“If you weren’t fucking ugly before, you are now, bro.” He smiled brightly, the movement of his beard making the whole thing change shape as he stared on like some weird cross breed of dog.
“Stitches are in fashion, apparently.” I flipped him offover Ayda’s shoulder, unable to stop the small fit of laughter from breaking free.
“And swollen eyes, fat lips, bruised skin...”
“All adds to my charm.”
“You need all the help you can get.” He laughed.
“I love it when we flirt.”
The insults carried on back and forth until I found my way to the corner of The Hut. Ayda tried to get me to sit down in one of the chairs, but after pulling her in front of me and resting my ass on the arm of one of the sofas, I looked up and swore that I would let her know if anything hurt. There was a twinkle in her eye that hadn’t lived there before the incident at the warehouse, and as soon as I was healthier and strong again, I was going to tie her down and find out exactly what that was. I was too broken to be turned on, and she would pay for making me think about things I shouldn’t have been thinking about. And shit, even that thought made everything twitch and wake up again.
Watching her back away, I narrowed my eyes on her and failed to hide my grin. It was only when Harry came up beside me and pulled my attention away that I coughed and shuffled my ass back where I was sitting, praying to all the drugs in my body to keep me numb that little bit longer so I didn’t getuncomfortablein front of my men.
“Harry, please tell me you’re here to give me a whiskey.”
“That’s not my department. Your doc and your woman are in charge of what goes on with your body.”
“My woman.” I groaned, lifting my hand to rub it across my forehead as I tried again to think about anything other than how much I missed Ayda being in charge of my body, and me being in charge of hers.
“That bad?” Harry laughed.
“Fuck off,” I pushed out through slightly gritted teeth before dropping my hand to my leg and looking back up at him. My smile was fake and sarcastic as I waited for the usual shit to happen. Since becoming one half of a whole, I wasn’t immune to the constant ridiculing that went hand in hand with having a regular piece of ass on your arm. “Please,” I added.
“Sorry, son, no can do. Looks like you came out from hiding just in time.”
“In time for what?”
“Sutton’s surfaced, too.”
Despite how much of my life I’d spent hating that man and that name, I found my eyes falling behind Harry and an unexpectedgoodfalling from my lips. “Just the man I was looking for.”
Harry gently tapped my good shoulder on a part that wasn’t fucked up. “Be gentle with him. I think you’ll be as surprised as I was when he—”
I didn’t give him time to finish, instead quickly holding my hand up and shaking my head as carefully as I could. “No need for the lecture. Believe me. I know more than anyone that I owe my life to the man I always thought wanted to end it.”
“Right.”
“Before you go, just tell me one thing.” I looked back up at him again, holding his gaze as I spoke. “Does he blame me?”
Harry studied me for a moment, his eyes searching mine as though he was looking for something or seeing something he’d never seen before. When he slowly began to shake his head and failed miserably to hide his smug smile, my bodyrelaxed and I readjusted my position on the chair.
It didn’t take long for Sutton to appear, and I’ll admit to blinking once or twice when I saw a shadow of the man he used to be walking forward. Wearing sweats that obviously didn’t belong to him, given that every item that hung from his body had our patch on it, he shuffled as slowly as I had moved through the club. The men around me parted like the sea, falling into two lines as he made his way through.
Sutton was a mess. Every hair on his head was standing up instead of smoothed back the way it used to be. His eyes were surrounded by shadows of both shock and grief, and I swear he was trying to mask the slight quiver of his top lip beneath his tash as he worried it between his teeth.
Poor fucker.
“Chief,” I said, acknowledging him quietly. “Welcome to my home.”
Howard’s eyes met mine and where he would once have stood taller at the sound of my voice, he simply ran a hand through his hair and gave a few small nods.
“Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back out here.” I sighed, signaling for him to sit down on the chair beside me. I guess he hadn’t fully disappeared. He shook his head and declined my invitation, instead choosing to stand. “I trust my brothers have looked after you since they brought you back here.”
“They have,” he answered, clearing his throat. “Quite the little motorcycle hotel you have here, Tucker.”
“We respect those that respect us. It’s always been our way.”
