“Yes, no problem.” She frowned. “What’s going on, Cash?”
“I can’t tell you all of it, but it’s gonna be a rough couple of weeks, honey, so I just need you to trust me. The Spiders are trying to fuck with our grow operation, so the Howlers and Saints are comin’.”
“Oh my god, it’s war.”
I stroked her back. “It’s leaning that way, yes.”
She buried her face in my neck. “I need you to be okay.”
“I will be. And nothing, absolutely fuckin’nothing,is gonna happen to you. You will be protected above all else.”
She sat up to meet my eyes. “Me being safe means nothing if you’re not safe too. So you need to promise me you’re gonna protect your own damn self.”
“Well, that’s just a given.”
“Cash,” she admonished. “You just got taken because you walked out that front door to help a cunt—no, let me rephrase.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t call her a cunt because there’s nothing warm or deep about her.”
“Brutal.”
“It’s the truth.” She opened her eyes and scowled. “So, don’t sit here and tell me that I’m going to be protected unless you’re going to promise me that protection applies to you as well. And it better fuckin’ start with you not doing something so unbelievably stupid like that again.” She gripped my chin. “Capisce?”
I grinned. “Yeah, Turtle. Capisce.”
“Will this really take a couple of weeks?”
“Max.”
“Well, if I’m locked down, I’m going to plan our wedding.”
“First, we’re gonna eat, then I’m gonna fuck you, then we’re gonna sleep.”
She grinned, leaning down to kiss me. “Then we’ll plan our wedding.”
“Yeah, then we’ll plan our wedding.”
“Okay.”
I kissed her one more time, then with our world finally back on its axis, I took her downstairs to commune with our family.
I may have had a habit of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, but Teagan took all that from me and I was the luckiest man alive.
Teagan
One month later…
WAR ALWAYS SEEMED to take longer than expected, and we were still in the thick of it. It sucked, but we were all still alive and well, so I took my wins where I could find them. Cash and I had fallen into our daily routine of living and working at the club, and I was actually loving every second of it.
I’d never gotten my car back. Cash, Dad, and Booker had gone through it with a fine-toothed comb and found a tracker, but nothing else. Still, they decided it wasn’t worth the risk of it being boobie trapped, so they towed it to some junk yard and sold it for parts. It was an older car, and Dad got it for a steal, so he put that money toward a nice new Toyota for me. He called it an engagement present and wouldn’t let me pay him back. I tried to argue (not that hard, but I did try), but in the end, I just hugged him for a good three minutes and then made a run to check out my car. It was awesome.
I took classes in Portland three days a week, then worked at the shop two days. One of my days off was different thanCash’s, which was not ideal, but we made it work. It was Saturday, so whenever I could, I spent it with Daisy, and it was an awesome time for her and me to connect.
True to his word, Cash had kept Gloria out of my sight. I was informed she had been taken to a local hospital and treated, her jaw wired shut (poor thing, said no one ever). Of course, I wasn’t told which hospital, and since I couldn’t leave the compound without an escort, it wasn’t like I could hunt her down and break her legs or anything. As long as I never saw her again, I’d let the fact she was still breathing go.
I awoke this Saturday morning, however, with no plans, and I made my way down to the kitchen for some coffee where I found my man already half a cup in.
“Hi,” I said, walking into his welcoming embrace.
“Hey, Turtle. Happy birthday.”
