Chapter Thirteen

Bullet

Stormy sat at a table with Jazzy, Hana, and the rest of the girls. Include Blue in that mix. The kid needed to check between his legs to see if he had a pussy. Nah, the kid had too much heart. Life hadn’t hardened him yet. It would.

Kodiak, Vega and I planned for tonight. Barras would be at Tuscany. Skye had a better chance of gaining Barras’s attention because she was young, but I hadn’t spoken to her or Scarlett since our falling out. I needed eyes on the inside, so Jinx and Clover had a late reservation.

Vega would be outside the restaurant. He wasn’t happy about spending an evening in Lacey’s cage, but the Subaru wouldn’t draw unwanted attention.

I’d wrestled with the best option for interception. I couldn’t take Barras out on the street, and it was unlikely I’d get him in the open. I’d grab him inside the parking garage, in his own fucking vehicle.

Kodiak leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table. “You need to give me a couple hours to secure the location. I can’t just incapacitate Darla. I’m not fucking a corpse, and she’s not going to relax enough for a drink until she gets dick.” His bored and horny socialite would take an extended slumber with the help of Ambien.

“No mistakes and no unnecessary risks.” The hair on the back of my neck prickled. We were hunting a predator, and he was laying a trap. No way he hadn’t figured out that Stormy was with me, and he had to assume Bristol was involved.

“I’ll be hidden from view in Lacey’s vehicle, but how vulnerable are you going to be inside the parking structure?” Vega asked.

“We’re good if we stay on the perimeter. Surveillance covers the vehicles and the main gate.” Kodiak smiled. “I tried to fuck Darla on the hood of her car, but her ex is still on the property until the divorce is settled. Security footage of her getting dicked wouldn’t go over well in her divorce proceedings. Her words. Not mine. She had me fuck her against the wall instead. Maybe I should be offended, but she doesn’t want to be seen coming and going with me.”

Vega woofed like a dog.

“The building has shit security,” Kodiak said. “The gate to the parking structure is monitored, and there is a rent a cop in the lobby of the building. Getting to Barras should be a piece of cake.”

“It’s always the variables that fuck us over,” I said.

“Expect the unexpected,” Vega said .

“And be ready for it.” I leaned back in my chair. As ready as we could be when we were going in on the intel of a woman getting railed in the parking structure.

Fuck.

Tonight, the MC was going to be busy. Sherry, Blade’s mom, bustled around the clubhouse, decorating for Murph’s birthday. Hopefully, no one would notice our absence.

My phone vibrated with a text. The results from the clinic. My knee jostled as I tapped the link in the email. While the page loaded, I glanced at Stormy. Her new phone was in her hand, and her teeth were sinking into her lower lip.

The results loaded. My gut cramped with a sliver of fear revealing just how important this woman had become to me.

Finally, the screen changed with the results. Negative. I released a sigh, and my shoulders slumped. I lifted my head, and my gaze crashed with Stormy’s.

“Give me a minute,” I said to Kodiak and Vega.

When I stood, Stormy did, too. Three hesitant steps, and then she rushed across the room and launched into my arms. She buried her face in my neck and clutched me close.

“Bullet?” Levi questioned. “Is she okay?”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure. I gripped her ass and carried her out of the room. Her tears dampened my neck.

Once inside our room, I kicked the door closed and carried her to the bed. She still gripped her pink blinged out phone .

“Doesn’t matter what the results are, we’re in this together.” I sat with her in my lap and wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I didn’t want to tell you, but I was scared to get tested. Once I knew Emerson had a wife, I wondered if I was the only other one. He’s a cheater. Until listening to Marco, I didn’t realize that I was just another sick toy for him. I guess I’d convinced myself that I was different. Who knows how many other girls he’s hurt?” She turned the screen of her phone toward me. “I’m clean.”

I sank my fingers into her hair and cradled her skull. “Me, too.”

Heat unfurled within me, sizzled along my spine, and seeped into my extremities. This was what her touch did to me. My cock stretched against the zipper of my jeans. I straddled her over my lap and ground her down onto the rigid edge of my erection.

She quivered beneath my hands, her hips rolled, and soft breathy pants gusted against my neck. I forced her eyes, darkening with lust, to mine. “You’re killing me.” I trekked my hands along her sides and bracketed her ribs. “I want to strip you out of these jeans.”

She reached between my legs and cupped my cock. With a snap of her fingers, she had my fly open and her hand inside my jeans. She squeezed my shaft, and her thumb pressed against my piercing. She swallowed, slightly swaying into me, and whispered in my ear. “I’m all yours, Bullet, so fuck me like you own me. ”

I spun her onto her back and ripped her jeans along with her panties down her legs. “I’m going to fuck you hard, kitten.” I stripped off my cut and my shirt and dropped them to the floor.

She scrambled out of her shirt and bra. “Hurry.” Once naked, she rose onto her knees and kissed my chest. “I love this,” she said and licked my piercing.

I chuckled because I couldn’t reach my boots, and my jeans had caught around my ankles. “Fuck it.” I flipped her onto her hands and knees, soaked the head of my cock in her juices, and slid inside her. I closed my eyes as her soft silken heat surrounded me.

Once fully rooted, I stilled as a torrent of sensations raged through me. I’d spent my life avoiding intimacy. I’d fucked for my own pleasure, but never allowing myself to feel emotionally connected.

Until her.

I couldn’t regret my past because it brought me to her.

I was shooting blanks when I lost my virginity. By the time I was fourteen, I was kicking rubber vending machines off the wall at truck stop bathrooms. I’d been wearing condoms ever since. I couldn’t remember what it had felt like to get my dick wet in a woman without one.

I’d never felt like this. Never felt the pull to drown inside her, to feel connected with more than our bodies.

A hot gush of wetness slicked her passage, the tight walls stretched and gloved to my cock. The head bumped her cervix, stimulating my piercing, and sending a sharp shard of pleasure and promise through my dick, into my balls, and down my legs.

“Oh, god, more.” She moaned. “You feel so good inside me. So good.”

Stormy dropped to her elbows, hiked her ass into the air, and rocked back, impaling herself on my shaft. I gripped her hips, held her at the perfect angle, and sank into her, forcing the breath from her with deep, hard thrusts.

“Don’t stop. Never stop.”

Like a machine, I kept going, my hips a piston, pounding my cock in and out of her. Taking her. Riding her. Filling every fucking part of her. I’d become territorial over her, and I was going to wreck her pussy for anyone else. “You’re mine, Stormy.”

“Make me feel it, Bullet. If I’m yours, take me.”

She wanted more, so I gave her every-fucking-thing. I pummeled her cunt. Mercilessly fucking every thought from her head but me. This was me. Raw and exposed—because I fucking needed her like I’d never needed anyone before.

Her mouth opened, and a silent scream ripped from her body as she convulsed around me, strangling my cock in her silken sheath. Juices from her sweet cunt dripped from my balls.

I stiffened, my body on the brink of detonation. “Fuck.” I didn’t want to come, not yet. Every nerve in my body sizzled. Heat coiled in my gut, and my abdomen clenched. Shit. “I’m going to come.” I fisted my dick.

Stormy snapped her gaze over her shoulder. “Don’t pull out. I need to feel you inside me. ”

I gripped her ass. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

She fucking owned me.

I slotted deep, as deep as I could go. Any barriers between us shattered and crashed with her whispered words.

I’d weaponized a legacy of guilt and resentment, barricaded my heart and my head, and kept them at war because I was never going to let another woman prey on my emotions. But Stormy had wrapped herself around me in ways that chains and condemnation never could.

I abandoned any lingering doubts…I’d give her everything. I’d fucking shared my past with her. With pump after ragged pump, I baptized her pussy in cum and promised her my future.

This was us.

Perfectly wrecked.

Fuck leaving. She was mine. And when she asked me to come inside her, she’d made me hers.

Stormy

Bullet pulled up his jeans. “We’re getting married.”

“A beast in bed and a jokester, too.” I laughed, but my heart pounded with the rumble of an approaching storm. Electricity crackled in the air between us. Marriage? Bullet wasn’t middle aged, but he had to be having some sort of crisis. A week ago, he was fucking my best friend while I tried to sleep in a bathtub with a towel for a blanket.

“You think I’m fucking joking? ”

“I hope you are,” I said, wiping between my legs with a towel and searching the floor for my panties.

He snatched the towel from my fingers. “My cum dripping out of you isn’t a fucking joke.”

My brows furrowed. “It isn’t a declaration of love or a marriage proposal either.”

“It is if I’m knocking you up. We’re not having a kid if we’re not married.”

“What?” Emotional whiplash. “You don’t want marriage or children.”

“But you do.” He grabbed a T-shirt off the dresser. “You told me to come inside you.”

My eyes widened. “And you think that means I want a baby?”

“What the fuck am I supposed to think?” He raked his hands over his head and turned away from me. “Fuck, Stormy, you’ve got me twisted up inside.”

I approached him and rested my hands on his back. “Then talk to me.”

He turned, folded his arms around my shoulders, and pulled me into him. “I feel like I’ve cracked my chest open.” He pressed his lips to my head. His heart thudded beneath my face. Muscles flexed in his arms, and his thick, calloused fingers pressed into my flesh. “I want things with you I’ve never wanted before.”

I eased back, canted my face, and stared into his. “And you want a baby?”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this but filling you full of cum is how we make a baby. ”

My lips pursed. “I know how babies are made. You said you didn’t want kids.”

“I never said I didn’t want kids. I said I didn’t have any.”

The conversation rushed back through my mind, along with the why. It was the night he’d gone into the bedroom with Scarlett.

“Bullet is never going to settle down. He doesn’t want kids. He plays hard. He doesn’t hide who he is, and he doesn’t judge who I am. I know what we have. He’s always going to be there for me… He’s never going to be faithful to one woman.”

“Bristol and I talked the night you were with Scarlett. I couldn’t understand how she could share you. She said you’d never settle down, that you’d never have kids.”

“Not with her.” He cradled my cheek. “Only you.”

How I wanted him and wanted his words to be true. For a man with a broken faith, he made me a believer.

“I didn’t ask for birth control at the clinic because I have an IUD. I didn’t want to talk to the doctor about it until we talked.”

“Do you want kids?”

I slid my hands over his chest. “I don’t know.”

Four months ago, a dangerous biker in leather became my knight in shiny armor. I only knew I didn’t want to change him. He was rough and gritty. Fierce and loyal to his brothers in the MC. Protective of his girls. And somewhere in there, he’d made a place for me. That was enough for now .

“One day, maybe.” My tummy tumbled. “But only if making a family feels right for both of us.”

“For us? I like that.” With his arms wrapped around me, he inched me toward the bed. When the back of my knees hit the mattress, I scooted onto the bed, tugged down the blanket, and slid beneath the cool sheets.

A twist of arousal spiraled through me. Bullet’s gray eyes focused on me as he stripped out of his jeans, this time taking off his boots, and then climbing into bed with me.

Settled against the pillows, he pulled a cigarette, then tossed the pack on the nightstand. Snuggled next to him, my legs slithered between his, the coarse hair tickling the inside of my calf.

I couldn’t believe he’d come inside me. Thinking I wanted a baby. Even knowing the risks, he’d sacrificed for me. He’d found a way to give me everything I wanted. Even those things I had no right to ask for. Emotions welled within me. I hadn’t spoken words of love and meant them in a long time. I felt them now.

“I don’t need more than this,” I whispered, but it wasn’t what I wanted to say. I wanted more, to declare how important he’d become. Love belonged in songs and poetry, not in the back room of an MC while my biker-boyfriend-pimp planned to kill my sex-trafficking-ex.

A desperate ache in my chest encompassed the raw, exposed need I had for him. My thighs were still slick with wetness as I rolled onto my side. The warm skin of his ribs tightened my nipples .

“Me, too, brown eyes. If it’s never more than us, you’re still more than I deserve.” He brought the cigarette to his full lips, lips I ached to feel against mine. Soft whiskers of his goatee surrounded his mouth and darkened the sharp edge of his jaw.

I rested my head against his chest, listening to the burn and sizzle of tobacco as he smoked, the muted voices from the chapel of the MC, and the rumble of Harley pipes from outside the window.

Tonight, or maybe tomorrow, everything could change. Here in the MC, the threat of Emerson kept us cocooned in an intimate bubble. We could pretend nothing else mattered. For a few hours more, it didn’t.

Skin to skin, he held me. His strong hands roamed over me. We kissed and touched. Time stretched, but I didn’t want this moment to end. I could feel the tension thickening between us because outside the window, the sun sank low on the horizon.

“Stormy?”

“I know. You have to go.” Tears filled my eyes. “Promise you’ll be careful.”

He kissed my lips, my cheek, and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’ll be late.”

I nodded and scooted out of bed. “I’ll hang with the Heller girls.” I tugged on a pair of shorts, a tank top, and slipped my feet into sneakers. I didn’t bother with a bra. “Don’t worry. I won’t say anything.”

Bullet dressed in black jeans and strapped his gun harness over a black long-sleeved shirt.

“Oh, god.” He was really going to kill Emerson. There had to be another way. “Bullet? Are you sure?” Panic tinged my voice. Maybe we could leave, get new identities, and start a life together somewhere else .

He shrugged on his cut. “To keep you safe, I’m fucking sure. This is more than unfinished business from the club. Don’t wrestle with your conscience on this one. It isn’t even a close match. Think about those girls in the truck. Think about the ones that weren’t as lucky.” He touched my cheek. “This is justice. He deserves what’s coming to him.”

Banging sounded on the door. “Time to go,” Kodiak called.

“Coming,” Bullet said, clipping a horizontal fixed blade to his belt at his back and another in the front at his hip.

Water filled my eyes.

“Nah, kitten, no tears. You gotta act like my old lady now.”

I nodded and blinked moisture from my eyes. “Would that be more like Hana and Jazzy or Pippa and Levi?”

“Ah, fuck me.” He banded his arm around my shoulders and led me out of the bedroom. “I’ll put a baby in your belly, and you can have my balls along with the rest of me.”

“Like poetry. Oh, smell that. I’m hungry.” My stomach growled.

“You’re so small. Where do you put it?”

I pinched my brows. “I don’t know how you’re so big when you never eat. And eating pussy doesn’t count.”

Bullet paused in his steps, then laughed. “Now, you sound like my old lady.”

The smell of barbecue wafted into the chapel from outside the MC. Music pumped through the speakers. I slipped out of Bullet’s arm and crossed to join Levi and the others at the table.

“Are you okay?” Levi asked. She had a plate filled with smoked brisket, corn on the cob, and grilled potatoes.

“I’m starving.”

“She’s been locked up with Bullet,” Jazzy said, popping a potato into her mouth. “She’s worked up an appetite.”

I’d never seen so many people in the MC. Romeo, Blade, and the other guys circled around the pool table. I couldn’t remember everyone’s names, but Rogue played cards with Hellers I’d seen before. Raucous laughter erupted in the corner.

Lacey played cards with Flea, Sully, and a couple other guys. Vega would slip out in her car without anyone noticing.

Steele caught me staring and winked. I smiled, searching the room for Bullet. My nerves were on edge. Would anyone notice when he left? What if they asked me questions?

“Stormy, what have you done to Bullet?”

I glanced in the direction of Hana’s stare. Bullet carried a plate of food across the room.

“The only thing Rogue feeds me is his dick,” Jazzy said with a snort. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Levi shuddered. “Rogue scares me.”

“I know. Me, too,” I said.

“He should. He’s a fucking legend,” Blue said. “He used to destroy his opponents in the underground fight clubs.”

“Oh, fuck.” Jazzy snapped her head around. “My dad still bitches every time he gets a sniffle. That’s how Rogue became a Heller. He broke my dad’s nose in a fight.” She cocked a brow. “You don’t want to fight my dad. He was club enforcer until Dozer took over.”

“What do the fight clubs have to do with his dick?” Hana asked Blue.

“Nothing. I was referring to the rest of him. Terrifying as fuck, and if his dick is as big as the rest of him, Jazzy is getting a hard ride.” He smiled at Jazzy. “But then you ride that Harley Nightster. You’re used to having something big between your legs.”

The table grew silent as Bullet approached. He set the plate in front of me.

“We’re talking about riding big Harley’s,” I said.

“I’m sure.” He nodded to Jazzy and Hana. “Don’t corrupt my girl.” He tipped my face. “That’s my job.” His lips crashed onto mine, and he kissed me dirty. I gripped the edge of his cut and tangled my tongue with his.

A few cheers erupted around us. I smiled against his lips. “I guess it’s official. I’m a Heller whore.”

The smile fell from Bullet’s face. “The fuck you are.”

“Ah, fuck,” Hana said. “Here comes the Bullet we know.”

Levi waved her arms as if that would stop the aggression coming off Bullet. “Not like that.”

“Right.” Jazzy rested a hand on Bullet’s shoulder. “I’m looking at your girl. And I’d say she’s a whore for her Heller just like the rest of us. ”

Bullet glared at Jazzy. “We’re not talking about you.”

Careful of the knives at his waist and the gun against his ribs, I slid my hands inside his cut. “How does an old lady claim her Heller?”

“You won’t have to do shit,” Jazzy said, taking her seat again. “Everyone in the room knows you’re off limits now.”

Levi nodded. “And he brought you food. That’s my new love language.”

“Blue, I need to talk to you.” Bullet slid a hand into his pocket.

“Yeah.” He jumped from the chair and followed Bullet toward the back of the MC.

“What’s that about?” Hana asked.

They all looked to me for an answer. “I don’t know,” I said. “I only found out today I’m an old lady at twenty-one.”

Hana laughed, but then her tone turned serious. “We’re glad you’re here, Stormy. And we’re so happy for Bullet. He’s different with you.” She plucked a potato off my plate.

“Rogue didn’t say much,” Jazzy said. “But he and Bullet are close. He said Bullet hadn’t been himself for a while, and you were the reason. None of us need to know more than that. You’re one of us now.”

“But listen,” Levi said. “Just because we tell each other everything doesn’t mean you have to say anything.”

A bloom of caution warmed my gut. I didn’t know what they knew of my situation, what they suspected, or if they knew their guys were conspiring with Bullet. “What…ah…what do you want to know? ”

Please, don’t ask about tonight. Because I would lie. I wanted these girls as friends, but my loyalty was to Bullet.

Hana leaned onto the table. “Like how you got the king of pussy to give up his kittens?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” Levi said. “Remember, he’d leave the MC before he’d give up pimping.”

“I’m not asking him to give up his girls,” I said. “He’s just not fucking them anymore.” I shrugged. “I’m a territorial Heller whore.”

“Rogue fucks like a beast,” Jazzy said. She glanced to the hall, and then over her shoulder. “Rogue fucked Clover and Lacey. He fucked all of Bullet’s girls.”

“But he gave them up for you. Just like Romeo had to give up his harem of hussies for me.” Levi turned to Hana. “You had Blade wrapped around your finger from the night you hooked back up at Liquid Chrome.”

“We didn’t hook up that night. I still hated Hellers.” She grew quiet. “We didn’t hook up until the night Texas was killed.”

“Fuck the Crawlers. And fuck the cartel,” Jazzy said. “I’m glad they’re all dead and the MC is done with all that shit.”

Until Jazzy spoke, I wasn’t sure if I was still in this conversation. Now, I wanted out of it.

“So?” Hana asked.

My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and a queasy feeling curdled in my stomach. I forgot the question. Mentioning Crawlers and cartel reminded me that my situation was bringing danger back into the MC when they’d sacrificed too much already.

“Levi lied,” Hana said. “We tell each other everything.”

Jazzy popped a sucker into her mouth. Levi chewed a row of corn off the cob.

“Start with Bristol,” Hana said. “Is she pissed?”

This I could talk about—Bullet giving up fucking his girls but not giving up managing them. For today, for tonight, I was his girlfriend. “I don’t know how Scarlett is going to feel about me. She’s possessive over him.”

Levi licked her fingers. “She’ll have to get over it.”

I smiled, remembering saying the same thing to Levi about Kiss.

Hana stood on the rungs of her stool. “Here comes Pip and Gabi.”

Blue returned to the table without Bullet. My gaze darted around the room. My pulse spiked. Did he leave? I couldn’t seem to take a breath because of the pressure squeezing my chest.

“I’ll be right back.” I slid off my chair.

“Use the bathroom in my room if there’s a line,” Levi said.

I didn’t need to pee. I needed Bullet. I needed to touch him, to tell him to be careful one more time, to show him that I needed him to come back to me. Trying not to draw attention but afraid he’d already left, I rushed in the direction he’d left with Blue a few minutes ago.

I sucked in a sharp inhale and paused in the hall. His massive frame filled the space at the side exit of the MC. Kodiak’s shoulders hunched as he listened to Bullet. Vega leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets. When he saw me, he tapped Bullet on the shoulder and pointed down the hall to me.

Bullet’s gaze collided with mine. I froze, seeing him the way Emerson would. Dangerous and deadly with an intimidating tilt to his lips, a narrowed, determined glare in his eyes, and a body honed for battle.

He said something to Kodiak, slapped him on the shoulder, and turned toward me. Kodiak slipped out the door with Vega.

“Are you leaving?” I didn’t want him to go.

He nodded. “Kodiak is riding out now. Vega’s going to hang around the oil drum for a few minutes.” His gaze pinned me to the wall as securely as the hand he wrapped around my ribs. He leaned into me.

Warm breath caressed my flesh. His lips against me sent a sizzle of heat through me, warming my chest and seeping deep into my core. Whiskers tickled my neck.

His palm covered my breast, and I sucked in a sharp inhale. His mouth brushed my ear. “Blue is your protection tonight. He knows I’m leaving, but he doesn’t know why. If anyone is looking for me, he’s going to run interference. If you get uncomfortable, just go to our room and lock the door. Everyone will assume I’m in there with you.”

My arms hung at my sides, but my body arched into his. “Confirm to everyone I’m one of your kittens? ”

“My only kitten.” He glided his palm over my chest, then higher, framing my neck in the C of his fingers, his thumb and index finger circling my throat. The metal of his rings were both cool and hot on my skin.

“You’re safe here. You’ve trusted your instincts. Trust that I’ll use mine. I’m good at killing.”

I nodded. “Be careful.”

His lips on mine conveyed more than words. His mouth was hot and possessive. His hand collared my throat, but his touch chained my heart to his. Tears built in my eyes. Before they could fall, the kiss was over.

And then he was gone, a shadow disappearing into the darkness beyond the light coming from the MC. I waited until the rumble of his bike faded into the distance before wiping my eyes and going back into the chapel. I’d laugh and pretend the man I’d fallen for hadn’t just ridden out to kill the man who would rather see me dead than with anyone else.

Chatter filled the room. I took the seat next to Blue. He winked, and I smiled.

“My turn,” McKelle said. I didn’t know her well, but she was beautiful. Blonde hair draped to the middle of her back. She combed her fingers through her bangs.

“This one is for Stormy.” Blue drum rolled on the table.

“Okay,” McKelle said. “In a celebrity threesome, who would you include?”

I considered for a moment. “Benjamin Millepied and probably Channing Tatum.”

And they all stared .

“You know who they are, right?” I asked. “They’re dancers.”

Levi’s brows pinched. “We get Magic Mike, but who is Benjamin Millepied?”

I grabbed my new phone and pulled up an image from the browser. But as my phone went around the table, a nervous tingle rippled through my belly. What if Bullet sent a text? The phone felt like a security blanket. As soon as it was back in my hand, I clutched it close.

And then checked it like an obsessed stalker every five minutes. People danced, laughed, and ate. Whenever someone asked about Bullet, Blue was quick with a reply. A little over an hour into the party, Sherry and a couple of other ladies came in with a birthday cake.

Blue’s phone pinged with a text. His eyes snapped from me to his phone. His thumbs skated over his screen as he sent a follow-up text, his knee bounced, and his face pinched with worry. Something was wrong.

He slid from his chair. Without drawing attention, we made our way to the hall.

“What is it?” I asked. “Is it Bullet?”

“I gotta go.” He paced. “Fuck. I need to go.”

I opened my bedroom door and shoved him inside. “What is it?”

He slapped his palm against the wall. “Fuck.”

“Blue, if you don’t want to see me lose my shit, you need to tell me what the fuck just happened.”

“It’s not Bullet. ”

Relief nearly took me to my knees, but then a spike of fear hit my chest. One of the other guys. Vega or Kodiak? Bullet needed them. “Who?”

Blue laced his fingers behind his head. “Just don’t talk for a minute. I need to think.”

“You need to talk,” I snapped.

“Stormy, I need you to keep this a secret.”

“Keep what a secret?”

“Just give me a minute.” He pressed the call button on his phone. “Fuck.” He held his phone as if he were going to hurl it across the room. “Voicemail.” His fingers flew across the phone.

“What is it?”

“It’s not Bullet or whatever this situation is. A friend needs me.”

“Then go,” I said.

“I can’t. I gave my word to Bullet. I can’t fucking leave.” His gaze locked on mine, his eyes pleading for something, but I wasn’t sure what. “Kiss is in trouble.”

“Levi’s best friend…or who used to be her best friend.”

“If you know that, then you probably know the whole shit story. She’s clean, but she’s not ready to come back to the MC. We’ve gotten close, not like old lady close, but I’m trying to be her friend. She doesn’t have anyone she can go to. I’ve been letting her crash at Indulgence. Bullet doesn’t know.”

“Go. Take care of her. I’m fine here. The MC is full of people.”

“Bullet trusts me. I gave my fucking word.”

“Then hurry back. If Kiss is in trouble, Bullet would want you to help her. It’s what he does. ”

Blue glanced to his phone again. “I can probably get there, grab her, and be back in less than an hour.” He reached into his pocket and counted bills. “I should have enough to get her a motel for a night.”

I opened my drawer and grabbed a few bills I’d stashed so I wouldn’t have to get on the floor to pull baggies out from under the dresser. “Take this.”

“I can’t.”

“Consider it me paying it forward. Help her the way Bullet helped me.”

Bullet

Thirty minutes ago, Barras had pulled out of the parking structure. I stuffed another cigarette between my lips, cupped the flame of my lighter with my palm, and inhaled.

“Jesus Christ.” How long did Kodiak need to get his socialite off and knock her out?

I sat on my bike around the corner from Barras’s penthouse. I’d seen Kodiak fuck like a machine. I understood enjoying your work, but he needed to hurry the fuck up. I needed inside the gate of the parking structure, and I needed her vehicle positioned for cover when I intercepted Barras.

Vega was outside Tuscany. The girls would enter the restaurant after Barras for a better chance of catching his attention. I checked the time. They could be halfway through their appetizers by now.

I couldn’t risk texting Kodiak. Hopefully, his date was on her way to dreaming of his dick rather than riding it .

My phone pinged with a text.

Vega: ETA on Barras. Are we positive on the reservation time?

With my cigarette clamped between my lips, I replied.

Bullet: 100%

Vega: He’s not here.

Ten seconds later, he followed up with another text.

Vega: I’m going inside the restaurant. Maybe I missed him.

If Barras wasn’t at the restaurant, where the fuck was he? The guy didn’t have a routine. Except Thursday night at eight at Tuscany. I squinted my eyes as I glanced up and down the street. Just because he wasn’t at the restaurant, didn’t mean we couldn’t still intercept inside the parking structure.

Vega: Confirmed. He’s not here.

Bullet: Send the girls to the MC.

Vega: Do you want me to stay here?

I drew on the cigarette, exhaled two long streams of smoke from my nostrils, and considered my options. How long did a restaurant hold a table? For me, they wouldn’t. Barras was connected, and he had a standing reservation. Then why would he be late?

If Barras missed his dinner reservation, he could roll around the corner now, or I could be sitting in this fucking parking garage all night waiting for him.

Bullet: Head my direction.

We might have to take Barras the hard way .

If the girls were going to the MC, Scarlett and Skye might join them. I sent Blue a quick text and waited for his reply.

My phone pinged, but it was Kodiak.

Kodiak: Sleeping Beauty is out.

Bullet: Barras was a no show at Tuscany.

My phone pinged again this time with an incoming call from Kodiak.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“What do you need from me?”

“Fuck, I don’t know. Blue isn’t replying to my fucking text. Barras is MIA. We could be sitting here all night. Clover and Jinx are heading to the club. I got no problem with them or Bristol and Lacey, but if Scarlett and Skye show up, they’ll fuck with Stormy. I don’t need that shit on top of all this.”

“We’re here. Let’s wait him out. Give me two minutes. I’m on my way down.”

After disconnecting, I climbed off my bike and casually crossed the street. I leaned against the wall near the mouth of the parking structure. The exit door to the left swung open, and I slipped inside.

The concrete structure stretched deep into the belly of the building.

“Darla’s car has a biometric security system. Fingerprint ignition and shit. But there’s cover for us. Barras has a reserved spot. He’s vulnerable in his vehicle.”

In the confined windowless structure, the scent of exhaust mixed with the stench of humidity. We clung to the perimeter, working our way to the vantage point of seeing the entrance to the garage but staying out of the camera’s line of sight. Hunkering down in front of a black SUV, I leaned against the concrete wall.

Kodiak slunk down next to me, leaned his head back, and sighed. “Did you hear back from Blue?” he asked. “He’s a good kid, but I’m surprised he hasn’t had his ass handed to him by a Heller. He’s too fucking close to the girls, especially Jazzy. Are you sure you can trust him with Stormy?”

“He’s more like one of the girls. I’m going to glue his phone to his fucking hand.” Rather than send another text, I called Blue, but the call went to voicemail. I called Stormy.

“Hold on,” she said. Loud voices echoed behind her. I could hear Jazzy’s laugh. A door opened and closed, muffling the chatter. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Barras was a no show at the restaurant.”

She inhaled a quick breath. “What does that mean? Are you coming home?”

“Kodiak and I are going to wait him out. Vega is on his way here. I need to talk to Blue. He isn’t answering his phone.”

“He…he can’t come to the phone.”

A ball of tension coiled in my gut. “Then take the phone to him.”

Seconds felt like minutes. “I’m with the girls. Rogue is here. Torch is here. I think everyone is here.”

“Finish that sentence, Stormy. Everyone is here, except—”

“Except you?”

I stood and paced. “Where is Blue? ”

Kodiak slapped a hand to my chest to remind me to stay against the wall.

“Okay, listen, it’s not a big deal,” she said. “He’ll be back before you. I told him to go. He left a couple of minutes ago. I’m staying close to Jazzy and Levi. No one has noticed he’s not here. Plus, you said I’m safe in the MC.”

I growled. “Where did he go?”

“He had to help a friend.”

“Kiss?”

“How did you know?”

“Because he thinks with his dick when it comes to Kiss. I know where he is. This shit ends now.”

“Bullet, he’s like you. She’s in trouble. He’s trying to help.”

“She’s not in trouble. She is trouble. Stay with the Heller girls.”

I disconnected. Tonight had gone to shit. Barras and now Blue. I was fucking done with his infatuation with Kiss. He fucking put his junkie before my old lady.

I turned to Kodiak. “I gotta go.” No way could I keep my focus on Barras when Blue had fucked me over. He worked for me, and tonight, Stormy should have been his only priority. I fucking trusted him with her.

“Are we done for tonight?” he asked.

“Vega is on his way. I need to head over to Indulgence.”

Kodiak pulled his bike keys from his pocket. “Is there trouble? ”

“Not yet.” But there was about to be when I got my hands on Blue. He’d be lucky if he didn’t feel my fists. Fuck him and his fucked-up junkie. If he was so worried about her, he could stay with her.

I was beyond pissed. Rage burned in my gut and made me vulnerable to distractions. I was a fighter. I fed on aggression and violence. Right now, my emotions were out of control.

“I’ll wait for Vega.” Kodiak followed me around the perimeter of the parking structure. “Remember, he’s just a kid.”

Blue had my trust, and he’d broken it. We were done. “I’ll see you back at the MC.”

“You should give me your gun.”

I ignored him, crossed the road, and climbed onto my bike. I revved the engine, and sprayed gravel as I took off. I flexed my hand as I thought about Blue. My thoughts were torn. I understood having an obsession with a woman. I would’ve done the same thing as Blue if Stormy needed me. But I would’ve called, I would’ve made sure my word meant something. You didn’t break trust. He should’ve checked in with me before he left.

Making a play for Stormy while she was in the MC would be suicide for Barras. My Heller brothers would protect her. Barras wasn’t stupid. Like me, Barras was waiting for opportunity. I wasn’t going to give him one.

Blue wasn’t protecting Stormy from Barras. He was protecting her from herself. She was programmed to run. Scarlett was defensive of her little sister. I had no problem with that. I had a problem with her coming after Stormy because of me. I wanted Blue there as a deterrent.

I’d considered Blue a brother. But I had to be able to trust him. Tonight, proved my trust was misplaced.

I rolled up to Indulgence and killed the engine. Blue’s bike was on the street. A few vehicles lined the road. Indulgence had blacked out windows and a non-descript front. My way of keeping cops from snooping in my business.

Adrenaline fired through my veins, and tension built in my muscles. Energy surged into my gut. I was spoiling for a fight. I entered the code on the door and walked into the foyer.

“Blue,” I hollered. Light seeped into the hall from the parlor where Kiss had taken up residence. “What the fuck is going on?”

As I strode down the hall, a tingle raised the hair on the back of my neck. My steps slowed. “Blue?”

A creak sounded to my left. I rounded the corner.

Fuck! In the moment it took my heart to beat, I accepted my fate. I’d misjudged the situation. This wasn’t going to end well. I was outnumbered.

Tears soaked Kiss’s cheeks and trickled from her chin. Snot dripped from her nose. “Bullet,” she cried. She kneeled next to Blue. He sprawled out on the floor. Blood gushed from a wound to his head. His eyes were closed, and he was unmoving.

“I’m sorry,” she said on a sob. She violently trembled. Her eyes were wild, and her pupils blown. But not from heroin. With a gun to her head, the girl was petrified with fear. “He’s hurt.” She hiccupped on a sob. “He’s hurt bad.”

“He’s not dead yet, but he will be.” The words were spoken near my ear. “Move and I’ll make you earn your name by putting a bullet through your head.” The man’s hand slid inside my cut, gripped the butt of my gun, and he relieved me of my weapon.

“You took something that belongs to me.” Barras sat on my leather couch, in my fucking business, crossed one ankle over the opposite knee, and sipped a tumbler of my whiskey from my bar. “I want her back.”