No one answered me and Hudson was looking at me like he wanted to throw me over his knee and spank me. And not in the fun way. I marched over to them. Warren took a step back from us, grinning like an asshole.
Of course, I’d seen the tattoos that covered the left side of Hudson’s chest, following up from the intricate sleeve he had.
Some of them were old. He’d started the sleeve before I left. I ran my eyes over them. All of them looked a couple of years old, none of them seemed fresh. I hadn’t exactly been focused on them the times I’d seen him shirtless, other things occupying my eyes, or them being rolled up in the back of my head in ecstasy. I shook that thought off, trying to see what the others were so giddy about.
It was distracting staring at his chest, plus he was flexing and not giving me any help to find it. I was about to demand they tell me what the fuck was going on when I spotted it. The swirling calligraphy was beautiful, and it dipped in the center, rising at the start and the end of the letters, right over his heart.
My name.
I lifted my eyes to his in shock and looked at it again, then back at him. His face was unreadable. In fact, he looked angry. It was an old tattoo, I could tell by the slight fading of the ink, but it was beautiful all the same. The work was intricate and perfect. And it went way beyond the normal meaning of getting a person’s name tattooed on you. This meant a hell of a lot more in an MC.
He bent down so his lips were right next to mine.
“I’ve always owned you. And it’s only a matter of time before you mark yourself too,” he grabbed my wrist, his thumb moving over the pulse point. I tried to pull out of his grasp, but he didn’t let me. “Deny it all you want but you and me. We were always going to happen.”
Then he let me go, gave Warren and King a look before he grabbed his cut and stalked off. He didn’t go to the clubhouse or back to the oldlady’s house. He walked around the back and disappeared from sight, leaving me standing there gawping after him like an idiot.
Warren’s arm came down over my shoulder and he tugged me towards him, kissing my hair with a laugh as he plucked at the t-shirt I was wearing. “Shopping in the adult section again.”
“Screw off, loser,” I shoved him, but he was immovable. King eyed us but said nothing more as he walked away. Warren opened his mouth, but I slapped a hand over it. “If you sing Waverley and Hudson sitting in a tree, I swear to God.”
“You wound me,” he started walking me to the clubhouse, not relinquishing my shoulder. “I was going to say, you loooove him, you want to have his baaaabies,” he sang, but he cut off and grunted loudly when I slammed my elbow into his gut. “As happy as this makes me, you need to shower,” he said, pushing me away from him with a wrinkled nose, and despite how annoyed I was, my cheeks flushed. “Get cleaned up, you floozy, then come make me lunch.”
He was trying to be funny to take my mind off what happened with Andrew, and I was grateful for that, but it was embarrassing as hell, and I had no intention of making food for anyone. In fact, I was going to hide out for the rest of the day. I needed to process what just happened.
Hudson had my name tattooed over his heart.
It had been there long before I came back home. As everyone disappeared inside and I turned to head to the house, Tanya appeared in front of me, glaring, her face red with anger.
“You think that means something?” she snarled. “That doesn’t mean a damn thing. That tattoo has been there for years, and he doesn’t give a shit about you. He isn’t claiming you.He’s mine.”
Chapter 22
Despite the trouble brewing, the Club still had work to do, and Ink was planning a job for someone we had recently started running security for. He wanted it small, with just a few guys along for the ride. I wasn’t considering going, given the issues with the Kingsmen.
Not to mention this new thing with Waverley. I didn’t mind helping him to take my mind off what just happened out there. I needed to take some time to calm my shit after the run in with Reinhart. I don’t think I would have stopped myself pounding his face to shit if King hadn’t stopped me. And I’d come clean and let everyone know despite what happened five years ago and Waverley leaving.
I went and got her name branded on me, anyway. I couldn’t decipher from her face what she thought of it.
For an MC, getting a woman’s name tattooed on you meant something. It was a claim and the connotations of it being there were huge. King would understand that. Waverley did too.
The sound of shouting outside drew my attention away from our conversation. Both Ink and I looked towards the door. Had Andrew come back to stir up more shit?
“That’s King,” Ink said, moving from his chair, his heavy boots thunked against the wooden floor as he moved to the door.
I got up too, as more shouting came from beyond the clubhouse door. We went outside, and I cursed under my breath seeing Tanya facing off against King. They stood in the clearing between the clubhouse and the garage. Handlebar was standing close to Tanya, with something in his hand, his posture tense as he glared at her.
“What the fuck now,” I muttered at Ink, who gave me a smirk. King didn’t get involved in this shit, but he was pissed at Tanya for something.
“You could have fucking killed her,” he snapped.
What? Killed who? I stepped down off the porch and saw Waverley. She was leaning against one of the bikes, her face pale. My eyes roamed over her, assessing what was wrong. When I saw a blood line running down the side of her neck into my T-shirt, I didn’t hesitate. I went straight to her, ignoring the sobbing coming from Tanya and the rage emanating from King.
“What happened?” I stopped in front of her and touched her chin. She winced and her face paled even more as she reached around to the back of her head. “Wave. Tell me.”
She nodded and although the pain was clear, she wasn’t crying or shying away. She was watching her father and Tanya, only turning to look at me when I moved her to look at the back of her head.
“I’m fine,” she sighed, like all this was tedious.
