by C. Lymari
“I’m sorry about that night,” he said. “I hated what I said to you, hated the tears in your eyes, but most of all, baby, I hated that you believed every word I said.”
My brows furrowed in confusion.
“I needed you away from me because I didn’t know who I could trust. The night of your vow, I suspected there was a lot more, but I did know your life was in danger, and if anyone got wind that you were my weakness or I was yours, it would have made that target even more massive. I just never thought you would’ve up and left the manor.”
He reached for a glass of water, then touched my chin and gently lifted it so I could open my mouth, and he poured it gently down my throat. The water felt divine. It was like I was reborn.
“Why didn’t you say anything? Didn’t you trust me?” I asked him.
“Fuck, baby, I trust you with my life, but there was the problem. You weren’t meant to be mine. At least far away, I got to keep an eye on you and know that if anyone tried to get you, I’d know who the rat was right away. As much as it killed me, you were safer away than next to me.”
I nodded because it made sense.
“I can’t believe we didn’t see it sooner,” Nash said, and I nodded again.
“I knew all along,” I whispered. Nash’s eyes flashed as he looked at me. “I just didn’t want to remember it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The last few days were full of revelations. I couldn’t keep them straight anymore. The only thing that kept me from going insane was the fact that Finley was alive and she was by my side.
After Riley showed up, she told us that her men had already picked up Sofia. From what I gathered, she was mostly kept in the dark about her father’s life, only knowing he had money, and he popped in and out of it when it was convenient for him.
Humberto betrayed Leon in exchange for his daughter but not before making sure that we would still be doing business with him.
I told my father to fuck his offer, but Humberto said he didn’t care if we killed his daughter; he had more. I couldn’t say the same about Finley. There wasn’t anyone like her.
So we had to agree to still be in business with him.
A few hours later, we got a text with a location. I rode as fast as I could, and when I saw the abandoned van, I felt like I was coming out of my damn skin.
I reached to open the door, and my father screamed at me because it could have been a bomb. I didn’t care; I just needed to see Finley. If I got a glimpse of her before the bomb blew to pieces, that would have been fine by me.
Luckily, it didn’t come to that.
Seeing her lying in the van, motionless, it scared the fuck out of me. To have her back but for her not to be there, I couldn’t imagine it.
I didn’t notice her smell; all I could see were the faded bruises, her haunted look. It was something that would be burned into my soul.
Now that all of that had settled, only two problems remained. We still needed to find Leon, and perhaps the worst of all was telling Huxley.
“Baby, you need rest,” I said as I walked into my room, and Finley was up.
She held onto the wall for support. I swore this girl was so fucking strong.
I walked up to her and helped her to sit on the sofa. Finley glared at me.
“I had it,” she snapped.
I put my hand on the armrest and the other by her head. I bent so I could look her in the eyes.
“Baby, I don’t fucking care if you had it. I know what you are capable of.” My voice sounded gruff, and she stared at me with wide eyes. “I know you don’t need me here—hell, you might not even want me here—but what I’m telling you, Fin, is that I’m not fucking going anywhere. You and me, it’s endgame. So I suggest you get used to it.”
She looked at me, her eyes blazing with fire at first, and then they went soft on me, and hell if that didn’t do something to me. It made me feel like I was finally in control of my life. Like all was right in the world.
“It feels weird, doesn’t it?” she asked as she licked her lips.
My heart squeezed when I realized that I would never again have to stop myself from claiming her mouth or any part of her because I was too much of a pussy to create some chaos in our lives. She was my girl.
“Weird how?” I asked as my tone dropped because I was dying to kiss her again.
“Like we shouldn’t be like this. Like it’s still forbidd—”
It felt good to cut her off with a kiss. She looked at me perplexed and then smiled shyly at me.
There wasn’t much I didn’t know about Fin, but this sweet side was one I wasn’t used to. And, quite frankly, one I fucking missed.
“Too bad. Get used to it,” I told her as I plopped down next to her.
She rested her head on my chest, and I put my arm around her.
“He’s going to hate you,” she said.
“Maybe at first,” I said. “But once he realizes that for me it was always you, and for you it was only me—”
“Hold it there, cowboy, it wasn’t just you,” she teased.
I gently grabbed her chin and tipped it up.
“Baby, you forget I’ve had you soaking wet for me.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Don’t be nasty.”
I laughed. “I’m not being nasty, I’m just proud.” I gave her a shit-eating grin. Then I rubbed my nose against her cheek, and she smiled at me again, and there was no way I was getting used to that shit anytime soon.
“First thing I’m going to do when Doc gives you the okay is sit you on the top of my bike and eat your pretty little pussy until you cry.”
“Nash,” she hissed, her eyes going glassy.
“Second, you’re going to wear that fucking outfit you wore when you came back, and I’m bending you across the sofa in my father’s office and fucking you raw.”
Her breath hitched.
“Third, you’re going to make yourself come grinding on your bike, and then you’re going to kneel and suck me off.”
When I saw the want all over her face, I had to stop myself from patting my own back triumphantly.
“Now I’ll stop being nasty,” I said as I smiled against her neck.
She took hold of my hand, and I cherished the way she felt against me. How someone so fragile and breakable could be as strong as she was?
“I love you,” she whispered. “But I’m scared, because it’s going against my father’s wishes.”
“I know, baby,” I said as I held her closer. “But at one point we have to stop living for everyone else and start doing it for ourselves.”
A few hours later, I carried Finley to my father’s office where a nonofficial meeting was taking place. My father was already there as well as Gunner, Nate, and Andre.
I took a seat on the same sofa I was sitting on the day Finley walked back into my life. That day it had taken everything in me not to get up and claim her as mine. I had to keep away because I knew I would tell her everything, and the last few years trying to protect her would have been in vain.
The last to walk in were Riley and Ace. She strutted in not wearing her usual tight dresses, and Ace had a shit-eating grin—something all of us noticed. The only one that mentioned it was Nate’s dumb ass.
“You took some of that pu-tang?” he said loud enough for Riley to hear.
Andre hit him in the face before my father could.
“I’m happy you’re safe.” Riley came to hug Finley.
“Thank you for coming through for me,” Finley said.
Riley scoffed as she flipped her head back. “Sweetheart, we are family. I would die for you in a heartbeat.” She then turned to my father. “What are we going to do about Leon?”
“And Humberto?” Finley asked.
I told her we were still in business with him for the time being. That it was the price to pay to get her back, but I should have known she wouldn’t have been happy with that answer.
“He’ll get what’s coming for him. No
one fucks with us,” Gunner said.
My father fixed his suit. “Time, Finley.”
My girl nodded. “We’ll make him think it was all water under the bridge, and then when the taste of his betrayal no longer lingers, I want to take everything from him.”
We all nodded, and fuck, I was so fucking gone for this girl. Andre, Ace, and Nate all looked at her with admiration in their eyes, and they fucking should because she was unlike anyone else.
“We have another problem now,” Gunner said.
“What now?” I asked.
“Mayor Romero is not happy with the bombing at the clubhouse.”
Fuck, now that was a complication we didn’t need. The mayor had had a hard-on for the club for as long as we could remember. He’d also been kissing my dad’s ass, trying to get more donations for his Let’s-Rid-The-World-Of-Bad-Guys-Campaign, not knowing he was speaking to their fucking president.
“I’m sure he’s fucking thrilled,” I said sarcastically. “What now?”
“We lay low,” my father said. “The club will remain here until the new clubhouse is ready.
Finley shook her head.
“That still leaves the clubhouse right on the outskirts of town. The protection there wasn’t all that great, and it’s closer to wandering eyes.”
“What are you saying?” I asked her as my arms around her waist got tighter, something no one missed. I think they were probably wondering the same thing as I was—how would we act when my brother was around?
“My house,” she said. “It’s big enough, private enough, and it stands on the other side of the clearing.”
My father and Riley looked at her in shock, as did I.
“Finley, think about what you are offering,” my father said in a serious tone.
She held onto my hands as she shook her head, looking at my father, then at Gunner.
“I loved my parents, my father, but they are never coming back, and I have no desire to be in that house again. I’d like for the club to have it. Build something else where the club is standing. Something that will win over the community and make it harder for the mayor to try and run us out.”
“Let me just say, princess, if Nash doesn’t do it for you, I’m all in,” Nate joked.
I was going to murder my so-called friend.
“I think you just said your last words, brother,” Ace told Nate.
I kissed Finley’s nape as I flicked him off.
“That just leaves Leon,” Riley said with fake disgust in her voice. “What will we do with him?”
“We’re going to find him, and he’s going to wish for the devil himself to come get him before we are done with him,” my father gravely.
Chapter Twenty-Five
After the meeting, my aunt left, as did everyone else except for Nash, Axton, and myself.
Axton looked at us.
We stood our ground. Nash had carried me to the meeting, said I needed to be there, but he also didn’t want me to waste my energy and carried me in. Once inside the office, it didn’t matter who was staring at us; he sat me on his lap.
I always prided myself on not being one of those girls, but fuck, Nash made it impossible not to be.
Like now, holding me even knowing his father was probably going to say something that was bound to piss us off.
“All I ask is you give Huxley time to get stronger,” Axton said.
Nash tensed behind me. I knew he was ready to argue with the fact, and even though I loved him and loved that he was prepared to lose it all for me, I wasn’t going to let him make that decision.
“We will wait,” I said, nodding and staring straight into Axton’s eyes. “But we won’t wait long.”
He nodded. “He needs to wrap his head around what happened, then he can wrap his head about you two.”
Nash’s jaw was stiff, but he didn’t speak. He was quiet even as Axton left his office, and we sat there in silence.
“Do you love him?” he asked, his tone hard.
I turned a little on my side so I could look at him a bit better.
“I’ve loved all of you since I was a little girl,” I told him as I cupped his cheek. My fingers ran over his beard. “But I’ve only ever been in love with you.”
He looked up at me, and I smiled at him, so happy that I finally got to call him mine. I’d waited twenty years for him; a few more months wouldn’t kill me.
“How fucked-up is it if I don’t care if he hates me?”
I didn’t answer because deep down, he cared, more than Huxley probably did, so I did the best thing I could think of, and I kissed him.
He tasted like freedom, full of wicked dreams and deadly promises.
“Now, let’s go see your brothers,” I told him.
With his help—and by help, I mean him carrying me around the manor—we went to see Duncan since he was doing better than Huxley.
Duncan’s room was bright. He had his window half-open so cool air came in, and the curtains were drawn. The asshole was lying on his bed only in black boxer briefs. He was propped on a mountain of pillows and had a bottle of water next to him with a bong on the other side. He looked a little pale and like he’d lost a few pounds, but other than that, he still looked great.
“Nice tats,” I said, breaking the ice.
Nash walked us in, me in front of him, while his hands rested on my waist.
Duncan raised his brows.
“Guess the pussy is out of the bag,” he mused in a weak voice. “Too bad you won’t get to ride all this anymore.” He pointed at his dick.
Neither Nash nor I had it in us to scold him.
I let go of Nash and made my way to the bed. He moved his bong out of the way so I could lie next to him.
He wrapped a hand around me and kissed the top of my head.
“I owe you my fucking life,” he said.
I felt the bed dip from where Nash sat down.
“You would have done the same for me,” I told him.
He kissed my forehead again. He then turned to Nash and grinned at him.
“In my defense, I thought I was dying, so I was like, just fucking kiss her.”
I glared at Duncan, and Nash just laughed it off.
“You’re lucky I love you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Duncan said before he brought the bong to his lips. After he took a hit, he turned to Nash and me.
“I’m fine, really. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“True, but your bed is comfy,” I said, not wanting to leave him alone because a few days ago, I didn’t know if I would ever see him again.
“Unless you two want to see me get my pipe drained, I suggest you leave.”
Just as he said this, his door opened and Dawn walked in. I made a gagging noise, and she didn’t even glare at me.
“It’s okay. I think I feel like giving my man the same treatment,” I said as I raised my hands so Nash could carry me.
He laughed some more but picked me up with ease. The best part was he didn’t even acknowledge the fact that Dawn was in the room.
We were in the hallways when Nash spoke; his voice laced with amusement.
“It doesn’t matter who enters the room. No one holds a candle to you, baby.”
Fuck, why did he say shit like this to me? There was no chance in hell I would ever want anyone else. He was just everything to me.
“Come on, you promised me oral,” he said.
“Now that I know no one holds a candle to me, you can wait a few more days.”
He threw his head back and roared with laughter. I stayed mesmerized watching him like that, so carefree. When he was done, he picked me up and took me to our next destination, but Huxley didn’t want to open his room when we got there.
After a traumatic event, your mind just focuses on getting your body the strength back. It leaves everything else that got damaged in the trauma for last. So as each day you get psychically stronger, other aspects of your body stop running on overdrive, and even
though they don’t necessarily get weaker, they bring down walls that you had no desire to see what was on the other side of.
My body was now stronger, but my mind hadn’t yet caught up. At night, I would wake up scared to be in the dark, but all it took was for Nash to pull me back into his chest and tell me, “It’s okay, baby,” and my heart would start to settle.
Maybe it made me a little codependent, but I didn’t care.
Things had been getting back to normal at Crull Manor, or as normal as they could get with a bunch of bikers living with us now. I was all for it—the more family around, the better.
Breakfast was an adventure with our house staff and the club. Nate was all for being catered for.
Duncan was doing great now; the whores loved soothing his wounds. I was surprised his dick wasn’t sore or something.
As for Huxley, he was a different story. I hadn’t really seen him. He’d been holed up in his room, not really letting anyone other than Axton to see him.
My guilt was eating me, but at the same time, I could wander around the house with Nash, knowing Huxley wouldn’t see us.
It was dangerous, but I stopped pretending like I even went to my room anymore. I had moved into Nash’s side of the house because it was easier to sneak around in. He asked me about my house, but even if we kept it, it would still be tainted with old memories, and it was better to start fresh. We basically owned a ton of the surrounding land. We could easily build there.
I looked at myself in the mirror and bit my lip. I was wearing the same outfit I wore the day I stepped foot in this house.
Nash was waiting for me in the back because we were taking a ride to the Primrose Mansion before they tore it down. He wanted to go in with me and hold my hand while I took a look around to see if there was anything I wanted to keep.
I was in such a rush, trying to get to my man, that I didn’t notice that there was someone in the hallway that led to the garage.
My front hit Huxley’s with full force.