“I’m going to get some sleep.” I sat on the edge of the bed. “If we’re all in this bed together, you need to be in the middle,” I said to McKelle. “And he needs to keep his clothes on.”
There was tension in the room as Cruz snapped off the light. The bed dipped as McKelle climbed on and slipped beneath the blanket. I slid my legs next to hers.
She curled on her side and hesitantly rested her hand on my arm. I think she was afraid to touch anywhere else because of the bruising. “Are you okay?”
Not really, but I think I was mentally numb. I wasn’t angry. Nothing about my situation would be any different if it hadn’t been Blue and Cruz who killed Sam. A narc called Tone put me in the crosshairs of the Kings.
“Just tired,” I said.
“You need to rest.”
I would with her next to me. Cruz’s bed was comfortable. I could feel every spring in the mattress of the twin sized bed at the halfway house. Or maybe it was McKelle’s warm body aligned with mine.
“Tomorrow, we’ll talk to Blade,” Cruz said with a yawn. “The MC has an attorney. Maybe he can do something to get you out from under your PO and out of the halfway house.”
The bed shifted as Cruz rolled into McKelle. His arm brushed mine as he curled around her.
My heart kicked into gear, going from tired to amped in two point five seconds. In the darkened room, I could feel her watching me. Her whisper-soft breath floated on the cool night air coming through the open window.
A distant police siren sounded from outside the MC gates. I felt a prickle of unease. Up until tonight, I’d fucked around smoking weed, popping a few scrips, and selling a bit on the side, but after tonight, we were talking felony, life-fucking, lifelong convictions—that was—if anyone ever found out.
Cruz shifted on the bed, flopping onto his back and draping his arm over his head. Apparently, he wasn’t feeling the same anxiety that fired through me. His soft snores echoed in the room.
No matter how tired my body was, I couldn’t shut off my mind. Cruz had killed before. He hadn’t killed for Kiss. He’d been there for Blue. And in my gut, I had a gnawing belief that when he’d pulled the trigger, he wasn’t killing for McKelle. He was there for me.
Maybe it was a Heller thing.
“Can’t you sleep?”
With the sound of her sleepy voice beside me, I turned toward her. “I can’t shut off my thoughts,” I whispered.
“Me, either.” She turned onto her side. “Are we just supposed to pretend our boyfriend hasn’t killed at least two people?”
“You and Cruz are killing me.” But she was right. I did have a boyfriend and a girlfriend. I didn’t know what was going on between Cruz and I, but I trusted him. And I accepted that the only way this worked was if we were all in. She couldn’t choose, and it didn’t appear that neither Cruz nor I would ask her to. “No, we don’t pretend anything. Ever.”
“What happens now? How is this going to work?”
I groaned and flinched as I rolled to my back. “I don’t know, but what the hell. Who the fuck is Rogue? The guy is an enigma. So he knows Cruz and Blue killed Sam. You should’ve seen him with Bullet and Dozer, talking about hauling bodies with the hearse. I kept thinking what the fuck have I gotten myself into and yet I feel like this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
“With me?” She rose onto one elbow. Wisps of her long hair tickled my flesh. I couldn’t believe I was in bed with her, when earlier I’d said a lot of things to her in my head. Emotions I felt but wasn’t ready to voice because I’d never felt this way about a girl before. I didn’t just want her, but I wanted to hang at the track with her dad, feed goats with her mom, and I wanted to chill with her little sister.
And I wanted Cruz to know I could be there for him the way he was there for me. I’d felt so vulnerable in that bathroom. It had been the lowest point of my life, and I’d lived through some fucked up situations in foster care.
“Do you think the Kings will come after you again?” She snuggled back into the covers. “You can’t stay behind the MC gates forever.”
“I don’t know.” I threaded my fingers through her hair, ready to try and get some sleep. “I guess I’m going to trust our boyfriend.”
Cruz
McKelle’s ass nestled against my groin. It had been too long. I braced my hand on her hip as she arched with a slow morning stretch. She glanced over her shoulder with a sleepy smile on her face.
“Good morning.”
“I’ve missed this,” I said and kissed her lips. “I missed you.”
She turned toward me, sinking back into the pillow. “I missed you, too.”
I glanced over her shoulder at Ryatt. His bruises had darkened but the swelling around his eyes and lips had gone down.
