51. Utah

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

utah

I didn’t stop until Memphis tapped out.

I’d never heard a woman gasp out please so quickly so many times while she tried to force my hands off her clit. To say I was pretty fucking proud of myself was an understatement. Even if she hadn’t actually screamed, there was a significant amount of cleanup necessary around that room by the time she was begging me to stop.

She couldn’t bring herself to use the bathroom just outside her room to shower because she was terrified that the others might still be awake, and the living room was much too close to it for her liking. I stood guard at the bottom of the stairs while she crept up to the bathroom that Indy and I shared. I changed the sheets on her bed while I waited for the water upstairs to stop running.

The others were definitely still awake and in the living room, so I went back to the bottom of the stairs to wait for Memphis to come down. Her believing she’d need me to run interference for her in this house full of people who were all fucking adults was adorable. She couldn’t handle the thought of any of them thinking about the two of us having sex; like we weren’t both also adults who could make choices on our own. Like they weren’t already aware that she was the entire reason that I came back here earlier tonight.

But she wanted me here to prevent the others from seeing her while she rushed back and forth between that shower. So, here I was. Just because she’d asked it of me.

Much to my shock, Memphis jumped right at me from the bottom step and forced me to catch her while her arms wrapped around my neck.

“You came back here because it was storming,” she whispered. She giggled and kissed me while I carried her awkwardly back toward her room while she dangled from the front of my body.

“I came back here because you were about to sext me straight to my own death while I was driving.”

“You came back here because you missed me,” she said and kissed my neck that time.

“I came back here because I love you, Memphis.”

She let go of my neck, so I allowed her to slide down the front of me until her feet were on the floor. The green eyes of that hurricane tried to blow me apart on the spot.

“Utah—”

I felt like an asshole for sighing while she stood there in silence and battled whatever emotional rollercoaster that she’d decided she was going to take on alone again. Her overbearing brain probably heard an impatient sigh, while it was really one of contentment. I leaned down to kiss her forehead. I didn’t need her to be able to tell me that she loved me. She couldn’t do anything at all to stop the way that it poured out of her when I was around, regardless of her silence on the matter.

“It’s alright, angel,” I said and pulled her into me. “Still between you, me, and the lightning.”

Her phone woke me up a couple hours later. The monster in me was instantly pissed to see a text message from an unsaved number on the screen of her phone.

Unknown

Going to our bar again tonight.

I wouldn’t be sad if I saw your pretty face there, Memphis.

Even him using her name made my blood boil.

I was surprised that my thumbs jabbing at the screen of her phone didn’t wake her up.

Me

Her pretty face is asleep because she spent all night with my face between her pretty thighs.

I had to remind myself that this was just a regular fucking person. He wasn’t involved in our world. Snapping into murder mode was wholly unnecessary, but the fact that I’d had to tell him more than once to leave her alone made me think I needed to do something about it to get him to actually fucking go away.

I laid there for the next two hours in a state of ever-growing annoyance while I waited for the sun. I added the mystery man to my own phone before I snuck out of Memphis’ bed and made my way upstairs. I knocked on Indy’s door and waited for him to come to life.

“Something wrong?” he asked, with both eyes still mostly closed.

“Be downstairs in a couple minutes, would you? Bring that magic you use to find people just from a phone number.”

He groaned. “I perform better when I get to do my stalking at night, Utah.”

I didn’t even bother touching that subject. I turned back for my own room to change clothes and get ready for what this day was about to become.

Indy didn’t bother putting on clothes, brushing his teeth, or even really waking up all the way. He had his laptop under his arm and followed me down the stairs in just his boxers and his glasses.

New Jersey looked every bit as annoyed to see me as I imagined I looked about seeing him in the kitchen already.

“Kids,” was all he said with a nod in our direction over his coffee cup.

“Pappaw,” Indy said and nodded right back at him.

How that coffee cup in his hands hadn’t turned into an airborne weapon was a testament to the existence of miracles. I wondered if New Jersey really had found a way to just fucking lighten up after being back here and having Indy around pretty much all the time. I imagined even grumpy old pricks would have to find Indy funny after he wore them down.

“On your way back out?” New Jersey asked. “Taking him with you this time?”

So maybe Indy still hadn’t worn him down.

“No,” I said quickly. “I’ve got something else to handle now before I get back to work.”

I held my phone out to Indy with the number already pulled up.

“Who is it?” Indy asked.

“The guy from that bar who hit on Memphis,” I said, assuming she’d already told Indy parts of the story from that night. “He’s been texting her.”

“What?” Jersey asked. “Why does he have her number at all?”

I blew out all the air in my body and tried to prepare myself for the shit he was about to give me. “I took her out to a bar because she hadn’t been in one before. She got drunk. Some guy introduced himself, they danced, she gave him her number, and now he won’t go away. So I’m going to make him.”

Jersey looked from me to Indy like he was waiting for one of us to start laughing at a prank we were pulling at his expense.

“You took a girl you like out to a bar and let her dance with some other guy? Then let her give her number to him? Dating really is weird now.”

“Well, from the stories I’ve heard, you’re not anywhere near as great as you think you are, Zip Ties.”

New Jersey rolled his eyes before he put his coffee cup down on the counter. “Give me ten minutes, lover boy. I’m going with you.”

He was already out of the kitchen before the shock lifted from my body to allow me to speak again.

“The fuck?” I mumbled.

“You’re about to have a great day,” Indy said and laughed at himself. “Bonding with your girlfriend’s stand-in dad over a game of ‘put the fear of God into some poor unsuspecting soul who happened to see a cute girl one night’.”

“A nightmare,” I corrected. “I’m about to have a nightmare.”

I heard Trista’s voice from the hallway a couple seconds before New Jersey appeared in the kitchen again. He was right back in his top tier asshole style, wearing a full suit and carrying a pink duffle bag in his hand.

“Just stay out of it. She’s going to be so mad at you,” Triss said and grabbed Jersey’s arm. She paused to look at me. “And at you,” she added.

“That’s not really anything new for me. She’s been mad at me for a portion of just about every single day for nearly half a decade now. One more time won’t kill me,” Jersey shrugged and turned back to kiss Triss on the cheek. “Stay out of trouble, Fancy Face. Come on, kid, we’ll take Seph.”

“Um, side note,” Indy said. “What are we supposed to tell Memphis when she asks what you’re both out doing with only one of your vehicles gone?”

“Tell her I don’t even like having to tolerate one punk hanging around here just to be close to her,” Jersey said, smiling like he was excited about what we were about to do. “So, I’m damn sure not letting a second one get close.”

“Felt like there was going to be a moment in there when I could almost thank you for wanting to help,” I mumbled. “Just for you to shit all over that opportunity with your attitude problem.”

Jersey smiled while he smacked me on the shoulder and went to the door. I looked at the other two and felt a little better to see they were both just as confused by this encounter as I was.

“It’s almost creepy to see him this kind of happy,” Indy whispered to Triss. “He’s willingly going on a job with Utah . Volunteered for it even.”

“I think maybe it’s just been a minute since he had the chance to hurt someone,” Triss said and shrugged her shoulders.

“Let me know what you find on this guy,” I said to Indy before I turned to catch up to New Jersey.