Retribution: A Motorcycle Club Romance (18 page)

~
NINETEEN ~

“So this is what it looks like on the other side,”
said Tommy as he propped up his boots on one of the bar stools and gave Will a
shit-eating grin.

Will handed him an open beer and gave
him a half-smile. “Don’t get used to it.”

“No way, I’m never going back,” said
Tommy with a laugh, clinking his beer against Will’s. They both took a drink.

At that moment, Will didn’t mind the
idea of the simple duties of being a bartender. It seemed like a fucking
vacation, compared to the turmoil and trauma of the last two years. Already in
the few days since the meeting with the cartel, he felt ten times lighter, a
thousand years younger. Like someone had finally released the steam building up
inside of him so he could breathe and think. He didn’t feel half as angry
anymore, and while he wouldn’t go as far as to say he was happy, he was basically
a pig in shit compared to how he felt just a week before. He was glad to toss
off the heavy responsibility of being a spymaster for a few weeks. He’d come
back stronger; he always did.

And now that the clouds in his head
had fully cleared, he really only had one desire left: Eva.

He thought about the sadness in her
face when he left her at Swashbuckler’s days ago. He hadn’t been back since—had
been in no shape for it, really. After the cartel meeting, Will went back to
his house and slept for fifteen hours, a deeper sleep than any he’d had in
months. He woke up and met with a fresh disgust for the living conditions to
which he’d subjected himself, and immediately began cleaning up the mess he’d
been living in. It was like his brain was running at full function for the
first time in two years.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought
about her—far from it. Not ten minutes passed by, it seemed, without something
as simple as her name popping into his head. It was only that Will was suddenly
awake to his own sickness, and self-preservation had to come first. The man he used
to be, the one he wanted to be again, kept a tighter ship than this. The man
his grandmother raised was better. He had to dig that man out from the ashes of
the fire.

After that, his next responsibility
was showing up to pay his penance to the MC for his behavior, taking over as
clubhouse bartender and maintenance man for Tommy Castillo, while the young
recruit finally got his shot at some field work. Playing bartender only made
him think of Eva more and more. He replayed memories of bending her over the
counter, kneeling underneath her soft heat, making her writhe on top of his
face. He could practically see her, sitting there at the bar, reading and
smiling up at him, eyes heavy with attraction. The thought made his chest ache.

Deep down, Will knew he cared about
Eva, but he wasn’t so sure she cared about him—not now. Thinking about that day
Jase and Ghost dragged him out of the bar filled him with shame. After that, Eva
probably thought he was some lunatic. Who could blame her? He couldn’t have
looked sane, pushing his best friend around for no reason, readying to drag
Charlie out into battle. He may have saved the Murdocks, in the end, but
looking back, he could recognize that he really just got lucky things didn’t go
a lot worse. He had no confidence that Eva saw him as anything more than an
opportunistic fuck, an exciting affair with a bad boy to get her blood going.

You’ve never told a
bigger lie to yourself,
came the thought from
Will’s own mind.
The last thing Eva would do is use you.

“You are literally the worst
bartender that has ever existed.”

Will looked over and saw Ghost, both
hands spread wide, leaning on the bar.

“Did you say something?” asked Will.

“ ‘Dear Yelp friends: don’t go
to the Black Dogs clubhouse. Bartender was lost in a sissy romantic daydream
and couldn’t even get me a fucking beer. The available pussy was acceptable.
Half a star,’ ” said Ghost, pounding his fist on the bar.

Will smiled and cracked open a beer,
handing it across the bar to him. “Everyone knows those reviews are bought.”

“Fair enough,” said Ghost. He took a
drink and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “So, how you feelin’,
sport? Get that grumpiness dug out yet?”

“You’re such a poet,” said Will. “And
I’m feeling better, yes. Thanks.”

“You were a grade-A jagweed there for
a while, man. And that’s
my
thing,” said Ghost, sticking a thumb in his
own chest. “Glad to see you feeling like yourself again.”

“Glad to be feeling like myself
again.”

“So, where’s your little girlfriend?”

Will swallowed his beer and gave a
small shake of his head. “I’m not so sure about the future of that.” He looked
down at the hands wrapped around his beer bottle. “She didn’t exactly meet me
at a positive time in my life.”

“Yeah, but she knows that, doesn’t
she? And she liked you anyway. I think she helped this along.”

Will crooked an eyebrow at him. “Are
you trying to give me romantic advice, Ghost?”

Ghost’s face twisted into an
expression of mock outrage. “What the shit is that supposed to mean? I’m not a
man? I don’t have a heart just because I’m amazing at killing things?”

Will rolled his eyes with a laugh and
punched Ghost in the arm. He listened to Ghost ramble on in his dramatic,
pretend offense as more members of the MC started to trickle in for the Friday
night meeting and subsequent party in the den. So many people were coming in
and out that the sound of the door opening had faded into the background, along
with the music from the jukebox, and the competitive jostling from Jase and
Bones at the pool table.

Will started pulling up beers as new
arrivals came in. When he stood up, Eva stood in the big wide doorway that
connected the den with the main hallway. She looked like a vision from some
nostalgic painting of Americana. Her slender frame was draped by a pastel pink
dress, tied neatly around her waist with a matching belt. Her soft, thin brown
hair fell in gentle curls at the cut of her chin, freshly washed and brushed.
She wore a thin, white cardigan over her shoulders on this chilly evening, and
her hands fidgeted at her waist as she gazed into the big den full of bikers, her
eyes wide, but unafraid.

Will froze for a moment. She didn’t
look real, standing there in all her color and softness in the midst of
everything that wasn’t. Her beauty didn’t belong here, and yet Will couldn’t
have been happier to see it again. He felt bursts of emotion run through his
skin as he stared at her, soaking in every inch as she searched the room for
his face.

“Whoa…” said Ghost from his seat
suddenly, halting his annoying fake monologue. He was looking at Eva, too. “I
mean… whoa. She’s like a cupcake come to life.”

Will put his beer down and gave Ghost
a stern look. “Behave?”

“I wanna eat her right up.”

“
Ghost.”

“I’m serious. You better be able to
get around that bar faster than I can get off this stool.” Ghost started
chugging his beer and held up his fingers in a slow, awkward countdown as he
drank. Will just shook his head and slapped the back of Ghost’s as he came out
from behind the bar and walked by.

Will felt his heart start to race as
he walked up Eva. When she spotted him, her face immediately lit up in a smile
that crinkled her eyes and sent a heated flush through her skin. He saw her jaw
drop a little when he stopped before her.

Eva stared deep into his eyes, like
she was searching for something. “Wow, I… I came here to check and see if you
were doing okay, but I can see already… you look like a different man.”

Will flushed with a rare feeling of
self-consciousness, smiling downward. He took his big right hand and grasped
the middle of Eva’s fidgeting fingers, holding them there in a warm, tight
embrace. She wrapped her hands around his lovingly, her small fingers curled
and rubbing in little strokes.

“I hope not so different,” said Will.
“I’m sorry I haven’t reached out to you. What you saw in me…” He shook his
head. “I figured you’d never want to see me again.”

Eva smiled softly at him. She put a
palm up to his face and caressed his cheek, and Will felt his stomach flutter.
“I did see some darkness,” she agreed slowly. “But I think I also saw a true
glimpse of who you are, Will. And I think that’s the man who is standing in
front of me right now.”

“I wish you didn’t have to see me
like that,” said Will. “I know I was already deep in before you arrived, but I
still wish… I still wish I could take it back.” He squeezed her hands. “It was
old pain I was fighting, but a new danger that was real. I only wanted to
protect you. You believe that, right?”

Eva nodded. “I do. And you did, Will.
You protected us. You made the difference. I’m glad the wolf in you was there
when we needed it.” She smiled a little. “Coriolanus wasn’t
all
wrong…”

Will returned her grin.
She’s
really not afraid. She’s like a queen. My queen.

She looked down like she was
gathering her courage. “You’ve made a difference to me. A big difference. I
know I don’t really fit into your world here and… and I understand if your
interest isn’t the same… but I just wanted you to know that you made me feel
more alive than I’ve ever felt. And I’ve had enough of being alone, and enough
of being careful, for a fucking lifetime.”

Will raised his eyebrows at her
curse, and couldn’t help but smile. It made Eva blush.

“I just mean… I liked spending time
with you, and for more reasons than just your dick,” she said with a
mischievous smile that made Will ache with lust. “So if you wanted to keep
spending time together, maybe try and see what we’re like without a bounty
hanging over our heads, I think I would like that.”

Will smiled so big, his face muscles
hurt. He leaned down and rested his forehead on Eva’s, whispering, “You really
would?”

Eva nodded under his face, and
planted a tiny, heartbreaking kiss on his lips.

“My life isn’t always as insane as
last week, but it’s also not boring. Are you sure you want that kind of
trouble?”

Eva smiled. “Are you kidding?” She
reached a hand out and ran it across his abs, under his cut, and around his
back. Will groaned as even this touch made his lust start boiling for her. “I’m
done being jealous of my books. I want some adventures of my own.”

Will wrapped his hand around her
waist and pulled her into him. “I think I can help with that.” He cupped her
jaw and ran a soft thumb across her pale skin before he leaned his lips into
hers, kissing her with slow, deliberate passion as she clung to him tighter.

It was only a few seconds before the
men in the room erupted into ludicrous cat-calls, whistles, and howling as they
watched Will and Eva kiss. They tried to ignore it, but the longer they did,
the louder everyone became until he and Eva both broke down into embarrassed
laughter as the MC got riled up. Sometimes, Will forgot how much of himself he
kept hidden from the people in his life—this was the first time the MC had ever
seen him with a woman who wasn’t just a casual fuck.

“Well done, sir!” Jase clapped from
the pool table.

Will shook his head and looked down
at Eva with apologetic eyes. “Welcome to the jungle, I suppose.”

“If Will’s going monogamous, tell the
house ladies I’m taking his spot as the club’s sex-crazed maniac,” said Ghost,
raising his beer in the air. “To my dick, and all its future successes!” Before
he could take a drink, someone threw an empty beer can at him, making him spill
his beer with a curse.

Will shot Eva a glance, worried about
how she’d react to Ghost’s mention of his prior sex life, but Eva surprised him
again by laughing full and loud, with only a little embarrassment on her
flushed cheeks. She tucked her head against Will’s chest and he wrapped an arm
around her and pulled her closer, planting a kiss on top of her head as he led
her into the den to make introductions.