Page 10 of Carver (Satan’s Angels MC #8)

Bronte

T he three of us are sitting down at the table drinking smoothies when the door opens and Kael appears.

I’d followed Dravin from the clubhouse when I got to Hart.

Before he brought me to his apartment, he told me that the tattoo shop is owned by a guy from the club.

There are stairs inside leading to the apartment, but they usually use the ones at the back.

I was worried about him leaving Dominic alone after major surgery and I said as much while we climbed up the metal staircase that resembled a fire escape and not an actual entrance.

Dravin assured me that Dom didn’t need watching, but that his old lady was with him.

She’d just called while we were driving and told him that she had to run out to the library.

That made me smile. I never knew if Dominic actually read the books I was bringing him, or if he’d given up completely on languages, which he loved so much before.

Kael freezes, eyeing the three of us, then slowly sets down the bulging canvas bag with a smiley face on the front. “I knew I shouldn’t have left. This has clearly gone to shit, and I’ve only been gone for an hour.”

Dravin pushes back his chair. The shop beneath us isn’t tiny and the upstairs has been remodeled and is spacious. The kitchen faces the back alley, but the large window lets in a good amount of light. It spills over the round wood table, highlighting the wood grains.

He crosses the kitchen to Kael, then picks her right up and spins her until she squeals. My heart squeezes, increasing the booming pressure in my hand and temple. I’m not going to cry again. I’m not .

“Dravin!” Kael squawks. “You can’t distract me like that. They’ve clearly been crying. What’s going on?”

Okay, so Dravin obviously told Kael about my campout at the club and that I’d be coming back sometime today.

She peeks over Dravin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, he has this Neanderthal habit of hiking me up and tossing me around like this. It’s just lucky I’m not talking to you upside down.” She swats his shoulder. She’s muscular to the point of jacked, but she’s still tiny compared to Dravin’s massive form.

Are all bikers this big? I could see them working out together in some club gym, but is there a height and weight requirement to join, like they have on carnival rides?

“Are you both alright? Were those happy tears or did something go down?” She’s so nosy, but in that sweet, concerned way that my sister often is.

Dom studies his smoothie. He’s to my left.

He could have taken the chair I did and angled himself away from me, but instead he trusted me to sit here, almost like a shield.

As it always has been, the urge to take care of him, protect him, and fight for him is strong.

I’m not a guarded person. I find that the opposite actually works wonders.

People don’t expect softness. It’s disarming.

“We’re okay.” I mean it.

That alone causes the sharp sting to lodge in the bridge of my nose again. I’ve been living in a jar of honey, trapped and petrified, unable to move forward. I could go back into my memories. For a while, they were torture, but I clung to the sweetness of them to see me through.

“How did you hurt yourself?” Kael presses, staring directly at my hand.

He sighs. Dom’s muscles ripple under my hand as I set it on his thigh under the table. His body prepares for major flight mode.

“I cut it.” Duh, but I leave it at that. It sounds like an accident.

Dravin steps over to the counter, tugging Kael with him playfully.

Their obvious connection sends warmth surging through me.

It’s not the kind of warmth that the love of my family gives or the way I feel about Elowen.

The burn is deeper, hitting all the wrong places for sitting in front of people I barely even know.

I don’t remove my hand from Dom’s thigh.

His body heat ignites sparks in my fingers that fly up my wrists and arms and explode in my chest. My body is dry tinder.

I miss his hands on my body. I miss his mouth.

I miss the way we were always fire, aching for each other long after we’d memorized each other’s bodies.

That warmth pools low in my belly until my thighs start to pound.

“Let me make you something. A sandwich or a smoothie? Are you hungry? Thirsty?” Dravin’s obvious need to take care of Kael is adorable.

So is the kiss she brushes over his temple as she skirts past him, grabs a bagel that’s already sliced and stuffs it into the toaster. “I’m okay. I’ll just get some water.”

They join us at the table a few minutes later.

I had a lot of friends in high school, but most of them have moved away.

That happens with small towns. There isn’t a ton of opportunity.

I’ve also had a secret to keep. It’s been weird, changing my whole family’s lives, but they understood.

Visitors had to be planned carefully. We got used to the routine and it worked for us, but I haven’t been as social as I was in the past.

It’s almost strange to sit down with friends again.

Maybe because I don’t know Dravin or Kael and Dom and I haven’t gone anywhere together in so long.

Even before the accident, he preferred to be alone, or with me and my family, but he pretty much drew the line there.

“I’m not sure how many weeks you’re going to be here yet,” Dravin says, glancing sidelong at Kael as he talks to Dom.

I don’t miss the guilt there. This is the first time he’s putting this out there.

“But I’d like to put something to you. You could stay, if you’d like.

Prospect with the club. We’d be happy to have you. ”

In my mind, I see myself rocketing out of my chair or falling out of it and having to pick myself up. I don’t do anything other than curl my hand like a claw into Dom’s leg. He remains motionless. Blank. He’s good at emptying himself out, going so deep inside himself that even he gets lost.

I can’t speak for him.

If I open my mouth, the only thing that I’ll ever say to him is that wherever he needs to go to find peace and happiness, I’m there.

“I do appreciate the offer,” Dom forces out after a tense few moments of silence. “But I have my property and sculpting.”

“You could rent it. We could help you find a shop space here.”

Dom doesn’t bring up my family. He doesn’t mention me at all. He doesn’t use me as a reason or as an excuse, but his eyes fix on me.

Kael nervously takes a bite of her bagel. She chews quietly, but it seems loud in the silence. “You know what language books I got you? Actually, let me get the bag. We can look at everything.”

She’s amazing. She works miracles. We know the offer is out there, but she cuts through the tension of having to make a decision. Dom doesn’t even have to say that he’ll consider it.

She unpacks the bag onto the table, fanning everything out.

“Latin? It might be hard to find movies in that.” I know exactly how Dom likes to learn languages. There might be easier ways, but it works for him. He already speaks Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and German.

Kael pushes the Dutch books over. “I also got these.” She polishes off the rest of the bagel, then swallows quickly and chugs water since she’s clearly had an idea.

“The VP at the club—his wife teaches classes here in Hart. College level. She might know of something online where you could learn Latin, or at least practice it. If you don’t like apps.

Maybe you can even get credits for it, since you’d likely have to pay. ”

I’m so sure Dom is going to say no, but ever since I’ve known him, one thing has remained true. He’s never lost the ability to surprise.

“I’ll have to check it out. I can look it up. I brought my laptop.”

The laptop in question is now ancient, but I remember when Dom bought it.

He’d sold his first sculpture ever on the website we’d struggled to put together.

It wasn’t a lot of money for the time and effort he put in, but the stone was just randomly lying around, and he’d used his grandfather’s tools.

His father and uncles didn’t pay much attention to what he did in the workshop— fucking around as they called it, with those stones.

I don’t think they even knew he sold it.

He got eleven hundred dollars, which sounds like a lot, and it was to teenage kids.

With the cash, Dom bought himself his first laptop.

He kept it in his locker at school to make sure it was safe.

He’s upgraded it over the years, so it’s not obsolete. He’s still so careful with it that it looks brand new.

Dravin checks out the stack of books. “ The Iliad .” He slides another spine closer to read it. “ The Odyssey .”

“Yeah, well…” Kael shrugs. “The library didn’t have much in the way of Latin books, but I thought you might enjoy Greek mythology.” She taps her chin thoughtfully, “Wait. I should have got ancient Greek instead of Latin. Or regular Greek.”

“I’m sure I’ll enjoy these.” Dom smooths his hand over the covers of the books almost reverently even though they’re not old and they’re quite beat up from lots of loving.

Those are two classics that I haven’t got him yet.

“You have good taste,” I say to Kael. “Some books just speak to you when there are no words.” I should have thought of them myself, although I don’t know if Dom was ready to read them before. He might have found such an epic to be more depressing than inspiring.

“Have you read them?”

“I’ve read a lot of classics. I guess that my mom naming me Bronte kind of set that love for me.

Plus, I was homeschooled for a big chunk of my life and my mom only taught classics.

We did get a few prairie stories too, which I adored.

To be honest, when I was a kid, it was a nice break from the heavy stuff, even if she found more modern day translations or youth versions. ”