“He sounds like a dumb fucker. That all?”
“Kissed her senseless and followed it up with confessing my feelings. All but saying I’m head over heels in love with her.”
Chaos freezes halfway to taking another bite of his breakfast sandwich.
“Rhys, what the fuck?” he says after a beat.
“Whoa with the legal name, Prez! What’d he do?” Wrath says as he drops down and joins us.
“He kissed her. He said he was going as her friend, for support, and this dumb fuck ended up lip-locked, doing god knows what else.”
“Shit, well . . . he isSin. . .” Wrath shrugs as he picks up his sandwich and starts to dig in.
“She kissed the shit out of me back, man. I’m keeping the details to myself, but you don’t just kiss anyone the way she kissed me.”
“She’s supposed to be off-limits. You know what engaged means, right? Fuck, did Queenie give you your road name and make sure it had lifelong meaning?”
“He just knew that out of all of us, I’m the one willing to break any of the laws, divine or otherwise, to handle what’s important.She’sfucking important. Would you have stayed away from Saige if she was engaged? After how you felt?”
He thinks for a minute, dropping his sandwich onto the paper plate.
“No, probably would have killed the fucker and laid him at her feet to prove to her how unworthy he is.”
“See? My point exactly. And there’s something off about this motherfucker. I hate how he talks to her, treats her like she’s his property. He told her she was acting like a whore fordancing with me. I almost snapped the bastard’s neck right there just to be done with it all.”
“You fucking danced with her, too? In front of him? Fuck, do you want to get yourself killed?”
“You think he could take me out? I’m not worried about this dumb fucker, he’s a bully, the type of guy who wishes he had power and status but is really a worthless piece of shit.”
“He really called her a whore? You heard it?”
“Almost fucking stabbed him to death in the middle of the dance floor.”
Chaos nods contemplatively. I pull out my phone, sending a quick text to Wes, asking him to look into Blake. ’Cause now that I’ve met him, I get a bad feeling about him that I just can’t shake.
A scream rips through the clubhouse, cold and bloodcurdling.
“Fuck, is that Mal again?”
“Yeah, I got him,” Wrath says as he stands from the barstool and jogs toward the entrance to the basement we’ve nicknamed “the dungeon.”
“What triggered it, you think?”
“I don’t know, he’s been through a lot, there’s no telling what this one stemmed from. We’ll get him through it.”
“That’s what family does.”
The driveto Bloomfield is quick after my stop at Daily Rise to pick up muffins and a latte for Bristol. Even though it’s technically lunchtime, I know she’ll appreciate the midday treat.
I keep replaying Friday night in my mind: that kiss, the way she felt in my arms, the taste of her, the sweet sounds she made. Fuck, she’s one hell of a kisser, and I can’t wait to do more of it.
But the way she looked at me right after, like she couldn’t believe it was all real, like she had never been truly kissed before. I want more of it. I could lie down next to her and make out like teenagers until the end of time, and it still wouldn’t be long enough. We don’t even need to do more.
I press on the gas pedal of my truck, pushing it a little faster than I probably should, but wanting to get eyes on my girl as soon as possible. Not being able to see her yesterday was torture; not being able to at least text her, let her know I was thinking about her, was even worse. A problem I plan to rectify today.
Once I’m parked outside of Bloomfield Animal Haven, I grab the items from Daily Rise and practically jump out of my truck. I feel like a preteen boy eager to see his crush, when I’m a grown-ass man in his thirties and should be able to play it cooler than this.
I walk faster than I probably should, not giving a shit that I’m not playing it cool at all, I’m just ready to get my eyes on her, ready to see her beautiful smile, hear her laugh, feel her in my arms.
