“I mean, I don’t know how you are sleeping while I have Sons on.”
“It’s real easy. I close my eyes and drown out the TV with my thoughts of throwing it through the window?”
She gasped and plastered her body to my side and the couch. “You don’t like it?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, it just didn’t hold my attention. When you actually lived the life that they were portraying on TV, it really wasn’t interesting. “It’s fine, M-baby.”
“But you’re sleeping,” she pointed out.
“I’m tired.”
“You should have taken a nap when I did.”
“Then we never would have eaten,” I pointed out.
“So, what am I supposed to do while you sleep?” she asked.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her into my arms. “Sleep.” I buried my face in her hair and inhaled deep. She smelt like apples and sunshine.
“But I’m not tired,” she protested.
“Then watch TV.”
“All I can see right now is your chest.”
I wrapped both of my arms around her, lifted her up while I scooted to put my back to the couch. She was still in my arms, but her back was now to my front, and she was lying on the edge of the couch. “Now watch TV and let me sleep.”
“Um, maybe I can go sit at the end of the couch like I was.”
I settled into the couch with my arm draped over her. “No.”
“Why not?”
“M-baby. I’m tired as hell and just want to sleep. Can’t do that with you talking or sitting at the end of the couch.”
“Your reasoning makes no sense to me.”
It did make sense. I was supposed to be keeping Mayra safe, so if I kept her in arm’s reach, I knew she was safe. “I’ll explain it later,” I mumbled.
She finally relaxed into me, and I felt all of the resistance leave her body. “Still doesn’t make sense,” she grumbled. So maybe not all of her resistance left, but she wasn’t physically trying to get out of my arms.
I grabbed the blanket that was draped across the back of the couch and pulled it over us. “You watch your bikers, and I’m gonna sleep.”
“I’m only agreeing with you because you’re really tired.”
As long as she let me sleep and didn’t move from my arms, I was happy.
Tomorrow, I needed to check in with Clash to see if anything was happening with the Banachi’s, then I was going to figure out how to keep Mayra occupied while we were here.
Now, I slept. Tomorrow, I figured everything else out.
*
Chapter Eleven
Mayra
Bacon was the king of meat.
I laid four pieces on the griddle and basked in the delicious aroma and sizzle.
I didn’t know how Boink was still sleeping with the smell of bacon wafting through the cabin.
“Gotta say, M-baby. Waking up to the smell of bacon and you standing at the stove is a sight to see.”
I guess he wasn’t able to sleep through the smell of cooking bacon. “I made a pot of coffee if you wanna pour yourself a cup.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was already standing in front of the coffee pot that was on the kitchen island.
“Way ahead of you,” he mumbled.
I turned back to the stove and flipped over the bacon. “I was gonna make eggs, too. You care what kind?” As long as he didn’t say poached, I could make whatever. I had tried one time to poach eggs and it had turned into egg soup. The art of poaching eggs had escaped me.
“Scrambled.”
“Thank God,” I laughed. “For a second, I thought you were going to say you wanted eggs benedict.”
I grabbed the eggs out of the fridge and pulled a large bowl from the cabinet.
The cabin Wrecker had sent us to was more like a resort and a vacation than banishing us. While Boink and I had slept on the couch last night, there was one large bedroom on the main floor, a huge kitchen that opened to a monstrous living room and bathroom right off the kitchen. The second level was an open loft with the master bedroom and another bathroom.
Before I had started breakfast, I had taken a tour of the cabin and was pleasantly surprised by the digs we were staying at. I was totally going to sleep in the monstrous bed upstairs tonight.
“I’m gonna get the fire going again while you finish breakfast.” Boink came up behind me, set a cup of coffee on the counter by me, then rested his hand on my waist. “Morning, Mayra.” His voice was low and rumbly from having just woken up, and it sent goosebumps over my skin.
“Morning,” I croaked.
He pressed a kiss to the side of my head, and his hand trailed across my waist as he pulled away.
Things were changing between Boink and me.
As much as I didn’t want to like them, I did.
He had yelled at me and made me feel horrible two days ago, and now, with one small touch from him, my body was on fire. I wanted to follow him into the living room and beg him to touch me again.
“Get a grip, Mayra,” I whispered. I cracked eight eggs into the bowl and got to making breakfast. If I stood there and tried to figure out what was going on with Boink and me, we were never going eat.
A big pan of scrambled eggs and a plate of toast later, breakfast was done and Boink had a fire roaring in the fireplace.
Boink had his plate piled high with food and was sitting on a stool by the kitchen island. “After breakfast, I got a couple of calls to make.”
I grabbed a piece of bacon and set it on my plate. “I think I’m going to unpack and take a shower.” It had been four days since I had showered and misting on body spray every morning only did so much. I was overdue for a good washing.
“I’ll put your suitcase upstairs before I go out.”
I spooned eggs onto my plate and sat down next to him. “So, what are we going to do after I shower and you make phone calls?”
“There’s a huge garage out back.”
“Annnd?” I drawled.
“I’m a guy. I’m gonna find out what’s in it.”
Of course. “I’m gonna laugh when you find out the garage is empty with no fun guy stuff.”
He shook his head. “Not gonna happen. It’s a garage. A huge one at that.”
“You’re such a guy,” I laughed.
“Glad you noticed.”
I noticed, all right. I noticed more than I should.
*
Chapter Twelve
Boink
“About time you fucking called.”
I pressed the phone to my ear and stepped off the deck. “I texted you when we got here yesterday. I figured I could wait a day to call.”
“Why the hell did you take you so long to get there?” Clash asked.
“Ran into a couple of problems, but it’s all good.” Clash didn’t need to know the details.
“You’re always running into problems, Boink.”
“It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Clash chuckled. “I can’t really give you too much shit about running into problems. I thought keeping an eye on Raven would be easy, but this chick is testing my limits. When she found out you took off with Mayra, she fucking flipped her shit.”
“Really?” I knew Raven had insisted on Mayra staying at the clubhouse, but from the what I had seen from her the past two weeks, she really only cared about herself. “What did you guys tell the rest of the girls?”
“Wrecker sat ‘em all down, told him Mayra was in some shit, and you were helping her take care of it.”
“And that wasn’t enough information for Raven,” I guessed.
“Not at all, brother. She’s all up in Wrecker’s shit demanding to know what is going on with Mayra and where you took her.”
“God damn. I bet that isn’t making him any happier.”
“Nope, not at all,” Clash agreed. “She’s also texting and calling the hell out of Mayra, but you must have taken her phone from her since she
hasn’t gotten any info from her yet.”
Fuck. I hadn’t taken her phone from her, but with Mayra breaking her ass and being sore as hell, she hadn’t had the chance to check her phone. I needed to get it away from her before she talked to Raven. I didn’t need Mayra telling Raven where we were and what was going on. “Yeah, she hasn’t talked to anyone at the clubhouse.”
“Good, good,” Clash muttered. “There isn’t much to tell you yet. Wrecker said to just lay low and don’t call attention to yourselves.”
I assumed not calling attention to yourself meant not busting your ass in the middle of the rain, going to the doctor, or making friends with a grocery store clerk. “Can do, brother.”
“I’ll call you if anything comes up, otherwise just give me a call in a couple of days.”
I ended the call with Clash and slid the phone into my pocket. I glanced up at the window on the second floor of the house. Now I needed to get Mayra’s phone from her. I hoped to God she hadn’t talked to Raven.
*
Mayra
“Oh, God, yes.”
Hot water washed over my sore back, and I hung my head.
This. Was. Heavenly.
I should have taken a shower right away when we got to the hotel the other day. It would have helped to loosen me up so much. I was going to spend all day in the shower, or however long the hot water lasted.
“M-baby?”
Oh hell. What in the hell was Boink doing back in the house? And it sounded like he was right outside the shower. “Uh yeah?”
“You okay? I heard you moaning.”
Well, hell. He must have been standing there for a bit to have heard me. “Uh, I’m fine. The hot water just felt good.”
“I bet. We probably should have gotten you into the shower right away when you fell.”
“Yep.” I stayed under the water and waited for him to tell me why he was standing outside the bathroom.
“So, I was wondering if you checked your phone today.”
“No. It died yesterday, and I just put it on to charge.”
“Good.”
Something was going on. “Is everything okay?” I moved back the shower curtain and saw Boink was standing at door, with his back to the shower. “Should I have checked my phone?”
“No. It’s just that Raven was calling you a lot.”
“And you wanted to make sure that I wasn’t telling her where I was or what was going on.”
He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair. “Uh, yeah. Club business that she doesn’t need to know.”
“So, I’m not allowed to talk to her?” Raven was the only friend I had anymore. I’m sure if I had hung out with the other girls more, they would be my friends too, but Raven was the only one who I really knew.
“You can talk to her, but you can’t tell her anything.”
“Anything?” I laughed. “Then I guess there really isn’t any point in calling her back.”
“I mean, you just can’t tell her anything about the Banachi’s or about where we are.”
Well, I hadn’t planned on telling her about the Banachi’s, but it was a good thing he had told me not to spill the beans about where we were. “And that’s the only reason she’s calling. To find out why we left.”
He turned around and was surprised to see my head sticking out of the shower.
My hair was slicked back, and water was dripping down my face. “Was that all you needed to tell me?”
He nodded and swallowed. “Uh, yeah. I think that was it.” He didn’t leave, though. He stood there staring at my neck and licked his lips. “Water okay?”
I was tempted to tell him if he really wanted to know he could come in and find out for himself. “Yeah, it’s definitely helping.”
He stared at me for a few more seconds ‘til he spun around. “I’ll, uh, just be downstairs. I could use some more coffee.”
A smile spread across my lips, and I ducked back into the shower. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was feeling things new and different.
*
Chapter Thirteen
Boink
“Put on the helmet.”
She shook her head. “Only if you do.”
“There’s only one, and your ass is going to be the one wearing it.”
“I think it’s supposed to go on my head, not my ass.”
I rolled my eyes and pressed the helmet into her hands. “It goes on your head because your ass is not getting on the side-by-side until you put it on.”
She wrinkled her nose up and growled. “Why do I have to put it on? It’s not like you’re even going to go that fast. One bump and my butt will be walking back.”
After I had gotten over seeing Mayra dripping wet in the shower, my ass hightailed it back outside where I started exploring the large garage. Mayra had been wrong when she said there wasn’t going to be anything inside.
Not only was there a snowmobile and snow blower, there was also a side-by-side. Mayra had walked outside just as I pulled the side-by-side out of the garage.
“I may not be driving fast, but I still want you wearing a helmet.” She had hurt herself enough the past few days. She wasn’t about to get hurt again on my watch. “Put it on.”
She grumbled under her breath but strapped it onto her head. “Happy?” she said with a glare.
“More than you know, M-baby.” I helped her onto the side-by-side and made sure she was buckled in before I got behind the wheel.
“So, you drive for a bit and then I get to drive?” she asked.
I turned the key in the ignition and glanced at her. “Negative.”
She pouted out her bottom lip and crossed her arms over her chest. “You bikers sure are a bunch of sticks in the mud.”
I took off into the woods, slowly bumping along, following the numerous paths that criss-crossed around the woods.
“Are you sure this is all property we can drive on?” Mayra shouted.
I nodded. “Yeah. Clash said there is a clearing on each side and a cliff on the back of the property that are the property lines.” We had driven to one clearing where I had turned around to head to the other side, and now we were headed in the direction of the cliff.
“There it is,” Mayra shouted.
I drove to the edge of the cliff, and we both hopped off. Mayra took off her helmet and tossed it to me.
“Don’t get too close,” I warned.
Mayra gingerly walked to the edge and turned around with a huge smile on her lips. “It’s so beautiful here.”
It was pretty amazing. Before us was the view of a huge mountain with a white cap of snow at the top and trees dotted here and there.
I moved next to Mayra and took in the view.
“Though it’s a bit chilly here,” she muttered. She wrapped her arms around her middle and moved closer to me.
I shrugged off my coat and draped it over her shoulders. “The weather is definitely changing. I hope you packed a thicker coat than this one.”
She burrowed into my jacket. “Uh, this is all I have. I’ll be fine.”
“Mayra, it’s almost November in Utah. I’m truly surprised there already isn’t snow on the ground.”
She completely ignored me and took a step closer to the edge. “I wonder how far away that mountain really is,” she pondered. She pulled my coat tightly around her and glanced over her shoulder at me. “Though that drop off is pretty steep here. It’s a pretty goo—”
Panic flashed across her face as a yelp ripped from her lips. Her foot slipped on the loose rock, and I quickly reached out. I grabbed her arm and pulled in to my chest. “God dammit, Mayra,” I gasped.
She wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tight. “My foot started slipping on the rock,” she breathed out.
I looked down at her worn-out shoes. “You’ll have to wear boots out here. Tennis shoes don’t really cut it.”
“These are all I have,” she said quietly.
I was starting to think that sh
e didn’t really have much at all. “We can get you some boots and some warmer clothes the next time we go into town.”
“I’m fine, Boink,” she said meekly.
I wrapped my arms tightly around her and pulled her to my chest. “You will be, M-baby.”
She laid her head on my chest and sighed. “I don’t know what the heck is going on.”
“What do you mean?”
She tilted her head back and looked up at me. “I’m standing on a cliff that I just almost took a nosedive off, wrapped up in your arms.”
“There something wrong with that?” I asked.
“Just not at all what I thought would be happening if you would have asked me six months ago.”
“Six months ago, your mom was still alive and you didn’t have a clue who I was or that the Fallen Lords existed.” I reached up and brushed my fingers across her cheek.
“And now I’m running from the mafia standing on a cliff with a man called Boink.”
I chuckled. “Destiny is funny that way.”
“So, you’re my destiny?” she whispered.
“We’re all on the road to our destiny.”
“And I was lucky enough to meet you on that road.”
“Yeah, you were,” I whispered.
She bit her lip, and her eyes dropped to my lips. “Will you kiss me, Boink?”
“Mayra,” I growled.
Her eyes cast to mine. “Never mind.” She shook her head and tried to pull out of my arms. “I don’t even know what I’m saying.” She pushed against my chest, and I let her go. “We should just head back to the cabin anyway. I’m clearly not dressed for this little adventure.”
She moved to step around me, and I caught her hand in mine. “Mayra, stop.”
She looked up at me with doubts in her eyes. “I’m sorry I said that. I was—”
I pulled her flush against my body and threaded my fingers in her hair. “Shut up, Mayra.” I had been wanting to kiss her ever since I picked her up off the middle of the road when she busted her ass. I was waiting for the right time, and I wasn’t going to pass it up now.
Boink (Fallen Lords MC Book 5) Page 7