Page 20

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Declan

The sound of my phone ringing from downstairs wakes me up. The downside to a loft room is the way every sound in the space echoes without a door to close off the noise.

I’m heavily debating letting the phone go to voicemail. I’d rather miss the call than risk waking Violet while she seems so peaceful. The phone stops ringing, only to start up again. Which means whoever it is isn’t giving up.

I gently slide Violet off me and onto the mattress, tucking my pillow against her side, which she immediately cradles against herself, and I smile.

She’s a cuddler. Noted.

Reaching into the closet, I open my bag and grab out a pair of gray sweats and get them on. The phone stops ringing and restarts for a third time. I’m taking the stair two at a time, my gut twisting with anticipation for what this could be.

I shuffle through my jeans until I have the phone in my hand and answer, “Hello.”

“Fuck! Declan?” Hawk’s tension filled voice comes over the line.

“Hawk. What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

He lets out a long, frustrated sigh. “Thomas managed to leave his accommodations without anyone knowing.”

Thomas escaped the basement.

“How? When did he leave?” I play along with Hawk’s coded way of speaking, since we never know who’s listening. I certainly don’t need for my beauty in the bed upstairs to hear me say words like escaped his cell. She’d lose her fucking mind before she had any clue what we were talking about. After everything she’s been through, I have to be cautious about what she knows until she becomes more comfortable around both me and the club.

“Not sure.” Hawk growls. “The cameras went dark, but the system and the clubhouse never lost power. The alarm never sounded and my phone never went off.”

“How is that even possible?” The clubhouse has multiple systems in place in case of something like this happening. After the Devil’s Order killed Gabe’s wife and his uncle, Gabe and took out several additional security measures to ensure the safety of the club and their family members.

The cameras are all on one system and can be accessed by any club brother. The basement door has its own keypad entry code, which only a few of us have access to. Prospects and members who are not officers are not allowed in the basement without the express permission of the Pres. Fewer witnesses when there’s clean up involved.

The cell, when in use, is linked to Hawk’s computer and cell phone, as well as Gabe’s. It will also alert me or Mack if there’s a breach. As enforcers, it’s our job to keep our brothers safe. Prisoners being held in our basement, especially one who has a track record of being a traitor and killing two family members, definitely fall under our list of responsibilities.

The fact none of those systems alerted any of us means one of two things. One, someone from the inside helped him escape, which means we have another traitor on our hands. Or two, someone outside the club with a great set of hacking skills and the means to navigate our land is at fault. Either way, Thomas escaping is a huge fucking problem for the club. Especially for Gabe.

“I’m running diagnostics and asked Wyatt to go through all the camera footage up to the point it went out. It never came back on, so I doubt we will see where he went after he left.”

“Fuck.” I’m pacing the floor when I hear Violet moving around upstairs. “Do we have any leads? Anyone who would know we were housing him and would want him to … come home?”

Hawk doesn’t answer right away. I hear the clacking of keys through the phone. “I only know of two people as of late who can match my skill set. Sadie and that Trident fucker you’ve been working with.”

“Sadie wouldn’t want her dad to leave like this. Unless she planned to—” My words are cut off as Violet makes her way down the stairs in one of my button-down flannel shirts. The top three buttons are undone, giving me a glimpse of her cleavage, and her bare legs are on full display.

Focus, asshole.

“Sadie’s not capable of anything that drastic. Keyboard games and sarcasm are her level of expertise in this situation,” Hawk replies.

“Trident isn’t privy to club business. They wouldn’t have any way of knowing who our guests are or how long they’ve been accommodated.”

Hawk grunts. “Are you sure? Who else are they working with besides your woman and her doctor friend?” Hawks asks. I’m not shocked he knows about Emilia and Violet. He’s a tenacious little shit when he wants to find something, and I put him on the job of tracking Violet. I should’ve known when he cracked Kayce’s system to get a message to meet with me, he wouldn’t stop there. Hawk is nosy as fuck and when he gets into a system he finds interesting he's like a fucking kid in a candy store. He goes after it all.

“I’ll reach out, but it doesn’t seem like something he would be involved in.” Violet’s standing in front of me now, her brow furrowed as she listens to my side of the conversation.

“He works with Parisi. Didn’t Parisi say Thomas could be the key we need to bring down Cusenza and that bitch of a mother-in-law?” Hawk wonders out loud. “Maybe he helped Thomas find a new place to stay in case he needs his help.”

He has a point.

“I’ll talk to Kayce. Maybe he can help figure it out,” I offer. He knows what I’m telling him, but Violet seems both concerned and, if I’m not mistaken, afraid. Her hands reach up and grip my hips. Her way of asking a silent question. I shake my head and hold up my finger to my lips to keep her quiet.

“Anyway, Pres wants you and Violet to come back to the clubhouse. He needs you on this. Says Violet and Carter will be fine here. He’ll have around the clock watch for both.” Hawk’s tone tells me I’m not going to be able to argue my way out of this. Pres needs my help and if he believes Kayce may be involved, or Parisi for that matter, shit could go crazy in a heartbeat. “He’s calling everyone in, even the families. Once everyone gets back, we’ll have church and figure this shit out.”

“I’ll talk to Violet, and we’ll get ourselves back into town by tonight.” Her eyes narrow, but she remains silent. “Talk soon.” I hang up and Violet is rapidly firing questions at me.

“Who was that? What’s going on? Why do they think Kayce’s involved? Is Carter okay? Is he safe? Why do we have to leave? Kayce said we had to stay here for a few days. Declan …”

I cut off her tirade with a searing kiss. She responds immediately at first, but quickly pushes against my chest to sever the kiss. “You can’t do that. You can’t kiss me to shut me up.” I smile at her attempt to shove me away with her hands on my chest.

“It’s going to take more than a little shove to get me to let you go, Dove,” I taunt. “And I was kissing you because I wanted to. It just happened to be a great way to silence the bullshit screaming too loudly in your head, too.”

“Talk to me, Declan. What’s going on?” She closes her eyes for a second, takes in a deep breath, then lets it out slowly, as if steadying herself. “If this is going to work, you can’t keep me in the dark. I know the club has issues that are none of my business, but if it pertains to me and Carter—or you—I need to know.”

“I can’t tell you about club business. No matter who it involves. That’s not how it works,” I explain. She turns her head away from me, and I follow the movement. “Carter is fine. Something happened at the clubhouse. A breach in security. I’m one of the club’s enforcers. It’s my duty to see to the club’s safety and that of their families, which now includes you and Carter. So, we need to get packed and head back to town.”

She nods, stepping back from my hold. I let her, as she tries to wrap her head around what I’m saying. Our relationship is new. I haven’t had a chance to discuss the way things work with the club and what her being my ol’ lady will mean. I was hoping to get to that a little later, when I thought we had more time alone.

“Okay.” Violet looks up at me, her arms across her body, pushing her tits up and giving me a better view of her bare skin. I ignore the throb of my cock, pushing my hunger for her to the back of my mind. It’s not easy with the way she looks in my clothes. Why is that such a fucking turn on? I don’t know, but I make a mental note to keep enough of my clothes readily available for her to wear every day.

“I’ll go pack my things, and, uh—” she stutters for a second. I watch as she swallows hard, a sadness in her eyes that wasn’t there before. “When we get back to town, I’ll collect Carter and we’ll be on our way.”

What?

“Whoa. Hold on.” Grabbing her wrist, I unfold her arms and bring her closer to me. She doesn’t fight me, but something is definitely wrong. It’s like a switch has been flipped and she’s retreating into herself. “What just happened? What made you think I want you and Carter to go anywhere except home with me?”

She shrugs. “It’s fine, Declan. Carter and I would be in the way at the clubhouse. We’re not part of the club and if you have something you need to do for Gabe or whatever, we’ll just be in the way. It’s … it’s not our business.”

“Baby, look at me.” She gives me those hazel eyes and my heart clenches. “You and Carter are going to be staying at the clubhouse with me. You’re mine. Which means you are both part of the club now. I thought you understood this.”

“I don’t understand anything when it comes to the club or what you do,” she admits. “I’ve seen things.” Her eyes widen with horror as she backpedals. Pulling her arms from my grasp and waving them in the air. “I don’t mean like things I talk to anyone about. I would never. I mean, I know Skyler’s dad was murdered, and she was kidnapped, and some things she’s told me about Lilah and how they came to adopt her. B-But I would never tell anyone. Skyler’s my friend.”

I don’t say anything, waiting for her to finish rambling her thoughts out loud so I can address everything all at once because the bullshit she’s spewing, and it is bullshit, it’s all excuses. Fears that Violet doesn’t need to have. None of those things will happen to her.

“I mean, even after I was stabbed, I didn’t talk to anyone about it. It was an accident. I think. And Avery getting shot. I don’t know exactly how it happened, or who did it, but I know it was club business, and I’ve kept anything I know to myself. I don’t-I don’t have any other friends besides Skyler and Mili to really talk to anyway. So, see, it’s fine. I don’t know much of anything, and you can take us home, and then I won’t have to know anything and … and … if you want to see someone else, we can just forget any of this happened between us. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is fine.”

That’s it.

I lunge for Violet, putting my shoulder into her soft belly, tossing her over my shoulder, and head toward the bedroom, taking the stairs two at a time.

“What are you doing? Declan! Put me down! What has gotten into you?” She’s shouting at me to let her go, but the shakiness of her voice and the fear I saw in her eyes seconds ago twists my gut.

When I get to the bed, I toss her down, spinning until I’m above her, caging her in place. Her hands come up, pushing against my chest, but when she looks at my tattoo covered torso, her hands start to explore and caress the lines, like she did last night. Her brow creases and she shakes her head slightly. It pulls a smile from my lips.

Using one of my hands to capture both of hers, I still them just above my beating heart. Her eyes snap to mine. The same vulnerability I saw there before has returned. Like a veil being pulled back. I see her. I see the things she fears the most.

Rejection.

Loss.

Judgment.

Insecurities.

Abandonment.

“Do you feel that?” I ask. She nods ever so slightly. “Do you feel how fast it’s beating? You do that to me. Do you understand?” She doesn’t move or say anything, only stares at me with misty eyes.

“My heart didn’t beat right after my wife left me. It was cold. Dark. I felt dead inside. Until I found the Kings of Fury.” Her shoulders sag into the mattress. She’s fighting the tremble in her lips. “You’re misunderstanding, Dove. My club helped me find a purpose, a reason to live. The brotherhood I needed to ground me. People who care about me and are loyal as fuck. They accept me, demons and all. No judgment.”

“I get it,” she whispers, blinking away tears.

“No. You don’t.” I lean down and nip her lips. “My club is my family, but you are the missing piece to my soul.” Her eyes close, and I want them open to me. I want her to see me the way I see her. “Look at me, baby.”

When her eyes open, I see it. The defeat. The hurt. The anger. She still doesn’t understand what I’m telling her.

“I claimed you last night. Hell, I claimed you at the table before you were even back from Baron’s Edge. Made you my ol’ lady and Carter my son by all rights of the club. You. Are. Mine. And I’m yours.”

“I don’t …”

“I know. I’m trying to explain it to you.” I chuckle and her eyes fill with fire. “I’m not laughing at you, Violet. I’m trying to tell you what this means.” I gesture between us.

“Did you just call me old?”

I chuckle at her disgruntled expression.

“You’re missing the point.” I release her hands and start unbuttoning her shirt, one button at a time, slowly. She keeps her hands where they are, watching me as her breathing picks up, coming in small pants.

“Ol’ lady is a term of endearment. It’s the equivalent of calling you my wife, which, by the way, you will be soon enough.”

She gasps, her eyes widening. “I don’t think you get to tell me …” My finger on her lips and the shake of my head stops her words.

“No. You said what you needed to say. Now, you listen.” Her eyes narrow, her nostrils flare, and my cock twitches. Fuck, she’s gorgeous.

“By claiming you as my ol’ lady.” Another button open and my finger caresses the edge of her breasts. One, and then the other. Violet squeezes her thighs together, making her neediness known to me even if she doesn’t realize it. “The club will protect you and Carter at all costs. Even laying down their lives if it came to it.”

“No. I wouldn’t …” One raised brow from me silences her.

“You no longer have a choice in the matter. You agreed to be mine. Which means you go where I go. If Pres says he needs us to hunker down at the clubhouse, we do it. You. Me. And Carter. When Carter’s out of school, you’ll pick him up, and after your shift at the gym, I’ll get you both. If we aren’t staying at the clubhouse, you’ll both come home to my house, where you’ll be moving in.”

She opens her mouth to speak. “I swear to God if you say anything right now, Violet, I’ll stuff your mouth to silence you.” Her eyes go wide and fill with desire. Her lips snap shut and her cheeks stain pink.

Hmm. She likes the idea of my stuffing her mouth full. Good to know.

Once I’ve got all the buttons on her shirt undone, I push it open, exposing her body to me. I lick my lips. Her chest rises and falls as she anticipates my next move.

I take her right nipple into my mouth, circling, sucking, nibbling the tight pink flesh. Her back arches, she moans, and I move to give the same treatment to the other nipple.

“These are mine. Aren’t they, baby?” She pushes off my chest with her hands, squirming underneath me. I drop my hips, pinning hers in place. “Where do you think you’re going, Dove? I’m not done with this yet.” I emphasize my point by twisting and pinching her nipple, causing her to yelp.

“Mmm.” Licking my way from her throat to her navel, swirling my tongue in her belly button, then lower still. When I reach her clit, I make two small circles around the little bundle of nerves. Her stomach tenses as she holds her breath, releasing it on a gasp as I shove two fingers inside her soaking wet cunt, pumping in and out in a relentless rhythm.

“This is mine too, isn’t it, Dove?” I continue my assault with my tongue as my fingers pump and curl, hitting just the right spot. Her walls begin to tighten, pulling my fingers deeper still. She’s close, I can feel it.

“Declan.” It’s a prayer and a plea all at once. Just as she’s about to find her release, I pull my fingers back and slowly lick her entrance, abandoning her clit all together. “Declan!” Now my name is an angry growl.

“Yes, baby. What can I do for you?” I tease. She leans up on her elbows, looking down at me as I continue slowly, torturously licking her everywhere except where she needs me most.

“You could make me come.” Her fire is refreshing and makes my cock twitch. He’s begging to come out of the confines of these sweats and slam home inside Violet’s warm, wet, and wanting cunt.

“I could.” It’s a statement and a challenge. I pull back, looking up at her beautiful face as she continues to glare at me. Putting my fingers back inside her, I pump them in and out, in and out. It’s nowhere near the rhythm she needs to get off and we both know it. “You didn’t answer my question, baby. Answer me correctly and I’ll let you come.”

“You’re not serious.” An arch of my brow is the only response she gets. She huffs out a long, agitated breath.

“Is. This. Pussy. Mine?”

Her hazel eyes meet mine once more, and I see the moment she gives in to the truth that we both know and believe. “Yes, Declan. It’s yours. I’m yours.”

My fingers start thrusting at a relentless pace. With my lips firmly latched onto her clit, I suck and lick until I feel her body writhing beneath me. My arm is wrapped around her thigh, holding her to me, not letting her go. She comes twice more before I finally let up on my assault.

She’s a sweaty, panting mess and the most stunning sight I’ve ever laid eyes on. Crawling up her body, stopping when I reach her mouth, I lick her bottom lip. She opens on instinct, and I lap at her mouth, allowing her to taste herself on my tongue. She moans, gripping the back of my hair and pulling me in to deepen the kiss. Reaching down, I pull my sweats down, freeing my cock, and line myself up with her entrance.

“This is going to be rough, baby.” Without any more warning, I sit up, pushing her thighs open and slam all the way to the hilt. I moan loudly. The tight feel of her walls gripping my dick is fucking nirvana.

I allow her a moment to adjust, then pull back and thrust back in, hard. Violet screams as I bottom out in one fluid thrust. I thrust hard and pull out quickly, riding my Dove until we’re both quivering with the need to let go.

A few more strokes, and I pull out, flipping Violet over onto her stomach, pulling her ass up into the air. Flipping my shirt up over her ass, with the palm of my hand on her back, I push her chest to the bed, giving me the perfect angle and view of her ass.

Three hot smacks in rapid succession on each cheek and she tries to squirm out of my hold, but I ram my dick deep inside her velvet pussy. We both groan.

“So, fucking good, Dove,” I croon. “Your pussy is so fucking tight. I could stay here all day inside you.”

“Move, Declan,” she demands, and I’d be a bastard not to give my woman what she wants. My hips move—piston in and out—in an almost punishing rhythm. I watch as goosebumps rise across Violet’s flesh. Her skin is flushed, her breathing a mixture of harsh panting and whimpers. She’s close.

Her legs tremble. I hold her up, one hand firmly gripping her hip. My other hand reaching between us, gathering her juices on my fingers as I rub her clit. When I feel her walls tighten and my spine tingle, I bring my finger back to her ass and breach her asshole.

“This is mine too.”

Violet gasps, hissing a curse. With my finger thrusting in and out slowly in her ass, and my cock bottoming out inside her cunt as I grind my hips against her, Violet explodes around my cock and sends me reeling as my release spills inside her. Rope after rope of my seed sprays inside her, marking her, claiming her. Making her mine.

I catch myself on my hands, so I don’t crush her, kissing her shoulders and her neck. Rolling to lie beside her, I push the hair away from her face so I can see her. Her hazel eyes are soft, a tenderness staring back at me I haven’t seen before.

“You understand now. You can’t get rid of me. You can’t run. I’ll find you. I meant what I said. As barbaric as the women in the club may say it is, staking a claim on our women, making them our ol’ lady, it’s a sacred thing.”

A small smile curves at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes are now closed as she sighs softly. She looks so sweet and unguarded, just the way I love seeing her.

“Is this how we’re going to settle all our arguments? You’re going to fuck me into submission to make your point? Because if it is, we may find ourselves arguing a lot.” I drop back onto the pillow and laugh harder than I have in ages.