“Exactly.Now, Hermes send the message with the location to NOS.We’ll have church in an hour to go over what we’re going to do to make sure that this meeting ends all of those assholes.”Raider sounds every bit the ruthless president that he is.
We all nod standing.I lay the burner down on the desk in front of me.Raider gives me a nod of approval.Blitz takes my hand, leading me out of Raider’s office toward the great room.A smile stretches across my face when Ainsley's laugh reaches my ears.Over the last month, I’ve gotten closer and closer with Ainsley and Tasia, and even Nova.They’re sitting on the couches watching something crazy on the TV.Silently, I walk over and tap her on the shoulder.She drops her head back, looking at me upside down and smiles.
“What’re you ladies getting into today?”I ask her.
“Mercy is on edge, so I promised I’d stay in or around the clubhouse,” she sighs, not at all looking upset about the situation.
“I think everyone is right now,” I concede, looking over my shoulder at Blitz, who is speaking quietly with Token.
“Yeah,” she sighs, looking back at the TV.“What’re you getting into?”
“Blitz wants to go for a run, and after that I don’t know,” I tell her.
Ainsley shutters.“Y’all have fun with that.I’m going to sit right here and munch on my snack and ignore the fact that my jeans are a little too tight.”
I laugh at her because this woman is perfectly curvy and let's not forget Mercy is a very large man.Tasia and I lock eyes, and she rolls hers, shaking her head at our friend.Blitz comes up to me, kisses me on the top of my head, and wraps his arm around my waist.
“Let's grab a quick bite to eat before I go smoke your fine ass,” Blitz growls into the top of my head.
Smiling to myself, I let the feeling of happiness and calm fill me.The feeling of guilt about moving on from Six starts to dim my happiness.I let it rise in my chest, feeling it and processing it so it can’t eat at me anymore.I want to be in this happy place, knowing that this is what Six would have wanted for me.He would be proud that I found a man who cares for me, protects me, and would lay his life down for me.
I spin around in Blitz’s arms, wrapping mine around his neck, “Let's do it.Just don’t go crying when you lose.”
For the first time in a very long time, Blitz throws his head back laughing.Everyone in the room stops, all looking at him in shock.
“Well, Charlie Girl, whatever you are doing for our brother, keep doing that.This Blitz is much better than the asshole he usually is,” Remedy calls from the pool table.
Blitz’s laughter stops, and he glares at the man across the room.“Running your mouth, Remedy, is going to get your ass handed to you.”
“This face is too pretty to have my ass kicked,” Remedy spins around.
“Let’s go, Sparrow.If we don’t get moving, we might skip the run and head right back to bed,” Blitz grumbles in my ear.
“Oh no, we’re going for that run,” I laugh.“I’m going to kick your ass, and when we’re done, you're going to give me the best massage of my life.”
“And when I win, you're going to spend the next twenty-four hours locked in our room taking my cock however I see fit,” Blitz breathes out against my neck.
A shiver racks my body with the promise of what is to come.We go into the kitchen to make sandwiches before getting ready to run.Once I’m in my gear and have my tennis shoes on, I make my way outside to stretch and get loose.When I feel like I’m ready for a long run, it hits me that Blitz isn’t outside yet.I move towards the back of the clubhouse, wondering where he could be.Just before I round the corner, voices reach me, and the conversation is my worst nightmare.
“Blitz, you can’t truly want some woman that has been passed around a club the way she was,” Ivy’s voice is pouty.
“Ivy, what the fuck are you going on about?I’ve got shit to do,” Blitz’s tone is not friendly.
“From what Nova has said, little Miss Charlie was everyone's favorite.They would get her so high and drunk that she would do anything they wanted her to,” she lets an evil laugh slip through.“They would even give her something so that she would beg them to take her.Is that what you want, Blitz?There are even videos out there of some of the unspeakable things she's done.”
My heart stutters to a stop before restarting.There are videos.They would drug me with aphrodisiacs so that I would beg them to do things.All of this without the ability to consent to any of it.
“Ivy, I don’t know what Nova has said to you or what her end game is, but what I will say is this.If you continue to spew the bullshit you are currently saying to anyone else, then my moral compass of never hurting women will go out the fucking window.Charlie is my woman.”The sound of someone's back hitting a wall causes me to jump.“If you run your cocksucker about any of the Ol’ Ladies in the club, I will make sure that you are the one who can’t consent to what happens next.Do you understand what I am telling you?”
I don’t stay to hear anything else that is said.My head is spinning as the hazy memories and thoughts of that time finally break through the safeguards I have built to protect myself from everything I couldn’t deal with.I take off running, not paying any attention to what direction I’m headed, just needing to get away.I push myself harder and further as I try to run from the demons in my head.
My breathing comes in bursts when I finally stop.Looking around me, I don’t recognize the woods I’m standing in.I’ve run so far off the trail that nothing looks familiar to me.Placing my hands on my head, I look around to see if I can get my bearings and figure out where I am.I finally get my breathing under control and take a seat on a fallen tree, letting the demons finally catch me.My broken and heart-shattering memories come forward.
Shame washes over me because Ivy wasn’t wrong.I would welcome the emptiness that drugs, alcohol, and who knows what else would provide.When I was fucked up out of my mind, I didn’t have to remember or feel the loss of Six and everything he promised.Now, with the future I’m wanting to build, I know I need to finally feel it all.To allow the crushing weight of grief to drag me under because I know Blitz will be here to pull me up from the darkness.
Eleven
Blitz
