Page 73 of Coveted By Cupid

“No, but I’m biased. Full disclosure: Oaks and I were married within months of meeting each other. So, yeah, I may not be the person to ask.”

At least she’s honest.

“I’m scared,” I admit, my hands dropping into my lap. “He seems too good to be true, minus his full-throttle approach to our relationship.”

“I get it,” Marlene says, seeming to understand my worries. “There were times I was scared too with Oaks.”

“How did you get over it?”

Marlene touches her lips with her finger, pondering my question. “In the beginning, being together felt right, pushing all my doubts out of my mind often enough that one day those fears never returned. You’ll get there, too. Have faith in him. Let his actions speak for him, and you won’t regret staying.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“Who said it was easy? It takes effort and putting yourself into uncomfortable situations every day until you reach that level of trust. It will get easier with time, but it’s a bitch when you start.”

“You can say that again, especially after being betrayed by previous partners.”

“He’ll be worth it. I promise you.”

I want to believe her, truly. And I’m seeing the only one holding me back from making my relationship work is me.

“Now,” Marlene says, changing the subject. “Let’s do our face masks before watching the rest of the show. I need to know if the girl is going to tell the tattooed asshole to pound sand.”

“Sure. Why not?” I could use the distraction.

After letting Marlene put a weird and slightly slimy face mask on me and scrubbing my face clean, I kick back on the couch, trying my best to relax and enjoy some girl time. I can only make it a few more hours, unable to pull an all-nighter like Marlene intends to do. Between being bored out of my mind listening to reality TV drama for hours and watching the clock ticking away on the wall, I’m ready to call it a day.

Yawning, I rise from the couch with a stretch. “My eyes can barely stay open. Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to turn in.”

“No problem,” she says, waving me off to bed. “You go get some shuteye.”

A quick glance at the clock on the wall shows it’s nearly two in the morning. “Will the guys be home soon?”

“Not until business is taken care of.”

Saddened I’ll be sleeping alone, my shoulders sag.

Wanting to be a decent host, I ask, “Is there anything you need to get comfortable?”

But Marlene is already pulling my blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it around her before I finish speaking. “I’m good, Psyche.”

Hearing her use the club name Cupid gave me, I pause. “Do you know why Cupid calls me Psyche?”

“No clue,” she admits. “A club name is usually something symbolic or personal to the person it’s given to. The name clearly means something to Cupid.”

Hmm. I’ll need to ask him the importance of it.

Crawling into bed, I drift to sleep with the image of a black butterfly fluttering in my mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CUPID

Never would I have guessed my evening would have ended with me sitting in one of the Mercy Ravens MC tactical trucks in the dark a few pole buildings away from the location Artem told us Kirill uses as a holding area for the women they abduct until they’re transported elsewhere. Yet, here I am with Oaks sitting beside me as we watch the Raven’s ranger—Triple—on a tablet showing his bodycam footage as he creeps toward the location without making a sound.

The cam footage shows a handful of men standing outside the building, smoking and talking to each other in Russian.

Triple’s voice comes through the comms. “Three men outside the front and four more guarding the perimeter of the building. Over.”