14. Steel

14

Steel

This little firecracker thinks she’s tough, and something about it is really fucking hot. But at the same time, I’m not thrilled to find out why she’s such a fighter.

When I first walked up behind Tempe and heard her telling Luna about how she got the scar that cuts through her eyebrow, it took everything in me not to immediately hunt down her mom’s ex-boyfriend to teach him a lesson. I probably would have if Tempe wasn’t standing in front of me looking so damn distracting.

She must have changed her clothes at her house because she’s wearing a flowery sundress that blows around her thighs with the slight breeze. Her chin is tipped up in a challenge, and the sunset draws out the blonde streaks in her honey-brown hair.

Tempe’s cheeks are the prettiest shade of pink as her hazel eyes blink up at me. Her hair is down and wavy and wild like her spirit when she’s being feisty. I’d love to feel her silky strands, her soft skin. The contradiction of her prickly attitude.

My gaze drops to her mouth when she wets her lips, and her eyelashes flutter.

I’m standing close—too close.

I can’t help it.

I walked over here to get a beer… at least, that’s what I told myself. But really, I’m here because of her .

I’ve been on edge since Havoc called me from Tempe’s house and told me someone flipped it. I don’t know if they were looking for something specific or trying to prove a point. But if that was the case, they made it.

She and Austin aren’t going back there unguarded. The neighborhood she was living in is bad enough, but the lack of a security door or any type of alarm system grinds my nerves, thinking she was living in that place as long as she was like that.

I’ll help her find a better place.

A nicer neighborhood.

Somewhere to go when she inevitably leaves.

My gut sinks, and I take a step back. This girl is a sinkhole, and I’m riding straight for her.

“So that’s how you learned to fight?” I ask, curious now. “Self-defense classes?”

“How much did you hear exactly?” She narrows her eyes.

“Enough to know Helix wasn’t the only piece of shit your mom dated. ”

Tempe lifts her beer to take a sip, but it’s empty, so I nod at Reyes working behind the bar, and he gets her another one.

“Unfortunately.” She takes a sip, and a bead of condensation drips onto her chest. “They weren’t all violent, but she had a thing for bikers.”

“Being a biker doesn’t give a man an excuse to hit a woman.”

Tempe nods, and I’m starting to understand why it’s so hard to break through her defenses. She thinks all men are like her father and that all bikers are like the man who hurt her, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“I’m not saying all bikers are bad.” Tempe frowns. “But try telling my mom’s long list of exes that.”

“Give me a list of names, and I will.” Happily .

She shakes her head but keeps her lips sealed because she’s smart enough to know what I’d do with that information.

“Well now you know why you shouldn’t mess with me,” she teases.

“Learned that lesson the first night we met.” I rub my jaw in the spot she almost got me with a right hook. “You’ve got solid technique.”

“I thought I did.” She sighs. “But it didn’t do me any good at the bar last night.”

Her fingers find her throat, and my fists clench at the reminder of the man who choked her.

“Don’t beat yourself up about that.” I tip her chin up when she drops her gaze to the ground. “Knowing what to do and actually doing it when shit goes sideways are two different things. All you can do is give ’em hell if they come for you. But you won’t always win.”

“You probably do.”

“Not always.” I shake my head. “Your father was proof of that. Lost a lot of good men because of him.”

Tempe’s eyebrows pinch. “What did he do exactly? If you don’t mind me asking.”

I brush my hair back, taking a long pull of my beer. I’ve asked myself that same question many times over the past nine months, and every time I think I’ve got it figured out, something else comes to light.

Like his daughter ending up at my clubhouse.

She might not be involved with the men who sent her here, but I’m pretty sure they targeted her for a reason. Either to complete a task or to get under my skin. And it’s working.

I set my beer on the bar and swish it around. “Helix thought he was owed something because of an agreement he had with my father. He wasn’t.”

“We aren’t owed anything,” Tempe mumbles, surprising me.

“Not everyone feels that way.”

“Do you?” She tips her chin up. “What do you think you’re owed, Jameson?”

“Not a damn thing, wildfire.” I can’t help but chuckle. “Some people—like your father—look at this patch as an excuse to let out the worst version of themselves. But I got this patch from my father, and him from his. I was born to wear this cut. So do you want to know what I see when I look at it? ”

She nods.

“Honor.” I plant my hand over my president patch. “I’ll die for my brothers without hesitation because loyalty is the most important thing to have in this life. The men who understand that know we aren’t owed a damn thing. We’re all here because there are worse places we’d be if we weren’t—if we didn’t have each other. We’re a family. No one comes before anyone else. We survive together . It’s an honor to wear this patch, but your father didn’t understand that.”

There’s no use sugarcoating the truth. I have nothing good to say about a man who would betray his own club. A man who willingly took the lives of his brothers in an attempt to overthrow me.

Besides, Tempe strikes me as a girl who can handle a little honesty.

She blinks up at me. “Do you blame me for having his blood in my veins?”

I take a deep breath, tipping my face up to the cloudless sky.

I’d like to hate her for being a product of Helix. I probably should when he’s the reason I’m incapable of trusting anyone but myself lately. But the more I’m around her, the clearer it is—Tempe is nothing like her dad.

“No.” I drop my gaze to hers. “I don’t blame you for it.”

“Good.” A faint smile brightens her hazel eyes.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, wildfire?” I chuckle, taking a sip of my beer.

“We have. ”

Her eyes brighten like gems that house the souls of men who have fallen into their depths. The desert sky could be void of the sun, and she’d still brighten it.

A breeze kicks up, and Tempe sets her beer on the bar. She reaches for the hair tie around her wrist, wrangling her hair into a bun on the top of her head. A few pieces fall around her face, and my fingers itch to brush them back. To feel her skin. To get a hit of that electrical current that vibrates between us.

The club has always been my entire life.

My purpose.

Women were there to fill a void, like booze was there to loosen my nerves.

But when I look at Tempe, I’m faced with something I didn’t realize I’ve been hiding from. A man beneath the president patch. One who might want more than I’ve been giving him.

A man I lost at twenty-one when my father took a bullet to the forehead. A man I was still figuring out, so this is what I became instead.

A mask of myself.

Tempe looks around the yard, and I follow her gaze. She watches Austin and Bea in the kiddie pool, smiling at the sight of them having fun.

Legacy is acting as a barrier between them and a couple of the guys with water guns, and he’s soaked, taking the brunt of the battle.

I never got it before.

Family.

Kids .

I had my brothers, and that was enough.

Maybe it always will be. Because I have no other choice when the club has to come first to a man in my position.

But when Austin looks up and spots Tempe standing next to me, he smiles with the full force of the sun. He waves at us, and my chest expands.

Like his sister, Austin sees straight past my cut. He sees the parts of me I’ve been avoiding, and he hands me his full trust. He’s still too young to understand the terrible things I’ve done. Some of it for good reason, but others not so much.

Austin smiles at me, and I don’t want to fail him. I don’t want either of them to suffer any more than they have—especially for the sins of my club.

“Cute kid.” Reina slides up beside me, cutting through my thoughts.

Her smile is as fake as her bleach-blonde hair as she looks from Austin to Tempe.

“Thanks.” Tempe forces a smile.

“You coming back, Steel?” Reina rests her hand on my arm. “It’s getting lonely over there without you.”

She doesn’t really care where I am, but she’s being territorial because she sees Tempe as a threat. Rumors have been spreading over the fact that Tempe and Austin have been staying at my house, which explains Reina’s desperate attempt to claim me.

If she knew me at all, she’d realize jealousy just gets under my skin. No one owns me but my patch.

I shake her off in irritation. “Seems like you and Havoc were getting along just fine without me. ”

“Oh, come on, Steel. You know how it is. You never cared before.”

“And I still don’t.” I take a sip of my beer.

Reina fucks all the guys at the club, even if she tries to pretend that she doesn’t when she’s working an angle with me. It didn’t bother me when I was still letting her climb into my bed, and it sure as fuck doesn’t bother me now. But she’s too blind to what this really is to see that.

I’m not looking for an old lady. Especially one who doesn’t fucking understand me.

Reina narrows her eyes, her glare landing on Tempe. “Don’t tell me you’re being like this because of this homely whore. She’s just using you, Steel. Everyone can see it.”

“And you aren’t?” I snap, and Reina tenses when she realizes she’s struck a nerve. “Get out of here before you’re looking for a new place to live.”

It’s cold.

Harsh.

I should feel bad because I’m not usually mean to her, even when she’s pulling this jealousy act. But she crossed a line, and she fucking knows it.

My brothers might give me shit about Tempe, but they know better than to tell me what to do or question my choices. Reina doesn’t.

At least she scurries off, glaring at Tempe as she goes. But it’s clear I haven’t heard the end of this from her. She’s going to be a problem I don’t want to deal with, and I should have seen it coming. The moment Reina started spreading rumors that she was going to wear my name on her back someday, I should have cut her off .

Tempe spins to face the bar, draining more of her beer.

She’s clearly annoyed, and it’s a reaction I’m used to when I’ve seen Reina pull this shit before.

“Sorry about that.”

I don’t apologize to anyone, but for some reason, I just did.

“It’s fine.” Tempe shrugs, turning to walk away, proving it’s not fine at all.

I follow her when I should probably just let this go, snagging her arm right as she dips inside the empty clubhouse. “Wait.”

“For the record”—she spins the moment I grab her—“I’m not using you. You’re the one who won’t let me leave.”

Her voice cracks at the end, and she avoids looking directly at me.

“I’m aware.”

“Good.” She rolls her shoulders back. “Because I don’t need anyone thinking I’m a charity case. I got myself this far without anyone’s help. I sure as hell don’t need yours.”

“Tempe.” I lean in, reaching for her hand, surprised when she doesn’t pull away, even if she still refuses to look at me. “No one’s questioning that.”

“She just did.”

“Reina’s just being jealous.”

Tempe pulls her hand from my grip. “Because she thinks she’s your girl, Jameson.”

“She’s not.”

“You’re wrong. She is. They all are .” She chuckles, shaking her head. “I don’t hold it against you though. This is your world. You belong to your people either because you’re their president or because you saved them from something, and it makes them want to protect you.”

“I don’t belong to anything but my club, Tempe.”

She shakes her head, and even if she’s smiling, there’s only sadness in her gaze when it meets mine. “You say that like you aren’t confirming everything I just said. You don’t just belong to your club, Jameson, you are it . It’s why girls like Reina will never be able to see the difference whether they have your name on their back or not. You, Jameson Steel, are the Twisted Kings. You’re what they belong to. And I’m an outsider—a threat.”

Tempe steps toward me and places her hand on my arm. The lightest grip has my insides rattling.

“I don’t need you to apologize for her or try to explain it away as something it’s not. I’m not blind, and I’m not stupid. Whatever lines you think you draw are blurry at best. And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s your club, and I respect what you do for them, just like I respect what you’re doing for me and Austin. But I need it to be clear that I don’t need you to save us. I was doing fine on my own before you, and I’ll continue to do so for me and my brother. I’m not one of your people. I can’t be.”

She looks toward the kiddie pool, stepping through the door onto the porch to yell, “Austin, time to go.”

“You don’t have to—”

“We do, Steel.” She uses my road name like she’s trying to prove a point, and I hate it. “This is your life. My father’s life… but it’s not mine. And that was a good reminder of it. ”

Austin runs over to Tempe, grabbing her leg and soaking it with his wet clothes. She drops her irritation for him and pats him on the head, even as he starts to complain about having to leave so soon.

And as I watch them walk away, every step eats away at a piece of me.

This is your life.

It is, and that’s always been more than enough. Except right now, it isn’t.