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He didn’t get it. Not really. “What if I open my eyes and the monsters return?”
/> “Feel me? Not just my hands but my presence?”
“Yes,” I answered, swallowing hard. Even with my eyes shut, I’d always be aware when Patriot was nearby. Something about his honest and open personality had connected with my lost and melancholy heart.
“As long as you can feel me, they won’t return.”
“Even if I open my eyes and you’re not there?” I was too frightened to test his words. My lashes fluttered but I didn’t dare open my eyes.
He placed his other palm lightly over my heart. “Do you feel me here?” he asked, his touch so light and delicate that I nearly forgot he was a tough biker and nearly twice my size.
“Yeah.”
“As long as there’s breath in your lungs, sunshine, there’s no chance they could take you away again. As long as our hearts continue to beat, know I’m never far enough to leave you vulnerable. I’m always close.” His voice cracked a little and I almost opened my eyes to catch the vulnerability I could hear in the deep timbre. “I’m always here.”
Silence followed and neither of us broke the connection that seemed to grow and strengthen between two tarnished hearts. We breathed in tandem, chests rising and falling at the same time. Time lost all meaning. Seconds, minutes, hours. I didn’t know how long we stood in his room, the sounds of the clubhouse fading like white noise into the background. I only knew the exact moment that he tilted my chin up and my eyes slowly opened, catching the fierceness of his gaze a heartbeat before he pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose.
“You’re gonna be just fine, little sunshine. Trust me.”
Trust? He asked once before but it was a foreign concept after all of the abuse and trauma, the unending nightmare of rape and torment. And yet, here was Patriot. A Marine with a dark and painful past. A man with his own horrors and regrets. His scars were as numerous as my own.
He wore them like a mantle, proudly on display for all to see.
I clawed and scraped to keep mine in, horrified for the world to know how low I had fallen.
“I don’t know how,” I whispered. The rawness of that truth was evident in the rasp of my voice.
“I’ll teach you,” he murmured, the deep blue of his eyes almost mesmerizing.
“Promise?” It was dangerous to hope and scary as hell to take that leap, but I believed him.
“I never go back on my word, pretty girl.”
Pretty girl. No one in my life had ever called me that. Was I ugly? No. But was I beautiful? I didn’t think so. Average, most likely.
Still, Patriot’s words sank into my heart and gave a funny little tug.
Pretty girl. I’d like to be that to someone special. Just once. Even if I wasn’t sure if I was worth the effort.
He seemed to know that hidden wish because his next words surrounded me in a warmth I hadn’t felt since I was a child.
“You’re worth it, pretty girl. Don’t ever doubt it.”
Grim banged the gavel down and sat back in his chair, lighting up a smoke. Once he inhaled a couple of times, he got down to business. “We’ve got a lot of shit to go over. Trixie, er Naomi, is first. Patriot, fill us all in.”
Glancing down at my watch I tried not to be irritated that it was nearly 1300 and church was supposed to start at 12:30. Rael was never fucking on time and I wanted to punch him in the throat for making me wait. Nothing pissed me off more than sitting here with my coffee ready to go while a few of the members showed up when they felt like it. Mammoth at least gave them dirty looks too. VP knew my frustration.
SAA should be on fucking time, dammit.
Glaring Rael’s way, I sat back and stared around the table at my brothers, taking in their solemn expressions.
The trafficking issue was a problem and combined with the missing girls in Nevada and finding Mimi messed up in the back of Alexi’s vehicle, we were all on edge. None of that was helped by the fact that the Bloody Scorpions and Russians had worked out a plan. We were almost certain girls were lured to the BSMC clubhouse with promises of booze and wild parties and that’s how the Russians were trafficking so many through the Great Basin.
It was time I sat down with Mimi and find out what she knew but I didn’t want to reopen fresh wounds and end up traumatizing her again just when she was starting to make progress.
“There was a hit on Naomi while she was in the hospital. I tracked the fucker down and reaped his wretched soul.”
Fists pounded the table as my brothers showed their support.
