Daredevil Chapter 13

Riding through the gates of the Infidels' compound filled me with a sense of homecoming and relief. While I enjoyed my time with the Regulators, I was happy to be home. It wasn't only due to the fact I was back with my family, but more because it signaled the official start of my life with Shain. She was now my legit old lady. Sin informed me well before we left Nebraska that my brothers had voted and approved her. If they hadn't, for some reason, I would've been here earlier, demanding to know why the hell not.

It had been a week since the whole misunderstanding which almost blew up in my face. During that week we'd been super busy as we made all the arrangements for her to accompany me back to Texas. In the end, she chose to bring her bike along with mine on the trailer I rented. She left all of her furniture and household things behind and only brought the majority of her clothing and other personal effects in the bed of my truck.

Since we were hauling the trailer with two bikes, the drive took longer than the typical ten hours. We chose to split the drive into two days so we could stop along the route. Most of the places we chose to stop at were different Harley Davidson dealerships to collect clothing items with the names of different towns and states on them. I was impressed she had a collection of shirts that almost rivaled mine.

It was hard for her to part ways with her Regulator family, Moose, and her friends there. She made promises to visit, and we asked them to come visit us, too. I knew how difficult it was for her to leave them. I'd experienced a similar heartache when I left my blood family to go to the Marines and then when I chose to move to Texas to join the Infidels. Before we left, Moose took her aside, and they had a private conversation. When he was done with her, he and I spoke privately, too.

Ours consisted of him warning me what would happen if I mistreated her in any way, including breaking her heart. I assured him for the thousandth time I wouldn't. As we were about to pull away, he called out, telling her all she had to do was call, and he'd come get her in a heartbeat. I yelled back to tell him we'd be in touch soon so he could arrange to bring the contents of her townhome. I knew there was no way in hell they'd just have them shipped or brought by prospects. We'd be lucky to make it a couple of weeks before he and a few of the Regulators were on our doorstep checking up on her.

It was late afternoon, so the compound wasn't full of people at the moment. It was the regular work week, and many were still at work or out running errands. No one was at the gate, so I let us through. We parked next to the section of the clubhouse where we had a garage where we parked our bikes to keep them out of the weather, mainly during the winter months. The bikes would be dropped off here, and then I'd find Cullen or Colton to return the trailer to the local rental place while I got Shain settled into my place. There would be no separate trailers this time.

We were in the middle of unloading them when Colton came hustling inside. He came over to join us. "Sorry, I was doing something for Sara and didn't know you arrived. I can finish unloading these for you."

"We've got them, although I wouldn't say no to you taking the trailer back for me to the rental office in town. I told them I'd return it by today if possible," I explained.

"Sure, no problem. How was the drive?"

"Slower than usual, but we took our time and visited some dealerships along the way, so it was worth it. How's everything been here while I was gone? Anything new or interesting I missed?" I asked as I watched Shain back her bike off the trailer. She liked to handle her baby herself. I was the same, so I didn't take offense.

He whistled as he watched her. "Sweet ride. Where did you get that one? Gotta say I'm surprised you're letting her touch it, though."

Her head whipped around so she was able to glare at him so fast it was a wonder her neck didn't snap. I fought not to chuckle. Here it came.

"Why wouldn't I be touching it? It's my bike, after all, prospect. Don't women ride around here? I can assure you I know what I'm doing. It'll be a miracle if I let a man touch my bike," she snapped.

The astonishment on his face, which was quickly followed by horror, had my laughter breaking loose. As I laughed at him, he sputtered and turned red, trying to smooth her distinctly ruffled feathers. As the bike came to a rest on the ground, she got off and marched over to stand in front of him. She had to look up, but it didn't deter her from chewing him a new asshole.

"What? Can't talk because you know what a dumbass you are? I suggest if you ever want to have a chance of patching in, you learn to think. Run along before I decide to really get mad and kick your ass."

He cast a pleading look my way, but I merely raised a brow and frowned at him. He smartly didn't say anything and slunk away. She waited until he was clear and hopefully far enough away not to hear her before she burst out laughing and smiled.

"It never gets old, making prospects sweat. Honestly, I should be ashamed of myself, but I'm not. Moose got me started when I was a kid, giving them a tough time. At first, I felt bad for them, but he explained it was needed to test their mettle. Once I understood what he meant by that, I did it. More than a few prospects have been run off or let go because they weren't able to handle me."

"Couldn't handle you in what way?"

"Some would just see it as demeaning to have a woman speak to them at all. Others thought only the members should talk to them or tell them what to do. It's true in the scheme of things, they're the main ones, but there are times when women need them to do things, and it is ridiculous to always have to find a man to ask them or, more like, order the prospects to do stuff. Moose's mom detested attitude. We were taught not to do it when official work was assigned. Others got furious and would get mouthy or even physical," she snorted at the memories.

I stiffened. "Physical? How?"

"Over the years, a couple would throw things at us or even try to grab hold of us. Mostly, they did it with the ones who weren't old ladies. Remember the one I told you almost burned down the clubhouse with his turkey fryer? He was so pissed with the teasing I gave him. He chased me around the compound with a stick threatening to beat my ass with it. Although they didn't admit it, I think it was more this than the fire that earned him the severity of his beatdown. He had no clue the members had asked me to do it. They were testing him."

"Even knowing some would react badly, the club asked you to do it? You could've been hurt, Shain," I objected.

She shrugged. "I can handle myself. They didn't ask the little ones or those who weren't able to take care of themselves to help test them. Most of the time, it was me, and when I was growing up, it was the old ladies of the older members. They've all retired from the club now, and the younger guys are in charge. The older ones come for family days and to hang out, but the remaining ones tend to travel."

"We don't ask our women and kids to test the prospects, although if they need their help, they can ask. If anyone gives you any kind of pushback or grief, you're to let me or one of my brothers know immediately. They'll be gone in a flash. We have to be able to trust they'll take care of our families."

She edged closer to me and ran her hand up and down my arm. "Hey, there's no need to get upset. I promise I'll tell someone, but you know I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself and others."

I reeled her in until she was pressed against me. "I know you can, but I don't want you to have to. Blame it on thousands of years of male evolution, reinforcing that we should be protectors."

"Sure, we'll blame it on that," she teased as she rolled her eyes.

Growling softly, I kissed her. I quickly began to drown in desire and was about to suggest we head to the trailer when we were interrupted. There were several hands clapping and catcalls, which dragged us apart to take notice we were no longer alone.

Standing near the main doors were a handful of my brothers. Sin, Saint, Fang. Omen and Phantom all stood there with big grins on their faces. Not missing a beat, Shain smiled at them and tugged loose from my arms so she could take a bow as she called out to them.

"Thank you, and you're welcome. I hope you all took notes so you can work on your kissing techniques. Your women can thank me later for teaching this one how to do it right and hence our demo."

This earned a chorus of scoffs and boos which made her cackle with laughter. I was equally proud of her and offended.

"Woman, I didn't need any lessons on how to kiss. Stop lying just to make these fools feel better about themselves," I warned her.

"But is it a lie, or have women been lying to you all your life?"

She darted away to the other side of the trailer when I lunged at her. My brothers were throwing out their protests. I stalked her. As I did, Sin snorted. "I think we need to retake that vote, guys. We didn't know the real Shain when we said yes to Daredevil claiming her."

"Hey!" she shouted.

This set them off, teasing her. They played around with her for several minutes before their attention was diverted by her bike. This led to them gathering around to admire it and ask her about the specs. I was immensely proud she was a rider in her own right. As tough as the old ladies were, it was kinda surprising none of the others rode by themselves, but I thought it would change once they saw Shain on her bike.

???

I was enjoying the first night back with the whole club. After the time in the garage, Shain and I, with help from the others, got her stuff unloaded into the trailer then they left us to get her unpacked with the request we join the whole club later. I made room for most of her things in my closet and dresser and the rest we put in the extra bedroom.

Colton came over and grabbed the key to my truck so he could return the bike trailer. Par for the course, I gave him an explicit explanation of what would happen to him if he put a scratch on my truck. Honestly, he seemed more worried about what Shain would do to him than me, as evidenced by the way he kept casting his worried gaze over at her.

Currently, I was having a drink with my brothers while she was sitting with the women talking and laughing. Saint had my attention at the moment.

"Hey, the chief said as soon as Shain got to town and settled to let him know so she could come in and do an interview with him. He's psyched. I guess he spoke to her captain in Nebraska, and he sang her praises. He said they love to have firefighters who are also paramedics, not just the required EMTs. I think it would be good for their image too to have more females. Even though in this day and age, women firefighters make up around eighteen to twenty percent of firefighters, you'd think Tenillo would have more than they do."

"How many do they have now?" I asked.

"Three, and none of them are paramedics. Speaking of her captain, is there anything new on Laz or her suspension? I can't believe her chief sided with him. It sounds suspicious to me," Saint added.

"I agree. I thought about asking Phantom, Tamysin, or even Maestro to see if they could find a connection between the two. Shain said her chief in the past was typically fair, so this seems out of character for him," I mused.

"I'll do it. It seems shady to me, too. Any plans yet on what you're gonna do to make Laz pay for showing his ass the way he has with her?" Phantom asked.

"Moose and I decided to let him think he's gotten away with it for a while. We plan to lie low and then hit him when he least expects it. Believe me, I wanted to go beat his ass, but I'm working the whole revenge is best served cold idea. I wanted to get her here more than deal with his stupid ass," I grumbled.

They let loose with evil snickers. "It's not like we can't help you with ideas," Rampage said with a grin.

We were throwing out possible ideas when Bella came rushing up to us. She appeared upset. Boomer wrapped his arm around her. "What's wrong, babe?"

"I think we pissed Shain off."

"How?" I asked. I didn't see them doing anything that would upset her. I glanced over to see where the others were, but she was no longer there. "Where did she go?"

Londyn came hurrying over. "It's my fault."

"Jamali, what happened?" Torpedo asked her.

"I said something without thinking about how it would sound. We were talking about how we each met the club and how we got together with our men. I meant it as a joke when I said we were happy you got over your infatuation with Bella. I'm so sorry, Daredevil. We all know you weren't in love with Bella, but I don't think Shain took it that way. She asked what we meant, and we explained how you, Dragon, Ashes, and Vicious all went out on dates with her and gave Boomer such a tough time. Not long afterward, she excused herself to the bathroom. We didn't know anything was amiss until she didn't come back."

"You didn't tell her?" Talon asked me.

"No, why would I? It's not like we had more than one date, and I didn't love her. No hard feelings, Bella," I told her with a wink.

"We know, but women don't think like men do. How much do you wanna bet she's off thinking you're with her as a second choice?" Saint observed.

"Really?" I asked.

The looks I got from the other men told me hell yeah, and the way Bella and Londyn were nodding told me fuck yeah. I groaned. "Christ, let me go talk to her. Does she think I go around telling every woman I meet I love them?"

"Some guys do," was Londyn's response.

I didn't wait around to hear more. I took off for the trailer. It was the only place I could imagine her to have gone. Bella was calling out she was sorry as well as the other women. I threw up my hand to acknowledge I heard them, but I didn't have time to stick around and soothe their worry. I had a woman to settle and make sure she knew she was the only woman for me.

As I approached the trailer, I saw a light on. I didn't bother to announce myself as I yanked the door open and barreled inside. Thank goodness for my quick reflexes, or I would've taken a boot to the head. I ducked just in time. "What the fuck?" I shouted.

"Yeah, what the fuck is what I'm thinking? Good guess. Mind telling me why I had to find out from the old ladies how not long ago you were all over Bella? It would've been a good thing to let a woman know she was second choice," she shouted. The mate of the boot came flying my way before she stormed down the short hall.

"Get your ass back here, Shain! Let me explain," I shouted before taking after her.

"Go to hell, Daredevil!" was her response from the bedroom.

This time, I was cautious and took time to peek my head around the door jamb to be sure nothing was aimed at my head, especially a gun. Seeing she was in the closet, I raced into the room. She had one of her suitcases open on the dresser.

"Shain, calm down. You totally misunderstood."

"Oh, I agree. I misunderstood what this was, but I'm rectifying that oversight," she snarled as she removed a couple of things from hangers.

No way was I about to allow her to pack her shit and leave, so I bum-rushed her. She whipped around, but I was too fast for her, and I got my arms around her before she could throw anything else, let alone kick or punch me. I picked her up in my arms, carried her to the bed, and took her down to the mattress, trapping her underneath me. I made sure to trap her arms and legs to protect myself.

As I did and she swore at me, I yelled louder so she was able to hear me. "I'm not letting you leave me. It's all a stupid misunderstanding."

"My ass it is, you no-good bastard. Are you trying to say you didn't go out on a date with Bella a few months ago or that you wanted to go on more?"

"No, I did, but it's not what you think."

"You did what? Go on a single date or want to have more than one?"

Knowing I was digging my hole deeper but determined not to lie, I answered her truthfully. "Both, but let me explain. Just stop fighting me and listen. I'm not letting you leave this compound."

"Who said I was leaving the compound?" She stopped fighting.

Frowning in confusion, I asked, "If you're not leaving, then why are you packing your bags? And throwing shit at me and calling me every dirty name you know?"

She laughed which took me back. "I'm not calling you every dirty name I know. I assure you there are way more where those came from. As for leaving the compound, I'm not. I'm taking some of my things so I can stay in the trailer I used last time I was here. I'm not gonna leave before the real fun starts."

"Real fun?" I was lost. She wasn't making a lick of sense to me.

"Yeah, when Moose and the Regulators get here and take your ass out to never be seen again. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

The wicked grin she had on her face made me almost shudder. I grimaced. It was bad enough trying to envision what she might do to me, let alone what their whole club would do to me for hurting her. Moose's final warning before we left played through my head.

"No one is killin' me, and you're not going back to Nebraska. If you'll calm down, I can clear this up."

"Oh, this should be good. Hit me with it. You've got five minutes."

"I did go out on a date with Bella. All of us did. I won't lie. She was nice, and we had an enjoyable time talking, so I was open to another date. However, Boomer was head-over-heels crazy for her, even if he kept denying it. He ended up with her, and they're the perfect match."

"So since he got her, you settled on the next woman who darkened the club's doorstep, and lucky me, I was the one."

"No! I didn't settle for you, Shain. I saw you, and I was gobsmacked so hard it's a wonder I knew what day it was. I knew the moment it happened you were the woman for me. I love you. There's no goddamn comparison between you and Bella or Londyn."

As soon as I said Londyn's name, I knew I'd stuck my whole leg into it. She was relaxing a tad beneath me up until then. As soon as I did, she stiffened back to feeling like a board again and her eyes snapping fire. I stifled my groan.

"So it was Londyn, too. They didn't share that nugget with me. Let me ask. Do all you single guys try your hand at any and all women who you meet, and if one is stupid enough to buy your line of bullshit, you keep her? How long until the next one catches your eye, and I can expect to either share you or move aside? I guess I was too hasty in telling Laz no. You can share me."

Madness overcame me at the notion of any other man touching her, let alone sharing her. Letting out a roar, I pressed her into the mattress harder with my body as I pinned her arms above her head.

"I'll never fucking share you, do you hear me? You're mine. I love you, and you love me. I'll slaughter any man who tries to come between us or take you away from me, Mon Rêve. Do you understand? Yes, I wanted to find a woman I could claim as mine, so I was willing to go on a date or two. The only one I took out was Bella, once. As bad as it may sound, if she and I were dating when I met you, I would've walked away from her without a backward glance. You're made for me. Neither of us were virgins. We've had people in our lives in our pasts. We can't alter that, but we're soulmates, and nothing is ever changing it." I snarled.

Abruptly, her furious expression changed to a smiling one. She tugged on her wrists. When I didn't let go, she softly stated, "Please let go of my wrists."

"Why? So you can punch me? I think I'll keep you right where you are." I wasn't about to fall for her sweetness.

"Rome, I'm not gonna punch you. Please."

"Tell me why I would let go?"

"So I can show you how sorry I am for jumping to conclusions, calling you those names, and trying to brain you with those boots. You're right. We do have pasts. I'm sorry. I lost my head when I thought you were merely choosing me as a second option. I love you."

Her abrupt change made my head hurt, and I wasn't sure if I should believe her. Gruffly, I ordered, "Prove it."

"How?"

"Kiss me."

I lowered my head far enough to allow her mouth to reach mine. I prayed she wouldn't bite my tongue or lips off. She shocked me with the delicious kiss she gave me. It was one filled with passion and urgency. I took a chance and thrust my tongue inside her mouth. She nibbled on it, but she didn't bite it off. The kiss quickly moved to a full-on passionate mating. My anger began to cool as my cock started to grow hard. When I came up for air, we were both heaving to catch our breaths. My fury had abated. Now, all I wanted was to have her naked beneath me as I took her like a rutting savage.

"Show me you're not angry anymore."

"How?" she whimpered as she thrust her pelvis into my stomach.

"Get naked and let me take you anyway and as many times as it takes for me to get over my hurt and for you to forget your hurt. I need you to let me show you that you're the only woman in the world for me."

She squirmed. "Does that mean you'll let me have your cock in every part of my body, and I can have yours however I want?"

"Yes, to the first part and maybe to the second if you show me you don't want anyone else, especially that cocksucker Laz."

"Rome, I was mad. I didn't mean it. I only want you. I love you."

"Prove it." As I ordered her again, I eased away from her.

I kept a close watch to make sure she wasn't suckering me into letting her up so she could go on the offensive. She eased up into a sitting position and then tugged her top up and off. As soon as it was flung to the floor, she undid her bra and tossed it. Not to be left behind, I took off my cut and hung it on the bedpost then shed my shirt. Our pace sped up as we raced to see who would get naked first.

My cock ached, and I was oozing precum as I took in the sight of her dusky skin and her erect nipples begging to be touched and sucked. When her pants and panties were gone, I groaned. Her pussy was slick with her creamy goodness. My mouth watered as the memory of her peachy syrup came to mind. I'd make sure she begged and never thought again I didn't want her. She was mine, and I had an added thought on how she could prove it. Time to see what else my woman was into in the bedroom.