This moment was the beginning of everything. Lara knew it down inside, where her bones met a kind of deep intuition. This was fate, with thunder in the distance to mark it while it happened.
“I’m going to try,” she heard herself whisper, like a vow.
“Don’t try.” He didn’t give an inch. “Do better.”
“I trust you,” she told him, and she didn’t even tip over into a scowl or a hint of temper or arch humor or any of the things she usually used to keep herself safe. Because what was the point of waffling? He could see right through her. And she wanted him to. She wanted this, whatever it was. The claim, the man. And so what if it required a kind of nakedness that terrified her? “I don’t know why or how that happened so fast, but I do.”
She’d come here thinking she needed to save others. How had it never occurred to her that she was the one who needed saving? And that maybe she didn’t need to do that all by herself?
“Good,” he rumbled, his hard mouth tipping up in the corners. “Keep it up.”
It should have irritated her. She told herself it did. But the truth was, it felt like a blessing, as dark and maddening as he was, but beautiful all the same.
And then she let the Devil’s Keepers’ gorgeous and terrifying enforcer lead her into his house as if it had been a foregone conclusion that they’d end up right here, and this time, she didn’t look back at all.
Chapter 10
Chaser called a family meeting the minute he had Lara inside and the door shut and locked behind him. He shouted out a terse, take-no-shit summons, using the tone his sister and Kaylee knew better than to ignore. He shot a text to Pony, then pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and nodded Lara into it, taking a moment to run his palm over her hair as she sat. Like he was the one who needed soothing.
He shoved that random, bizarre notion away as she forced a smile. Then she sat up straight, folding her hands on the table before her like they were somewhere a whole lot classier than his kitchen, managing to look exactly the way she’d looked in that classroom the first night he’d met her. Pulled together and a little bit prissy, like she hadn’t let him fuck her silly in the middle of a biker party.
Like she wasn’t his.
Chaser wasn’t going to lie to himself. He liked it. All of it. Prissy on the outside and his own, personal biker slut beneath, and he’d claimed her about as officially as he could back there in Digger’s office. He hadn’t known he was going to throw that down, but the words had come out of his mouth and he’d liked that, too. He’d liked how they’d sounded and more, how they’d echoed in him. Digger and Roscoe had heard him, no matter their opinions on the subject. And most of all, he’d liked that the most argumentative woman he’d ever met hadn’t let out a peep when he’d laid down his claim on her. She’d looked startled in the office, sure. But outside, where the edges of things seemed to blur off into the stormy heat of the September night, she’d looked sweet and hot. Almost yearning. Exactly the way a man would like a woman he’d decided was his to look, now that he was thinking about it.
As far as he was concerned, it was all a done deal. He figured they could hash out what the hell that meant when shit calmed down a little. Hopefully while naked, where he knew he had the advantage. And maybe in ten years or so, when he thought he might finally be over the way she lit up every time he touched her, this crazy urge to spend his life deep and hard inside her might pass. But he wasn’t holding his breath.
He’d been this sure of exactly one other thing in his life: Kaylee. He’d hated Destiny and her junkie bullshit and the fact she’d lied to him about birth control, but he hadn’t even waited for the results of the paternity test. Kaylee had come into the world and he’d loved her and that was that. The test had just been icing. There’d been no question, when Destiny had run off with her, that he’d dedicate his life to finding his little girl, and he had. And now she was a mouthy little shit with a disturbing tendency toward dumb behavior and a fondness for horrifyingly skimpy clothing. Who made it clear she could barely tolerate him half the time.
And that did absolutely nothing to change how much he loved her, sulky expression, rolled eyes, and all.
Lara wasn’t a screeching little red thing with alien hands and wrinkles. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he’d fallen in love with her the moment he’d seen her. But she was his. She’d been his from the get-go. He knew it in his bones, and that shit never changed. Not the club, not his kid.
The rest would work itself out.
He stayed behind Lara’s chair as Liz shuffled in, looking squinty-eyed and suspicious. For once she didn’t have a cigarette in her hand, but that meant she stood there next to the fridge and vibrated instead.
“My sister,” Chaser muttered when Lara got a little stiff in her chair. Just in case she’d been tempted to jump to the wrong conclusion about the presence of a grown woman in his house.
“I didn’t ask,” Lara retorted in the same undertone.
But he noticed her shoulders eased down from around her ears.
Kaylee came right behind Liz, all long legs and a pouty expression on her face, her arms crossed over her chest like she wanted to fend off this conversation before it started. Chaser opted not to focus on the tiny-ass shorts she was wearing that barely made it to the tops of her thighs, because he couldn’t afford to lose his shit tonight. Kaylee glared at him like they were in the middle of a fight—which made him wonder if he’d spaced one of her theatrically epic meltdowns, something that was entirely possible since all of them were equally incomprehensible to him—but then she shifted her attention to Lara.
And Chaser watched his daughter transform from the sullen, provoking creature he knew all too well to…a girl. A younger, much less pouty one. A girl who stood up straight and dropped her arms to her sides at the sight of her teacher.
It was as if she wanted to impress Lara. Desperately. Something Chaser had never seen before.
And it made something inside him go a little tight.
“Ms. Ashburn?” Kaylee sounded like someone else’s polite and well-mannered kid. The kind of someone else who would live in a neighborhood like this one and tut every time the dirty biker asshole rode by, in fact. Chaser felt his brows creep up his forehead.
“Are you feeling okay, Kaylee?”
She looked at the floor, not at him. “Yes.”
“I like this side of you, kid. It’s like someone finally taught you some manners and a little bit of respect.”
Kaylee shot him an indignant glare that nearly made him laugh out loud, but he knew that would send her over the edge. And as much as he enjoyed baiting his teenager into her fits, he had too much crap to do tonight to indulge himself.
Lara smiled at Kaylee, looking benevolent and distant at once, which he thought was quite a feat while she sat there at his table, disheveled from his hands and his cock and his bike. What was wrong with him that her teacher shtick made him hot?
“Hi, Kaylee,” Lara said calmly. And not unkindly. And as if she had everything under control, including Kaylee. “I’m so sorry to burst in on your weekend like this.”
“What the hell is going on?” Liz, not one for suspense or the social niceties, threw out from her fidgety place next to the fridge. Her black-lined eyes looked sunken into her head, but that could have been the hard way she was glaring between Lara and him. “Since when do you bring home strays?”
“She’s not a stray,” Kaylee chimed in defensively, frowning at her aunt. “She’s my teacher.”
That was interesting. Why was Kaylee getting drunk and being an idiot in Lara’s class if she actually liked and respected her? Chaser’s indulgence in that kind of behavior back in the day had been largely predicated on the fact he didn’t give two shits if the entire state of Georgia burned to the ground, as long as it took his asshole father and the mandated tedium of all that high school crap with it.
“Lara’s staying here for a while,” Chaser said in his deal-with-it tone. The one that wa
s about laying down the law. The one he knew his sister and his daughter recognized, and he didn’t care if they liked it or not.
“I hope that’s not too weird for you, Kaylee,” Lara murmured, sitting even straighter in her chair, as if she hadn’t heard his tone and somehow thought this was a discussion. “I know it’s inappropriate, to say the least.”
“It’s not fucking inappropriate,” Chaser interjected. “And it’s not up for debate.”
And he could tell by the way her lips tightened that it was taking everything Lara had not to tell him where he could shove that. He admired her restraint—though he had the sneaking suspicion she was putting on a front for his kid, not submitting to his authority.
One more thing that shouldn’t make his cock stir, but look at that. The horny little fucker couldn’t get enough of her.
“It’s not weird,” Kaylee mumbled, but her arms were crossed over her chest again. Though Chaser thought the faint flush of color on her cheeks was because she was pleased Lara was here, not her usual mix of outrage and embarrassment. “It’s fine.”
“What’s going on?” Liz was demanding again, her gaze flat and her raspy voice edging toward shrill, because she saw pretty much everything as a threat. “Why would you bring one of Kaylee’s teachers here?”
Chaser didn’t see how that was any of his sister’s business, so he only fixed a glare on her and waited for her to drop her gaze. It took about five seconds. And he could watch her typical thought process as he counted down the seconds. Fuck you. Don’t piss him off. Think about the money. Kiss his ass, idiot. Look away. It was the same shit every time.
“Chaser is helping me out of an unpleasant situation,” Lara told her, and the way she said it, Chaser was tempted to believe it himself. Like he was that altruistic, wandering around the parish helping. “We’re friends.”
Liz let out a snort. “Yeah, right. Like Ryan has friends.”
Lara smiled at that, and Chaser knew he couldn’t be the only one who saw how sharp it was. “I think you’ll find Ryan has a lot of layers.”
She was defending him. Not only that, she wasn’t letting Liz get away with using his civilian name like it was some kind of prize. He thought it was maybe the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
But his voice was like gravel when he spoke. “The next person who calls me Ryan is getting a boot in the ass,” he said. He caught Lara’s gaze and nodded at Liz. “This is my sister Liz. We keep her around for her charm.” He glared at his sister. “All you need to know is I want Lara here. Are we clear?”
He could see Liz’s thoughts cycling around like her head was a movie screen. Her urge to snap back at him versus her self-interest.
“Maybe I’ll call Joey, then,” she threw at him, which made him wonder if she’d been drinking tonight. Because that was a bold move, bringing up her asshole ex who he’d found bare assed in his own house. Liz actually looked triumphant, another bad choice. “We’re back together, not that you care.”
“You’re right. I don’t care.” Chaser’s voice was a growl. “And I don’t give a shit if you’re knocked up and expecting his spawn to claw its way out of you tomorrow. Keep that loser out of my house or I’ll break his neck.”
He expected Lara to jump in then, to calm the situation or act like she was the voice of reason again, but she didn’t say a word. She just sat there with her hair a mess from his hands, her tight little body packed into that tank top and a slick pair of jeans, giving no indication she wasn’t exactly the kind of badass biker chick he liked best—except for the graceful way she was sitting there, as if she was holding court.
It turned out he liked her in his house, too. A lot. She made quite a contrast with his belligerent, problematic sister.
“I want the two of you to get your heads out of your asses for a change,” Chaser continued, keeping his gaze hard and steady on Liz and then shifting it to Kaylee. “There’s gonna be a prospect outside to keep an eye on things, but I want you locked down tight and safe in here. No visitors. No sneaking outside for any reason. No bullshit.”
“That sounds a lot like a prison sentence,” Kaylee muttered, and tried out a defiant glare for a second when he focused on her. Then she blew out an exaggerated breath and managed to stare at her feet with attitude. Some high-level teenage girl crap right there.
“There’s been some weird shit going down.” Chaser didn’t like to talk about club business with civilians, but some situations called for a little leeway on that rule. Or in his life they did, because he was plagued by smart-mouthed females. “There’s been a Black Dog sniffing around town.”
Liz and Kaylee stiffened at that. Kaylee even looked a little pale.
But Lara only looked confused. “I’m assuming you don’t mean a rabid Labrador has led to this enforced house arrest,” she said. “Although this is Louisiana. God only knows what’s out there in that swamp.”
“The Black Dogs are a shitty, pissant club with a hard-on for the Devils.” Chaser wanted to touch her, and it was the simple fact he wanted it so badly that kept him from it. Because he might be completely down with the decisions he’d made, but he wasn’t a punk-ass bitch. Particularly not in front of his kid. “There’s no good reason for one of them to be in our territory.”
“You know I’ll blow a whiny little puppy’s head off without blinking,” Liz assured him in her gravelly smoker’s voice, sounding more engaged in what was going on than she had in anything else in years, including the sex he’d walked in on that time. “Bring it on.”
She’d enjoy the hell out of a fight, Chaser knew. He nodded at her as she stood in the archway that led out toward the rest of the house. That was the Frey family way. They were shitty at the emotional stuff, but put a little violence on the menu and they were all in.
He eyed his kid, whose violence was usually in the form of operatic teen fits, which made him want to break things. A different version of the Frey family gift, sure, but in the same ballpark. But tonight Kaylee looked unusually freaked by what she normally called “club drama” in her eye-rollingly dismissive teenager way, a phrase she knew he didn’t like to hear come out of her mouth. Especially when it was true.
“You don’t shoot unless you have to,” he told his daughter, studying the strangely quiet, withdrawn way she was standing there in the door to the living room like she wished she could melt through it and disappear. “First you hide.”
He expected some backtalk, but Kaylee didn’t say a word. She didn’t even remind him that she was a very good shot, which she damn well should have been, given how seriously he’d taken her training. She only nodded. That didn’t sit right with him, but there was too much going on tonight for him to get into it the way he would have at any other time.
“Can you handle a gun?” he asked Lara.
“Of course,” she said coolly, as if she was at some froofy tea party. Confirming beyond any possible doubt that she was the perfect woman. He needed things to calm down so he could indulge himself in her the way he wanted to. For much longer than a night.
“If someone comes through that door, you better keep out of my way,” Liz growled at her, squaring her broad shoulders like she was auditioning for LSU’s defensive line. “I won’t cry if you get hit in the cross fire.”
“Good to know,” Lara replied in that frosty teacher’s voice of hers that made Liz flush a little, it was such an expert smack down. Chaser had to bite back a grin. Because his sister was a pain in the ass who drove him crazy, but the truth was, he couldn’t really respect a woman who couldn’t handle her, could he?
“Don’t open the door to anyone but me,” he told them all. “Everything is probably fine, but I don’t want to come back here to find you blew this off. Because one day it’s gonna be real and you need to be prepared.” Kaylee failed to roll her eyes at that the way she normally would have, which made him scowl. “You better be paying attention, kid.”
Kaylee’s head jerked up, and he thought she looked guilty when she met hi
s gaze. Which couldn’t possibly lead anywhere good.
“I’m paying attention,” she said, but she sounded subdued instead of mortally offended, which was off. Everything about her was off tonight. “You made us do, like, nine million drills, Dad. And I’m not an idiot.”
“Then don’t act like one,” he suggested.
He wanted to ask her what the hell was going on with her, but he heard a bike pull up outside. He moved to the kitchen window to peer out and saw Pony come to a stop beside his own bike, then saw another bike pull in next to him.
Uptown. Interesting.
Chaser straightened from the window and frowned at the three women staring back at him. “All of you keep your heads down. Lara”—and he watched the way she straightened in her seat as his sister glared and his daughter chewed on her bottom lip—“if you want to shower, use the one in my room. Kaylee can lend you a change of clothes.”
Lara stood then. She smiled at him but didn’t move toward him the way he thought she might. The way other women might have in a situation where they had reason to feel fragile. Instead she went to stand next to Kaylee as if they were a team and this was all normal. It occurred to him that she’d grown up in the life and that to her, this was probably completely unremarkable.
“Go on,” she said calmly, as if they’d been together for years and they’d handled situations like this a thousand times before. As if he could trust her to make sure that when he came back everything would be exactly the way he’d left it. Everyone in one piece. The house still standing. His child where he’d left her, which was something he never took for granted. Lara’s gaze was steady on his, and much too blue. “You don’t have to worry about us. We’re fine here.”
And he believed her, he realized as he walked outside. He believed she would take care of his daughter, maybe even better than his sister did, since Liz was as likely to get carried away in a firefight as she was to actually hunker down and protect Kaylee. Hell, he already knew Lara would. She’d gotten in his face about Kaylee—god knew what she’d do to some random loser from a rival club who tried to get at her. It made that tight feeling from earlier grip him even harder.