Outlaw's Bride (13 page)

Without another word, the Veep slapped his buddy on the shoulder, then spun around and walked out.  A minute later, we heard his motorcycle rumbling to life outside, and then fading away.

Rabid gave me a sympathetic look, and I turned my back.

Fuck it. I didn't need anybody's good karma to protect this fucked up family I didn't know I had 'til I walked into the farmhouse.

I'd find a way to lock shit down and clean up nice, even if it meant I'd have to walk through miles of hell to get there.

Blackjack's face tightened. The old buzzard slicked his long gray hair back the longer I talked in his office, telling him all about how I lost my shit and decided to make a move the second I got upstairs, after I'd thrown Beam off her.

“Christ, son. What's it going to take for you to grow a brain?” Blackjack growled, soon as I was finished.

“Everybody getting outta my way so I can handle my own shit, for starters. I don't need the club's help on this. It's my problem, Prez.”

“Bullshit.” Blackjack stood, clenching his lip white as the old bullet wound in his leg burned. “We're the only family you've got. Unless maybe you introduced your new woman and boy to your mother before us?”

Fuck. Ma.

I hadn't said shit. I could barely imagine how I'd break the news to her.

Blackjack nodded, satisfied and right. Like he always was.

How the fuck did he do it? Was it just age that gave him some eerie way to read a bastard's mind?

“I'll leave that up to you. What I can't take a hands off approach with is this clubhouse, and every inch of territory we control outside it. I'm disappointed, son. You could've brought this to me right away, before you decided to pack them up in your room.”

I threw up my hands. “Fuck, Prez, I told you. I'm working on it. There wasn't time for –“

“Bullshit!” His fist hit the desk so hard I suppressed a jump. “There's always time to do your job and report things you know damned well I need to know about.”

Fucker had me by the balls. I looked at him, flexed my fists, and nodded. “You're right.”

“It's not about being right. It's about making everything crystal fucking clear while the stakes are higher than ever for this club, including
everyone
who's tied in with a full patch member. Here's what's going to happen.”

Shit.
Who the fuck had I pissed off to have everybody in the world aiming those words at me?

I blinked. At first, I thought I'd zoned out, missed something the Prez said, but he'd paused. Too deep in thought to continue lecturing my sorry ass.

“No. Giving it to you point by point won't work. Some things, you've got to figure out for yourself, son. It's your turn.” He flattened both hands on the desk, using it as leverage to lean over, staring at me like a hungry vulture. “You tell me – how're you going to fix this for the club?”

“I'll have 'em moved out by the end of the day. Rabid's old lady is gonna play babysitter, so that'll help.” Fuck, the look on the Prez's face wasn't impressed. “All right, you really wanna know, Blackjack?”

I stood up 'til I towered over him, turning the tables. I respected the Prez, but his question cut deep, and if he really wanted to fucking know, I'd ram those answers straight down his throat.

“I'll sew this shit up tight, same way I would've done years ago if I'd known there was a kid in the picture. I'll claim her. Brand her. Marry her. Move her the fuck in and make her a proper wife, a good old lady. She's
mine
, dammit, and that makes her my damned problem too.”

“You think it's going to be easy?” Blackjack whispered.

“Fuck, no. It's gonna be like crawling over broken glass. Shit, I'll be lucky if I'm not going half as gray as you after a year or two. But I'm gonna make it work. I fucking gotta. You know my old man died defending this club.”

“That's right,” Blackjack said. “Wheeler died defending his family. Both of them.”

“And I'd do the same thing in half a fucking heartbeat. I'll die for this club, die for my kid, die for her – even after she's fucked me over hard. I'm a man, Prez, and she's my woman, right or wrong. I don't give a shit if she doesn't love me. I'll make her. I don't know a damned thing about raising kids, but I'll learn. I'm gonna do this right, and nobody's gonna stop me. Not even the club.”

He cocked his head, as if my little challenged amused him. “I'm not the enemy, son, and you know it. You've got my support.”

He reached for the ashtray across the desk, a huge silver tray with our roaring bear stamped inside it. I started to relax, only a little. Had I actually passed his bullshit test?

“Are we done here?” I asked.

“I wouldn't let you walk if we didn't have an understanding,” he said, pulling out a smoke and lighting it. “You won't let this become a bigger issue for the club, and I'll hold you to it. Now, get the hell outta my office and go give that sweet thing a decent place to stay. And if I hear anything about you fucking her up, doing anything that makes her run, you can bet your ass I'll haul you back in here. I'm trusting you to figure this shit out with your words – not your fists. You can't muscle your way out of this one. You've got to use your brains, son. I know you've got 'em, otherwise you wouldn't be wearing the Enforcer patch. Prove me right.”

I nodded, and so did he. Yeah, we had an understanding. Now, everything hinged on striking the perfect balance between Sally and my club.

“Let's go, babe. We're leaving.”

She didn't wanna come with me after we dropped off Caleb with Christa for a few hours. Too damned bad. I took her by the hand and made her walk, clenching her hot little hand in mine.

Fuck, even when Sally wanted to gouge my eyes out, the chick was hot as fuck. I hated the way she caused my prick to jump every time she shot me those
fuck you
eyes.

Yeah, fuck me.

Fuck me for watching her standing there in short heels and a skirt, a conservative top that couldn't conceal those tits from my eyes if the fabric was made outta stone. Fuck me for trying to keep the hate fires going while she flicked an angry tongue over her lips, trying to hold back from laying into me.

Sooner or later, I knew I'd be laying into her after she got my brand stamped in her flesh. I didn't give a single shit if she hated my guts and then some.

Just like I told the Prez – I'd
make
her love me. I'd make us one big happy family, husband and wife, badass and old lady, or I'd be in a fucking coffin trying. I'd turn her
fuck you
eyes into
fuck me
gemstones and watch her slide down to her knees, my fist in her hair, growling while she begged to suck my cock.

“Let's get this over with,” Sally snapped, trotting past me toward the garages.

A few minutes later, she was on my bike, her little fingers digging into my abs hard enough to make me feel it. She held on like a woman grabbing a sharp cliff because it was the only thing that kept her from falling to her doom.

Like it or not, I was saving her, whether she fucking knew it or not.

Holding her up. Making damned sure she never tumbled back to earth with my son in her hands, impaling them both on the cartel's blood red knives.

Fuck.

At the tattoo shop in town, we met this skinny freak covered from head to toe in ink like a goddamned alligator's scales. He did good work on our crew and several of our old ladies, and he had Sally's shirt off in no time, scrawling PROPERTY OF ROMAN on her lower back.

Perfect place to see it when I'd be pounding the fuck outta her in the future. She refused to give me much input on the brand going on her skin, so I chose everything myself.

Thorns around the side. A dark butterfly on one corner, spreading its wings, the only thing she fought me on because I wanted a crow on her skin at the start. We compromised with the bug, and I had to admit, it looked damned good.

When it was all over, she snatched the fabric back over her skin, sat up from the bench, and glared. Ink boy smiled at me, an awkward little sparkle in his eyes.

I nodded, reaching for my wallet, and left it at that. He didn't need to know shit.

Something about watching his hands all over my woman made me fucking pissed. No, it didn't matter that she wasn't mine yet neither.

If it took years for us to break down and fuck, I'd never let another man put his hands on her again. The whole damned world was bound to know what we were soon, and she wouldn't be moving outta my sight without a branded jacket on her shoulders to match the stamp I'd just given her above the ass.

“Take me home,” she muttered, as soon as we stepped outside and headed for my bike.

“Cheer the fuck up. It looks awesome, Sally. I got you the best damned ink money can buy here in town. You've gotta be the only girl in the world who gets upset about looking hot.”

She shrugged, looking sadly at the sidewalk. Anger and disappointment shot through my chest, as if the shit swirling around inside her somehow escaped and infected my sorry ass.

I wasn't fucking stupid. I got it. I was taking her on a whirlwind ride my way, the
only
way she left open after I blew her cover and walked into my son's life for good.

She'd figure it out in time, or I'd twist her head 'til she did. I wasn't fucking letting up on this girl, or my idea of weaving some kinda real family from this chaos.

We tore down Redding's streets. I couldn't stop wondering just how many drops of blood and tears it'd take to get us to that place I imagined.

“What the hell is this?” she said, stepping off her bike in front of the house tucked back in the 'burbs.

The street was just as quiet as I'd seen this morning, before I hit the clubhouse, and that was a good sign.

“Your only chance to look at this place and let me know if you wanna settle here or bounce. You'll tell me more about this than you did about the ink, or I'll make this decision for you too.” I took her helmet and watched her eyes widen. “I'm giving you
one
chance, babe.”

“I already have a home with Caleb and Norm. I don't need a new one.”

“You're not setting foot there again 'til this cartel business is case fucking closed, babe. Maybe not even then. I'm gonna be around to protect my family, wherever you end up. Don't make me explain it to you again.”

She frowned, sulking. I couldn't hold back. We'd only have a few quiet minutes before the landlord pulled up to show us around, so I had to do everything I could to make her smile before then.

I reached out, cupped her chin with my fingers, and pulled her head up to look at me. “It's gonna be fine. You will be too. I'm not the fucking monster you think I am. You lied to me, babe, and I can kinda see why you did. I fucking hated it. You and the kiddo are coming with me, wherever the fuck I go, whether you like it or not. But I'm gonna make this shit as safe and comfortable for you as I can. Don't you get it?”

For a second, her face softened. Then her cheeks flushed red and her features crinkled. She ripped her chin outta my hands and angrily hopped off the back of my bike.

“Go to hell. You'd better hope this place has a few more bedrooms so you can sleep on the floor.”

Sweet. Fiery. Bitch.

She turned her back and started heading for the house, and I sat out there waiting for our man. I fucking hated this shit. Damn if I didn't watch her round ass moving underneath that skirt every step she took, wagging those globes in front of me like candy she wanted to keep to herself.

Damn if I'd let her be that greedy.
Fuck
if I'd let her keep me from busting a hole in her life and taking everything over.

She was mine the instant that brand went on her skin, and once I took hold, I never let go.

The tour went fast. She tried like hell not too look at me. My eyes were all over her as the old landlord with the potbelly prattled on, talking about all the features that were supposed to wow us.

It was a decent place.

Still, the jacuzzi didn't mean shit to me 'til I could pull her in and fuck her senseless. Neither did the remodeled kitchen, unless it meant her smiling at me with honey instead of vinegar, preferably wearing an apron and nothing else.

My dick definitely had an inverse relationship to her pissing me off. The worse it got, the harder I wanted to fuck her, imagining all the ways I'd strip her down and slam into her hot wet cunt in this house.

I'd fuck her in every room 'til she smiled at me with love in her eyes. I'd screw the bitch right outta her, mark every room with our rough scent, watch her convulse all over me in the goddamned grass if I had to.

I'd never had a place this big, even though I could afford it for a long time. Plus there was a nice big yard for my kid to play in, assuming we put our stakes down here for a few years. That had to count for something.

When the man brought us back to the living room, he looked at us both with an easy smile.

“Well, what do you think?”

“We'll take it,” I said, fixing my eyes on Sally. I didn't see any reluctance in her bright eyes. “You said over the phone it's move in ready now, right?”

“You can sign the lease today!” he said excitedly, waving us out to his truck for the papers. “Should have the keys for you by tomorrow. I assure you, it's a great place to raise a family.”

“Yeah, it is,” I said with a smile, looking at Sally again. “Don't you agree, babe?”

“Maybe.”

The landlord beamed. My eyes hit her face like a goddamned laser beam, searching for that sass she was giving me before. Her tone was softer, and there wasn't as much tension lining those soft cheeks I couldn't stop thinking about turning bright red as I pounded her to orgasm harder than she'd ever come in her entire life.

I'd already had that pussy a couple dozen times. So why the fuck couldn't I stop my dick from thumping like it knew it was gonna sink into a virgin?

I'd end up between her legs one way or another. If she was really accepting this place, opening herself to
me,
then I'd be buried balls deep a lot sooner than I thought. I'd pull her into the life I wanted with Caleb.