The hand on my neck tightens as his eyes narrow on me. His teeth grit as his eyes slide away, then hit back on me. His nose flares as his eyes shutter before snapping back open with a look of unadulterated rage.
Squeezing, he presses me hard into the concrete wall, holding me at arm’s length like I’m rabid.
“I’m not one of these little boys you let play with your pussy. I’m a grown-ass man with needs you couldn’t possibly satisfy me, little girl.” He snarls, emanating pure fury with every labored breath. Squeezing hard, he watches as his cruel words sink in.
“Stop fucking with me.” He looks like he wants to kill me. The warning couldn’t be more clear. He hates me now for forcing this on him.
My knees are so weak from the lack of oxygen, I have to grasp the slick wall behind me in an attempt not to slide to the floor. Little good it does. My knees give way, folding under me as I’m left gasping.
Chapter two
A VERY DARK NIGHT
SNAKE
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck it all to motherfucking hell. I want to kill someone so fucking bad right now. And I want to drop to my knees and bury my face in my ward’s pussy just as bad. That little motherfucker, I swear, is going to be the fucking death of me. She pushed me to the edge and then drove me clear off that motherfucking cliff of no return.
Guilt, anger and shame eat at me like a school of piranhas. How the hell did my tongue get down her throat? The way she looked at me while Angel and the curvy little woman he rescued can’t be scrubbed from my brain. The way her little body fits into mine. I wanted to pick her up right then and find my home inside her.
“Yeah, to make matters worse, motherfucker,” I hiss under my breath. There is no way to unring a bell, and not only did I ring it, I broke it, Liberty Bell fashion. I can’t even blame Saban. Not her luminous eyes. Not the vanilla-rose she recently started wearing. All this is on me.
I’m a grown-ass man. Just like I told her. At thirty-two, I know fucking better.
I don’t think she’d ever feel safe around me again. When this little crush she has passes, and it will, she will hate me, fear me even.
Maybe I can ask Angel to let her move out to his hidden mansion with Lourdes. It’s been her second home, anyway.
Ellie’s out of the question. Her wife is a jealous little thing. Jessica has been known to drag a bitch for flirting with my sister.
I scrub my face as I stalk to the main part of the club. Standing on the edge, surveying the aftermath of Angel’s claiming. Some couples are locked-up in tight embraces, slow-dragging on the dance floor. Others backed up against walls, grinding.
Unless it’s a claiming, there is a strict no-sex rule for the clubhouse. Angel instituted that rule, among others, as soon as he won the challenge he threw at our old president, then killed the bastard.
It was all legitimate, but Angel wanted his head from the moment he found out Fede was in cahoots with Mathias Shelby Sr., using coyotes to bring kids over.
After he decapitated the useless fuck, he took rein of the el Diablo. We’ve all prospered with him at the helm. Our people now own legitimate businesses. No longer are we regulated to the margins. We aren’t a tyrant’s chattel or his minions.
The war with the Shelby Sugar was brutal, but it needed to happen. The lives lost on both sides were many, but our freedom was worth it. Angel is more than the president of el Diablo — that mean motherfucker is my brother. And knowing him like I do, I know he’s gone for the cute little ball of fluff that came stumbling in tonight. I just didn’t expect it to have the effect it had on Saban and me. What the fuck was that?
I never looked at her like that.Lies. I noticed. Sure I did. That’s why I’ve put distance between us these last few years. I know she’s crushing, but I’m neither worthy nor do I welcomeher adulation. I’m a fucking killer, a criminal, everything her mother would warn her against, but I had a hand in her losing that too. Even more reason for her to steer well away from me.
I chose this path when I took her from that settlement. To protect and provide for her. I’d do that shit again. No problem. If it meant keeping her safe. No child deserves that. Just like she doesn’t deserve me — a monster turning his focus on her in the way I did tonight.
I have to make her see I’m not the one for her. Never will be. I fucked up. I’ll own that now. I need her to know it’s never happening between us. It can’t. She needs to understand and leave me the fuck alone before I ruin her.
Something tells me she ain’t listening though — especially after tonight.
“You look like you’re ready to kill.” Ellie sidles up next to me. Tall and lithe, like me, she has her hair braided into two long French-braids. Her black Henley is tucked into her jeans. We match as usual. Five years older than me, she looks five years younger. “Japanese skincare,” she told Saban when she asked her, then had me buying her all of it for my ward.
“The night is not over. I still may have to put one of these dumb motherfuckers down.” I nod toward the group of miscreants we inherited from the old crew. Angel let them live because they took the knee after he relieved Fede of his head. We were low on men, and we needed the numbers for the ensuing war with the Shelbys. Now, ten years later, like anything well past its expiration date, they have turned rancid. I’ve told el Patron he’s only delaying the inevitable.
“Word is Rudy’s crew wants to witness the wedding.” Looking down, I don’t miss her eye-roll as she informs me.
“Oh, they think he won’t complete the claim and just let her go? After everything they just saw on that stage?” I shake my head. Pissing off Angel de la Muerte is not a good idea on anyday. If they can’t see he’s not playing about this girl, it’s their funeral. Somebody’s dying tonight.
“Meet us back there. You know what to bring. Let’s get this done and make it official — hopefully with as little bloodshed as possible.” Then, meeting the gaze of the twelve lieutenants, jerking my head in the direction of el Presidente’s office, I lead the crew of rough bikers into the wolf’s lair.
After giving a hard knock on the door, I step back, allowing them to enter ahead of me. I’m not giving anyone my back. Many of them we trust will our lives, but a few of the old set are mixed in, Rudy among them.
