Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 79959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Not an option.”
“You said it was an option.”
“Not anymore.”
“That doesn't make any sense, Reign,” I said, trying to catch his eyes but he kept his gaze lowered. “No one else should have to deal with V because of me.”
“Did you ask me to?”
Augh. This again. “No.”
“No. You didn't ask. You have no part in this. This is my business. And I see you don't know much about my kind of business, babe. But I can tell you one thing, we don't involve women in it. So keep your opinions to yourself. Stay in here. Lock the door. Don't open for anyone but me.”
With that, he was gone.
And I was alone feeling my feminist heckles rising, and staring at the giant bed that I had absolutely no plans on sitting on. Lord knew how many different deposits of bodily fluid were on those sheets.
So I went into the bathroom and sat on the edge of bathtub.
And waited.
But I'd be damned if I got up and opened the door whenever he deigned to show back up again.
Fourteen
Reign
I started off small, soothing their nerves about the cops snooping around, about the heavy presence of V on our streets. Then I launched into a cover story for Summer. Because they'd seen her. They'd see her again. They needed to know she was under our protection.
“Cops want her. She's got a past,” I said vaguely. It was true enough.
“You been keeping shit from us?” Vin, an old timer, a man who had practically helped raise me and Cash when Pops was busy, also the only person with balls enough to question me, asked.
Alright. I had been. I had been keeping a lot from them. And I was going to continue doing so. Because this wasn't going to involve them.
“I know they got pictures of her going up all over, calling her a missing person. But she ain't a missing person. She's my bitch.”
My bitch?
My bitch?
What the fuck?
She wasn't my bitch. She wasn't anywhere close to my bitch.
I glanced over at Cash who had his arms crossed over his chest and was giving me the biggest fucking shit eating grin I'd ever seen.
Vin nodded.
It was that simple.
No one fucked with a Henchmen's old lady. No one. Not even the cops.
The only problem being that soon, and there was no telling how soon, but soon, I would have to explain why she wasn't my old lady anymore. And that just wasn't going to go over well.
“Anything else we forgot to discuss on Friday?” I asked.
“We got a big run in two weeks,” Vin reminded me. “Meeting with the Russians. They need to see your face.”
Yeah, they did. Unfortunately. “I'll be there. Cash will stay behind and keep an eye on things.” Vin nodded, satisfied that I was handling business as usual. “Anyone have any other concerns?”
“What the fuck are we supposed to say to the pigs, man?” Dean, a headstrong kid in his mid-twenties, just patched-in a few months ago, asked.
“The cops ain't a problem since there ain't a real missing persons report. They're on a fishing mission. Don't give um shit and we won't have an issue with them.”
“Aight,” he said, looking less than comforted. He needed to be toughened up. It had been too long since the club had any real trouble. The young bloods hadn't had enough action to harden them.
“I want you guys on the probates. Keep an eye. Make sure they don't fuck up. Now's not the time to find out we have weak links.” This was met with some table banging and beer raising.
Cash grabbed a bottle of Jack and raised it in the air. “Time to party. Call the bitches!”
I stayed with them for two rounds before slipping away, everyone occupied with the women or pool or conversation.
I knocked on the door. Waited. Knocked again. Waited.
Nothing. No noise inside. No nothing.
My heart started to slam in my chest as I reached for the key, jabbing it in the lock, mind running to the worst possible scenarios. Someone getting in while we were all busy in the meeting. Or, possibly, her sneaking out. It hadn't escaped my notice that she hadn't been very happy about moving. And she seemed obstinate enough to actually think she could make a go of it alone.
“Summer!” I shouted as soon as the door was open. Empty bed. Empty bedroom. “Fucking hell. Summer!” I rounded the corner to the bathroom. And there she was. Sitting on the edge of the tub. Pretty as you please. Looking up at me with a haughty chin lift. “Didn't fuckin' hear me knockin'?”
“I heard you.”
That was it. She heard me. Her tone with a very strong 'so what' underneath it.
“Couldn't get off your ass and let me in?”
“You obviously had a key.”
“Fuck's your problem?”
“No problem,” she said, her voice with a strange edge to it. “Just sitting here... keeping my opinions to myself. As instructed.”
I snorted, watching the fire rise in her eyes. So that was it. She didn't like taking orders. Well, that was just too fucking bad.
“Fuck you doing on the tub?”
Her head tilted. “I'm not sitting my ass on that science experiment you call bedding.”
Well, she wasn't exactly wrong there. But I didn't fucking wash sheets. “Really? Then where you sleeping tonight?”
“You're an asshole,” she said, standing up, and brushing past me. No, not brushing past. She plowed into my shoulder as she went. And, well, I couldn't very well just let her get away with that, could I?
Fifteen
Summer
One minute I was walking out of the bathroom, the next I was slammed against the bedroom wall. Hard enough to see stars for a second. But only for a second because the next second, Reign's lips were on mine. Hard. Hungry. Bruising into mine until I whimpered against him and his tongue slipped between my lips. His hands were planted on either side of my head, caging me in, his hips pinning mine to the wall.
And I kissed him back.
With everything I had.
Until my hands were grabbing the front of his shirt.