AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You taste like heaven.”
THIRTEEN
Ryker
The timeon my watch shows only five minutes have passed since I last looked. Which was five minutes before the time before that. Checking it does nothing to stop my leg from bouncing, my eye from twitching, and my heart from skipping every other beat.
I’ve heard nothing from Scarlett or Axel, but Shift reassures me that the job was done, the cleaners were called in, and the dead body collected had no resemblance to either of them. That doesn’t mean they weren’t at each other's throats before and after the act.
They’ve got two hours to reappear in front of me before I start hunting them down. Club matters be damned. That’s my best friend and the woman consuming every inch of me. At least when they’re mad at each other here, we can attempt to manage them, but Scarlett was so sure this was a trip they needed to do together.
I’ve clearly been too caught up in club affairs to acknowledge there may have been a shift between them. Shit, he fucking hugged her when she returned.
Swiping a hand down my face, I sigh.
The reality of the situation is that I’m too scared to put hope into them being… more. That would be life changing, for Axel more than anyone, and he deserves the happiness Scarlett offers up without even trying. But he’s his own worst enemy, his own destructive force, so he needs to be able to constantly see the light at the end of the tunnel. A task he’s never been able to achieve previously.
“You good?” Gray asks from beside me, lifting a bottle of beer to his lips. His eyes are heavy. None of us have slept much without her here, a fact that’s far too embarrassing for any of us to actually admit out loud, but we can tell by the state of each other.
“I’ve been better,” I grumble, lifting my drink as Emmett nods at my other side.
“We’re all sorry-ass motherfuckers.”
Too true.
The slam of a door catches my attention over the low hum of conversation that takes over the bar, and I flick my attention to the source, but it’s not them. It’s Graham and Declan with a few of the Ruthless Bitches trailing behind them.
Of course that’s where they feel most at home.
“Ryker, how is everything going?” Graham asks, sliding into the booth without invitation. He slaps his palm on the table for a beer to present itself and Ruthie quickly rushes off.
Declan takes the other side of the booth, and as much as I want to refuse him out of principle, I maintain silence. His time will come, I just have to bide my own.
“We have some of the prospects on the streets trying to gather any intel they can, but it’s like they’re God or something. Known by all but never seen unless they want it that way.” I don’t mention that IknowDeclan has a link, an in, that could lead us right to them, but it was clear the other night that Graham has no idea what his son has been up to. Or if he does, he just doesn’t care.
“You want us to send some of our men out, Ryker? Might do a better job,” Declan offers with a smirk, pulling Molly onto his lap, and she preens like a fucking peacock. The sparkle in her eyes as she glances my way says enough.
She finally has a spot in the prez’s booth.
There’s a challenge in her stare for me to make a point of it, but she’s not worth the value a conversation would hold or the time and effort behind it. Focusing on Declan, I shake my head. “We’re good for now, thanks for the offer, but I need your men ready to fight when the time comes. That’s why they get to explore everything we have to offer here instead.”
His grin widens at my statement as Ruthie returns with two beers, placing one down in front of Declan before climbing into Graham’s lap.
“Is it not worth getting a message out to meet on neutral ground?” Graham asks, and my mind instantly drifts to the diner in town. The last time I was there, I had a run-in with the deputy, followed swiftly by a meeting with Kincaid outside. Was he more civilized? Sure, but that’s not what we’re going for now.
“This escalated beyond neutral grounds when he killed a prospect defending two women connected to the club. Some moves are just too dirty to come back from,” I grunt, checking the time again.
“I’m sure he—”
“It was my fucking sister, man. There’s nothing to consider on his end. A line was crossed and there’s no backing away from it,” Emmett interjects. They glare at each other, and Graham chuckles, slapping his hand on the table again, and it cuts through the tension enough for their stare-off to end.
Gray glances at the time while I reach for my beer. We really are sorry-ass fuckers. I’d much rather be sitting here wallowing in my own pity over the gaping hole I feel at both Axel and Scarlett not being present, but it seems the assholes we wrongly let through our doors have other ideas.
“Not just that, Declan, but they got their hands on their favorite pussy. Can’t have that now, can we?” Molly’s words are like ice through my veins, and I have to fight against the overwhelming need to pull a Scarlett move and slam her face into the fucking table.
I really should have let my woman end her long before now.
“That pussy must have matured with age then, because when I first met little Scarlett, she was nothing more than a vir—”
