Page 13

Blade

I would’ve liked nothing better that to spend the rest of the week—hell, the rest of my life—in the hotel room with Bella.

But even her fire and my wild love for her isn’t enough to turn off my ultra-pragmatic mind for long.

So I left her sleeping, wrote a note that I’d be back very soon, hopefully before she wakes up, and rode back to the clubhouse.

The bar was empty when I arrived, but just as sparkling clean as it always is every morning.

Lotus, our club girl, but actually more of a house manager, likes to keep everything spic and span and smelling like lavender.

I’m not complaining. I’ve been to some clubhouses that had probably never been cleaned since being built and that’s not a part of biker culture I want to embrace.

I find Rogue alone in the kitchen, finishing off a cup of coffee while staring out the window at nothing in particular since there’s nothing but a tall wall and a bit of the sky to see there.

“You guys just getting back?” he asks as he notices me, his eyes unfocused like he’s still staring off into space.

“I’m on my own.” I take a seat across the long table from him, blocking the window. The look in his eye switches to something that looks a lot like an I told you so and I resent that. “We need to talk.”

He nods and sips more of his coffee.

“I love Bella and I would like her to feel welcome in my home.”

I practiced these words some on my way over here. Maybe that’s why they sound so stilted.

“I didn’t say she wasn’t welcome,” Rogue says. “I said she could be a danger to us.”

“And that’s what I want to talk about,” I say and lock eyes with him. “What makes you say that? ‘Cause if it’s just to scare me away from her, to keep us apart–”

I realize I sound pretty pathetic, so I stop talking. But I wholly deserve that pitying look in his eyes. I get up to pour myself a mug of coffee to get away from it.

“That Dante Moretti guy she was supposed to marry… he’s never gotten over being jilted,” Rogue says. “He’s pretty much destroyed her whole family in revenge. I’m thinking he’ll come after her as soon as he learns she’s here.”

I turn to face him so fast about half my coffee lands on the sparkling clean white tile floor. I make no move to clean it up.

“All the more reason to protect her!”

Her family being in trouble isn’t exactly news to me. Even before she told me, I did hear about her dad and one of her brothers—the bastard who broke my jaw—being killed, but this was about five years ago, it’s old stuff.

“And we will protect her,” Rogue says, fire in his voice and eyes. “She’s one of us. But we won’t be putting the entire MC in danger doing it. Especially since we could be needed up north by the Devils soon.”

This is way too much new information for me to process right now. Probably because a large chunk of my mind is still with Bella under the stars last night and in the warm bed this morning. I sit back down to face him.

“What’s going on? What did I miss?”

He sighs, goes to drink some more of his coffee, but realizes his mug is empty and sets it back down. “Nothing much. Not yet. But the war Devil’s Nightmare MC is fighting is still going strong and Cross let it be known he might need us soon.”

It was the Devils who told us where we can find Ghost after no one could find him for a decade. So the debt we owe their president Cross is vast. There’s no way we’re not paying it.

“What else?” I ask.

I’ve known Rogue my whole life, so I can accurately read every one of his facial expressions. He’s holding something back.

He sighs and runs his hand through his messy dark hair, looking kind of lost as he grins at me.

“We veered so far off the course we’ve been smoothly sailing for the last couple of years I have no idea how to get us back on it,” he says.

“Zane coming back and our fights with the traffickers have put us in the doghouse with the cops. The Devils have sucked us into their war. The Hydras will probably be back any moment now to get their revenge on us for messing with their trafficking operation. And now the Morettis will also come knocking. I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re in the opening stages of a storm that could prove more deadly than anything we can anticipate. Or that we’ve ever faced.”

It’s never good when he starts talking in metaphors. Although those things he’s worried about are very much rooted in reality.

“We’ll fight them all off,” I say. “And we’ll swim back to the top. We always do.”

“And also, the sun will come out tomorrow, right?” he says, grinning crookedly.

I totally deserve that for listing all those empty platitudes.

“Fine, I’ll set up Bella at my mom’s house for now,” I say. “She’ll be safe enough there.”

We all keep our families under protection that they know nothing about. It’s just good practice given the work we do, the enemies we accumulate and, as Rogue put it, the storms we stir up.

“Do that,” he says and stands up.

A moment later, his ol’ lady Melody comes in and I’m amazed, but not surprised that he sensed her coming. I get the same thing with Bella. It’s like life gets a little more alive when she’s near. Like right now, I’m pretty sure she’s already awake. I should get back to her.

So I just say a quick good morning to Melody, tell Rogue he can reach me any time then leave them to their own good mornings.

My mom might take a bit of convincing to let Bella stay in the apartment over the garage that was meant for me. Come to think of it, Bella will probably need some convincing to stay there too. But I’m not taking no for an answer from either of them. Ever again.