Page 8

Blade

Amazing how days can pass in the blink of an eye. Even more amazing than how years can.

Bella and I have been inseparable for the last few days, while she got her affairs in order.

That included a couple of late-night inking sessions and a trip to Green Haven prison upstate where she wanted to say goodbye to a few friends before leaving the East Coast behind …

as she keeps referring to coming back to LA with me.

And the more time we spent together the more the years we spent apart shrank in my mind…

along with the distance those years brought.

The lights of the blanket that is LA are just coming on as we disembark from the plane. There’s still some of the sunset left in the sky, a dusky purple tinge that puts me in mind of velvet and all things nice.

Bella’s hand in mine as we leave the plane puts me in mind of even nicer things. Like new beginnings. Like fresh starts. Like leaving the past right where it belongs. Forgotten.

Even the scar on my stomach no longer pulls as hard as it did when I boarded a plane much like the one we’re leaving now to go find her.

Nothing hurts when I’m with her. Everything hurts when we’re apart.

It’s always been like that. No matter how much other people told me I was better off without her.

And they all told me that a lot. Starting with my mom.

It’s just simply never been true. Heroin might’ve been her drug of choice, but she was always my drug.

And I can’t wait to begin making it not true for the rest of our lives. I also can’t wait to be out of this stuffy airport and in the warmth of our hometown… NYC cold is not for me. And the way Bella seems to glow brighter and brighter by the minute, it’s not for her either.

She turns to me as we reach the baggage claim where the first bags are already starting to arrive. She has four. Two red, two green. The backpack with everything I brought on this trip is already strapped to my back.

“I hope we’ll find a cab big enough to fit all my stuff,” she says. The tightness around her eyes and the marble-like quality of her golden irises tells me that’s not all she’s worried about.

“Rogue’s picking us up in one of the MC’s vans,” I tell her. He’s doing it reluctantly. But I won’t tell her that. I hope he won’t either.

“Rogue?” she asks, her voice shaky and her eyes growing glassier still, even as she smiles wider. “You sure he’s really coming? Seeing as he’s not my biggest fan.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” I say and the wash of watery sadness that floats across her eyes makes me wish I hadn’t. But I have a great follow up.

“But between him being my best friend and my MC President, and you being the only woman for me… well, it’s time you two made up.”

She smiles too, but says nothing, her eyes full of doubt as she moves to hoist the first of her bags off the carousel before I can do it.

I texted Rogue before we boarded, telling him we’ll need a ride and giving him our flight details.

Then I ignored all subsequent texts and voicemail from him, until he finally ran out of things to say and told me he’ll be there.

I thanked him once the plane touched down.

And I hope he’ll understand all that to mean I don’t want to have the conversation he’s been trying to have over text in person either.

Now, with all her bags loaded onto a trolley, we’re about to find out.

I half expected him to be standing by the Arrivals gate, possibly holding a large sign with my name on it, but that’s just what Hollywood movies conditioned me to think would happen.

Instead, we find him leaning against the side of the gleaming black van the club uses when we need to move in force.

It’s not the same vehicle I nearly bled out in not so long ago, we scrapped that one, but it sure vividly reminds me of that night for some reason.

Or maybe that’s down to the unwavering way his eyes track us as we approach.

Like green flame. Like a river of glowing green flame.

The sky behind him seems so much darker than it is by comparison.

“Welcome home, Bella,” he tells her once we’re close enough to hear.

He embraces her tightly, which belies his toneless greeting and all the texts he’s sent in the past couple of hours.

“You know, Rogue, I almost believe you,” she says, hugging him back.

“I never wanted you hurt,” he tells her. “You can believe that.”

She nods and steps back, and I let them have a moment while I load the bags into the back of the van. They don’t spend it talking about anything much.

He opens the back door for her and slams it shut once she gets in, turning to me, the green flames in his eyes rising.

“You can spend tonight at the clubhouse, but after that, I want her elsewhere,” he says, probably quietly enough for her not to hear. “I don’t need to open another front with the Moretti family. Or the Ravinas for that matter. We’ve got enough going on.”

He’s talking about the crime boss who she was supposed to marry and what’s left of her own family and the little influence they still have.

“Why would any of them make a fuss?” I ask. “Moretti’s moved on and the Ravinas… they’re not what they used to be.”

Apart from telling me that one of her brothers and her father were dead, and the other brother not wanting to know her, we didn’t talk about any of them at all while we were in New York. But we’ll probably have to now.

“They already know she’s here,” Rogue says and walks around the car, completely ignoring my whispered, “What?”

“We’ll talk at the clubhouse,” he says and gets behind the wheel.

I join him in the front, no matter how much I’d rather be sitting in the back next to Bella. That’s all I really want to do. Sit by Bella. Lie next to her. Hold her hand. Watch her smile.

She’s smiling now as she looks out the window, the glassiness and fear gone from her eyes. She’s happy to be home. I’m gonna do whatever I must to make sure she stays that way. I smile back briefly before fixing my eyes on the road into darkness ahead of us.

Now I’m the one afraid… terrified, actually, that we made a horrible mistake coming back here. We should’ve just stayed in New York where we could be together and have everything we ever wanted. Because here in LA we never could. And maybe that hasn’t changed like I was sure it had.