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Reign nodded, an evil little smirk toying with his lips. “Should send Wolf down there if you want some real vengeance.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “He almost went postal on me when he thought I was the one who fucked up Lo.”
Reign smiled slightly before it fell. “You're fucking her,” he guessed, rightly.
I looked down at my feet, not able to face him when I admitted, “More than that.”
“Eyes, bro,” he commanded and I reluctantly looked up. “Oh, you're so fucked!” he broke off laughing. “Lo, man? Fuuuuuck.”
“She's not who everyone thinks she is.”
“She got your balls in a vice grip, she'd have to be something pretty fuckin' exceptional.”
He had no idea. Stripped of the chance to run away from me, pain making it impossible to keep her shields reinforced, she had opened up to me. She told me about her shit father and his shit gender roles, the way he used to punish her when she fucked up- making her do endless hours of push-ups, sit-ups, force her to do suicides until she puked or fainted, made her clean up the vomit, then start all over again. She told me how she saw the boy next door asking her to marry her as a way out of the prison she was raised in. She cried when she told me about the first time he beat her, how she almost killed herself to be free of him, how she was terrified anyone knew those things because she thought everyone would look at her differently then, like she was a victim instead of the badass bitch (her words) she had worked so hard to be.
She let me in.
I got to see the whole person for the first time and I realized with the same kind of clarity that Reign did, that I was so fucked.
“Repo ain't too happy about you slamming him up against a wall the other day.”
“He's a loyal fuck. Gotta appreciate that about him. I'll talk to him.”
“He's keeping this between us, but he's gonna have some major trust issues, you picking a chick and Hailstorm over us. Especially with Wolf being off doing fuck-knows what too. Things aren't looking good at the top over there right now.”
“Wolf's business is Wolf's business,” I specified, not willing to break that trust either, “but we all know we can trust him to make the right decisions too.”
Reign sighed, his shoulders slumping a bit, barely noticeable if someone didn't know him as well as I did. The weight of leadership, he was feeling it. “Whatever he's got himself into, is it bad?”
My gut was telling me yes. He was edgy and being way too protective of Janie. He wasn't showing up at the clubhouse. It was all pointing to something serious. “He's got his head on straight from what I can tell so far.”
Reign snorted. “So far.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, both of us knowing there were times, albeit infrequent, but no less terrifying, that Wolf flew off the handle, went full on ape-shit crazy, nearly blacked out in his rage and did shit we didn't even want to think about.
“I get that you got shit going on here,” he allowed and I felt a wave of relief. He wasn't going to directly order me back and force me to defy him which would lead to all kinds of problems. No, he saved me from that. Yet again, fuckin' looking out for me like always. “But I need to see your face, the men, fucking Repo need to see your face in church. And I need to know you're keeping an eye on the Wolf situation. Last thing we need is his bloody, law-enforcement-attention-grabbing trouble at our doorstep. Now you got your shit sorted, things are calm again. Don't want to be rocking the boat.”
“Got it,” I agreed.
“And answer your god damn phone,” he added with a smile.
“Will do.”
“She alright?” he asked after a long pause.
“It was fucking bad, man,” I admitted, not caring that the emotion was leaking into my tone. If there was one person who understood how it felt to see the woman you cared about battered by another man, it was Reign. “Her entire back was ripped open and her face was busted again. But she's stitched up and healing fast. She'll be up raising hell in no time.”
“Sometime like now?” he asked, nodding over my shoulder.
I turned, curious, to find Lo standing by the front door to the compound talking to Malcolm. She had on a loose-fitting white tee that must have belonged to one of the men and I had a sneaking suspicion it was Mike's and a pair of black yoga pants tucked slightly into her heavy-looking black combat boots.
“Fucking seriously?” I asked, looking up at the sky.
“Gonna have your hands full with that one,” Reign remarked and it sounded like he was smiling.
I turned back to him to find he was. “Like you should talk. Still got fuckin' bullet holes in the side of the compound.”
“Lucky I don't have bullet holes in me,” Reign laughed, shaking his head. “Never met a woman so infatuated with guns.”
“Good she's shacked up with a gun runner then,” I smiled back.
Reign nodded, his face soft at the idea of Summer. “Go see to your woman. Get her fuckin' ass back in bed before she falls over,” he said, getting back on his bike. “See you at church.”
I gave him a small wave, waiting for him to pull away before I turned to stalk back over to Lo.
“Serious, woman?” I asked, shaking my head at her.
“I'm fine.”
“Twenty minutes ago you were lying against my chest, too sore to move.” And I fuckin' liked having her there too.
“Yes, well, twenty minutes ago I didn't have an elephant's dose of feel-good meds coursing through my bloodstream,” she smiled. But her eyes weren't cloudy and her words weren't slow. She wasn't flying high on any pain killers.
“Baby...”
“I want to see him, Cash,” she said, lifting her chin.
“He's got food and shit down there. He'll live a couple more days.”
