AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tip her head back and make sure she is looking at me when I speak. I need her to hear me. “Because of you, the people around you know if they are hurt, you’ll help them. If they get sick, you’ll heal them and, by extension, the people they care about. Just like there is a cost to you to heal them, there is a cost to others for receiving the benefits of those gifts. It’s the universe’s way of balancing shit out.”
She considers my words. Though I can see there is still a huge amount of fear in her eyes, I feel her relax a fraction.
“I like seeing you on my bed,” I tell her, changing the subject to distract her, though it’s not a lie.
She laughs in surprise at my words. “I wondered whose room it was.”
“It’s yours. But I’d really like it if you let me and Zig share it with you.”
“Honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep without you both. Not now after everything,” she admits bashfully, biting her lip.
“Nothing to be shy about, pretty girl. It’s the same for me and Zig. Besides, there is nowhere safer for you than between us.”
“I know,” she says, looking into my eyes, reaching up and sliding her thumb across my jaw. “I don’t know if I ever really thanked you both for what you’ve done for me.”
“Sure, you did. That thing you do with your tongue—” She slaps my chest, making me laugh.
“I’m serious.” She laughs, and something lifts inside me at the lightness on her face now that the dark clouds have parted.
“I’m serious too. I saw stars. Anytime you want to thank me, you should do it exactly like that.”
She shakes her head, giggling as a shadow falls on us.
I turn and find Zig watching us, his eyes soft as he watches Salem. “Everyone’s ready for us,” he says, making Salem jump. She turns to look at him and swallows hard, her nerves showing. But our brave girl lifts her chin, pulls her shoulders back, and nods.
“I’m ready.”
We stand, and I tug her with me over to the door, stopping so Zig can bend and press his lips to hers briefly. I keep her hand in mine, and Zig takes her other. And we make our way downstairs as a united front. Leading her down the hallway, I follow the sound of voices out back to the firepit and find everyone there, already drinking and talking to each other.
As soon as I push the door open, all eyes look our way. Jagger and Slade jump up when they see us and hug both me and Zig, much to Zig’s annoyance, which makes Salem giggle again, catching their attention.
“Only you motherfuckers could crash-land in a jungle and walk out with a woman as fine as this.” Jagger drawls, and we both growl as Salem buries her face between Zig’s shoulder blades.
“Thank God we’re outside, or we’d choke on the testosterone flying around,” Luna says, rolling her eyes and points at the sofa beside the one she’s sitting on with Halo and Orion. I walk over to it and sit at the far end, leaving plenty of space for Salem to sit beside me and Zig on the other side of her. I wasn’t joking when I told her that between us is exactly where we like her.
“It’s so fucking good to see you two again, back where you belong. Though, like my nona would say, you need fattening up,” Greg jokes.
“If you’re offering to cook for us—”
“Well, I hope this will do for now.” Hendrix walks through the door with Nash right behind him, both carrying a shitload of pizzas.
“Holy fuck, what are you guys doing here?” Zig asks, taking the words from my mouth. Hendrix and Nash usually work from our second base. They have the most contact with the government.
Handing a pizza box to Crew, who is closest to him, Hendrix looks at us before his eyes move to Salem. “You think after what went down, we’d keep doing their dirty work? Not fucking likely.”
Salem tenses beside me.
“Okay, I get that a lot of this isn’t mine or Halo’s shit. And if you were at the MC, we’d be hesitant to share anything with you—” Orion starts while taking a couple of boxes of pizza from Nash. Luna laughs, taking a box from him, and looks at Halo beside her, who grins back, my niece fast asleep in his lap. “—all, but,” Orion continues like nothing happened. “I need to know if there will be blowback so I can warn the guys to take extra precautions. It’s been quiet lately, so I don’t want to be blindsided. Not now when Luna’s pregnant again.”
Everyone looks our way.
Crew walks over and takes the chair next to Greg, which is right next to Zig’s end of the sofa. They each take a pizza box from Hendrix before the man himself sits down on the floor next to Crew where Jagger joins him with a pizza of his own. Nash hands a pizza box to Zig and offers one to Salem, who looks up at him. When he nods and smiles, she returns one of her own and takes the box from him. Taking the last two pizzas with him, he sits on the floor near Wilder who is leaning against the wall watching us with interest.
“Not all of it is our story to tell, Orion. And I won’t force Salem to tell you anything she’s not comfortable with.” I scan the people and realize we have a couple missing. “Should we wait for the others?”
“Creed and Hawk are doing a job. We can fill them in later. They wanted to be here, but this job is something of a personal nature.” He shrugs as if to saywhat can I do?
“Evander is monitoring all comms.”
