“What you got in mind, Pres?”
“I want to stop him seeing shit. Darth, talk to Ford about that scrambling software he made me pay for. Scramble this cunt out of our cameras. Add some extra not so conspicuous cameras around all the businesses and the compound. Add a few at Shiloh’s school. Find a way around that so the stuck-up, snotty boss lady at the day care sees it as a freebie. I want Squirt and Charlotte protected at all times.” Booth looked to where the bedrooms were and pointed that way. “Those two are never left alone. Squid and Seb have had an extra two months added to their time as prospects for dropping the ball. Darth, you’re up. You are excused from the construction site and the gun shop. You’re to shadow those girls when Deck isn’t with them. Got it?” Booth tossed Darth a hard look.
“Absolutely,” Darth answered immediately.
“We double up on them. If Deck is taking them to school, you still go with them. If Deck can’t, Darth, you grab someone else to go. Two pairs of eyes are better than one. We leave nothing to chance. Stay vigilant and alert.” Booth’s voice left no room for any arguments. He was done with this prick messing with his club. Our club.
I walked over to him, and placing my hand on his shoulder, I gave it a brief squeeze. “Thank you, brother,” I said, my voice choked with emotion.
“Don’t thank me, Deck. Shiloh has our hearts and has since the day she was born. There isn’t a fucking thing I wouldn’t do for our squirt. Or Teach. Charlotte is important to you, so she is important to the club. Now I am going to bed. It’s been a fucking long day. Get the prospects to lock up,” he called over his shoulder as he took off for his suite of rooms. They were off to the other side of the main room, close to the war room. In fact, he had a door connected directly to the war room.
I watched him go, and as he did, I noticed he looked at the closed kitchen door.
“Mannix, call Ingrid and have her come to me,” Booth yelled the request as he righted his step and took off.
There was a sudden crash from the kitchen. The sound of shattering porcelain. Booth’s steps faltered slightly, and his shoulders slumped very briefly, his head downcast.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Booth.” My reaction was immediate. I knew for fucking sure Stella heard it, too. The smashed piece of China didn’t happen on its own.
“Fuck me, Booth, really?” Mannix growled at the retreating back of our pres.
“Call her,” Booth shouted again.
“Call her your fucking self,” shouted back a soft, feminine and extremely pissed voice from the kitchen.
We all laughed, and I could hear a low chuckle coming from the direction of the war room.
34
CHARLOTTE
Two weeks had passed since the incident at the park, and there was no word from the Deck’s former team member.
My leg had healed nicely, and Darth did such a wonderful job with the sutures that there was hardly a scar at all.
Deck fussed around both Shiloh and me afterwards to the point I wanted to kill him. Well, maybe not such a drastic measure, but it was close sometimes.
He carried so much guilt over it all. At one stage, I was at a loss with how to deal with it. I even asked Darth about how I should go about it. His answer made so much sense that I decided to let Deck just run with it until he came to terms with it on his own.
But still, Darth’s words played on my mind.
“He keeps blaming himself, Darth. I have told him over and over it is all forgiven and forgotten, but he still has that look every time he sees me limp or hiss when the sutures pull.”
“Charlotte, he hasn’t forgotten it yet, nor has he forgiven himself. You’ve got to let him go through this shit in his head. His nature is to protect, to fight for what is his. That night, he was so focused on the possibility that he could have lost Shiloh and nothing, and I mean nothing, was going to pull him out of that at the time. I was there the night that beauty was born, and let me tell you, her birth was a game changer. Fucking love in its purest form. For all of us. It’s been just her for so long, so give him a minute to pull his head out of his arse.”
I looked at the massive guy, his scarred face riddled with experiences I never wanted to know about and a man bun that would make a nun peel her clothes off and beg for sin.
“You love her a lot, don’t you?” He knew I was talking about Shiloh.
A smile graced his face, a smile he reserved only for Shiloh. “I looked into those baby-blue eyes, not three minutes after she was born, and fell flat on my face in love with her. I know how Deck felt that day. And I understand his reaction. Don’t take it personally, Charlotte. Just take it for what it really is.”
“And what is that?” I asked quietly.
“A man so deep in love with his daughter, his heart made a choice that, at the time, made perfect sense. Shiloh will always come first. And I don’t think you or anyone else should ever expect any different. If you do, well, then shame on you.”
And he had been so right.
Deck was who he was. When I first spied him at the day care dropping off and picking up Shiloh—I’d watched them from afar so I wouldn’t be caught gawking—the love he showed for his daughter was the main thing that drew me to him in the first place, apart from his physical stature. His love for his pint-sized clone. So, yeah, I heeded Darth’s well-given advice about letting Deck sort it out for himself.
The recital for Shiloh’s dance class was three days away, but my injury had caused a slight delay in the practice department for my solo dance. The girls, of course, were the main attractions and had several routines lined up for the night’s entertainment. But Shiloh had begged me to dance her favourite ballet. My dance wasn’t too long at only about ten minutes, but the preparation my body needed for those ten minutes was overwhelming. And since I hadn’t danced properly for a year or more, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to dance for the audience and not have them see the effort I was putting in. I had to call in a favour from one of my old dance partners to come and dance The Nutcracker pas de deux with me. Alexander found it entertaining that I was doing this for a little girl’s recital and was more than happy to help. And with such little time to rehearse together after such a long time apart, I was more than anxious. And really nervous, especially about the great leap and jump I was going to have to make halfway through the routine. Plus, there was a lot of lifting, and I wasn’t as light as I once was. Thank you, Stella.
“Excuse me, Teach, there is a dude here for you,” a voice said, pulling me from my worries.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Seb standing in the doorway to what was now known as the dance room. A smug look was on the prospect’s face.
Standing next to him, I saw Alexander, and his look told me he had never been called a dude in his life. I stifled a laugh behind my hand and motioned for Alexander to come in.
“Thank you, Sebastian. Would you mind finding Shiloh for me, and let her know that Alexander and I are going to start rehearsing now.”
He blushed as usual when I addressed him by his given name. I couldn’t help it, though. I just loved the name Sebastian. It was my grandfather’s name, and I’d adored him just as much as I’d loved my grandmother. It was actually a wish of mine to one day honour his memory by using his name for my son if I were to ever have one. How Deck would take that was something I was going to have to find out one day when we eventually decided to talk about having children together.
“Are you sure this is okay, Charlotte? The men at the gate and in the other room didn’t seem too happy with my presence here.”
“Huh. Really?” I had no idea why they would feel that way other than having an outsider in the compound. But I had asked Booth for his permission to let Alexander in for a practice or two before the recital, and he was very accommodating when I asked. Actually, he laughed and said he couldn’t wait.
“One asked me if I valued my life.”
“Stuff and nonsense. They are just being funny. Now let’s get to
it. I haven’t danced this for two years at least. And I’m not sure if you can lift me anymore,” I admitted grudgingly. Damn Stella and her fantastic pasta and pastries.
I moved to the CD player I had set up for the music. The performance would have a piano player, but the CD would have to do for the rehearsals at the compound.
I pressed play, and the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker filled the room.
35
DECK
Shiloh was laughing her head off as she threw the ball for Trigger and Bullet to chase around the grassed-off area near her playground. The German shepherds belonged to Steel, but everyone thought of them as Shiloh’s dogs. And so did Shiloh, especially at bedtime when she wanted the forty-kilo dogs to sleep with her. Then they go back to being Steel’s dogs. I drew the line at the two beasts in her bed, but now Winnie was here with Charlie, so Shiloh cuddled up to the fat cat at night.
“Yo, Shy-shy, Charlotte said she is rehearsing now,” Seb yelled from the entry door to the compound.
“Yay, yay, yay. Here, Daddy, youse make sure my dogs keep playing.” A tennis ball flew right at my face and nearly hit me in the eye.
“Hey, Squirt, you’re going to pay for that later,” I threatened her with absolutely no heat whatsoever.
“Bye-byes, Daddio.” She laughed at me. Fucking Darth. Then she ran as fast as her tiny legs would take her, the chunky black boots she refused to take off sounding like a herd of tiny elephants on the concrete.
Fuck! I held my breath every time she ran like that. I watched her closely as she finally made it to the door, and Seb helped her in safely.
I picked up the ball Shiloh had just tossed at me and threw it as far as I could, and then watched the dogs take off after it at a fast clip. I waited for them to bring it back to me, and then I did it several more times before I realised Seb was standing behind me with his hands on his hips and a big fucking smirk on his ugly mug.
“You got a problem, prospect?”
“You’ve got a problem, Sarge,” Seb told me.
“Do I now? Want to tell me what that is?” The smile on the prick’s face told me he couldn’t wait to tell me what my problem was. But just as he opened his mouth, I saw Darth walking towards his bike with Vegas holding onto his hand with one hand while the other one held her helmet.
“You okay with what is going on in there, Deck?” Darth asked, his brow rising as his chin jerked back to the compound.
“What the fuck you talking about? It’s a rehearsal for the recital. With the time Charlie had off because of her leg, she has to hustle a bit.”
“Huh. Well, there you go,” Darth said.
What the fuck is going on with these arseholes today? Talking in fucking riddles and shit.
“Good for you, Deck.” Vegas put in her two cents. “I’m not sure Darth would let me do that, and I’m not claimed to Darth like Charlotte is to you.” The words sounded sad coming out of her mouth, and I saw Darth tense up and stare at her. Okay, time for a diversion.
“What am I letting Charlie do, sweetheart?”
Booth then chose that very moment to poke his head out of the door. “Some guy in tights has his hands all over your woman’s body, Sarge.”
The fuck?
“That’s the problem.” Seb grinned at me. “Some guy called Alexander turned up about twenty minutes ago to practise with Teach,” he said.
My head whipped around to the door of the compound. “Charlie is in there dancing with a guy?” Even as I asked the question, I couldn’t comprehend exactly what was going on. Why the fuck do all those arseholes have big-arse grins on their faces? Or, in Booth’s case, flat out pissing himself laughing. I could see he was itching to tell me more. “And you let him in?” I yelled back at Booth.
“Yep, sure did. I gave her permission to have him in the club. Just peeked in there myself a minute ago. Did you know to lift a ballerina, the guy dancer has to put his hands between her legs for leverage?”
“You let him in—” I didn’t bother finishing what I was going to yell at the prick. I was too busy running past him and Seb to get inside.
The statement about another man’s hands on my woman’s body was filling me with so much rage. The first major decision I needed to make was how fucked up this guy was going to be once I got my fucking hands on him.
As I made my way through the main room, I was still able to hear Booth’s annoying laughter. I ignored all the comments from my brothers.
“Fuck, brother, I thought Teach looked sexy on the stripper pole. But fuck me, in that leotard, she looks—”
I stopped and swung around to face Steel. My anger was just barely hanging by a fucking thread. “Finish that sentence, Steel, and I will fuck you up in ways they haven’t even written about yet.” I growled, and he knew I meant every fucking word.
I couldn’t get rid of the sexy images of Charlie up on the stage, her body dancing around that pole. The fantasy of it made my dick so hard that I ended up putting a few poles in Charlie’s new dance room. For private showings only.
Leaving behind more laughing arseholes, I ran at a full sprint past the war room and beyond the hallway that led to Booth’s private rooms. I could hear the up-tempo music playing and what sounded like the sweet giggles of my daughter.
When I made it to the open door, I stopped dead in my tracks. The vision before me knocked the air right out of my lungs.
Charlie.
She was dressed in a black leotard that was low cut in the front with tiny thin shoestring straps on her perfect slim shoulders. Her torso was wrapped in a pink see-through cardigan-looking thing with a ribbon around her waist and tied to hold it closed. Her legs were bare save for a pair of long, black leg warmer type do-hickies and her worn as fuck ballet shoes.
She was stunning.
Beautiful.
Her smile was happy as she danced around in a circle, spinning and jumping sort of at the same time. The dude in tights, which looked more like leggings to me, had her hand in his and was supporting her through the high jumps. Then he lifted her high above his head, legs apart at first, then they fell, and he twisted her in his arms and kind of dragged her across the floors.
Fucked if I knew what the moves were called, but I couldn’t stop watching them.
Fuck, my woman could dance.
“Daddy!”
Charlie was in a pirouette to end all pirouettes, but Shiloh’s shout brought a stop to the dancing.
Charlie’s slightly sweaty wet hair clung to her neck. Her chest was heaving with the effort, and the arsehole’s hands were on her waist. Again. I zeroed in on his hands. My eyes burned holes through his skin. I felt my lips thin into a grim, straight line, and I swore to God, I was about to fucking growl, but Charlie’s eyes landed on me, and she smiled my smile.
Fuck me, she was beautiful.
“Honey.” Shaking the prick’s hands off with a huff, my woman ran over to me and jumped up. I had no choice but to catch her, but, seriously, I wouldn’t have chosen any other option. The woman was made for my arms—for me.
Her skin was warm and wet from dancing, and I noticed her smell was slightly off as I took a hit from her neck. The arsehole’s scent was on her. I held her close and off the ground as I walked us further into the room.
“You have some explaining to do, Sweetness,” I whisper-growled in her ear so no one else could hear.
She pushed back in my arms a bit and gave me a very confused look.
“Another man has had his hands on you, Charlie. I am going to have to fuck that image out of my head,” I said, looking into her eyes as they suddenly widened, first with shock then desire.
She quickly looked over my shoulder to see if Shiloh had heard me. When she saw the arsehole was talking to Shiloh, Charlie looked back at me.
“Deck, honey. We are practising for the recital. You knew I was dancing. Shiloh wants me to,” she said. She honestly didn’t see the problem.
Yeah, I was a fucking dick for doing what I
was about to do, but there was no way I could see his hands on her again. “Sweetness, you have to find another dance because, unless you want dancing boy over there to lose all four limbs, I don’t see any other option.”
She gave me a look of outrage, and then she tried to wriggle out of my embrace, but I wasn’t having it.
I anchored Charlie to my front, her feet still dangling off the ground, and then walked back to the door and called out to Steel.
Waiting for my brother, I took a moment to run my tongue down my woman’s neck and across her jaw. Ending it at the lobe of her ear, I gave it a tiny bite then soothed it with my wet tongue.
“Shhh, behave. I will deal with your little stunt in just a minute, Sweetness.”
Her reaction was exactly as I’d thought it would be. Her eyes dilated, and her breathing picked up as I felt the pebbling of her perfect nipples against my chest.
“Yeah, brother?”
“Steel, can you please show…” I stopped and raised my eyebrow at Charlie, waiting.
Expelling a huff, she reluctantly answered me, “Alexander.”
“Good girl. Steel, can you show Alexander out, and please, take Shiloh to Stella. It is time for her dinner.”
My eyes didn’t look away from Charlie. I was so fucking turned on right then. Her nipples were like fucking bullets digging into my skin. I needed them in my mouth, and my cock ached to be balls deep in her pussy.
“Dude, let’s go,” Steel shouted out, but the guy already seemed to have caught on and was already throwing his satchel bag over his shoulder.
As he made a hasty retreat, he mumbled a goodbye and skirted past us.
“Squirt, let’s go. Stella has made meatballs,” Steel called out to Shiloh, his voice softer speaking to her.
HIS SWEETNESS Page 19