Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Saint

The look on Belle’s face kills.

As does Lance’s, for entirely different reasons.

But fuck. I told her I’d see her today.

The guys have all come through. It’s not just the clubs in town, but clubs they’re friends with. I was careful not to make any calls about it. Gravel, Snake Eyes, and Frederick Jones did that for me.

As the bikes pull up, the bikers get off and form two lines between Lance and his puny fucking little guards—ones I put him in touch with when I informed him I’d be here with my friends—and the residents of the Secret Gardens.

I’m pretty fucking sure these guys won’t do a thing but keep the peace. They’re a genuine outfit, but they also know.

Last to roll in is Sin. She’s decked out in leather, and she pulls up in front of Lance, taking her helmet off and shaking out her hair.

“Babe,” she says to him. “You done fucked up.”

She saunters through the bikers, up to me, and hesitates. I nod, so she keeps going and stops behind me, next to Belle.

It shouldn’t hurt, Belle thinking the worst of me. I didn’t do much to defend myself or explain, but I needed the element of surprise. I needed to think, away from here.

Through the people and rubbing up against me on his way to jump on my saddle is Nomad, that fucking cat who’s kept me company at the garage, the idiotic overgrown rodent who I drop off so he can be with Belle too.

Gravel’s having words with Lance, casually twirling the nunchucks as he does so.

Behind me, I can hear everything being said.

“Hi, Nick’s teacher,” Sin says because she’s having a go at me while letting Belle know she likes her. “I thought you’d want to see this.”

“What?”

“Don’t tell anyone, but I did go to law school. We can talk about it after this goes down,” Sin says.

All I want to do is beat the fucker in the fancy suit down.

All I want to do is turn and take Belle in my arms.

Instead, I know what I have to do, it’s in the cards and on my agenda. The fact I fucked this whole thing up with her proves the point I shouldn’t even mess with regular people.

“So, the thing is, these illegal weapons aren’t ours,” Gravel says. “We don’t need them. But considering these people paid rent?—”

“Not all of them.” Lance smirks. He’s a little green, and his hired men look nervous as hell, even though I’ve got it on good authority, they know one of the bikers. Or at least one of them does.

I made sure everything was done on the up and up and not by me. I may have planted the ideas, plotted, but I never made a call or did anything the shitbag could use to wiggle out of this.

“Don’t make us physically remove you.” His gaze cuts to me. “Mr. Santiago.”

A murmur runs through the people and eyes are on me, they burn into me. And behind? The only eyes I care about.

They consume.

I feel it in the heat in the back of my neck.

The tight band around my heart making every beat hurt.

Belle.

“Sorry, no can do, Hastings. We went over this. I’m not about to cross the line and break laws. I am here to help defend my home.”

“Then your sublease is terminated.”

I don’t move. I’m a barrier between him and Belle, and he knows it. “Consider it up. But my friends and I don’t take kindly to illegal activities.”

Lance snarls a savage laugh. “What? You’re good bikers?”

“Not good. Decent. And this isn’t right. These are our people. Sidelined, working class, people who are trying to make ends meet. People who want to live out their retirement and people who need a roof over their heads.” I pause. “And for fuck’s sake, it’s Christmas.”

Suddenly Belle pushes past, holding up her phone. “You’re in breach of your grandmother’s leases. Her wishes. Worse, you’re just in breach of the law. So, if you want a fight, we’ll bring it. I can call the cops to sort this.”

“I’ll have everyone arrested.”

That’s when Sin joins her, followed by Mellie.

“Go ahead,” Belle says quietly. “I’m sure they’ll love to see the discrepancies in the contracts, old and new.”

“Yours isn’t like that.” Lance frowns. “You’re bluffing.”

The idiot just gave himself away, and I want to grab her, spin her high in the air, and then kiss her right in front of his face.

Then again, I’m that kind of guy.

Vindictive.

“You changed the wording in the electronic versions which is illegal.” That’s Sin, who moves past me to Belle’s side.

Lance’s gaze darts to me. I move up too. Because while he won’t do anything to her, the need to protect is too overwhelming. “Very,” I say. “Like you having people here, on the property. We’ve been over it, well my friends and your tenants have, and gotta fucking say, between you handing me keys and these weapons . . .”

I wave a hand at the other bikers.

“Seems there might be things to answer to. But I can let that slide. As long as you understand I know you’re in the wrong here, and I’ll stand with and defend these people.”

“Did you hear that?” He looks at Belle. “He threatened me.”

“Sounds like he offered us support.”

Lances mouth screws up. “You’re fucking him.”

“What I do isn’t your business.”

The lawyer steps right up and takes Lance’s arm. Sin is right at his side. It’s intimidation at its finest. Like me, Sin fucking hates the little person getting trodden further down.

“Mr. Hastings,” the man says, “we got a look at the different and illegal leases, and more importantly, the parts of your grandmother’s will you tried to hide. So, let’s go talk somewhere private?”

Lance nods and goes off with them. Gravel comes up with Mellie and an adoring little Pepper, who’s followed by Nomad.

I’m aware of Belle standing there, toeing her shoe in the courtyard’s dirt. It’s like flames licking against my skin.

Call me a coward, but I don’t talk to her. Yet. Instead, I fucking welcome Gravel. “I was kinda looking for a fucking fight.”

I snort. “A guy like that wanted you to throw a punch.”

“What happens now?”

“He finds out that everyone gets to stay here and he can’t do what he tried. And more.”

A coolness licks my skin.

“We’re going to have a celebration in the garden,” Mellie says, “If you want to join.”

“I might.”

That’s when I turn.

My heart sinks.

Belle hasn’t just stepped back.

She’s gone.

“Belle?” I knock on her door again. “Belle.”

She finally opens it. She just looks at me, waiting.

Fuck.

“I know you’re mad at me. And I’m fucking sorry, but you’ll keep your place, so will everyone?—”

“You didn’t tell me who you were, and I know we’ve been over it.” She swallows, glancing past me, and she sighs and gestures me in.

I’m not staying. This is a goodbye. I knew it the moment I came back.

Sure, everyone could have handled it without me. I set it up that everything would be done and dusted and homes secured through my friends, through hers. I know how to work a network, how to make things work in the way I need them to.

It’s why I can navigate the sometimes complicated and razor-edged paths of clubhouse life with all the clubs I interact with. Sort of like being a member of none, but ally of all.

I can make shit happen.

I didn’t need to be here.

Gravel, Sin, and the rest had it.

Maybe it would have been easier without me.

I don’t fucking know.

All I know is I need to be.

To make sure.

To see Belle. All that pretty red hair, those green eyes, the soft mouth and smile I crave. I wanted to smell her skin again.

Me here isn’t even about me wanting to fuck her one last time because of course I do. No, I’m here because I can’t go without seeing her.

“You’re going, aren’t you?” she asks.

I consider her words, what they’re asking of me, and yeah, I’m leaving but she wants confirmation. Me to say goodbye. Fuck, I don’t know if I have that goodbye in me.

Much better to let it be, we both know. It seems more palatable if I don’t say it.

“I wanted to see if you’re fine.”

“I’m not a child,” she says fiddling with a button on her chunky cardigan. Even day off from work she looks ready to teach.

Sexy in unexpected ways.

The kind of sexy that’s so fucking Belle it’s utterly breathtaking. It floors a man.

“I’m not,” she says again, “a child. And I’m not about to break. I’m fine. Even if I wasn’t fine, in the grand scheme, I’m fine. Everyone’s happy. I guess this is where I should be saying thank you.”

“You should be mad.”

She nods and drops her hands to her sides.

“What do you want from me, Saint? Would me hating you or being so furious I can’t forgive you make it easier for you? Ease your soul?” she asks. “Because I don’t know what it is you want. And thing is, I’m really not in the mood to lead you through, offer you shallow waters and shore. I’m not here to ease your feelings.”

“I didn’t say I wanted that,” I mutter, aware she’s hit on something. “I just wanted to make sure you’re good.”

“And I told you, yet you’re still here.”

Yeah, I fucking am. “Belle?—”

“Feel bad, don’t feel bad, but I’m not helping you in your next move. I know you’re going, even if you won’t say it.”

“I don’t live here anymore.”

“Don’t you?” she asks. “Could you?”

I ignore the last part. “I made the lease null and void. And you know I’m not here forever. I’m not that guy. I’m not inclined to be forever in one place.”

“Then you answered me, didn’t you?” Belle skirts me and heads down her hall to the door. “You’re going.”

“Belle.”

“I’m not the bad guy,” she says. “And I’m not making it easy for you. That isn’t my job to take on whatever you think your burden is.”

“I never asked you to,” I say. This is spinning and I don’t know why.

I could, I know, stay.

Be here tonight and tomorrow and stay until New Year’s.

Fuck. Staying just delays and complicates. Staying makes it all harder.

“I guess there’s nothing left to say,” I mutter.

She nods, crushing something inside of me. “I guess there isn’t. But I’ll knock, anyway, tomorrow.”

That shocks me and I frown. “Why? Why would you do that?” I rub a hand over my head. “I don’t deserve that.”

“No, you don’t.”

“So, why?”

“It’s Christmas,” she whispers. “You shouldn’t be alone on Christmas.”

I look around for Nomad. He’s not here at all.

With a sigh, I leave his carrier inside the apartment and leave the door unlocked.

It’s for the best. I don’t need a cat. I certainly don’t need a woman like Belle.

Rather, she doesn’t need me, no matter how she looks at me.

She needs a good version of Lance. A man who’s got a boring future with a boring job. A man who isn’t a nomad. A man who’s regular and commonplace. Yeah, okay, I want to break all the bones in this mythical man’s body, but she deserves better than me.

I could teach her to ride a bike, to travel. But that isn’t fair, dragging a woman around with me.

Especially a woman who deserves the best her world can give her.

So, I put my helmet on and turn on the motor. Then I roar out of the city and the rest of my life.