AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We might not always operate inside the law as Devil’s Saints, because sometimes the law fucking fails us, but all our businesses are legit. We make sure of it, and we work hard for the money we have. The fact that someone was able to steal from us is a thorn in Friar’s side and it’s pissed off Clutch, our treasurer. He takes his job very fucking seriously.
We’re all exhausted, and the conversation isn’t getting us anywhere right now. We all know it, but we don’t want to give up either. Not that we ever will.
Spark tips his head back and takes a deep breath as he looks at the ceiling. When his gaze comes back down, he looks at each of us. “We’re on lock down starting now. Get family inside the gates tonight.”
Before he can dismiss church, I blurt, “I’m bringing Evelyn in then.”
The guys around the table still. Most of them don’t know the story behind why I am the way I am—why I’ve put so much effort into stopping trafficking in our area and why I don’t touch any of the angels. They all know I’m trying to make up for something in my past in a karmic sort of way. I’ve never tried to hide it.
I can feel my brother’s eyes boring into me and I know that I need to give them something since I haven’t said my woman’s name to most of them. “She’s mine. I was a prick and teased her for years. Then, senior year of high school I fucked up badly when our parents got married and I moved into her dad’s place. I hurt her and she ran.” I snort, “All the way to New fucking York. She’s been back for around a year.”
Even though we’re all weighed down with Sam’s death, I can hear the slight amusement in Spark’s voice, “You claiming her?”
“She’s mine,” I growl.
My brothers nod around the table, recognizing my claim. Bronco quips, “Does this mean you won’t be such a grumpy asshole?”
I give a deadpan look and he holds up his hands with a small smile on his face.
“Hopefully she doesn’t mind being hauled out of her place in the middle of the night and brought to a clubhouse she probably has no idea even exists,” Spark muses, amusement in his voice. I give him the same neutral look as my jaw clenches. He barks out one laugh before bringing his hand down on the table. “Dismissed.”
I wasn’t expecting to spring my life on Evelyn this way. Fucking hell, I wasn’t sure if I would ever even approach her, but the thought of her out there when we have no idea who killed Sam has my heart pounding. I only hope she doesn’t fight me when I show up.
Or maybe I do. I’ve always liked a good chase and Evelyn has been running for nine years. The best part is that she has no idea I’m coming for her.
CHAPTER 7
EVELYN
I keep my eyes closed as I listen to the room around me. Something woke me up and I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. Something isn’t right and I can feel it fluttering in the air around me. There have only been certain times in my life when I’ve experienced this kind of awareness and, until I moved back to Seattle, it had been years since it happened.
When I can’t stand it anymore, I pop my eyes open to see the hulking figure of a man standing over me. My lips part and I suck in a big breath, one I’m ready to release as an ear-piercing scream. Because that is what you do when you wake up, in your home, with a man standing over you menacingly.
Granted, I don’t know if he really means me harm, but there’s that whole locked safe and tight in my home thing he’s invading.
Time crawls as my lungs fill and just as I’m about to let out the scream, his giant mitt of a hand lands over my mouth and he leans in closer to me, his face finding the moonlight streaming in from the window next to my bed. My gaze locks onto mossy green and gray eyes.
There is only one person I have ever known to have the same eyes. I freeze, my mind having a problem processing what I’m seeing. This can’t be real, can it? No, not possible.
My voice is muffled by the hand on my mouth, but a single word slips out, “Bennett?”
The corner of his mouth tips up in a soft smirk. His voice is husky, “Hi, little feather. I didn’t mean for us to see each other again for the first time this way, but I didn’t really have much of a choice.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, really tight, like so tight that my entire face scrunches up. When I slowly open my eyes, I think Bennett will be a figment of my imagination. However, he’s still right there, likeright there. Close enough for me to feel his breath on my skin.
It causes my body to shudder and goosebumps to form all over my body as my nipples harden. Because,hello, my body did not get the memo that it’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve seen this person and, when I did know him, he was an asshole. He’s probably still an asshole.
My eyes dart around his body and take in as much of him as I can. It’s a lot to take in and there is certainly not enough light to do so. I don’t take my eyes off him as I blindly reach over and flick on my bedside lamp. By the warm glow, I can see so much more.
If I had seen this much of him initially, I wouldn’t have even pretended that he might be a figment of my imagination. I don’t think I could have conjured up what I’m seeing.
Bennett is now standing at his full height, which, I’m almost positive, is taller than he was in high school, while wearing a black t-shirt and jeans which are molded to his muscular thighs. The way his t-shirt is stretching across his chest should be illegal. Or in porn. I’m not sure which yet, but maybe that’s because he woke me up from a dead sleep.
In my home.
Hovering above my bed.
I jump out of my bed and could pat myself on the back for not getting all tangled up in my sheets as I do. When I slam my hands down on my hips, his eyes roam over me and I almost scoff. Because yes, my hips are still curvy and I’m still plus size. Thick. Voluptuous. Whatever you want to call it.
