I walk toward the door and tug it open, looking behind me at the messy bed. It’s sexy, those sheets tangled up by Axton andme. I can’t wait to do it again and again. But first, a conversation with Heidi, then breakfast.
PIGGY
Lainey smiles as I walk through the door, and I wince because I haven’t told her a fucking thing about Millie. She’s going to be so pissed off at me for it, too. I should have told her immediately when I found out Millie was back in North Carolina, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up. I wasn’t sure if Millie was really coming back or not.
For the first time in my life, I was uncertain about the outcome. That doesn’t really suit me or my confidence, so I’m not sure why I was so insecure about the whole thing. Maybe because it wasMillie,and she easily walked away from me once. I didn’t want her to go, but my stubborn pride wouldn’t let me go after her.
Stepping up to the counter, I match my sister’s smile, but the minute my eyes meet hers, her smile drops. She narrows her gaze on me and leans forward slightly. “What’s wrong?” she snaps.
I watch her in silence for a moment, wondering if I should just list all the shit that’s been going wrong lately. Starting with that asshole at the station, Garcia, and ending with the dead Dante Barone.
I don’t, though. Lainey doesn’t need to know all that shit. It would just worry her, and that’s the last thing I want to do. She presses her lips together, her eyes narrowing even more as she waits for me to respond to her.
“Millie’s back,” I state.
I could knock her down with a feather right about now. I know I could. She takes a couple of steps back, then blinks as sheopens and closes her mouth. Clearly, she’s shocked, and I would laugh if I hadn’t been just as fucking shocked the moment I saw Millie in that club.
“What do you mean Millie’s back?” she asks in a whisper.
Shaking my head once, I clear my throat. “She’s back.”
Lainey lifts her hand to her mouth, her fingertips touching her lips. She watches me, her eyes searching mine as if she’s trying to find the lie somewhere inside me. But there’s no lie, because my Millie is back.
“How back?”
I know what she’s asking. And all she would have to do is talk to anyone down at the clubhouse, and they’d tell her, but if she finds out from anyone but me, that would not be good. I would never want Lainey to find out anything this important, this big, from anyone else but me.
“She’s my old lady.”
I say the words. And they’re real. Sure, it was somewhat pushed on me because of the whole her-needing-protection thing. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want it, that I wouldn’t do it eventually. It’s probably better it happened the way it did. It pushed me to claim her the way I always should have.
“Axton,” she exhales. “I just… wow.”
Wow is right.
“Is this what you want?”
I love my sister. With everything that I am, I love Lainey-Rose, and I will fight to the death for her. But she loves me just as fiercely, so I’m sure she’s asking me this because she knew just how badly it hurt me when Millie left, even if I never said a word about it.
“She’s always been who I want, Lainey,” I murmur.
Lainey smiles, then I watch as she walks around her counter and makes her way toward me. She doesn’t stop until her bodycollides with mine, throwing her arms around my shoulders as she presses her cheek against the center of my chest.
Without an ounce of hesitation, I wrap my own arms around her and close my eyes as I hug my little sister. Dipping my chin slightly, I touch my mouth to the top of her head before I take a step backward. She releases me and tips her head back, her eyes on mine.
“When do I get to see her?” she asks.
I debate telling her that Millie is a stripper now, although it’s something she’ll likely figure out in the next two years, considering that’s what she’ll be doing as part of the agreement. This is another thing that might piss her off if she found out from someone else.
Clearing my throat, I rock back on my heels and run my fingers through my short hair, my gaze flicking down to my boots before I shift it back up to meet hers. She presses her lips together then narrows her eyes at me, knowing there is more to what I have to say and wondering if she’s going to be happy about it or not.
“There’s more,” she states when I don’t continue immediately.
Laughing, I shrug a shoulder. “There’s more.”
“Is she in trouble?” she asks.
“Not anymore,” I state. And that’s the fucking truth of it. That threat is fucking gone, thank fuck. “But she’s signed a two-year contract to work here…”
