by Jordan Marie
“You can’t talk to me like that!” she snaps.
“I’d rather not talk to you at all, you’re the one who stuck your big nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“Big nose? What are you? Twelve. No wonder Jax is bored with you.” Her attempt to insult me is pathetic.
“Big. Nose. It’s the only thing bigger than those fake boobs you’re carting around.”
“My boobs are real honey, and your man’s dick has made itself at home over and over in them.”
“Jesus Christ, Denise!” Jax roars, and what she said brings visions in my head that I do not need, and they’re only made worse when he calls her by her name.
I march over to her. I think that shocks her, because for a minute she steps back and seems worried. She should be. She’s at least two or three inches taller than me, and definitely has about twenty pounds on me, but I’m mad enough to spit nails, so I figure that evens us out.
I grab her by her blonde hair, which could use a good conditioning, and yank hard. She screeches so loud you’d think I was killing her. I’m not—not yet.
“Damn it, Bree! Let her go!” Jax demands from behind me. I sense him there, and before he can grab me, I turn around, dragging blonde bimbo with me. She’s bent down trying to get her hair free, and she’s clawing at me. Everyone thinks because I’m innocent and quiet that I’m not a spitfire. They forget that I had to fight for my life from the earliest days I can remember. Even more than that, they forget that when Pops found me, he made sure I could take care of myself. I wrap my arm around her neck with my other hand, squeezing it tight enough that she can’t move as much. Her fingers are scratching into my arm and the movement hurts like hell, but I can take it.
“Damn it, Bree. Let her go, before you get hurt!”
“I’m sorry, were you wanting to make sure I didn’t damage her fake boobs so your dick could play?” I stare Jax down as his whore struggles to break free.
“Fuck. I’m not worried about her tits.”
“You should be, because if I find a pin or a knife I’m going to pop the damn things!” There’s laughter around me, but I’m too mad to pay attention to it. Jax’s face changes and he looks at me differently, that barely registers over my anger though. I’m seeing nothing but red now.
“She can’t breathe, Bree,” he stresses, trying to coax me into letting her go.
“Ask me if I care, Jax!”
“Let her go, baby.”
“Don’t call me baby! You don’t have that right anymore. If you want rid of me, at least be a damn man and say it!”
“I’m no good for you!” he growls.
“What are you talking about?” I cry, and Denise is starting to claw at me again, and it’s pissing me off. I change my hold then push her away, hard. I might accidentally forget to let go of her hair so that when she goes sailing the other way, she leaves my hand full of stringy hair with a bad dye job. Yuck. I let that nasty shit drop to the floor fast.
“I watched a brother die! I just finished riding in his funeral and toasting him goodbye!”
“I know! I was there, maybe you couldn’t tell since you’ve been ignoring me.”
“It could have been me!” he shouts.
My voice softens, but I’m still hurt. “It could have been anyone, but it wasn’t.”
“You deserve better, Bree. Haven’t you seen the hell that Briar’s old lady is going through? You deserve better than that. Everyone’s right. You deserve better.”
“God, you’re such an idiot.”
“Amen a eso!” Skull yells.
“Damn it—”
“No one knows when they’re going to die, Jax. I might not wake up in the morning, who the hell knows. We take what we’re given. What you don’t do is push people who love you away.”
“Bree you deserve better,” he says, but I can tell I’m getting through to him.
“You bitch! I’m going to kill you!” Denise screams, finally picking herself up off the floor.
“Touch her and you’re out of here. I ought to kick you out for talking in front of my babies like you have,” Skull growls, and I decide to let him deal with her. I apparently have bigger issues.
“You’re right. I deserve a man who has balls enough to live,” I tell him, suddenly freaking tired. My eyes want to close and my body wants to curl up in bed.
“Where are you going?”
“To my room, you can sleep with Denise, maybe she’ll let you glue her hair back on her head,” I tell him, just wanting out of here.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Jax
“Maybe we need to fuck you up again,” Torch threatens.
I’m standing frozen where Bree left me. My heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest. I don’t think I’ve seen her like this. I pictured her as young and naïve, someone I needed to take care of. Tonight, she was all woman and more capable than I have given her credit for. She also made sense. I know she did, but ever since Briar died from that blood clot…ever since we lost him, my brain has been fucked up. I can’t get over watching him draw his last breath and the cries of his old lady will haunt me to my fucking grave. I’ve never been afraid to die. In this life, it happens. Let’s face it, ain’t a fucker around going to get out of this world still breathing. But, I’ve never had anything or anyone I’d regret leaving behind. I’ve never had someone I wanted to protect from hurt before…until Bree.
“You two have done enough,” Beth tells Skull and Torch as they continue discussing how stupid I am, and I can’t even deny that. I do feel stupid. She walks over to me and looks me in the eye. “Are you going to go after her or what?”
“I’m trying to protect her,” I tell her, wishing I could make her—hell, everyone, understand.
“From what?” Beth asks, and maybe I could have handled her alone but Katie is suddenly there.
“Yeah from what? Because there’s no protection from male stupidity. I ought to know.”
“Sweetness don’t make me spank that ass,” Torch yells out, trying to sound pissed, and failing.
“To do that snookums, you’d have to touch me and that doesn’t seem to be something you are up to doing lately.”
“I’m trying to protect you and the baby!”
“Christo, you could have said anything but that,” Skull mutters.
“Seems like you and Shaft both have shit for brains,” Katie grumbles.
“You need to go after her,” Beth says, still staring at me and her eyes feel like they’re peeling back layers that I try to keep hidden. I find myself trying to avoid them.
“Mi cielo, maybe you should leave them alone. Let them work their problems out, si?”
Beth turns on her husband. “If I had someone yell at me, perhaps we wouldn’t have gone through so much hell, Skull.”
“You were young, and I was estúpido,” Skull admits.
“Doesn’t that just sound like someone else,” Beth says, and that’s her style. Katie is more in your face, slap you across the head. I’m used to that shit. Beth? She’s scarier. She’s logical, she plans her words, and fuck, it’s hard to argue or fight that. I watch her walk back over to Skull. He pulls her down into his lap, holding her close, and you can tell that in the moment the rest of the world has drifted away for them. It’s only the two of them.
“Eres mi mundo,” Skull whispers before taking her mouth in a kiss that finally makes me look away from them. You’re my world. I always thought he was laying it on thick, seducing his woman, but now I know I was stupid. Bree is my world. My whole world.
“Don’t be a dickhead, like my old man,” Katie tells me slapping me on the chest and getting my attention back.
“Did you just call me a dickhead?” Torch growls, and I hear the chair scrape back as he stands up.
“Yeah full of cum and no room for brains,” she growls, before looking back at me. “She loves you. Go fix this and make Bree happy, or I swear to God you’ll wake up one morning a eunuch,” she says and I know her
threats aren’t empty. I almost want to reach out and protect my dick from her, but instead I walk around her and go after Bree.
“I’m going to paddle your damned ass so hard you won’t sit for a week,” I hear Torch behind me, and Katie’s reply is lost to me, because I open the door to my room and find Bree sobbing on the bed, and now her cries may be the ones that haunt me.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Jax
“Bree…” I start, but then stop not knowing what else I can say. I rub the back of my neck in aggravation. This is why I haven’t done relationships. Women are too damn complicated. Even as I think it, I know it’s a lie. I’ve never done a relationship because there’s never been a woman for me besides Bree. I thought life had passed me by. Turns out my woman just hadn’t been born yet.
“Go away,” she says, the sound muffled by the pillow that she’s been crying into.
“Baby, I’m sorry, it’s just…”
“I said leave! Go play with your balloon-boobed blow-up doll!”
“We really need to work on your name calling,” I half laugh, walking to the bed.
“I got a name for you,” she growls yanking her body up to face me as I sit beside her. “Asshole! Because that’s what you are, an asshole! And I hate you!” she cries, and she slaps my chest hard, and then must decide it felt good, because she lays into me connecting again and again. I let her get a few good licks in, because fuck, I deserve them. Then I carefully grab her hands and hold them by her wrists so she doesn’t hurt herself—or me. “I hate you!”
“You told me you loved me,” I remind her, hating the tears in her eyes.
“I lied! I could never love a—”
“An idiot” I fill in for her.
“You are! You’re an idiot and I hate you and—”
“And I love you,” I say softly, meaning it with everything I got left in me.
“You are made for that tramp and—What did you say?” She blinks, wiping at her puffy cheeks.
“I said, I love you.”
She shakes her head. “You don’t.”
I nod. “I do, baby. I love you.”
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it!” Bree pushes at my chest again.
I grab her in my arms, tempted to shake her, but I tell her again, “Like I said, I’m an idiot.” I relax a little when she stops trying to pull out of my hold, her body definitely less tense.
“You hurt me.”
“I was scared,” I confess.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Bree, you’re so innocent and beautiful. You’re made for a world other than the one I’m in. You deserve better than to be crying at my bedside some day when I draw my last breath.”
“We all die, Jax. Eventually, we all do. It’s why you should cherish the time we have with each other, so that when the time comes—”
“Bree…” I start but she interrupts me.
“When a time like that comes, you have no regrets, no wasted time, nothing but love.”
“You make it sound romantic. I was there, Bree. There’s nothing fucking romantic about watching my brother die and the woman who adored him crumble into pieces.”
“Maybe not on the outside, but would she have hurt any less if he died in a car wreck? Or a heart attack?”
“That’s not the point.”
“I think it is. And even if Stephanie hadn’t been there, do you think she would have hurt less, or more at having been denied the chance to hold his hand one more time and to tell him she loved him one last time?”
“Fuck,” I mutter letting her hands go and rubbing my beard in frustration.
“What?” she asks, studying me.
“Just my luck you’re going to be logical like Beth.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just that I’m in trouble,” I sigh, bringing my hand up to brush along the side of her face. I hold it, staring into her eyes. “I love you, Bree. I know I fucked up and I’m sorry.” Her eyes widen.
“I’m not sure I’ll get used to that.”
“To what?” I rub her back, moving my fingers in soothing circles.
“Hearing you say you love me.”
“I’ll try to say it more often. Can I kiss you?”
“Since when did you ever ask?”
“Since I hurt you.”
“So, you’re saying you want to kiss and make it better?” she asks and she’s got this grin on her face now that instantly warms me. A sign that she’s better. That she’s good, and that I haven’t been such an ass that I can’t make her happy.
“I’m sure as hell am wanting to try,” I whisper against her lips, before pushing inside, and claiming her mouth. I’ve gone days without her, but it seems like a lifetime. I can taste the salt from her tears against her lips and my heart hurts. I need to make up for each one that dropped. I don’t deserve her. I never will, but fuck, if I won’t try to earn her love from here on out.
“Jax,” she breathes when our lips break apart.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I know just the spot that needs Daddy’s kiss,” she grins and motherfucker, just like that my dick wants to explode. I growl, pushing her back on the bed. She’s got me by the balls and she knows it.
And I don’t even fucking care.
I love it.
I love her.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Jax
“You look like a man well-satisfied with life,” Torch says when Keys and I walk into the garage area. I flip him off, but I don’t argue. What can I say? That I have everything a man could want? Bastard already knows that.
“From all the screaming coming from his room last night, I’m surprised the bastard can still walk this morning,” K-Rex adds.
“Suficiente! Christo this is my niece you are talking about, hijos de puta,” Skull mumbles. He looks over at Beast who is staying behind. “Keep them safe, hombre. Then we will discuss your plans.” Beast nods, but doesn’t talk. There’s a look on his face I’m seeing more and more lately, but that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s the fact he’s not wearing his cut. I’ve never seen Beast not wearing it. His club is always emblazoned on his back. Son of a bitch. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what his plans are. Beast wants to leave the club. The truth and bitterness of that burns in my gut.
I put it out of my mind as we gun our bikes up and head out. The doctors have Sabre up and alert. He still can’t talk, but he’s been trying to write on a board. Annie has been able to communicate with him, and he demanded to talk with Skull. He briefed us this morning about what was said. It wasn’t nothing we weren’t expecting. The ambush was by Tucker’s own men. They’re getting ready to overthrow the asshole. They wanted to cause a war just to make him appear weak and to have the war with the Blaze break out again. Basically, his fucked-up club wanted Skull to take out Tucker and pave the way for them. Weasels. That’s all the motherfuckers are. Too weak to take what they want and face the war.
They’d rather step back and let others do it for them. Well, they bought themselves a war, just not the one they were suspecting. By the time we leave Tucker’s compound today, he’s going to have to be out recruiting new members. I hope the bastard is prepared. I know the only reason Skull isn’t taking vengeance out on Tucker for being too weak to control his club is Beth. A woman changes things. I couldn’t end the motherfucker either, not knowing how much Bree cares about him. I’m sure the same thing holds true for Torch. So, we find ourselves here, riding toward a meeting which will most likely end in a blood bath. Hopefully, all their blood and not our own. We’ve lost enough to this damned bullshit.
The boys are subdued when we make it to the compound. I stand, stretching out the kinks. It’s not a bad ride here, but as sad as it is to admit it, I’m still hurting from the beating Torch and Skull put on me. They might have pulled their punches, but they made sure their point got across. The hard way. Skull’s watching me stretch and the bastard knows why. Damn him. I can almost
see amusement on his face, except he, better than anyone knows what we are about to face.
We’re parked about a mile from the compound. Skull got a message through to Tucker privately, and hopefully, that means none of his club was forewarned. We’ll know pretty damn quick if they were, I guess. My hand goes to the gun on my side. I promised Bree I’d do my best to come back in one piece to her. I hope like hell I can keep that promise.
Skull gives the signal and we fall back in groups when we reach the open clearing that was agreed to. It takes about fifteen minutes for all of us to hit the positions we discussed in the meeting. Skull and K-Rex are in the lead. Torch takes five of the others and hides behind the tree line, that also hides our bikes. Me, Keys, and four others are all behind Skull. It doesn’t take long before Tucker and twelve men show up on their bikes. Tucker stops immediately.
Skull and the rest of us have our guns drawn. I don’t see the need for this damn show. To me this is another reason Tucker is too fucking old and weak to be running a crew. If it had been me, I’d have blown holes in the bastards who dared to double cross me. Then I would have taken the leader of it all and punished him in front of everyone for weeks. He would be my message. I relayed that information to Skull, but he told me this was the way it was going to go. It’s not my place to question my President unless he starts to lead me wrong, and that’s just one reason the Devil’s Blaze is my home. Skull never has. Not once.
“What the fuck is going on here, Skull? What’s the meaning of this shit?”
“You and your crew caused me to lose a man I trusted and respected.”
“You can’t come on our property and ambush us like this. You fuckers won’t live to see the sunset,” Tucker’s Vice President growls. Skull shuts him up with one shot, clear through, right between the eyes.
“Podrías pudrirte en el infierno,” Skull says, telling the bastard to rot in hell. Since, according to Sabre, he was the one behind the ambush, I completely agree.