Nothin' But Trouble (8 page)

“You
must not know who we are.” Court said the words low, deadly. The human laughed
again, and then turned his head and spit out a mouthful of blood.

“
Ain’t
from here, but I don’t give a fuck who you are. The
lot of you can suck my fucking dick and choke on that shit.” He started
laughing again. “That’s what I was going to do to that pretty little thing
until our
party gotten
broken up.”

Hearing
the bastard continuing to defile Lilly with his words had Court snapping, and
no amount of self-control could stop him. He couldn’t control himself, or his
bear, and felt the shift move through him so powerfully he didn’t even try to stop
it this time. His bear broke free. His skin tore apart, bones broke, and
muscles swelled as his animal moved through him, about to do some serious
damage. He swung his massive head in Roan’s direction. There was no fear or
shock that came from the man when Court inhaled deeply. He stood before them
all in his grizzly form, breathing heavily, his claws scraping on the concrete
floor, and his incisors itching to tear into flesh. Roan stepped back to give
him free rein, and that sadistic smile once again covered Lilly’s brother’s
face. Moving closer to the asshole on the floor, Court bared his teeth at him.
He would have grinned if he could have at the scent of the fear that finally
came from the human. He had wanted to prolong this fucker’s pain and then
inevitable death, to draw out the agony, but he couldn’t after hearing the
sickness that had come out of this man’s mouth.

He
attacked without thinking any further. His human side watched the act from deep
within him, but it was his bear doing the violence, protecting their female,
and making sure no one else ever got hurt by this human again. Dragging his
claws into the human’s side had the ropes that bound him breaking away. He
scrambled on the ground now that he was free, but Court wanted the chase. There
was no more arrogance that came from him. He knew he was fucked. Court let the
fucker get a few feet before he charged forward, reached out, and dug his nails
into his back. The man howled out in pain and fell forward. The scent of his
blood filled Court’s nose and made him crave more. Court saw red and lashed out
repeatedly with his claws and teeth until the human lay on the ground. His body
was torn the fuck up, and a pool of blood spread out from his lifeless body,
staining the grey concrete beneath him in a grisly red. Court breathed heavily,
but he was too amped up to shift back to his human form.

“Fuck.”
He swung his head and looked at Lucien. The human biker was staring at the now
dead human on the floor. He had a smirk and leaned against the wall. “You
fucked him up.” He looked over at the two other members of his MC. “Can you
call Slicks to clean this shit up? Not sure if anyone will be looking, but I
don’t want anything left of this POS that can be identified.” The two men
nodded at what their President had just said, and like this wasn’t anything
they had never heard, and turned to leave the garage. Lucien looked back at him
again. “You’re
gonna
need a pair of pants, since I assume
you want to see your old lady.” Lucien didn’t wait for a response, just tipped
his chin toward the door. “You need me to step out to give you a minute?”

Court
made a gruff sound. He could understand Lucien just fine, but right now he was
more animal than human, and the wild nature inside of him didn’t want to sit
and bullshit, and wasn’t nearly as
sated
in his
bloodlust as he should have been. Lucien nodded again without waiting for him
to shift back or for Roan to say anything, and headed out of the garage.

Court
looked at Jagger, and then Roan. Lilly’s brother had an expressionless face. “I
hope you get yourself under control because we need to go back and see Lilly.”

Court
made a low warning sound in his throat. Roan might have been his best friend
nearly his whole life, but right now he was on the edge and he could see that
Roan realized that. Lucien came back in a few minutes later and tossed a pair
of jeans onto one of the toolboxes.

“These
should fit you.” And then he looked over at Jagger. “You need anything? Need
me
to call my guys to get her car towed back to Steel Corner?”

Jagger
shook his head. “Thanks, but no need. I was about to call one of my guys to get
it.”

Lucien
nodded. “No problem.” Lucien turned, looked once more at Court, and then turned
and left the three of them alone.

“You
good, Court? You need to run off the steam?”

He
shook his head after Jagger spoke, well, as well as he could seeing as he was in
his bear form. He just needed to get back to Lilly, and he wasn’t about to do
that looking like this.

He
closed his eyes and concentrated on lowering his blood pressure and calming his
erratic heart. Slowly, after several minutes, he was able to do that, and soon
shift back to a human. When he was no longer a bear he walked over to the
utility sink and washed the blood off his body as best he could. Roan walked
over and did the same, and once Court was dressed once more they headed back to
the clubhouse and to Lilly, the woman that he wanted to claim as his old lady.
But the problem he faced was whether he could mend turning his back on not just
Lilly, but Roan, too.

Once
he was cleaned up as well as he was going to get, he got dressed and headed out
of the garage. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Court was still
ramped up and felt the adrenaline of killing that fucker pump through his
veins. But he wasn’t nearly sated from taking that fucker’s life, and in fact
felt even wilder. His bear was greedier for more bloodshed, and he wished he
would have taken it slow when ending that piece of shit’s life. He sensed Roan
and Jagger behind him, but they kept their distance and didn’t try to calm him
down. Court was too far gone as it was. He paced the length of the gravel
driveway, and clenched and unclenched his hands. His knuckles cracked, and he
thought for sure his skin would split open from how tightly he was straining.
He had never felt this out of control before. Although he did have a wild
animal housed inside of him, and the bastard was a beast and tried to exert his
supremacy on more than one occasion, at this moment in time Court felt like he
could go on a fucking murdering spree for how unstable he felt.

“You
need to go hit up a fight at the barn?” Jagger was a few feet away still, but
Court heard him nonetheless.

He
scrubbed a hand over his face then ran it over the back of his head. Grabbing a
chunk of hair that was damp from when he had done a quick clean in the sink, he
tugged on it. He probably could use a fight, but first he needed to see Lilly
and make sure she got home okay. Court walked over to the
treeline
and braced a hand on the thick trunk of an evergreen. He closed his eyes again,
feeling like he had this whiplash effect going on inside of him. He curled his
hands into the tree, felt his nails lengthen into claws as his bear came forth,
and heard the pieces of bark fall to his feet. Feeling his blood boil as he saw
in his head the images of Lily hurt, he reared his hand back and slammed his
fist into the trunk over and over
again,
and with
enough force that the trunk crumbled beneath his fist. Instantly he felt his
skin break open and scented his blood mix with the wood that his hand was
currently embedded in, but at least he felt a small semblance of relief. The
pain felt good. When he pulled his hand away and looked at the trunk, Court saw
the destruction he had done. He heard footsteps move up behind him, scented
Jagger, and then saw the rag his President held out. Court grabbed it, and
wrapped the cloth around his knuckles. “Thanks.”

“Better?”

“A
little.”
Court turned and looked at his President. “I need to see Lilly.” He didn’t wait
for Jagger to say anything, and didn’t stop to say anything to Roan. He wanted
his woman, needed to see her and smell her in order to further calm himself. He
made his way inside and to the girl that he cared about more than anything
else.

****

Roan
pulled his car to a stop in front of their mom’s house and cut the engine.
Lilly could hear the sound of Court’s Harley right behind them, and she looked
at her brother. He didn’t say anything, but the look on his face spoke enough.
He was still angry over the situation, and still pained over what had happened
to her.

They
had stayed at the clubhouse for another hour once Court and Roan had come back
to where she was. Right away she had known the guy that had hurt her was dead.
There was blood that Roan hadn’t managed to clean completely from his hands and
some blood on Court’s neck.

“Let’s
wait until morning to tell Mom about all of this, please.” Roan looked over at
the house, and all of the lights were off except the kitchen. “I just don’t
think she needs to hear this, or see your face when it’s so late.” He sighed,
closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them and looked at her there
was so much pain she swore it was a living entity.

“Roan,
you know she hasn’t gone to bed,
especially not when we
weren’t home yet
.”

He
leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes once more. She reached her
hand out and placed it on his forearm. He didn’t move, but he did sigh heavily,
and finally, after several long seconds, turn to look at her.

“I
know, but I just hoped she would be asleep. You know how this is going to make
her feel. She’s going to freak—and rightly so—but she doesn’t need this shit.
Fuck, Lilly, you didn’t need this shit.”

Her
face felt sore and swollen, but she knew if she wasn’t on the pain meds the
doctor had given her it would be a lot worse.

The
sound of Court cutting his engine had her looking behind her and out the back
window. He was on the phone, and his deep voice was clear, but his words were muffled.

“I
know something happened between you two.”

She
looked over at him, but wasn’t surprised. The way Court had acted had been way
out of character. Roan might not know about the whole sex in the back of his
truck, but she was sure he had wondered how far it had gone. Before she could
say something he shook his head.

“Listen,
I don’t care one way or another.”

That
surprised her.

“I
don’t want to know details, but the way he acted when he saw you, and the way he
spoke about you, made it pretty clear there were unresolved feelings between
the two of you.”

Lilly
really didn’t know what to say, because honestly she had never thought Court
saw her as anything more than a mistake he had made with his best friend’s little
sister.

The
silence of Court no longer talking had her looking behind her shoulder again.
He climbed off his bike and took his helmet off. She definitely had feelings
for him, strong ones like how she had all those years ago, but she honestly
didn’t think how he had acted today meant anything other than a girl he had
known forever had gotten hurt. Of course she wanted to think otherwise, but she
was trying to be realistic, because she didn’t think her heart could take
another cold shoulder turned her way by Court She also didn’t know what Roan
meant when he had told her that he knew something happened between them because
of what Court had said about her. What had he said that would make Roan think
that?

A
tap on her window had her glancing to her side and seeing Court standing there.
He looked so damn good in his t-shirt and cut, but she shouldn’t be thinking
anything was attractive in her condition. It wasn’t just a sexual feeling
toward him, but this spark of memories she had shared with him when she was
younger. They may not have meant anything to Court, and he probably didn’t
really remember, but to her they were locked away in her mind forever.

“We’ll
talk about this later, Lilly.” Roan reached over and clasped her hand. There
was no anger in his voice, and for that she was thankful. There were too many
other things that took precedence right now. She nodded and opened her door.
Court was right there, his hands on her waist and helping her out.

“I’m
fine, really.” She smiled up at him. She really was okay, but then again she
wasn’t. The image of the guy on that deserted stretch of road, over her, his
heavy weight suffocating her, played through her mind like a broken record. She
kept seeing that guy reaching for his belt to undo it, and feeling his hot
breath on her. She didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if
the bikers hadn’t shown up. It was one of those situations where she would have
never thought it would happen to her.

“You’re
not, but everything will be okay now, baby.” He shut the door once she was
fully standing.

Lilly
looked up at him. “Why do you keep calling me things like that?” Now was not
the time to really get into this, but then again she didn’t want to act like
Court’s behavior was normal. She hadn’t spoken to him in a long time, and then
this happened, and it was like he had put some kind of claim on her.

“I
have.”

She
knitted her brows, well, as well as she could with the swelling. His words
confused her. “What?”

“I
have claimed you, Lilly, and I shouldn’t have walked away all those years ago.”