by Levine, Nina
My gun sounded, and Gambarro dropped. He hadn’t even flinched at my words. So cold and dead on the inside, I bet he’d probably spent his life wondering each day if it would be his last. A lot of people would rejoice at the news of his death.
I stepped away from his body and turned to King. “Are we cleaning this up?”
He shook his head. “No.”
His meaning was clear - this was a message, and we would let it speak for itself.
“Alright, boys, let’s get the fuck out of here!” King yelled out, rounding everyone up. He jerked his chin at Devil. “Let the driver go. It’s not his fault his boss was a prick.” King never failed to surprise me; this kind of decision was rare.
With a deep sense of satisfaction, I headed home.
Killing someone like Gambarro rated highly on my ‘I’ve-had-a-good-day-at-work’ scale. I would never be convinced that ridding the earth of scum like him was a bad thing.
Especially not when my family was threatened.
Chapter Nineteen
Evie
Holy mother of God!
The pain shot through me as I tried to suck in a breath and shift in the bed. My eyes flew open and I stifled the cry trying to push through my lips.
“Baby, are you okay?” Kick’s voice cut through my haze of pain.
I turned my head and found him standing next to the bed, his body bent at the waist, face hovering over mine. His distress at my agony warmed me, that he cared so much, but at the same time I hated to see him so worried. I tried to ease his mind. “I’m okay, but I need some painkillers, please.”
He nodded and said, “Good. I’ll be back in a minute.”
I watched as he strode out of the room.
My man loved me.
Everything he did for me showed me just how deep that love was.
And I couldn’t wait for him to get those matching rings.
When he came back, he had water and pills. Kneeling on the floor next to the bed, he asked, “Can you sit up?”
I shook my head, fearful of the pain that shifting would cause. I’d had hardly any sleep and I’d finally found a position that caused the least amount of pain; I didn’t want to chance bringing more pain on.
“Okay, don’t move,” he said, as he passed me the painkillers. “I’ll hold the water for you.”
I took the pills and he brought the glass of water to my lips and helped me swallow them. After he’d placed the glass on the bedside table, I gave him a small smile. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He leant over and placed a kiss on my forehead. “I’m sorry.” His words were simple, but I heard every last drop of pain and sorrow in them.
I gulped back the tears that threatened. Rapidly shaking my head, I said, “No, this isn’t your fault, Kick. Don’t you dare take that blame.”
Kneeling again, his gaze grew serious, and my gut tightened, sensing where this conversation was headed. “You never need to worry about Gambarro again.” His words were hard, and I knew from his tone and the way his entire body had tensed that he was worried about my reaction. He needed me to accept his actions.
“Good,” I said, and watched as the worry eased out of his body. “And, baby, I will always feel that way about anything like this. I trust everything you do because I know it comes from a place of love and a need to protect those you love. Never doubt my love for you and belief in you.”
He stared at me, and I saw the war waging in his soul. Kick was essentially a good person, but sometimes in life, things touched you and stained you in a way you could never recover from. They caused an irreversible shift in the way you saw the world around you, and in the way you dealt with the things that happened to you from that point on.
Sometimes, the path your journey veered on to led you to do things you’d never have considered previously.
And sometimes, in the hell you’d been delivered into, the end justified the means.
So I watched as he waged war, and I reached my hand up to lay gently against his cheek. “This is it, Kick. Can you feel it?”
He frowned. “Feel what?” he whispered, clearly confused at my obscure words.
“The moment where you know once and for all that there is nothing you could do that I wouldn’t accept,” I explained and waited for it to sink in.
“Fuck,” he murmured, “I don’t fuckin’ deserve you.”
“Yeah, you do,” I said as I curled my hand around his neck and pulled his face to mine. He willingly gave me his lips and I kissed him with all the love and passion I felt for him. When we ended the kiss, I said, “Now, I do believe you have some rings to buy.”
He grinned and raised a brow. “Oh, you think so, do you?”
It was my turn to raise a brow. “Questioning the woman who will be your wife one day soon is not a smart move.”
Chuckling, he agreed. “You have me there, sweetheart. I learnt a long time ago that questioning the woman I love isn’t a smart move.”
“When was that?”
“I was seventeen at the time. It was the day I asked you to the senior dance, and you said no because I’d questioned a decision of yours to stand up for Joe Jensen the day before. You practically held me to ransom over that fuckin’ dance, and in the end I had to backtrack on everything I’d said about that dickhead and pretend I fuckin’ liked him to get you to agree to go with me.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “I thought you only asked me to that dance because you had no one else to go with.”
His eyes turned soft. “No, baby, I asked you because I really wanted to take you. I wouldn’t have become friends with fuckin’ Joe Jensen if I didn’t have to.”
My ribs might have been in pure agony and my body and mind might have been exhausted, but this new knowledge buzzed through me, causing extreme happiness to settle in me.
Kick Hanson had loved me since he was seventeen, and he still loved me eighteen years later.
* * *
I slept for most of the day. Kick looked after me, staying close by all day. At four that afternoon, Mum and Julie came to visit. I’d been awake for about half an hour then so it turned out to be perfect timing.
“God, Evie, don’t give us a scare like that again!” Julie said, her face a mask of worry. She’d brought flowers with her and arranged them in a vase I’d sent Kick to find. Placing the vase on the bedside table next to me, she bent and gave me an awkward kiss on my forehead. She still wasn’t big on public displays of affection, and I figured a kiss was hard for her, but I appreciated the gesture, particularly seeing as though she couldn’t hug me.
I smiled up at her. “I’ll try not to,” I promised, my glance shifting to catch Kick leaning against the door, arms folded over his chest and a contemplative look on his face. We held each other’s gazes for a moment and then I gave mine back to Julie.
“Good,” she said.
“The police said there were a few witnesses to the accident but none of them can remember the number plates of the car who caused it. One witness even said the car didn’t have any. I don’t think they’re confident they can solve this,” Mum told me, seemingly upset with this information.
“Well, I guess whoever it was will get theirs in the end; karma and all,” I said, keen to change the topic of conversation. “Have either of you heard from Dad lately?” I hadn’t heard from him or seen him since the day he told me he didn’t want Kick in my life.
Mum smiled, and that stunned me. She and Dad hadn’t been close since he left after she cheated on him. “He and I have been in contact after he called and asked me to lunch the other week. Evie, he told me what you and Kick did for him and how awful he was to you about Kick. He regrets it, and he also regrets not following up on the counselling.”
I wanted to believe everything she had said but after years of being let down by him, I struggled to buy it. “And?” I asked, my voice hard and guarding. I had to guard my heart from more disappointment.
Julie stepped in. “He’s doing good with the c
ounsellor . . . I’ve seen him a few times, and I’m proud of what he’s doing.”
My eyes widened.
Shit, if Julie was impressed, it meant Dad really was making progress.
“Okay, good,” I said softly.
Mum looked hopeful as she asked the next question. “He wants to see you. Would you be up for that? He’s worried about you.”
Kick pushed off from the door he was leaning against and came towards me, concern etched on his face. “Is that a good idea?” he asked me.
I loved his concern, but I thought it might actually be good to see Dad. “It’s alright, Kick, I want to see him. Maybe this will be the fresh start we all need.”
As the afternoon progressed and we all loosened up with one another, I thought back to that conversation and hoped it really would be a fresh start for all of us.
An opportunity to put the pain of the last eighteen years behind us once and for all.
Chapter Twenty
Kick
A few days later, King called Church. He’d put it off, giving me time to be with Evie, but he was right – we needed to take stock of where the club was at. I left Evie with her Mum and headed into the clubhouse.
Hyde greeted me with a slap on the back. “How’s everything going, man?” he asked, his beef with me completely gone. Jekyll and Hyde.
“All good, but not holding out hope that Gambarro was bluffing the other night,” I expressed my concern that Gambarro had indeed made plans for his crew to avenge his death if it ever were to happen.
His face darkened. “Yeah, I wouldn’t put it past the motherfucker to have organised something.”
We took our seats around the table and King began. “Has anyone heard anything from the Gambarro camp?” he asked, looking around the table. The resounding ‘no’ gave me only a tiny sliver of hope, and it appeared King thought the same way I did. “Well, keep your ears to ground and let me know the minute you hear something. We need to be prepared for this.”
Everyone agreed to that, and then I raised my concern from the other night. “Gambarro said he’d only sent one message to us – the car accident. But my girlfriend’s house was broken into the other night and trashed. Nothing was stolen. Now call me a paranoid bastard, but this feels odd. Have any of you had shit happen recently?”
I looked around the table and from the expressions on everyone’s faces, I knew deep in my gut something was definitely odd with this. Nitro was the first to speak. “My sister’s place was ransacked three nights ago.”
Devil’s vein in his neck twitched as he said, “Fuck, my brother was broken into a couple of nights ago.”
Hyde was murderous. “Fuck!” he roared, standing. He looked like he was about to explode from his anger. “My sister owns a convenience store and it was held up two nights ago.” His gaze zeroed in on King. “This is Silver Hell, isn’t it? Those motherfuckers!”
If I thought Hyde was murderous, King was positively insane. He slammed his fist down on the table and looked around the table. “Those motherfucking cunts!” Giving his attention to Devil, he said, “I want you to look into this, you and Kick, and report back ASAP, yeah?”
Devil’s eyes met mine, and we nodded. “Yeah, boss, will do,” he agreed.
“Any other business to discuss?” King demanded, his wild eyes searching the room. When no one spoke up, the gavel came down and Church was done.
Fuck.
Shit just got real.
* * *
I gazed at Evie sitting in the bed. She’d progressed from lying down all the time to sitting for a while each day. I knew from experience how painful broken ribs were, and I also knew how long they took to recover from.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, keeping her eyes on mine.
I smirked and pushed off from the wall to walk to the bed. Sitting next to her, I said, “I was thinking that my dick could shrivel up from lack of use over the next month or so.”
“Really? Such deep thoughts you have, Kick,” she said with a wink.
“That was your opportunity to tell me we could work without your pussy on this.”
“Well, we could . . . you’ve always got two hands to take care of business,” she responded, with a teasing gleam in her eye.
“Sweetheart, I’d much rather your hands sign up for this job.”
She laughed and fuck if that didn’t turn me the fuck on. Jesus, Evie only had to look at me these days and I was almost blowing a load. Her laugh didn’t last long, though, because it caused her pain and she winced. But then she grew serious and asked, “Do you ever think we’ll get to play with your toys?”
I shifted off the bed and threw my hands in the air. “Fuck, baby, you can’t do that to a man when he’s got no fuckin’ hope of getting a hard-on taken care of.”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bring your toys up.” She really did look apologetic, but that was no good to me once my dick was already hard.
I placed my finger to my lips. “Shhh, don’t mention the toys again. At least not until you can fix this shit,” I said, pointing to my hard cock.
Nodding, she opened her mouth to say something, but we were interrupted by a knock at the front door. I left her and went to answer the door. My brother and sister stood on the other side, surprising the hell out of me. Lina pushed past me before I could stop her, and asked, “Is Evie in her bedroom?”
I’d forgotten she knew this house; Evie and Lina had been close until the last time I broke up with Evie. “Yeah, just go on through,” I muttered, knowing full well my sister wouldn’t listen to me if I told her to wait.
Braden grinned at me as he took a step inside. “How are you, little brother?”
“Fuck, man, I’m tired. It’s been a long week. And you?” I closed the door behind him.
“I’m good. Heard you had a blow up at Mum.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, that woman . . .” my voice drifted off as thoughts of her cut through me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever work my anger at her out of my system.
“I get it. I told her not to come around my place anymore, too,” he admitted.
“Good. She doesn’t deserve a place in our lives.”
We’d made it to Evie’s bedroom and she caught the last piece of our conversation. She looked up at me and asked, “Who doesn’t deserve a place in your life?”
“Mum.”
Lina piped up. “Oh, speaking of people who don’t deserve a place in our lives . . . Dave has been given a transfer for work. He’ll be leaving in a week.”
I was concerned for her, and what this would mean but at the same time, I was over the fucking moon he wouldn’t be around to harass her anymore. “Are you okay with that?” I asked, watching her closely for her real feelings on the matter.
Her face lit up with a smile. “Yes, because it gives us both space to move on, and it also gets him away from me and the kids when he’s been drinking, which seems to be more often than not these days.”
Evie reached for Lina’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “That’s great, Lina,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, thank fuck,” I said, meaning every word of it.
For the first time in a long time, it felt like our families were healing and growing, and good shit was happening.
It had been a long time coming.
Chapter Twenty-One
Evie
Excitement bubbled through me at the fact I was finally getting to meet Kick’s friends. As we walked into the clubhouse, I let my gaze roam over it, taking it all in. I’d imagined something similar, but not exactly the same. The non-descript brick building didn’t scream biker to me, however the high fence surrounding the large building, and the obvious presence of security and a guy manning the front gate, did tell me something. The club took their security and protection seriously.
Once inside, I noted the dated paint on the walls, the worn carpet and the tired furniture. This clubhouse had seen better days, but I doubted the guys even saw it. The
front door led down a long hall that was lined with framed photos of members. A quick glance told me some had passed, but mostly it appeared these photos were of current members. Once we were about halfway down the hallway, Kick turned left and walked through a wide doorway that led us into the bar area. And shit if I didn’t get a surprise in there. This room had been freshened up, and it seemed to me it had been done by a woman. It had a lick of new cream paint, the carpet had been pulled up, and the cement floor had been polished. The lighting in this room was also different, brighter. Not to mention the furniture. New wood tables and chairs were scattered throughout, and today they were all occupied as bikers laughed and drank. My eyes narrowed on the couches. They were the only things in the room that did not look new, and by the quick glance I took, they didn’t look like anything I would ever sit on.
Kick’s arm came around my shoulder and he pulled me close. “You okay? Are your ribs giving you grief?”
Always looking out for me.
It had been a few weeks since the car accident and while I was still in a great deal of pain, I’d assured Kick I was up for today. A barbeque with the boys . . . no way was I turning that invitation down.
“This must be Evie!” a voice boomed from behind me.
Turning, I found a tall, built guy coming towards us. His dark hair hung down to his shoulders, and although it was messy looking, and he had a scar running down the left side of his face, and even though the glint in his eyes seemed crazy, I had to admit, this man was hot. Scary hot. Scary as in crazy, fucked-up, but hot nevertheless.
“Evie, King,” Kick introduced us, and I gave King a huge smile. I didn’t care if he came across as scary, he was the man who helped save battered women from their abusive husbands, and he was the man who helped Kick take care of the asshole who tried to kill me.
“Hi,” I greeted him.
His eyes sparkled with mischief. “Fuck me, how the fuck did Kick score a woman as beautiful as you?”