Page 52

I’m at the end of my fucking rope.

Watching Izzy stand amongst the burnt remnants of her home a week ago runs through my mind at least once an hour. Each tear that slipped down her cheek was a knife to my chest and it’s left behind gaping wounds that sting like a bitch. And the funk she’s been in since is driving me to the point of madness. I know she doesn’t realize it yet but things have changed between us in the past three weeks and in that time, she’s become mine. Mine to protect, mine to love, mine to cherish, and it fucking kills me that Luca is still walking free somewhere, breathing air that he doesn’t deserve when he should already be in the damn ground.

Not that I can’t even blame anyone else for the fact that we still haven’t managed to track him down. Streak has been meticulously combing through the security feeds in and around the restaurant, sending me stills to show Izzy but we still haven’t been able to catch a shot of our guy. The worst part is that the longer this takes, the more the whole situation takes out of Izzy and I can’t do a damn thing to fix it.

I grit my teeth as I glance down at my watch, irritation eating away at me. Storm gathered us all in the war room fifteen minutes ago for church but before we could get started, Ali called him away to handle something really quick so we’ve all just been sitting here, waiting. At this point, it’s grating on my last nerve. Jumper and Gear are riling each other up, as usual, and the rest of the guys are bullshitting amongst themselves, happy to wait. But all I can think about is getting out of here and taking Izzy home where we can lose ourselves in each other again.

My mind jumps to this morning when she walked out of the bedroom with a smile on her face, something that has been severely lacking in the past week. My t-shirt reached the top of her thighs and when she jumped up on the counter as I was making breakfast, I realized that she wasn’t wearing anything but the shirt. I close my eyes, remembering the way she flashed me that smile of hers that draws me to her like a damn siren, opened her legs, and told me to fuck her.

I bite back a groan.

Fuck this.

I just want to be alone with my girl.

The thought makes me smile. I love being able to call her mine, even if it is just in my head for now, because it’s like I’m speaking it into existence. She is the woman I want and I’m not going to stop until there is a damn ring on her finger and she has my last name. Not that I expect it to be that easy. Nothing with Izzy is ever easy but I know what I want and if she tries to leave after she has the baby, I have no fucking idea what I’ll do. I’m obsessed, head over heels in love with that stubborn woman and I can’t think of a single thing I wouldn’t do to keep her. Jesus, that sounds fucking insane. Believe me, I know it does but so does just letting her walk away and out of my life. Not that she would truly be out of my life since we have a kid together but that might be worse and going back to a cold, empty house when I know how good things could be would kill me.

I’ve been through some serious shit and I’ve had loved ones ripped from me, ruthlessly, and for so fucking long, it left me broken. Before she showed up, pregnant with my baby and on the run, I had resigned myself to this lonely, sad excuse of a life but I know now that I can’t go back to that. Fuck, I wasn’t even living. I was just drifting through the years, like a shell, and I refuse to be that man again. It wasn’t good for anyone – me, the club, or my family – and I won’t go back to staying at the office until one in the morning and drinking myself to sleep in the clubhouse just to avoid how alone I was.

No.

It’s just not an option.

Which means I need to find a way to convince Izzy that she can take a chance on me, on us. We could be a family. We could really make this work and build a beautiful life for ourselves. But how? How in the hell do I convince that headstrong woman that she can trust me and take a chance on us when I don’t even know what’s holding her back? The pain in her eyes is so potent sometimes that just seeing her like that makes it hard to breathe and I’ve tried asking her about it a few times but I haven’t gotten anywhere. If she doesn’t ignore the question outright, she just says she doesn’t want to talk about it. It’s driving me crazy. The funniest part is that she thinks she is keeping me at arm’s length, that what’s happening between us is just sex, but she doesn’t feel the way her body melts into me like I’m her safe place or the way her eyes light up when she catches a glimpse of me. God, the look in her gorgeous honey eyes when I’m inside her tells me everything I need to know. It says she’s falling for me just as much as I’m falling for her. I’m almost completely convinced she doesn’t even realize it though and that will be a fun day when it finally hits her.

“Sorry about that,” Storm says, walking into the room with a satisfied smirk on his face that makes me think whatever Ali needed him for wasn’t actually all that important. He closes the door behind him and nods in greeting to us as he strides to the head of the table. As he sinks into his seat, he grabs the gavel and slaps it down on the table. “Let’s get started. Streak?”

Streak nods. “Right. This week we’ve kind of got a weird one. Andrea called the clubhouse line three days ago and said she wants a couple of guys at her place to make sure things stay civil as she moves all of her shit out of her ex-boyfriend’s place.”

“She thinks he’s going to do something to her?” Smith, our sergeant at arms, asks and Streak makes a face like he’s not quite buying it.

“Hard to tell. She didn’t want to say too much on the phone but she did say that he’s crazy, possessive, and jealous. Basically, she just wants to get out of there and move on with her life.”

“So, it’ll be an easy job then,” Jumper says, leaning back in his chair and I shake my head, leveling a glare at him. Jump’s been on my shit list ever since he acted like a fucking idiot in front of Izzy and I’m not letting him off the hook yet.

“Don’t ever go into a job assuming that it’ll be easy,” I say. “Crazy, possessive, and jealous is a bad fucking combination and even if he’s never laid a finger on her before, it doesn’t mean that he won’t in the heat of the moment.”

Fuzz nods. “Exactly. If she felt the need to call for backup, we need to take it seriously. Don’t be a dumbass.”

Jumper scoffs, shaking his head as he looks around the room. “Jesus. Is it gang up on Jump day?”

“She did mention that she doesn’t want him knowing where her new place is so I think there is something going on that we don’t know about. Either way, we need to make sure that doesn’t happen and that she’ll be safe after we leave,” Streak says, ignoring Jumper’s question. There is a part of me that probably would have done the same since he’s been acting like an idiot lately and everyone is getting tired of his shit but he’s still a brother and that buys him a little goodwill, I suppose. When his gaze meets mine, pissed that he was ignored, I shake my head and he falls back in his chair with a huff. The kid is young and he’s definitely got an attitude problem at the moment but we wouldn’t have let him join if we weren’t all sure that he was a good guy. Maybe I’ll try and find him after we get done here and “lovingly” tell him to get himself together.

“Good. If that’s settled, let’s move on to Izzy’s case. Anything new to report?” Storm asks, turning to me and I shake my head as I blow out a breath as my stomach churns. Izzy was scared of Luca before a week ago but now, she’s terrified and I have nothing to aid in our attempts to stop this which only makes it worse. Not to mention, that the loss of everything she owned has stolen that fire from her eyes that I love so much. It’s unacceptable.

“Not much since the fire. Izzy hasn’t wanted to leave the compound and as far as I know, Streak hasn’t found anything new about Luca.”

Streak shakes his head. “Nope. I’ve exhausted the security cameras around the restaurant and this guy is nowhere to be found. I’m going to move on to the DMV database and just search for every Luca in the state.”

“And if he’s got a license from another state?” Maverick asks, his gaze bouncing around the room. Maverick works alongside me at Devil in the Details and we work really well together. He started prospecting for the club a year after I joined and in the beginning, I was unsure about it working out since he is Tate’s twin brother and Tate is married to Kodiak. Oh, and Kodiak’s little sister is married to Streak. As far as I was concerned, it was too much family and bound to cause drama but so far, that hasn’t been the case.

Streak shrugs. “I’ll expand it to surrounding states.”

“What if we get Izzy to describe him to me?” Nix asks. Nix joined the club after his father and our former president, Blaze, was killed a few years back and he’s a damn good artist so there might be something to that idea. Streak nods in agreement.

“That I could work with.”

Storm nods, looking satisfied. “That sounds like a good starting point. What about the fire captain? Have you heard from him yet?”