sitting, and leaned over it. “You wanna keep me company, darlin’?”
My eyes, on pure instinct, cut over to the bar where Lamb was putting drinks away, and I swore to God, I saw Lamb turn away the second my head moved. I stared at him a while longer, but he didn’t glance back.
“Get lost, Jax,” I growled at him as Ash continued to remain silent, content to just stare at him unfazed. “Where’s your new bum buddy anyway?”
“Pretty’s at school.” Jax sighed like a sad, lovesick school girl. Ever since Hunter had gotten hitched to Mallory, his time had been filled up with her, the adorable little rug rat, and trying to get his hands on his own garage. All in all, Jax had been a little neglected recently, and so he’d become more attached to Pretty while trying to get his claws into Mint, too, though Mint was having none of it.
“School?” Mallory wondered, tilting her head to the side in question, her long red hair falling over part of the couch cushion.
“Yeah, he went back to get his GED. He’s at the local college over in Redwood.”
“Good for him.” Mallory beamed, nodding her head. “I’d like to go back to school and finish my degree eventually, too.”
“You’ll get there,” Hunter said, coming around to the back of her seat and squeezing her shoulders. “But right now, you’ve got somewhere to be, and I’ve got to get down to the garage.”
Somewhere to be again? How suspicious.
I didn’t dig. I could pretty much figure out what was going on. Instead, I worked on prying my phone out of Adair’s small hands in exchange for a kiss, which I knew worked on the little flirt, before passing him off to his uncle.
Hunter lifted Adair into his arms, and despite the year Adair had been around, I still hadn’t gotten used to their shocking contrast. Where Adair’s hair was blond and curly like his father’s, Hunter’s was a dark, almost black-brown. It reminded me of when I was first told Noble and Hunter had been related and had laughed in their faces in disbelief.
I missed Noble.
I sighed, moving on from the thought, as I noticed Hunter and Mallory had made it to the door and Jax had also managed to catch his girl of the week as she stumbled down from his bedroom.
“You’re close.” Ash’s voice caught me. She was staring straight into my face behind her sunglasses, a bottle of rum tucked under her arm. “I never thought you would settle.”
“I couldn’t run forever, Ash.” I cut her a look, but Ash turned her
head away to gaze out the window. I shook my head. “That night,” I broached instead, my eyes scanning her for a reaction. There was none. “What did you talk to Wolf about?”
Wolf hadn’t said anything to me once he’d come to bed the other night, and he was gone before I woke up in the morning and every morning since, so I hadn’t had the chance to push the topic. I had told him to go easy on her, but I had no idea what he had asked, and from what I heard, Ash had gone back to her room without really talking to anyone once she came back inside.
It had been a week since then, and despite Ash being on house arrest in the club because the Black Jacks were targeting her, I hadn’t managed to get anything out of her, either; her drinking, anti-social behavior, and pure stubbornness had made it difficult to talk about anything.
As Ash pulled the bottle to her mouth, I knew we again weren’t going to get anywhere.
I grunted, rising from the couch and walking away before I chose to punch her for pissing me off. I expected her to follow me as I headed toward the other side of the room, but after one look in the direction of the bar, where Lamb had just finished putting the stock away and was staring at the empty space where the rum was supposed to be, she sank back down into the couch and hooked one leg over the other, content to drift off into space.
So instead, I made my way past Lamb as his eyes turned and landed on the back of Ash’s head. I paid him no mind as I made my way to the office doorway, hearing Wolf’s gruff voice on the other side of it.
I reached for the door handle but stopped when I heard another voice on the other side.
“You can’t go,” Kay’s voice snapped.
She sounded angry, which forced my hand to stop.
“Kay—” Wolf began, but Kay was on him like a hound.
“No, Wolf, you listen to me, and you listen to me good.” I heard a bang and figured it was Kay slamming her hands down like she always did when angered. “I didn’t want to say this to you, Wolf, because I know how much you idolized Roscoe and because I had hoped you wouldn’t be the same as him.”
“Where are you going with—”
“Roscoe wasn’t a good man, Wolf,” Kay interrupted. I could feel the tension rise on the other side of the door, knowing, even without seeing, the confusion and no doubt shock that would be showing on Wolf’s face. I could hear the pained softening of Kay’s voice as she broke the heavy silence. “Roscoe was an amazing president. One of, if not the best president in the club’s history. He was dedicated, always there for the club, and always ready to take the fall to protect one of his brothers. But all the qualities that made him a good president ruined him as a husband and father. Where he was a hero in lockup for the club, he was a husband who had abandoned his wife and children. A man who never turned up to his daughter’s school plays and a father who was never home for dinner.” I could hear the torn-up emotion in Kay’s throat because I could feel it building up in my own. I hadn’t known Roscoe, but I had known of the legend, of the amazing man who all the brothers had looked up to. Wolf the most. And to hear him being torn down like that, I could almost hear Wolf’s heart breaking.
The crack in his voice, the pure tear in his guttural words, had my own heart breaking. “Why are you telling me this?” he growled.
“Because I heard your conversation outside with Ash,” Kay said, and I felt my heart leap in my chest.
I could hear Wolf’s chair creaking as he rose to stand. “Kay—”
“You know why I never divorced Roscoe?” Kay cut him off, her voice stern but gentle. “Because I fell in love with the Roscoe who loved his club. And that was fine with me. I never loved him less for any of it... I just wished that I had given my family more. That’s all.”
I didn’t hear another word from Wolf.
“That girl doesn’t trust easily,” Kay continued. I knew she was talking about me. “It makes it difficult for her to open her heart, and she’s opened it up to you. Don’t abuse that, Wolf, because you won’t get a second chance.”
With that, I heard Kay’s footsteps head toward the door, but by the time she swung it open, I was long gone.
I awoke in the middle of the night, my stomach churning in the humidity of the air.
I tried to rise from the bed but found myself pinned down by Wolf’s humungous figure, naked, sweaty and poking me with his erection. I pushed at his shoulder, trying to move him, but his fat ass was too heavy.
“Wolf,” I hissed, pinching his arm. “Wolf!”
“Go back to sleep,” Wolf grumbled, burying his head into my neck, his dark hair falling over my face. Fuck, I understood why guys got so annoyed with girls’ long hair in bed.
“I need to pee,” I snapped, giving him another push.
Wolf grumbled something in return but lifted his shoulder off mine. A rush of cold air hit my damp skin when he peeled his away, skin that was stuck to mine with sweat, as he flopped back over to his side. Jesus, the man was like a fucking furnace.
I took deep breaths as I popped to the bathroom, relieved my bladder, and double-checked that I wasn’t about to throw up before I grabbed my dressing gown from the back of the bathroom door. I slung it over my cold shoulders and tiptoed around Wolf, the man now spread-eagled, showing his bare ass on top of the sheets. I rolled my eyes and snuck out the door, shutting it quietly behind me.
It was about 3:00 a.m. as I stepped into the clubroom, the clock catching my eye first. I saw Mint and Lamb finishing up a conversation as I walked over to the bar.
“What you doing up?” I asked as the two took note of me. Perhaps a little bit too much on Mint’s side, but hell, I’d known for a long time that I was a sight to look at. Being in my nightie and silk dressing gown only emphasized it. So long as Wolf didn’t catch him… no harm, no foul.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Mint answered me at last.
Lamb, I knew, was a night owl, so he didn’t bother answering, instead picking up a glass and filling it from the tap. He placed the water on the bar in front of me without even asking when I heard the first heavy foot on the stairs.
I caught Pretty coming down the steps, still fully dressed in the early hours of the morning, his short blond hair sticking everywhere and a pen propped behind his ear.
“Wow, you remind me of high school.” Mint chuckled, looking the young brother over as he sat down beside him at the bar.
“I feel like it.” Pretty sighed, dropping his beautiful face on the wood with a thud. “I hate this homework shit.”
“It’s the only way you’re going to get your GED,” Lamb added, setting a cold beer in front of him with his classic snarky smile. “You’ve always been a dumb shit.”
“Thanks, bastard,” Pretty retorted, but it was only half-hearted while he opened his beer and downed the cold liquid.
“It’s true,” I chuckled, nudging Mint in the arm. “Pretty first met the brothers picking a fight with Wolf.”
Mint let out a surprising laugh as he looked to the young brother sending daggers my way.
“How did you even hear that story?” Pretty growled, his bluish-gray eyes ringed red and half lidded. He looked like he was about to fall asleep right there.
I looked at Lamb, who sent him his charming smile and a wink, making Pretty look like he was about to throw up. “Never do that again. That was gross.”
Of course, Lamb just winked back at him again.
“Urgh. I’m off back upstairs,” Pretty grumbled, taking his beer and staggering away from the bar, throwing Lamb the finger over his shoulder.
“So, who won?” Mint asked, looking at me. “Wolf or Pretty?”
“I did,” Lamb answered for me, a proud smile on his face as Mint gave him a puzzled one back. He opened his mouth as if to ask, but thought better of it when the both of us could just see Lamb daring him to. He put his beer to his mouth instead.
I was shaking my head at Lamb’s amused smirk when his expression sobered just as I heard Pretty’s soft, “Hey, wake up, beautiful,” across the other
side of the room.
I spun on my stool, hearing Lamb already moving around the bar as my eyes fell upon Pretty crouched down by the side of the couch. It was facing away from me; I could just see the brown hair over the top of the couch.
Pretty reached toward Ash.
“Brother, don’t—”
But it was too late.
Pretty’s skin touched Ash’s, and in a blur of movement, the table flipped, glass smashing as Ash tripped across it, falling on her ass. Pretty reached to grab her, but he couldn’t as she stumbled, not caring about the glass cutting into her skin when she shoved herself to her feet and back into the wall.
“Stop!” I yelled, moving toward them just as Lamb reached Pretty, grabbed him by the shoulder, and pulled him back.
Ash’s brown hair hung down by her sides, falling over her face as her chest rippled with fast, hard breaths, the sunglasses very narrowly still propped on her nose as her head spun in every direction.
I saw Lamb flinch as I came up beside him, his arms forcibly pinned by his side as he held himself and Pretty a safe distance away.
Mint came up behind me, and I thanked fuck we had soundproof walls, since nobody else came rushing out.
“What’s going on?” Pretty hissed, looking wide awake now, his beer smashed and spilled on the floor.
I took a step forward, ignoring him. I saw Lamb’s arm move to stop me, his leather cut wrinkling as his muscles froze, his hand still in the void between us as logic took over. He let me move. I cautiously avoided the glass under my bare feet as I tiptoed across the gap.
“Ash,” I called, as she stood there, her eyes scanning everything. “Ash.”
She spun toward me, her pale lips parting as she suddenly straightened, her eyes doing a quick, clean sweep of the room before a rushed, “Shit,” came from her lips, realizing what had happened.