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"What?" Lo asked, then listened for a minute, her face looking almost amused and alarmed at once. "You confuse me," she told him. "I think it's impossible not to love you a little bit, Shoot." Love him? "I bet they do. By the balls one day, Shooter. Can't wait to see that." What by the balls? They sounded downright friendly. How close could they have gotten in a couple of days? "Famous last words. Thanks, Shooter. You got me free of him finally. I can't say how..." She trailed off and a laugh escaped her. It was the kind of laugh I never realized I hadn't heard from her before: completely open, beautifully happy. "Oh, I don't know... that might be difficult."
It was a laugh that I hoped like hell I could have some day.
But there was only one way to make that possible.
"One day," I said, my words heavy, "when I'm ready... we need to have a talk. The girly kind... with feelings and shit. There's a lot you need to know. Not just about what happened to me way back then... but about what I have done since then, behind everyone's backs. For the greater good, I think, but still. Not good stuff. Not clean."
"Babe... nothing in our lives is clean. It's dirty and bloody and we have to fight so hard for everything we get, but it's that fight that makes it worth it in the end."
We heard it then. Not her phone, not the call that was promised, but boots outside. We were on our feet in seconds, Lo reaching for a gun she didn't have, me dragging two out of the nightstand, guns I had found in the closet. Yeah, guns. As in he had an unlocked supply of them right there for the taking the whole time I was staying there. I tossed Lo a gun, turning toward the door and taking aim. There was a sudden surge of nostalgia flooding my system at that moment, taking on a potential bad guy side-by-side with Lo. It was nice, familiar, right.
The door burst open and three men stepped into the small space of the cabin.
"You were supposed to fucking call!" Lo snapped at Cash, gun still raised.
"Things got hot. We didn't have time."
"Oh, no? The whole ride back from wherever-the-fuck you were... you couldn't call?"
"No."
Cash crossed the room toward Lo as I looked at the other two men.
Reign was opposite to his brother in almost every way. Where Cash was light, Reign was dark. They were both tall and a thin kind of strong. Both were tattooed. But where Cash had blond hair, Reign had dark brown. Cash's eyes were a deep green, Reign's a lighter shade. And where Cash exuded his casual, jocular, laid-back aura, everything about Reign was deadly and dangerous. I guess he had to be, given that he was the leader of a bunch of rough and tough bikers who illegally ran guns.
Seeing him sent a sliver of fear through my belly. Maybe Wolf was right and he didn't hurt women. But maybe I was right too in thinking that was only because a woman never threatened him before. I threatened him. He didn't know that yet, but I still felt paranoid.
To Reign's side was Repo, the guy who Wolf said was the best shot in the club. Looking at him now, I see I was wrong in thinking he was barely pushing twenty. There was a manly build to his body, a wideness of shoulder, a development of muscle that younger men couldn't usually acquire. He had dark hair and deep blue eyes and a scar that ran down the center of one side of his face, cutting off at the very sharp, strong jut of his jaw. There was something about him, a fierceness, a deep kind of wisdom that made him seem even older than twenty-four.
If Reign found out one day, would he send Repo after me? Would I never see it coming? Would I be walking down the street somewhere, alive one minute, dead in a pool of my own blood the next?
"Why the hell not?" Lo exploded.
"Because I was trying to focus on the road and not die on my way back to you."
I could see those words deflate her.
"I'm still mad at you," she grumbled, but I knew she wasn't. And so did Cash.
"I guess I'll have to live with that," he smiled, pressing his front into her front, his hands sliding down her arms then wrapping around her ass before his mouth came down on hers. It wasn't a quick peck either. It was long and wet and deep... with tongue. She was clinging to him, blissfully oblivious to the three other people in the room. I looked away, feeling a bit like I was catching my mom or big sister making out with some guy, creating all kinds of discomfort in my stomach.
"Mind if we get this over with so I can go home and kiss my woman like that and Repo can... go and kiss his cars or whatever the fuck he does?" Reign asked.
I almost laughed, caught off guard. I didn't think Reign had a joking bone in his body.
"Get what over with?" Lo asked, trying to slip into a serious voice, but her tone was still breathless.
"We found Wolf," Reign said, looking at me suddenly, guessing or knowing the situation, giving me the news I needed. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. "He's... working through some shit," he said, vaguely.
"Are any of us going to have to worry about an FBI raid?" Lo asked.
"Janie, wanna go see him?" Reign asked, his tone soft as he held an arm out to lead me outside.
Repo followed behind.
"That's not an answer!" Lo called at us as we walked away.THIRTEENJanie"Where are we going?" I asked as they turned me away from the driveway and led me further into the woods.
"Wolf has a shed a way back," Reign said and I could feel his eyes on my profile. "You know anything about Wolf's past?"
