I took the phone tentatively and narrowed my eyes at Deeks in an attempt to intimidate him, but he was giving nothing but his humor away, leaving me to discover what was coming next for myself.
“You’re making me crazy.” I huffed my response, not caring that it would just entertain them all the more.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Hanagan?” Drew snapped. “It shouldn’t be a shock to you that I’m spending the rest of my life with you. If it is, prepare to be smothered by my intentions for the foreseeable future.”
“I wish I could explain this to you.” I gazed down at my lap, my smile bright. “I wish I could tell you how incredibly happy the thought of marrying you makes me. How much I want all of this, with you. I just never… I guess I never thought you would be quite so cavalier about it. You caught me by surprise. I should have known really. You love keeping me on my toes.”
“I also love you on your knees, so instead of telling me what it means to you, you can show me when you get back to The Hut. I’m hard just hearing you squirm over our future together,” he said without hesitation, his voice low and heated. “Sort yourself out, baby. I ain’t lettin’ you get away. Not today, not ever.”
The tangle of heat and anticipation wound together in my body so violently my hand dropped to my stomach. He always did have that effect on me. I took a deep breath and gazed over at Deeks, my cheeks heating for a whole different reason now, one that had Deeks waving me off in denial and fleeing the truck as quickly as he could manage.
“I’m on my way home now. Knees and all.”
“That’s my girl.”
I ended the call and dropped my cell into my bag, backing out of my spot carefully. Life was nowhere near boring anymore, and no matter what that said about me as a person, I didn’t care. I loved my life and every single person in it. Just not all of them in the same way that I loved Drew Tucker.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
DREW
Despite the rising tension throughout the club, that night with Ayda had been pretty goddamn special. Her shy eyes had met mine with uncertainty, and it took everything I’d had within me to scoop her up into my arms carefully without demanding to know why the fuck she didn’t think I’d want to spend the rest of my life with her. Her shyness hadn’t lasted long, though. The second I’d stripped her of her clothes and lowered my body on top of hers, she’d come to life the way she always did when we were alone and naked. We worked as a partnership. Before her, I’d been a mess. Constantly confused and fighting off the old demons. She’d been certain of her dismal future, resigned almost, fighting off her dreams, which she’d crushed beneath Tate’s needs.
Together we came alive.
Together we were where we were always meant to be.
She gave me life. In return, I gave her everything I fucking had within me. Including my heart.
I kissed her goodbye and left her in bed the next morning. She wasn’t working her shift at Rusty’s until later, and I was in the throes of battle mode. Sleep, even though it was next to the girl I loved, was a luxury my mind didn’t allow me tohave. When you were in control of so many lives and other people’s future happiness, having time to rest and settle wasn’t an option. Alone time became the fuel. With other people around, I couldn’t think clearly, even though I loved them and actually enjoyed their company. I became jaded by their smiles and their laughter. My mind would become sloppy, too lost on the road to happiness they were guiding me on. It was only when I was isolated, running the streets of Babylon at six in the morning, or in the training room, hitting a punch bag with sweat dripping down my spine and my breaths making their own song, that I really became the president that the Hounds of Babylon needed me to be. Every outcome and option ran through my mind, with the old me—the tactical me—providing clear answers and solutions to every glitch I had the foresight to see.
I should have known Harry would see through my early morning run followed by my gym session that particular morning.
He was becoming more and more like the father figure he’d always been, but he tried to stay away from pushing it in my face. His cries ofsonwere becoming more frequent, despite him seeing how settled I’d become in my life with Ayda, and as president. Where once he’d only called me son if it had been a desperate cry for me to pay attention, now he used that term of endearment more than he spoke my actual name.
I’d already run six miles that morning and spent a good hour working on the bag when Harry pushed through the door, grumbling “Morning, son,” through his rough, pre-morning smoke voice.
“Harry,” I wheezed out, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
“Put a fucking shirt on.” He smirked as he staggered in, all hunched and aged and tired looking.
I glanced down at my baggy gray sweatpants and bare, sweaty chest before I looked back up at him and raised a brow. “If you don’t like what you see, Rogers, turn around and leave. I didn’t hand out invitations to this morning’s party.”
“What can I say? I’m a sucker for a guy with abs and tattoos.”
“If only you could breathe without choking, I might reciprocate.”
Harry held up his hands before he shrugged, coughed, and made his way over to the bench pushed against the wall.
I ignored him for a while. Not because I was trying to be rude, but because he’d watched me train a thousand times before and there was actually something comforting about him being there. Hewasa father figure to me, even though he wasn’t actually old enough to be my father for real. Whenever he focused on me this way, I pushed myself harder, made myself stronger, wanting to please him.
“Your back footing is off,” he eventually called out.
I wheezed as I let my heels fall down on the floor, my chest heaving and my chin rising while I let my gaze linger on his face. “What the fuck?” I gasped, breathlessly.
He pointed with one hand, his other pressed against the bench as he leaned forward. “Pete always told you to watch the weight on that back heel. Too much bouncing, not enough balance.”
“There’s fuck all wrong with my balance.”
