SOULLESS (Black Thorns, #2) (28 page)

He curses as he lifts his head to look at me, agony in his eyes.

“Say it,” I seethe.

He just stares at me for a while, before croaking out, “You…couldn’t…be broken.”

Those were the words I’d always needed to hear to really put the shit he did to me behind me.

Satisfied, I get to my feet.

And then a gunshot rings out.

I watch Kent’s body jerk.

Takes me a second to see why. A fatal bullet to the head.

I spin ‘round and see Sin with his gun aimed Kent’s way. He lifts his chin at me in a sign of respect.

Jesus.

Everyone’s staring wide-eyed at Kent’s lifeless body.

Even Rox.

“Dealer!” I call, pointing at Rox.

He gets it and turns her away from the fucked up sight. “I’ll get some of my guys down here to clean this mess up. Won’t come back on the club,” he assures me.

I draw in a breath, tryin’ to process all this shit.

And then I tell ‘em all, “Let’s get outta here.”

Chapter 31

~Roxana~

I tense as Neil strides into the room, slamming the door behind him. He eyes me and his expression is fierce. I’m just not sure what
kind
of fierce—anger or passion? Or a bit of both. Shit.

I gulp as he locks the door and stalks towards where I’m sitting up in the bed on top of the covers.

“Did you…uh…sort everything with the boys?”

He doesn’t respond.

His gaze sweeps over me really slowly, taking his sweet time eye-fucking me.

I’m wearing one of his black club t-shirts.

“You wearing panties under that?” he asks in a low, rumbling growl.

Oh my God.

I just shrug, still not sure where he’s going with this, or where his head is at.

It’s only been a couple of hours since we got back from Malcolm’s compound and the only thing he’s said to me until now was a command to go upstairs while he met with the club to debrief them on the situation.

He sheds his cut and his t-shirt and then climbs onto the bed.

I gasp as he crawls up my body and straddles me. He presses my wrists down into the covers and glares down at me.

“You’re mad about—”

“‘Bout what, Rox?” he says, cutting me off. “You interfering with the club? Bursting into church when you ain’t a fucking member? Convincing the boys to come back my ass up at that hellhole? Putting yourself in danger by standing up to Kent like that? Putting our kid in danger?”

Oh shit. “Okay, so you are mad then. Well—”

He lifts his hand off my left wrist and presses his finger to my lips. “Shh.”

He leans in closer.

And then a huge grin spreads over his face. “Crazy fucking ball-buster. Saved my life, babe.”

What? I bat his hand away from my mouth. “So, you’re just screwing with me? You’re not mad?”

“You get a pass. Cuz shit worked out. But you ever put yourself in danger—”

I throw my arms around his neck. “I won’t.”

“Yeah?” he breathes in my ear.

“Promise.”

He kisses my neck. “Thank you, babe.” He tightens his hold around me. “Just need you and our kid safe. And now all this shit’s done, we finally got that. All those fuckers wiped off my list thanks to you and now Kent, too, thanks to Sin.”

I pull back and ask him, “You’re sure Sin can be trusted and that he’s not a threat? Because the things I’ve heard about him—”

“He’s all good, babe. Swear it.”

“Okay,” I say, trusting his word. Neil’s a good judge of people and situations. Besides, I know he’d never put us in danger. If he thought Sin was still a threat he would’ve seen to it tonight.

He grabs my hips and lifts me onto his lap. “You know how you been hating on the idea of the boys seeing you as an Old Lady and nothing more?”

“Yeah?” I respond, not sure where he’s going with this.

“After the shit you pulled tonight, they see you how I see you now, Rox.”

I cock my head to the side. “And how’s that?”

“As a soldier. Fucking fearless and tough as nails, babe. They been talkin’ ‘bout getting you some kind of honorary patch.”

“What?” I shriek, excitedly. “You’re serious?”

He nods. “I ain’t never known a call for nothing like this before. First woman I ever known to actually be accepted into the club as something more than an Old Lady.” He pulls me tighter to him and I rest my head against his chest. “You’re something else, Rox. I knew it the moment I saw you in that diner and you started mouthing off to me. Fucking love your fire, babe.”

I laugh into his chest.

After a little while, he lifts me off his lap and comes to sit beside me, leaning his head back against the headboard. “So, you know, Reirdon Falls has some good office space. You could set up
Roxana’s Interiors
here if you wanted. There’s also some nice houses on the outskirts. Off the road and private.”

“Yeah?” I ask, grinning at him.

He shrugs casually. “Yeah.”

I laugh. “You suck at playing things casual, Neil.”

“Like hell, babe.”

“You do when it comes to me.”

“Just wanna make sure you’re gonna be happy with me,” he says, his eyes intense as he looks at me. “Can’t lose you again for nothing, Rox.”

I hold my left hand up to him, flashing my engagement ring. “This is your proof that you won’t. Forever, Neil. Okay?”

He shakes his head. “Not ‘til we both got wedding rings on our fingers.”

“Fine. Let’s get married ASAP then.”

He sits forward, surprised. “Now? Don’t you wanna…you know…do all that planning shit that women love to do?”

“Oh, you mean the whole crazy expensive white wedding thing?”

“Yeah,” he says, screwing up his face just at the thought of it. “That.”

“Would you really be down for all of that?”

He shrugs. “If that’s what you want, I can suck it up, yeah. Told you. I want you to be happy with me. So…if that’s what it takes…then…yeah.”

Wow. I can’t believe he’d be willing to do all of that for me. I take his hand and his eyes lock with mine, as I tell him, “This is about the biker thing—my former hatred of MCs, isn’t it?”

“I made a decision, Rox.”

I smile. “To stay as President of Black Thorns?”

“How’d you know? I only just announced it to the boys.”

“The way you were talking back at your house the other day. And, remember, I told you that I’m more than okay with it, minus the club whore thing. The club is different now with you leading it. I…I like it here. I like being around the boys. It feels like….”

“Like what?” he presses, squeezing my hand gently.

“Like
home
.”

He grins. “Yeah?”

I slap my free hand to my heart. “I swear.”

“Come here,” he says. And then he pounces on me and wrestles me beneath him. His hands slide up my thighs and under his club t-shirt. “Fuck me. You ain’t wearing panties.”

I gasp as his finger enters me. “Mmm.”

“Barely touched you and you’re already dripping for me. Tell me you’re always gonna be so desperate for me, babe.”

“Always,” I breathe, gazing up at him.

He leans down to kiss me.

I jerk my head away as a sudden wave of nausea hits me.

“Off,” I tell him.

He gets off me immediately and I scramble off the bed. “The baby’s cock blocking you,” I joke as I hurry to the bathroom. “I’m sorry,” I say as I dart inside and lift up the toilet seat.

His heavy footsteps sound behind me.

“No apologies, babe. Got the rest of our lives.”

Before I can respond to his sweet words, it hits and I start chucking my guts up.

I feel his hand wrap around my hair, bunching it into a ponytail to hold it out of the way. His other gently strokes my back.

“Got you, beautiful girl. Forever.”

Epilogue

~Ax~

If looks could really kill, Runner would be a pile of fucking ash right now.

Rox squeezes my hand and whispers, “Relax. He’s just messing around. It’s Runner. It’s how he is.”

Yeah, it’s how he is. Fucker’s making his best man speech and talkin’ ‘bout some incident that’s new to me involving my girl walking in on him in his room at the clubhouse and seeing his junk.

I listen as he goes on to say that, despite her seeing what he had to offer, she still only had eyes for me.

“See?” Rox says to me. “That last part was sweet, wasn’t it, baby?”

Damn. Just her words and the slightest touch from her can calm me right down, even when I don’t wanna be calm. I gaze down at her and smile.

“To Mr and Mrs Barron!” Runner calls.

Rox giggles happily as everyone gathered ‘round our backyard raises their beer bottles and toasts us.

I place my hands on her hips, wanting to pick her up in my arms.

“No,” she says. “I’m way too heavy.”

I look her over, standing in front of me in the sexiest damn wedding dress I’ve ever seen. Those things never appealed to me before. But
her
wearing one? Hot damn. I’m caught between wanting to rip it off her and devour her, and the other part of me that never wants her to take it off. It’s a white silky dress that flows right down to the floor with shiny diamond-like sequin things all over it. And the way her tits look in it? Jesus Christ. They’re a lot bigger, cuz of the pregnancy and it’s been taking all I got just to take my eyes off ‘em even for a second with the way they’re being held in that dress.

“Heavy?” I ask her, placing my hand on her baby bump and rubbing gently.

“Yeah. Heavy and fat,” she says, pouting her lips at me.

Uh oh. Not again. Another mood swing’s coming on. I gotta nip this shit in the bud ASAP, cuz I want her to enjoy the rest of our wedding day. She’s been on and off like this all day—for weeks, actually. But today she’s been extra sensitive, cuz of everyone looking at her and having to walk down the aisle more than eight months pregnant.

“Ain’t no
fat
, babe,” I say, stroking her belly. “That’s our kid in you.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Blah, blah, blah.”

I can’t help it. I burst out laughing. “Damn, you’re so cute when you get all hormonal on me.”

“Hormonal?” she cries, slapping my chest. She fists her hands in her dress. “Look at me.”

“Looking, babe. Most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.
My
wife.”

I lift her, gathering her in my arms before she can stop me this time, and carry her through the backyard towards the patio doors in the distance. Gonna take her to bed for a bit. That always calms her right down. Woman can’t say
‘no’
to me.

We moved into this house four months back, right after Rox finished setting up all the stuff she needed to move her business,
Roxana’s Interiors,
into Reirdon Falls.

It’s a bungalow off a private driveway on the outskirts of Reirdon Falls. Quiet and safe, just like what we both wanted.
Since the day we moved in, we been busting our asses to get it fixed up, ready for the baby.

Organizing all of that pushed back the wedding big time.

So, that’s why we’re here on our wedding day right now with her ready to give birth any day. But we both agreed we wanted to be married before the baby was born. Do things right for once.

Turns out me and Rox were on the same page with the wedding stuff. Kept it small. Just family.

I built one of those wedding arches—an
arbor
is what Rox says is its proper name—and me and the boys brought in a bunch of chairs and a long white carpet thing to create a makeshift aisle for her to walk down. The look on her face when she saw it was priceless.

We had a minister from the church in town do the service. Dealer gave Rox away. I had Runner up there with me as my best man, along with Smiter, too. Rox was disappointed that she couldn’t have her own best man up there with her—her long-time friend and old business partner, Ralph Taylor. But the guy’s got his hands full with his own pregnant woman. Michaela is way too close to giving birth to travel up here and they don’t live close by in Brockford no more. Rox helped ‘em to relocate somewhere quiet.

So, Rox ended up bringing in Halle as her bridesmaid, along with that diner owner, Sarah. Only seen
her
once before—the first time I met Rox back in Brockford. Brought back memories of back then and made me realize just how far me and Rox have come. Who woulda thought two complete opposites like us could make shit work between us? Fucking amazing.

Although none of the boys were down for wearing a suit and shit, I did manage to get ‘em to show up clean at least. Even though she won’t never admit it, I know Rox has a thing ‘bout my cut now it’s got the Prez emblem on it. The thing turns her on—some kinda power rush thing, I guess. Told me she didn’t want me wearing a suit today—wanted the cut. Fucking amazing how shit changes.