I can’t believe Wraith’s here, like a long shadow darkening my doorstep. I help Harley out of the cab, right before I throw some bills through the passenger side window, more than enough to cover the ride I was forced to take seeing as she was in no condition to get on my bike. She tugs my jacket tighter shut around her and I step behind her to shield anything that the stupid hospital gown might not cover.
Yeah. Real smart move running out of there without her clothes.
He unfolds himself like some slithery creature to stand like a stork or a flamingo on those long legs of his. A grin twists up his mouth, but I’m in no mood for jokes.
“See you got your woman after all. I knew security wouldn’t be able to stop you, but I had to see them try. It was either that or she would have phoned the cops, and we don’t need you getting dragged down there in the middle of all this shit. It’s bad enough that they’re gonna be sniffing around everyone right away. We need to get our shit together. All the brothers that can make it to church need to be there.”
“Now?” I cock a brow. “You calling it or are you just the messenger?”
“If I said I was the messenger, would you shoot me?”
“Right now I can’t think of a better use of your face than to eat a bullet,” I grind out.
Wraith keeps right on grinning, like it’s hilarious that he’s on my doorstep, the gray light of dawn coming over the horizon, when I’ve got my woman with me after she’s just walked through hell and back because of this club.
“I know what you’re thinking, Edge.” Wraith crosses his arms. “Didn’t call it. Just the messenger, so save your bullets. Steel called it a half hour ago. Probably right about the time you busted your girl out of the hospital near fucking naked and walked out like a crazy person. Both of you.”
Harley shrinks back against me, and I lock my arms around her waist, marveling at how well she fits there. I’ve had few real times in my life to hold her and right now I want to do just that, wrap her up in my arms and assure myself she’s alive and well and that I’m gonna keep her that way for the rest of our lives, that it makes my eyes sting again.
Harley,myHarley. Just thinking about her in that bed, so still and pale, makes me want to break down and weep all over again, and if you’re sitting there thinking I’m less of a fuckin’ man for it, you’d be dead fuckin’ wrong.
Life ain’t worth living without something to live for and Harley is every single reason I’m still walking on the right side of ground.
“It’s nice to see you again, Wraith,” Harley says politely.
I can tell she’s watching the whole exchange like a hawk and the caveman part of me that I can’t control nearly gets into a pissing contest over the fact that she’s watching Wraith’s face, not mine, even if it is necessary. As if she can sense the straight up assholery going on behind her back, she turns her beautiful neck, gives me a whole view of that glorious gold column that I want to sink my teeth into so bad my mouth waters. My cock springs to life, hardening in my jeans, right up against her ass. I know she feels it, but my girl is a true professional. She doesn’t even so much as make a sound. She looks up at me and blinks those long, raven black eyelashes.
Fuck.Just… just, fuck. I could drown in her eyes. Eyes the color of a languid waterfall, with a whole hell of a lot of current underneath. I don’t know when I got so fucking poetic, but she brings it out in me.
“It’s okay, Edge. I’m going to be okay. Right now your loyalty is to your club. You swore vows to them, and I know that these men are your whole life. I was raised that way, so I get it. Even if we both don’t want you to go, you have to. The club… they’re my family too. That attack… it was personal. Someone wanted to hurt Steel Riders. You have to figure out who did it and respond. I don’t want to live in fear. Not here. Not in Helena. This is our town.”
Wraith lets out a low whistle. “Damn it, Edge, I get why you picked her, even if you have to go through all the trouble of having Steel up your ass.”
I’d like to take that son of a bitch and pummel him for even daring to show up at my house like the prick he is. I don’t, though, because he’s right. Harley’s right.
They’re both right and it tears me up inside because there ain’t a thing I’d rather do than take Harley inside, clean her up in the shower, worship her body, make her warm and safe, kiss hot trails over her injuries as if I could heal them just by loving her.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I’ll be fine. Just going to take a shower and go to bed. In our bed, Edge.”
She speaks in hushed tones, but I know Wraith hears her, because the bastard’s ears practically prick up. For once, he keeps his big mouth shut. He kicks at the dirt and when he looks back up, that shit-eating grin is back.
“Time’s wastin’. Get her inside and get on the back of my bike and ride like the bitch you are to get yours, since you’re so fond of leaving it.”
Lighthearted or not, I still want to fuck the little prick up. “Remind me again why I shouldn’t give you a taste of the fine delicacy that’s my fist?”
“Cause, you love this face so much, bro. This face is much too pretty for you to want to mess up. Much prettier than yours, especially at the moment.”
Harley actually lets out a small sound of choked mirth and just hearing that sound… before I would have died a man, but now I can die a happy one. That little half laugh goes straight to my chest. It beats me up worse than Steel ever could have. It’s like a second ass kicking that fucks me breathless.
“Ilikehis face,” Harley protests in my defense, totally half-hearted and this time I can’t stifle a grunt of mirth.
Wraith grunts. “Got a good one there, Edge. Totally don’t deserve her, you know.”
“I know.”
Harley angles in to me so that Wraith can’t see her hands. She signs something to me. Something that she taught me a long time ago. The very first ASL I ever learned.
I love you.
