Sliding down on the bed, I laid my head on the pillows and tried to will myself to sleep. Today had been trying. All I wanted was to feel safe and warm, but I knew that came at the cost of giving myself over to Savage, and I couldn’t risk that.
There was only one answer.
I had to leave the club. I had to go somewhere his reach was non-existent.
Tears ran down my cheeks from holding back all of my emotions from everything that happened tonight, and I knew that in the morning I would make my decisions and I would start living for me, and not the memory of my long gone betrayer of a husband.
I would be free.
TWO
Savage
The only thing I wanted right now was a hot shower and a bed to lay my head down on, but there was no way I was doing anything before I checked on Shona. Moving down the hall of the clubhouse, I said goodnight to my brothers and opened her door. She never locked it which I’d always been mad about, even if it helped me to sneak in. She was asleep on her side.
I closed her door quickly and headed down to the empty room at the end of the hall that I normally took up residence in when I was here.
I undressed and got under the hot spray of water to wash off the grime, blood and sweat of the day. It had been a hard ride, but we’d picked up some of Neal’s men tonight and they were currently strapped up in the shed waiting for their time to sing. Neal hadn’t come back to Ireland after he found his way off the yacht so we couldn’t get to him…not yet. Wolf was already on it. He had a lot more reach with where he could go and what he could do, especially in rival MC territory.
I grabbed a towel and dried myself before I pulled on a tee and sweats and moved down the hall, back to Shona’s room. I couldn’t stand to be away from her, not after tonight. It had been emotionally charged. Only a year after we lost Razor, and they tried to take Chains too? Hell fucking no. Anyone who came near any of us was going to learn you don’t fuck with the Rebels.
I shifted inside and locked the door behind me, like it should always be, yet she never fucking did. Moving behind her, I pulled her into my arms. Her gasp told me she had been asleep, but she soon settled into my arms as I moved a leg over hers and snuggledinto her. I breathed in her soft, feminine scent that drove me crazy and sighed.
She felt like home.
“Niall.”
“Don’t talk, Shona. I need this just like you do. Go to sleep.”
She relaxed in my arms and I quickly fell asleep with her safely tucked into my chest. I knew there was a time limit on the amount of times she’d allow me to do this without havingthe talk, but I would do whatever it took to have her by my side, on the back of my bike, with my name. She didn’t know it yet but Shona was mine, and I’d never let another man near her.
When I awoke, Shona was gone from the bed, and the clubhouse was buzzing. I wondered if there was an update on Chains. Pulling myself up, I padded out of her room and down to my room to get dressed.
Once I was out in the clubhouse, I saw most of the club and a fair few Nomads were being fed. The mood was lighter than I expected. Shona was making coffee for everyone, and hadn’t looked up once. That was good. We didn’t need everyone butting into our business.
“News?” I asked Trigger, one of the boys who had joined the Nomads not long ago.
“Chains is good,” he said, speaking with his mouth full, which almost had me punching him. “He’s in recovery, but he’ll be all good.”
“Finish your food before you speak. Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”
He chuckled but moved away to get more food. The kids were running around like crazy as Butch tried to rein them in. I looked for Hawk and spotted him by the open doorway with Viper.
“What’s the word?” I asked him, taking the cigarette Viper was offering me. We moved out onto the porch where I saw Bear sitting with Orla, and Ryleigh was sitting on Fury’s lap.
“Hope you got some shut eye, brother,” Hawk said. “We’re not going to get much until Foley is six feet under.”
“We’re burying the fucker?” Viper asked. “I would’ve put him being incinerated alive if it were me.”
Viper always had a penchant for the most wicked violence possible. It was why we got along so well, and why we were used to do the trickier jobs. We didn’t have a conscience when it came to club business.
“Where do you need me?” I asked, taking a long drag on my cigarette.
“Here, brother,” he said. “After lunch, we’ll get the clubhouse cleared out on errands and we’ll start interrogating Foley’s men. I suspect the screams will be heard throughout the woods out back and into Kilkenny.”
Smiling, I suddenly couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty.
Shona
