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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
*Lace*
After helping deposit all the pizzas onto the bar top, Coty heads to the bathroom. Baylor stays behind and sits beside me on the edge of the stage, stealing an opportunity to speak with me without Coty breathing down his neck.
He pulls the folder he always carries around out from the large inner pocket of his jacket and holds it like a pretend notepad. “How are you handling this?” the club Secretary asks, plucking an imaginary pen from over his ear and hovering it above the cardstock.
“I imagine about as well as anyone would when told a dangerous biker gang is trying to own them for their personal use.”
Baylor scrunches his nose and tucks the folder under his thigh. “Damn, that sounds terrible when you put it that way. But, I respectfully disagree.”
“Do you now? How so?”
He lets out a huff of laughter. “If nearly any other woman was in your position when Kal did that just then, they would have been quaking, and not in a good way.”
I look straight into his copper eyes and sigh. “None of you scare me. Not even Kal.”
Having my dreams stolen and crushed scares me more.
“Exactly. You handled it very differently than most women would have.”
“You do realize that ‘not like other women’ nonsense is a sexist, backhanded compliment, right?”
Baylor squints at me. “Fine. You conducted yourself differently than most of the population would have. I would place a hefty bet that the number of people who could handle a similar scenario gracefully would be inferior to the number of people who could not. Better?” he asks, turning his squint into an eyebrow raise.
Smart ass. I bite on the inside of my lip to stop from smiling. “Doesn’t matter anyway. There are eight of you; the odds are in my favor.”
His raised eyebrow turns into two, and he chuckles. “You think someone will say no?”
“Zane at least,” I affirm.
Baylor nods. “And you think the rest of the guys will let him?”
The neutral expression I had managed to maintain drops. “What are you saying, Bae?”
Playfulness taking a turn, his golden-auburn eyebrows straighten. “I’m saying you are ours, Lace. And I want to know how you really feel.”
Groaning, I bury my face into my hands. I only allow myself a heartbeat of that trepidation before dragging my palms down my cheeks, twisting to face him head-on, and jutting my chin. His gaze drifts down my body, pausing for a moment at my bare breasts and lower to the apex between my legs before moving back up to my eyes again. He wiggles out of his jacket and slings it over my shoulders.
I let out a heavy exhale and steel my spine. “I would do anything for you guys. You know that. But I do it because I choose to. This strips away my choice. Non-consent is not my kink, Bae.”
He gives me a soft smile and curls my hair around my ear. “I am going to tell you something, but I need you to promise to keep it just between the two of us, okay?” I nod, because that’s what I do — I keep their secrets. Especially the unspoken ones. “This ‘transaction’ isn’t about stripping your control. The addendum is only a small percentage about you. There’s a much bigger picture here, one that Kal has yet to reveal. But, the truth is we need you. We trust you. Becoming our ‘property’ makes us yours. You said it yourself: you know us. Therefore you know we would never take from you without your consent. Us saying you are our property is one thing, but you choosing to submit is discretionary.” Bae, always acting the valedictorian with his pretty words.
The quiet creak of the office door opening slices into our conversation. My head jerks that direction. The first person my attention lands on is Coty, though. He came out of the bathroom at some point and is now leaning against the wall, head angled downward, and moonlight eyes locked on us.
That glower shouldn’t make me wet, but it does. Every time. The way he so easily affects me is one of many reasons why I pine over him, regardless of circumstance. A strange safety exists in his lunacy.
His lips curl into a scowl.
Baylor flashes him the middle finger.
The club files out of the hallway. An inkling of hope swims through my veins as they all don stoic expressions. Member by member that inkling grows. Until Zane steps through and his taupe eyes meet mine, blond eyebrows curved inward. My shoulders droop, and I take a shaky breath.
Chaz nearly knocks over tables and chairs in the process of getting to me. He stiff arms Baylor, tackles me to the stage, and hovers above me with an ear-to-ear grin, playfully wincing through the pain caused by the bunching of his bruised cheek. I place my palms on his chest and nudge him away. He gives me a small pout but captures my hand in his and helps me sit up again.
I step onto the stage, wrapping Baylor’s heavy jacket around me for a false sense of security. Taking his pep talk to heart, I drop my hands and loosen them at my sides, ready to address the men of Hell for Leather.
Kal is the farthest away from the stage, having stopped just outside the hallway near Coty. Chaz and Baylor stand front and center. Brodi, Zane, and Kio are sprinkled randomly between the hallway and the stage, noncommittal, waiting for whatever is coming. Vee was the first to hightail it to the pizza buffet but now sits on a barstool, swiveled to face me.
