Page 13 of Blood & Honey (Saint’s Outlaws MC: Deadman’s Beach, AL #2)
Chapter Twelve
I’ve given Ashley enough time to herself. The guys are all talking strategy and different methods of torture for when they get their hands on Shelby.
I find her hunched over on the beach, silent sobs wracking her body.
The sight is enough to break me, especially knowing I’m the one causing her pain.
But nothing will change my resolve. I’m going to kill Shelby.
No amount of tears or begging from Ashley will stop me, no matter how deeply I love her and wish I could give in.
“Stay away from me,” she screams at me, flinging sand in my direction.
I ignore her hurtful words. She’s rightfully angry at me. I drop down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into my side.
We don’t speak at first. I continue to hold her until her crying nearly ceases.
“We need to talk,” I tell her.
Her eyes are wild and frantic as she finally looks at me.
“She was here,” her voice comes out in a low whisper that I barely hear.
“What do you mean?”
“Momma Tee.”
“She was here? Out here on this beach?” I glance around, but she’s gotta be long gone by now. “Was Shelby with her?”
“No.” she shakes her head. “She told me she has a message for you. She has Ash, and she wants her money.”
Rage ignites inside me like an inferno, scorching my insides with its intensity. This was never about Shelby. This was about Momma Tee securing what she feels she’s owed. She’s a fucking fool if she thinks I’ll give her one cent. “Did she say anything else?”
“Only that she’ll be in touch.” She pulls away from me, and I let her. “What are you going to do?”
“Wait for her call, I guess.”
“Do you think there’s a chance Shelby could be with her? That she’s her partner?”
“They were working together before. Anything is possible.”
“Are you going to report any of this to the police?”
“What’s Buford going to do besides stick his thumb up his ass and pretend he’s looking for them?”
“You don’t have to be rude.”
“Babe?” I shoot her a look that says, ‘really.’ “Only stating the facts.” I get up and reach my hand out for her to take. “Come on. I’ve gotta tell the guys.”
She hesitates for a second, but when she places her hand in mine, I know despite our difference of opinion about Shelby we are united in our love for Ash.
Back at the clubhouse, my men are arguing about the best possible scenarios to get Candyce and my baby brother back. I have Ashley recount what happened out on the beach with Momma Tee. Each of them listens intently, wearing grim expressions.
The room is abuzz with a restless energy. Each one of us holds the promise of violence within us. Ready to ride or die in the name of this club. In the name of my father. For Ash.
I stop pacing as their chants of retribution dies down. “All right. It’s obvious that Momma Tee is very much still a threat, and she’s the one behind the attack on Slasher. The stakes are greater than ever with her taking not only Candyce, but my brother.”
“Do you think Shelby is part of this?”
I don’t voice it, but I’m starting to believe that Shelby may already be dead. “Possibly. Her and Momma Tee could have been hiding out together this whole time, planning and biding their time for the right opportunity to strike.”
“When are we going after her?” Hemlock growls, and Kevlar and Graves stare at me, having as much at stake as I do.
Candyce is Kevlar’s sister, and we all know her and Graves have a thing.
If they had taken Ashley, I’d be losing my goddamn mind.
That’s the detail that leads me to believe that Shelby isn’t part of this.
I hate her, but I know that she loves Ashley. If she were alive, she would have made contact with her by now, at least to ask about her son.
“She said she’d be in touch.”
“So we’re just going to sit and wait for her to give us a call?” someone calls out.
“No. We’re going to comb over every bit of information we have on her and find out where she’s holding them, and then we’re going to make a plan and take this cunt down once and for all.”
I gave up on looking for Momma Tee for the night.
I’m tired, and I can’t think clearly without a few hours of sleep.
I hopped in the shower to wash off the grime of the day and then I join Ashley in my bed, unsure of if she wants me here, but I slide under the covers next to her as she sleeps.
I kiss her neck as I spoon her from behind.
She shifts slightly but doesn’t push me away.
“Are you still mad at me?” I ask her, tightening my hold on her as I kiss the space behind her ear.
“I don’t know.”
I slide my hand between her legs. “Will this change your mind?” I grit in her ear as I pull her underwear down her legs and slide a digit inside her sweet heat.
“Blood,” she whispers my name as though saying it pains her. She guides my hand away and twists around to face me. Tears and heartbreak look back at me under the slivers of pale moonlight that’s passing between the slats of the blinds.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“Me too,” she says, but I know she’s not apologizing. She has no reason to. “You should get some sleep. Who knows when Momma Tee will call or what she has planned?”
She’s right. I don’t know what is out there waiting for me, and when I walk out this door to face these unknown dangers, it may be the last time I do it.
Nothing is promised.
Not today or tomorrow.
Hell, not even the next few breaths that pull through my lungs.
All I know is that right here, right now, I need Ashley more than I need my next breath.
I move over top of her, not saying a word.
Not asking for permission as I shove her legs apart and slam my cock inside her.
I root myself in Ashley to the damn hilt and hammer into her without mercy, and she takes every inch, every thrust like a good girl.
Her nails scratch down my back, digging into my flesh hard and deep enough to draw blood.
Her small whimpers overtake the nightly hum and sounds of the clubhouse. Relentless in my thrusts, I punish both of our bodies. Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me even deeper. My wife meets my thrust, throwing her anger back at me as she clutches to my body, begging me for more.
“Harder,” she rasps in my ear, and I give her what she wants as the headboard beats against the wall.
We fuck her as though it’s the last time we’ll ever have the chance.
I fuck Ashley like it is the last time I’ll ever feel her sweet cunt squeezing my cock.
Like it’s the last time I’ll taste her. Kiss her. Breathe her in.
As though it will be the last time I’ll get to see her beautiful ocean eyes gazing up at me.
I trace every inch of her skin with my fingertips, memorizing every scar and dimple. Every fucking freckle. I drag my lips and tongue down her neck, nipping her skin ever so lightly, reminding her that she belongs to me. Now and forever.
But it’s those eyes that undo me. The love and pain I find in them that shatters me into a million pieces and puts me back together at the same time.
“Fuck, I love you, Ashley.” I come without warning, spilling every ounce of myself inside her.
She shudders beneath me as I continue to fuck her softer and much slower now as she milks me bone fucking dry.
And when I think I’m spent and have nothing left to give, she says, “I love you, Zain.” Not Blood.
Not the hard man everyone expects me to be.
But she loves all of me. The good and the bad. The ugly. The vulnerable. All of me.
I don’t want to be the villain in her story anymore.
As she cries out my name, finding her release, I watch her and see my damnation and my salvation.