“Santino wasn’t here,” someone told Ciro who had come in behind me. “We’ll have everyone keep an eye out for him.”
I barely heard the two men talking as my gaze went around the room. I saw Uncle Jack first. He was on his knees on the floor beside Gracie, with Trigger on her other side. Tears poured down her bruised face as she held her arm against her and spoke quietly to her grandfather. Jet stood over them, his gun at the ready, protecting the most precious thing in my world.
Seeing her tears gutted me and I was across the room before I even realized I was moving. Uncle Jack lifted his head and nodded once before getting to his feet. I dropped down next to her. My eyes ate up the sight of her. Her face was one big bruise, making the rage start to build in my veins again. Someone had hit her, repeatedly it looked like. She was crying, and the pain I saw deep in her whiskey-brown eyes made my own body hurt that much more.
“Baby,” I breathed and carefully stroked a finger over her jaw. Now that I could see her—touch her—my heart finally felt like it was beating again.
“Hawk.” A sob made her shoulders shake as tears fell faster. “You’re alive. Oh God, I was so scared that you were dead.”
“Never. I’d always find a way back to you, baby. Always.” I lowered my head and gently brushed my lips over her eyes.
“Hawk, I want to go h-home.” She was starting to shiver, but I didn’t know if it was from pain or if shock was setting in.
“Get me a blanket,” I yelled at the room, not caring who carried out the order as long as someone got it done.
“We’ll take you home as soon as we get you checked out, honey,” Trigger told her, keeping her distracted.
Her eyes went to the other man, her chin trembling uncontrollably. “I-I thought it was just a piece of glass.”
“It’s okay, honey. We’ll get you all better soon.” He carefully turned the arm closest to him and showed me the gunshot wound to the back of Gracie’s arm. There was only an entrance hole, no exit. The fucking bullet was still in her arm.
What worried me the most was the red streaks around the wound. She was already showing signs of a bad infection. “Did you call an ambulance?”
“On their way, brother. They said they were about fifteen minutes out.” Raider called from across the room where he was helping the others clean up the dead bodies. The cops were about to be all over the place. They would put the bodies in one of the SUVs and take them somewhere else to dispose of them.
“What do you want me to do with him?” Ciro called out, waving his gun in Morgan’s face, making the old man blanch and flinch away from the gun. He was gray in the face, his eyes terrified.
I looked back down at Gracie. “What do we do with the old fuck, baby?”
Another tear fell from her eyes and she turned her head away, not looking at me. “I don’t care. I don’t care.”
The pain in her voice was from more than just physical pain. It went soul deep. She’d been betrayed by her family—or what she thought was family. I’d have to find a way to tell her that they weren’t. Would she hate me for keeping that from her? Would she be glad that the people she’d thought she shared DNA with weren’t her family?
“Take him down to the warehouse by the pier,” Jet told Ciro. “We’ll be down tomorrow night to deal with him.”
“Got it,” Ciro assured him as he lifted his gun and used the handle to knock Morgan out. The room was filled with the sickening thud as the old man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped onto the floor beside his dead son. “Call me when you’re ready. I’ll be waiting.”
Without another word, Ciro and his men left. Seconds after I heard three sets of tires burning rubber out in the wrap-around driveway, I caught the sound of sirens in the distance.
Gracie grasped my hand. Her fingers were ice cold but she held on to me with a surprising strength. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never,” I vowed and brushed another gentle kiss over her eyes. “Never.”
Chapter Twelve
Felicity
“Twice in just a few months. This is a real treat, Felicity,” Mary Donati said with a smile as we shared a cup of coffee in her huge living room. “I’m so glad you could spare a little time for me, darling. I know how busy you’ve been with your new job. How are the Armstongs doing?”
Pain sliced through my heart at the thought of Emmie and her family, but it wasn’t nearly as harsh as it had been the night before. Only twenty-four hours and I was starting to handle the loss of them in my life a little better. “Things are still crazy with them, I’m sure.”
I’d seen my aunt just a few days before Demon’s Wings had started their summer tour. When I’d come to visit her and my uncle, I hadn’t worried that they would sell me out to the Club. If there was anything that I knew about my aunt it was that she was loyal to a fault. Unlike my mother, I knew that Mary would keep any secret I dared to tell her. Not for the first time, I wished I’d been born to this woman rather than Marcie Bolton.
I wasn’t about to explain to my beloved aunt that her son had basically deposited me on her doorstep like a sack of potatoes before going off to what I could only figure was going to be a war zone. I knew she wasn’t blind to the reality of who and what her son was, but I also knew that the less she knew, the better off she would be if the Feds were ever stupid enough to bring her in for questioning.
“I’ve missed you, Aunt Mary.” I took another swallow of my coffee and gave her a smile that wasn’t nearly as forced as it had been when I’d first arrived.
“I’ve missed you too, darling.”
More than two hours had passed since Ciro had dropped me off and my anger had dropped from boiling over to slightly simmering. I wanted to stay mad at him—and Jet—but I understood why they had done it. Once I’d started to calm down, I’d realized that I probably would have been in their way. I would have been a distraction that could have gotten someone hurt or killed.
Hating that I was admitting that Jet had been right to tell my cousin to drop me off—even if it was just to myself—I finished the rest of my coffee and listened indulgently to Mary as she continued on and on about how proud she was of her son. Another hour passed and my gut started the churn with anxiety as each second seemed to take forever to tick by.
Eleven thirty came and went. Where they okay? Was Hawk?
Was Jet?
God, please let them be okay. Watch over them for me. Keep them safe. Bring Jet back to me in one piece.
It was the same prayer I’d repeated over and over again when I knew Jet was on a run. I wasn’t blind to the fact that his life was a dangerous one, but all I wanted was for him to come back to me safe and whole.
My uncle wasn’t home, so it was just Mary and me in the house. I knew that there was at least one guard outside, though. Ciro and his father always made sure Mary was well protected at all times. Uncontrollably, my eyes began to grow heavy and I had to fight back a yawn.
“Come on, darling. I’ll show you to the guest room. When your young men arrive, I’ll give them a room too.”
My young men? I wanted to laugh at that thought. I had never considered them mine before. It had never felt like that to me, not even when I’d actually been with Jet. Sure I considered them all family, but I hadn’t ever imagined them feeling the same way. It surprised me how good it felt to think that way now. At least some of them had welcomed me home with a warmth that had thawed my heart to the idea of actually staying.
I’d only been back in the MC life for a little over a day, but it was starting to feel normal again.
As I took a shower in the guest room’s connecting bathroom, I took a moment to ponder that. I missed Emmie and the children. I even missed Nik and the rest of the Demons. But it was nothing like how I had missed Raven and the other Hannigans when I’d first gone to work for the Armstrong family. There was sadness and even pain, but it didn’t make me have to stop and catch my breath as I’d had to do for the first few weeks I’d been in Mal
ibu.
Not wanting to admit that it was because I belonged with the Club, I toweled dry and climbed under the sheets of the king-sized bed in the middle of the bedroom without bothering with the shirt that Mary had given me to sleep in. The sheets felt cool against my skin and the pillow was thick but soft. Perfect. Wrapping my arms around it, I laid on my stomach and let sleep consume me.
It was late when I thought I heard the bedroom door open. I sighed and rolled over on the bed. Vaguely I knew that I wasn’t alone, but I didn’t feel threatened. From the bathroom I heard the shower turn on but my mind was still fogged with sleep and without giving it another thought I drifted back under.
The feel of the bed dipping had my eyes blinking open as a big, hard body crawled under the blankets with me. Seconds later a rough, calloused hand reached for me and wrapped around my waist. It was dark in the room but the way my body instantly caught fire told me exactly who it was.
Jet.
He let out a contented sigh and his lips brushed over my forehead. “Finally,” he growled in a low voice. “Fuck, I’ve missed this.”
My eyes closed as I savored those words. For now, I would pretend that he spoke the truth. For now, at least, I would hold them close and live off them.
For now.
“Is Hawk okay?” I asked, needing to know if my friend was still alive before I could get another moment of sleep.
He stiffened but nodded. “He’s better now that he has Gracie back.”
“So you found her?” I felt him nod in the darkness. “Is she okay?”
There was a pause and my heart dropped into my stomach as I pictured so many terrible things happening to sweet Gracie. “She caught a bullet when the Italians took her. The damn thing was still in her arm and there were signs of blood poisoning. Sepsis, Raven calls it. They took it out at the emergency room and admitted her. She’s getting the strongest antibiotics that they can give her, but she was already pretty sick when we left. Uncle Jack and Trigger decided to stay with Hawk to watch his back.”
“She’s going to get better, though. Right?”
“Of course she will,” he assured me and tightened his arm around my waist. “Come on, Flick. Let’s sleep. I’m dead tired. I didn’t sleep that great last night.”
“Okay.” I lifted my head so he could put his other arm under it, and used it as my pillow. If the thick pillow was perfect, this was pure nirvana. This was how we’d always slept when we’d been together. With Jet’s big body and the heat that he put off, I didn’t even need a blanket.
It was only then, with my bare breasts pressed against his shirtless chest, that I remembered I’d gone to bed naked. If I’d been on fire with just the touch of his hand on my waist, it was nothing to the inferno that was starting to consume me now. A shiver ran up my spine.
Lying like this, with our fronts pressed so close together, I was in no doubt that he wanted me just as much. His cock was rock hard and hot against my lower stomach.
“Fuck, you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” he groaned and buried his face in my hair. The hand at my waist clenched into a fist and his body actually shook. “Is that what you want, baby? To kill me with wanting you?”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “How’s that going to kill you?”
“Because I’m not going to take it from you, Flick. You know me better than that.”
I frowned in the dark. “But…”
“But what?”
I glared up at him. “I thought that having sex was part of the deal you made me make with you this morning? Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
“Of course it’s what I wanted, but I wasn’t expecting it. All I wanted was to make sure you would be in my bed every night, Flick. Making love is your decision. I’ve never forced a woman before and I don’t plan on starting now.” His lips skimmed over my forehead before he rested his chin on top of my head. “Lie still and sleep, baby.”
Tears burned my eyes as I lay there, letting him hold me. I’d seriously thought that sex was going to be part of the deal I’d made with him. Maybe I’d even made it because of that, so I could have that part of him without letting my heart melt toward him again.
It was too late for that now. Without me even realizing it, I’d let my walls down that day and he’d snuck in. He’d never had to try very hard to get me to fall for him, though. His treating me like I was special had been my downfall the last time, and it hadn’t even taken that much this time around. A small touch here, a deep look there and I’d become putty in his hands all over again.
I knew it was because I hadn’t fallen out of love with him the last time. As much as I wanted to believe I’d moved on from Jet Hannigan, I knew it was a big fat lie. I wasn’t ever going to move on. I wasn’t ever going to get over him. The sooner I admitted that, the better off I was going to be.
With fingers that trembled, I touched his chest. His heart was pounding, telling me that despite his words he was just as desperate for me as I was for him. Jet sucked in a deep breath. “Sleep, Flick. I’m not going to take advantage of you.”
“Wh-what if I want you to take advantage?” I whispered.
“I’d say you have to be the first one to make a move, love. I’ve gotten what I want. You back in my bed, in my arms. Anything after that is only a bonus. But you have to be the one to make it happen.” His lips were nearly scalding against my cheek. “If you want me, I’m right here. Take what you want. But don’t expect me to do it for you.”
Love?
He’d never used that endearment before. It had always been babe or baby. My heart squeezed as I savored that one little word for the moment. How could I be this happy over one little word? It was stupid and crazy, but I let that itty bitty word work its way into the deepest parts of my soul and wasn’t surprised when the shredded parts started to heal—just a little.
With a sigh I lifted my head and skimmed my lips over his. He went completely still. I didn’t even think he was breathing right then. Smiling to myself at his reaction, I kissed him again, just as softly. My finger over his heart tangled in the small patch of hair on his hard chest.
His lips tasted just as I remembered. Dark and dangerous. That was how I would always describe this man. It was a delicious taste. Alluring. Powerful. Knowing I affected him just as much as he did me made me feel just as dangerous as I knew he was. Just as powerful. I could make Jet Hannigan forget to breathe with just a light touch of my lips against his.
How had I forgotten that I had always been able to produce this reaction in this man? Even if it was just on a physical level, Jet and I made an incredible combination. Some people didn’t even have that much going for them. The passion wasn’t there for them and that was just a sad life to have to live. I’d never worried about us when it came to our attraction to each other. It was only when my heart had begged for more that things had gone south for us.
I wouldn’t be that stupid this time around. I wouldn’t let my heart rule our relationship—whatever that might be. It didn’t matter that I was still in love with Jet. None of it mattered. I just wanted as much of this, as much of the fire and desire and dangerousness as I could get. Who knew how long it would last? Maybe he would get bored with me all over again in just a few weeks or months and he would let me go back to work for Emmie. But I would hold on to each second that I got with him.
“Flick.” He breathed my name in a choked voice. “Are you sure?”
“Shh,” I commanded softly. “I want this.” I kissed him again. This one was longer, harder. Deeper. I let my tongue slip inside his hot mouth and played with his tongue until neither of us could breathe.
The hand at my waist unclenched and he caught my hip, holding on hard but not enough to leave a bruise. This was how it had always been. My big, scary, alpha biker was hard as nails but as soon as he touched me, he became gentle. Tender. Maybe that was why I’d held out so much hope that he cared about me just as much as I did him.
Pushing that thought down, I lift
ed both hands to rake my fingers through his hair, holding him in place as I breathed him in and deepened the kiss even more. Lower, his hard cock flexed against my stomach. I was helpless to hide my desire from him as my thighs became soaked with my need. It had been so damn long since I’d had a man between my legs. Jet had been the only one ever to explore my most intimate places and that was the way it would stay. I wanted no other man like I wanted him and I wouldn’t settle for second best.
If he wanted me to be the one to take things further, then that was what I would do. Still kissing him, I pushed on his shoulders and he fell onto his back willingly. His hand on my hip ventured lower until he was covering my gushing pussy with his entire hand. Yes, I wanted to cry. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I straddled his waist, opening myself wide for him in hopes his fingers would explore me deeper. When they didn’t and he just stroked up and down my drenched lips, I finally broke the kiss. We were both gasping for breath, panting like we’d just run a mile. I could see better in the dark room now, could make out the shape of his face and the way his mouth glistened from our crazy kiss. I wanted him more right then than I’d ever wanted him in my entire life.
“Are…” I had to stop and clear my throat so that I could speak. “Are you clean?”
“Fuck yes,” he growled, both his hands holding onto my waist now. “I haven’t been with anyone since you.”
I didn’t believe that last part for a second, but I knew he wouldn’t lie to me about being clean. He might not love me but he respected me enough not to put me at risk. I shifted on top of him until my throbbing pussy covered his pulsing cock. We both let out a low moan as I rubbed my clit over the tip, torturing us both in the best kind of way. Stars flashed in front of my eyes and I tried not to cry out as I felt my orgasm start to build with just the little tease I was giving us.
Sucking in a deep breath, I grasped his long, thick cock in my right hand and positioned him at my entrance. I wanted to hold on to the moment he slid deep inside of me but knew that it would be over too quick no matter how slow I took things. Biting my lip to keep from crying out in sheer pleasure as I slid down his large shaft, I moved until I was stuffed full with him. I was seated on him, my body taking just a moment to adjust to the fullness.