“So they really let you run the bounty hunting business? That seems progressive.” I picked my words carefully, not wanting to alienate Elle too.
“Yeah, I’m president of Jericho Bail Bonds. We run companies under Jackson Bonds and Brotherhood Bonds. We’ve expanded by five locations already.” Pride gleamed in her gaze. “Of course when it comes to the club crap, Rebel’s in charge, a technicality. We do it together in reality. The club had to do a lot of legal work in order to make our business merger work. They did it so Rebel and I could stay together. Their rules can be outdated, but when it comes down to it, the leaders want the best for the brothers and the club.”
Her story was unique. I opened my mouth to ask if they were really legal but closed it. I wouldn’t dis JoJo like that. I trusted him and his word was enough.
“It’s a difficult balance for sure, but right now you need to rest, then figure out the next move. You’re close to the end, Franco is very exposed with these botched attempts.” Elle patted my hand. “You sure you don’t want to go get some sleep?”
“No, I’ll wait—” I yawned. “I won’t be able to settle until JoJo is back.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
JoJo
“Thorn, can’t this Jeep go any faster.” I bounced my bandaged leg, needing to be with Charlie.
“Fucking brothers and their women,” Thorn growled.
“What the hell was Mama thinking?” I asked Dare for the tenth time.
His pulse beat in his tense jaw. “Fuck if I know. Said three words to her and she starts fucking crying. Red doesn’t cry. Something’s wrong and she’s keeping it in.”
That sucked for Dare. “Brother, if I can help, you let me know.”
Dare nodded but he brooded in silence. “Might have to marry her.”
“What the fuck?” That was the last thing I expected Dare to say.
“Rebel started shit.” That was all he said.
Thorn shrugged at me in the rearview mirror. Finally we turned on the road out of Barden toward our clubhouse. It felt like days had passed since I’d seen Charlie. I should’ve taken her to a motel in Dallas, coming home had been a terrible idea. While it meant safety and support to me, I’d thrown her into another strange world when she was already reeling. She’d never see the club and my brothers as her allies, let alone her family.
But it was my family, and that wasn’t negotiable. Either she accepted me or she didn’t because I’d given up trying to make people accept me when I’d left my family behind.
It still hurt to remember that confrontation. Rage simmered low in my gut as the memories played through my mind, holding me prisoner to the playback. My grandpa and brothers had wanted to pretend Laney never existed. Easy enough to ignore the past, after my parents had died the year after her in a car crash. Nobody talked about any of them, and my insistence on remembering them, talking about my sister’s killer, all of it, had driven us apart. Gramps had sent me from the ranch, not even two days after I’d come home from leave after my parents’ deaths, and it had been the last time I’d seen any of them. I got that people grieved differently, but to throw me off his land for hanging their picture in my room, that was insane. I’d never fit in there, and I had no problem spending my leave drunk in Austin instead of the dusty ranch two hours outside the city.
Before Thorn had turned off the motor I climbed out of his Jeep and booked it into the clubhouse. Charlie’s laughter was the sweetest music I’d ever heard. She and Elle each had a bottle of beer, sitting relaxed at a table.
Charlie’s blond bob flipped as she turned to me. “Joe.” She was up and in my arms before I’d taken two more steps.
“Darling, I’m so glad to see you. You worried me.”
She ducked her chin. “Sorry, it was all too much. Mama... I made her mad. She left.” Biting her lip, she didn’t meet my gaze.
I tilted her chin until our gazes locked. “Mama’s out of sorts today. Even Dare’s not sure what’s wrong. But I never meant...you know that bringing you here isn’t about our relationship, if we still have one—”
She put a finger to my lips. “I know. Jericho explained. Can we go to bed?”
Dark bruises colored the half-moons under her eyes. Exhaustion drew out the lines on her face. She was beat and so was I.
“Yeah, our rooms make the Super 8 look luxurious, but they’re safe and close.”
“Don’t mind me. I’ll report to Jericho,” Delta growled from behind me.
We leaned on each other and headed down the hall to the bedrooms where brothers could stay for a night or on a more permanent basis.
I opened the first door to the fleabag décor. Cheap beds, secondhand dresser, nightstand and lamp. A john was through one of the doors and a closet the second door. Just like all the others.
“You...stay here?” I heard the censure in her voice.
“They’re clean enough.” I collapsed on the bed. “Come here.”
She inched closer.
“I’m going to need help getting the boots off and the jeans down.”
“Does the wound hurt?”
It hurt like a bitch but she didn’t need to know that. “Just stiff.”
“I can help with that.” She gave me a knowing grin and grabbed a boot, throwing it behind her then going for the second one.
Once we were lying in the small bed, I pulled her into me. “How you doing?” I spoke softly into her ear.
“Fucked up, that’s how. Maybe it’ll look better in the morning.”
I swept the blond strands from her face. “Yeah, close your eyes.”
I lay there a long time thinking about the day and how much more she could take before she lost it completely. Tonight I was sure she’d be gone before I could return. What the fuck was going on in our club? It was beyond fucked up when Jericho was the voice of reason.
I woke up Friday morning to boots clomping down the hall outside our door. Must be breakfast time. I rolled over and glanced at my phone, yup, nine forty-five, breakfast would be ready in fifteen minutes. Charlie was still out. I headed for the shower. The wound ached but the hot water eased it. After a quick scrub, I padded out into the room to find Charlie still dead to the world. The scent of bacon in the air lured me from our room. I’d wake Charlie up with breakfast in bed. Half the tables in the main room were full, I headed for Elle, Rebel and Delta. None of us made it to breakfast very often.
“Elle, thanks for hanging with Charlie last night. And for calming her down.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I’d have split if someone laid that much on me. You couldn’t have kept me here.” She glanced over at Rebel. “Good thing we did it all backward.”
“Not backward—just our own way.” Rebel grinned at his wife. “The best way, if you ask me.” He frowned up at me. “Where’s your woman?”
“Asleep. I’m going to take her breakfast.”
“She okay?” Rebel narrowed his gaze, reading me.
“She’s hanging on, barely.”
“Ready to give her to the FBI?”
Elle smacked Delta, being closest to him. “Not helpful.”
“It’s not about me giving her up.” I sucked in a breath and ignored the ache in my gut. The one that said Charlie and I were on borrowed time.
Rebel shook his head. “Things have a way of working out.” His gaze settled on his wife.
He’d gone through hell when Elle and he split up. But this was about me more than the club. I wasn’t what she wanted, didn’t fit into the neat columns that ordered her life. I couldn’t come up with an optimistic response, so I moved away to the buffet.
I was at the line when Dare stormed through the kitchen door. “Woman, I told you to wake me up. We’re figuring this shit out.”
“Not here,” Mama hissed, trying to shove past him.
Dare didn’t budge. �
��Then you should have stayed home and talked to me.” He wasn’t yelling but he wasn’t quiet.
Mama tried dodging left, then right. No good. I tried to decide: hurry through or book it away. I didn’t want to be near if Dare went nuclear. The bastard had a wicked punch. While he’d never hurt his woman, that didn’t mean any of us were safe.
“Let’s go.” He pulled her toward the kitchen.
Mama pulled away. “No, not talking.”
Dare held her in place. “Here or there. Talk.”
Her eyes arced wildly, looking for escape. I stepped away, deciding no breakfast was worth risking my life for.
“You really doing this?” Even I heard the fear in her voice.
“Fuck yeah, Red. We talk straight,” Dare growled.
The entire room had gone silent. I hoped Dare would get a clue and carry her out of here. Whatever was between them didn’t need an audience.
“Just as well tell everyone then. I’m fucking pregnant, that’s what’s wrong,” she cried out. “Tell me how—” she sobbed, breaking up her words “—how happy you are to be a dad.”
“How the fuck?” Dare didn’t make it further because Mama ran out of the room.
The door closed, no one moved, no one spoke. A statement in itself. We always talked. I glanced to the back table. Jericho wasn’t here, and no one moved.
I turned toward Dare. The brother had helped me last night, the least I could do was return the favor—a big fucking favor if this turned out the way I thought it would.
He stared off, frozen, maybe he wasn’t even breathing. I had no clue what was in his head, but our club wasn’t really kid-oriented. He’d be the first in a long while.
I clasped his shoulder. His ice-blue eyes met mine and made my blood run cold. No one did attitude like Dare. “Go after your woman, figure this shit out. Now.”
His fist slammed into me with the impact of a fucking freight train. I stumbled back barely keeping my feet under me with my bum leg. He closed in, one to the gut and a blow to my jaw before I was down on my ass in the middle of the dining room with my leg on fire with pain.
The room erupted and people moved. No need. Dare was gone and I didn’t have a broken nose, so I considered myself lucky. Hell, he’d put Jericho in the hospital when they’d disagreed about how the prez had treated Mama. I hadn’t done anything against him or her, but the fury inside him had to go somewhere. I’d taken it and would again.
“Stupid jackass.” Delta held out his hand. “That’s what love gets you.” He shook his head. “Bruises and pain. Shit’s gonna be tense around here.”
I stood up, unable to disagree.
“Oklahoma City might be safer.” He grinned. “Glad I’m not sticking around.”
I closed my eyes, cursing my bad luck. The last thing I needed was club drama right now. But then, there was always something.
One of the old ladies cleaned up my spilled plate. “I can do that.” I moved toward her.
She grinned. “You’ve taken one for the team already. Go talk to your woman before she runs too.”
What? I glanced around and found Charlie standing on the edge of the room, looking ready to flee.
Okay. This could get worse. I hurried to her.
“What was that about?” She nodded to the center of the room. “Why did he hit you?”
“Had to let off some steam.” I led her back to our room. I’d scavenge for food after the crowd thinned out.
“So you volunteered to be beat up?”
“Hey, not beat up. I took a couple punches.”
“You didn’t hit back.” She touched my cheek. It was already swelling.
“I’m not stupid. He’d have gone crazy then. The man has a temper and a vicious left hook.” I rubbed my jaw.
“Can you explain this to me? Why did that whole scene happen?” She glanced away from me. “Normally babies are good news.”
“I don’t know what’s between them. I have no idea why it played out like that.” I tiptoed around her question, unwilling to go there.
“How many kids do club members have?”
I shrugged. “We don’t have kid-friendly events, so parents keep them away.”
“So would you want children?”
Fuck me. A trained investigator, Charlie just kept digging.
“I did at one time, now, I don’t know. I guess it’d depend on the woman.” Suddenly little blonde copies of Charlie filled my mind.
“Why?”
“Do you want kids?”
She nodded. “Someday, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Hard to be a detective and a mom.”
She chewed her lip. “Yeah, that bothers me, but I’ve just always assumed kids were part of my future.”
“I used to, before my sister died.” I ran a hand over my hair. “The world is a dangerous place.” I blew out a breath. “Honestly, it’s hard for me to picture a woman I’d want to be mother to my kids wanting me, wanting my life.”
“You’d stay in the club?” She tensed and wouldn’t meet my eye.
There were the words I’d waited for.
“Till death do us part. I’m in it for the long haul. This is me.” No compromise here. I’d twist myself into a damn pretzel for her, but I wouldn’t even bend a bit on my club. We were a package deal.
“I can’t imagine that life, but I can almost see us...” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“Come on.” I stood. “Let’s go get some food.” I didn’t want to think about futures anymore.
* * *
By afternoon, I’d fixed three showers and Charlie had scrubbed down the bar. And still hours—no, days stretched before us. I wanted things to settle so Franco could assess his options, which meant staying put.
Sticking the toolbox in the back closet, I headed up to find Charlie, forcing myself not to limp. The dull ache in my leg was annoying me. She hummed to herself in the kitchen, cooking up something delicious.
“That smells divine.” I moved closer to the pan of brownies.
“Let them cool down.” She smacked away my hand.
“What else you got there?” I eyed the second pan covered in foil.
“Lasagna. I didn’t know who might be around, so I used the big pans.” She bent over and put the pan in the oven, setting a timer on the stove. Her ass was the perfect kind of round and I smacked it.
“Hey.” She gave me a mock frown, turning into my arms.
“Darling, you have me addicted with the way you fuck me.”
Her cheeks turned a bright pink.
“Now you cook for me, I’m in heaven.” I pulled her close and kissed her, wondering if we had long enough to hit the bed for my favorite kind of R and R.
Her sweet mouth tasted of spicy sauce. My hand cupped her breast while the other worked the snap on her jean shorts, sliding my fingers through her silky curls.
“Hmm, already wet for me.” I backed her into the counter and dropped to my knees.
“Someone might...” Her protest ended when my tongue hit her clit.
She clenched the back of my head, pushing me closer. Yeah, she wanted what I had to give. Her juices already coated her pussy as I stroked through her folds, then pushed up inside her with two fingers.
“Yeah.” Her hips rocked and her body coiled tight for release.
But I wasn’t about instant gratification. I wanted her to need the orgasm, crave it more than her next breath. So much about Charlie did it for me, but she denied her feelings, not that I blamed her. But now, laid bare in front of me, I tasted her need. This wasn’t causal for either of us.
“Joe, I need—” Her soft panting plea pleased me.
I looked up at her face, open and full of want. If only that lasted. Shaking off my thoughts, I refocused on sending her into a whole new universe of pleasure,
past all the boundaries she had put in place.
With a ruthless rhythm, I brought her to the edge and held her there until her legs buckled and I had to hold her up.
Her body clenched and she screamed, totally taken by the orgasm consuming her. A deep jolt of satisfaction rocked me. I’d taken here there, given her so much pleasure her thinking brain shut down. Finally.
My body shook with my own arousal, but that would wait. This was for her, giving her the first unworried moment since bullets had started flying a couple of weeks ago. She slid down toward the floor, but I stood up, scooping her up with me. My leg thought about buckling but that wasn’t happening, no way I’d ever drop her. Her head fell to my shoulder and my hands caressed her bare ass. I limped as I carried her out of the kitchen, but that didn’t matter. Only her happiness mattered to me.
“Lasagna.” She breathed the word, half asleep.
“I’ll watch it.” I told her, but she was asleep.
Our sergeant at arms for the club, Thorn, lifted an eyebrow as I passed him in the hall and carried her into my room. Good thing she was out for that exchange. My woman wouldn’t ever be okay with public sex or nudity, at least when I let her think.
I hurried back to the kitchen to collect her shorts and underwear, returning them to our room.
Thorn stood in the kitchen when I returned. “What’s that?” He pointed to the oven with his chin.
“Charlie made lasagna and brownies. Grab stuff for a salad.”
He grinned and opened the fridge. “One already made in here.” He set it out on the counter. “Mama makes them so I eat my veggies.”
“She going to be okay?” Thorn knew her much better than I did. Back when I was on the road with the security business, something had gone down between the two, but now they were close.
“If Dare stops fucking it up.” He sighed. “Nothing we can do about that.”
The front door opened and I heard boots in the club room. Delta walked in. “I’ve got damn good timing.” He glared at me. “Tell me you didn’t cook it.”
I had trouble with microwave dishes, so Charlie’s lasagna was far beyond my skill set. “Charlie.”
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