I slide my hands down her spine to her ass cheeks. Wrapping my hands around them, I lift her off her feet and into me. Her legs stretch through the sheet wrapping around my hips as she holds me tight.
“I just don’t wanna lose something that I love due to some crazy outlaw shit,” she whimpers, into my skin her breath hot on the inside of my neck.
“Some out-law shit? Little bird, baby, I wear the Reaper on my back, and I hide the devil inside my eyes. I ain’t going down without a war being waged first. So, don’t worry that pretty little head of yours, little bird. I’ll be back.”
I walk with her wrapped around me toward the door as the sun just starts to kiss the sky. Brilliant reds mix with purple, blue and blood orange, painting the sky in a brilliance that is just as breath taking as the women in my eyes.
“Promise me,” she demands into my ear, as her lips find the spot that sends a shiver down my spine to my toes.
“I promise you all that a man like me can, little bird,” I reply. As she pulls back, our eyes lock. So many truths and lies lay between us, so many stories needing to be told. So many memories wanting to be released so new ones can take up their spots. “Promise me that you will love me no matter what I do,” she says and that admission has my heart turning cold.
“Why?” I ask her, pinching my eyebrows together. “What are you going to be doing, little bird?”
“Just promise me.” I watch as her tongue runs over her bottom lip and she pulls it between her teeth.
“Baby, I promise you there is nothing you ever could do that would make me love you any less than I do right now.” It’s the truth. I’d love her into the flames of hell and dance with the devil to keep her.
“You know, little bird, I cheat death every day for my sins are too dark for the gates of hell to open for me. Just yet, anyway,” I say. Tears well inside her eyes and my damn fucking phone buzzes again.
“Fuck!” I bite out, taking her mouth hard. I taste blood from the force of my kiss, spilling into my mouth as our tongues dance together and my cock grows hard digging into the zipper of my jeans. Her hands tighten around me pulling me deeper into her and the kiss taking the air from my lungs as the blood runs from my head.
Releasing her, she slides down my body and a tear rolls down her cheek. I pick it up with the pad of my thumb sucking the warm salty drop from it.
“I’ll see you when I see you, little bird.” She nods at me, her body unable to speak. I have that effect on women.
“Lock up,” I say over my shoulder as I open the door and step out onto the landing.
“Promise,” her voice is soft as she speaks, laced in tears and dripping with fear.
“Promise,” I answer her taking the steps and heading to my bike.
***
“Where the fuck have you been?” I hear Bray seethe as I cut the engine on my bike. All the boys are lined up and ready to ride out. “You missed the briefing.” His voice cracks over my spine like nails on a chalk board. I’m not ready for that at all yet today.
“I know that Brother,” I snap. “I’m far from in the mood for your shit today.”
“Well, I’m your pres. and you will listen to what I have to say,” he barks, stalking over toward me. Ghost places his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to pull me back, but it doesn’t work. I rise to my full height and challenge Bray.
“I fucking know this, Bray, but just like you, we got our own shit going on outside of this club,” I seethe into his face as his knuckles crack, his eyes search mine. I see anger fade to understanding.
He nods at me and I pull my hands through my hair.
“Well, it’s normal gun run bullshit and the boys over at AOS need some assistance. Some extra eyes as they got some shit going down with their chapter and can’t quite source where its coming from.” Chewing on my bottom lip an uneasy feeling washes over me and I’m unsure if it’s leaving Jade or this run.
“Got it,” is all I say before I walk back to my bike then ride out feeling fucking alone even though I have my brothers behind me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jade
The emptiness he leaves is unsettling. I look around my house wrapped in a sheet and I have never ever felt as alone as I do now. In this moment, I touch my lips. I can still feel his kiss, hard yet soft, soul consuming and frighting. Wrapping my arm around my body, I head for the shower. I drop the sheet to the floor; my fingers trace the scars that lay jiggered all over my skin. A hobble road map of pain and moments I didn’t know I would wake up from.
This is all my pain. These marks are a past that is haunting. This is something I have to live with, and he is back to remind me that I haven’t gotten away. 81 can say over and over that they don’t scare him, but I know he pity’s them. It makes him violent inside with a rage, wanting to take out the one human who placed such horrific marks onto my skin. This is who I am now, the girl with the scars and a biker on her arm. How am I going to show it to the world? When my biker who is so strong is also still hiding his own.
Slipping under the stream of water, I let the piercing hot spray strip away at my flesh. It does not take long for my body to slip down the wall and tears to mingle with the water as it cascades over my body. I can faintly hear the ringing of my phone through the wall as my head rests on the tile.
My mind runs through the files I keep on different parts of my life. Little folders with mental snap shot photos of abstract summaries and painful situations in my life. I name them and lock then away. Like when Carl hit me for the first time - I took the photo and named it #lovehurts. Next time was a kicking and a bowl of pasta thrown over me - that image I called #fucklove and so on. This one will be called #empty. That’s what I am when he’s not here. Empty, how did it get to this? I went from hiding Jade to Jade caught up on a biker, with a dangerous taste for blood who snorts pain like racks of coke from a mirrored surface.
