Melody and I rushed to join her at the door just as our men pushed inside and I had no time to react before I was picked up and thrown over Rooster’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“What the hell are you doing?” I squeaked, as he smacked my butt.
“Bedroom?” he growled in response.
“End of the hall.”
He headed that way and walked into the room, kicking the door shut behind us, before dropping me gently onto the bed.
“This isn’t the way to start a marriage, Katie,” he said, tugging my jeans down my hips.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I hiss-pered. “I had to back Maisie.” I pushed off his cut. “Didn’t you see my note?”
“No.” He frowned. “What note?”
“I left you a note in your saddlebag, telling you what we were doing. I mean, I didn’t tell you where we were going, or betray my first lady’s confidence, hos over bros and all, but I didn’t want you to worry, so I let you know that we’d be back on Monday and Gina had the details.”
He smiled slowly. “Okay, you’re off the hook.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’d like to think I’m off the hook because I didn’t actually do anything wrong.”
Rooster raised an eyebrow. “Baby, you left your phone and your tracker behind. That’s the very definition of wrong.”
I bit my lip. “We have burners, and since we’re traveling as a mob, if anything bad actually happened, we have backup. Several of the women are carrying. Plus, we had the Saints on speed dial.”
This was the absolute wrong thing to say.
“The Burning Saints are not your fuckin’ club, Kate,” he growled, knifing off the bed. “Are you fuckin’ a Saint? Are you goddammed married to a Saint?”
I sighed, sitting up on my elbows, my pants still halfway down my thighs. “No.”
“No.” He huffed. “Goddamned right, you are not.”
“Rooster,” I said on a groan and flopped back onto the bed.
“What if something had happened to you and I couldn’t find you?” he ranted. “What if something happened to all of you?”
“Like a nuclear bomb?”
“This is no time to joke, Kate.”
I sat back up and scooted off the bed, then waddling over to him, and gripping his cut, I smiled up at him. “Kam. Love of my life, apple of my eye, sand in my vagina.”
“What?” he hissed.
“You can be a bit of an irritant sometimes,” I said as I kicked off my jeans and ran my hands up his chest.
“How can you possibly say that to me when all I want is for you to be safe?”
“We were safe.Aresafe.” I looped my arms around his neck and wove my fingers through his hair. “And the Burning Saints are family.”
“No they’re not.”
I cocked my head. “Minus isliterallyHatch’s brother-in-law and my best friend’s husband.” I frowned. “Are you still holding onto the thing with your uncle?”
“Los Psychos almost killed him and torched his business down to the ground and the fuckin’ Burning Saints let it happen.”
Back before Minus was exiled, the Burning Saints had been in the ‘protection’ racket, and Rooster’s uncle had been wrapped up in it. He didn’t pay for several months, apparently, and the Saints had given him a long time to come ‘current,’ which he didn’t, and he paid the consequences.
