25. Ghost

I look up to see Lennox coming out of the bedroom wearing nothing but my T-shirt. My gut clenches. I came too close to losing her. Without her, I wouldn"t be able to survive. I love this woman with everything in me. I thought I had been in love with Toi. My feelings for her ran deep. It might have grown into what I'm feeling now, but it was nowhere close at the time. Millie wasn't even a blip on the radar. Lennox owns every single piece of me—and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Babe, why are you out of bed?"

"I'm bored," she huffs. "You had me spend all day yesterday in bed and you didn't even give me dick."

"Because you need to rest and take it easy. Having sex wouldn't have let your body heal."

"It would have made it feel better," she grumbles. "I'm fine already. It has been two days since everything happened. I'm just a little sore?—"

"That's why I need you to rest."

"I refuse to stay in bed any longer. You'll just have to get over it, Ghosty."

She walks to me and slides into my lap. I take her in my arms and hold her close, breathing in her sweet scent. "I just want to take care of you, Tiger," I mumble into her ear.

"You already do that," she replies, leaning on me as I pull back to kiss the top of her head.

"I'm not very good at my job, then. I came too fucking close to losing you and it's because of a man I trusted to watch out for you," I growl, still disgusted with myself. Hell, as it is, she still had to give a statement to the police. E-Z lied and said he was present during all of it and had been trying to get Iron to hand over the gun. E-Z even had the forethought to wipe the knife down that was in the other guy's forehead and put his prints on them. He told the cops he was able to throw his knife and take the second gunman out. He went further, explaining that left him vulnerable and Lennox shot Iron because Iron was going to kill him. In this scenario, Lennox supposedly saved E-Z's life. She's a hero.

I owe the man. Because of his story, Lennox will have very little to do with the police investigation—especially since her gun was legally registered, and she had a license to carry. One of these days, I'll ask her about that. In the grand scheme of things, however, it's not that important right now.

"Hey! Stop beating yourself up. I'm no damsel in distress. I can take care of myself," she responds, bringing my attention back to the here and now.

"Don't I know it," I laugh, though not of humor. Truth be told, I'm pissed that I didn't realize Rage was a fucking liar. If it is any consolation, E-Z isn't dealing with it much better. "Since you're up, we do need to discuss what we're going to do."

"What we're going to do? What do you mean?"

"I need to know where you'd like to move to?"

"Move?"

Her face is scrunched up adorably and I kiss her forehead. I don't want her to worry. I'd prefer she not worry about anything ever again. "Yeah, Babe. We need to make some decisions. I know the club here holds to many bad memories for you. I'm not going to ask you to stay here. We can go anywhere you want. I do need to work. I have money saved up that will tide us over, but I don't want you worrying about shit. Plus, I actually like working."

"Ghost…"

"We could go back to Miami. Marcum already extended an offer. I spoke to him last night."

"Marcum? Your old president? As in Marcum and Toi?"

"Yes. I think you'd like the place. My sister is there, too. You two would hit it off."

"I'm not going back to a club where I'll have to see Toi every day and want to scratch her eyes out daily. That's out."

"Babe, Toi and I didn't get serious. I never slept with her."

"I don't give a damn. You had feelings for her and I'm a possessive bitch."

I find myself laughing. If you had told me when I left Miami that I'd find a woman who was so proud of me that she couldn't stand the thought of a woman in my past, I would have called you stupid as fuck. Lennox's jealousy is a balm to my ego. One I didn't know I needed at this point but am glad I have.

"Fine, then where would you like to go?"

"Go?"

"We could join the DeLuca family, I guess. That's also Miami, though. Unless you'd like to move to Greece?"

"Ghost, what's wrong with staying here?"

"Here? You want to stay in Phoenix?"

"Yes? Why not? I have family here."

"Ivan, Mikhail and Viktor are fucked-up, Lennox."

"Yes, but so are we, if you think about it. They're my family. I like having them close."

"What about the club?"

"What about it?" she asks, and strangely enough she seems legitimately confused. This wasn't the kind of reaction that I was expecting.

"You wanted to destroy the club, Tiger."

"Well, technically I just wanted to make sure I took down the men responsible for taking Teddy from me. We did that."

"Lennox—"

"I like the club, Ghost. E-Z and Liberty are the bomb. Plus, Brick and the boys are growing on me. I don't want to leave. I'm ready to try my biker chick era."

I laugh shaking my head. You want to stay here with me?"

"Yes. I mean, I want to be anywhere with you Ghost. I know absolutely nothing about love, except when it comes to my brother, but I know that I love you with everything inside of me. You're my home. Wherever you are is where I want to be. Um … except Miami.

"I need for you to be happy, Lennox," I explain. I love Phoenix, but I would grow to hate it and myself if staying here meant she was miserable.

"Dummy, I'm happy when I'm with you."

"Damn," I groan, before kissing her gently but with all of the emotions that I'm feeling. She has no idea how her words affect me. I have no words to explain it either, so I stand up, keeping her in my arms.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take you into the bedroom and gently as I can, make love to my woman."

"About damn time, but you can throw gentle out of the window if you want," she giggles.

I grunt in response and then, I lay her on the bed and for the next hour I take my time showing her just how gentle I can be with her body. I don't stop until she's begging me with every breath to let her come.

Perfection.