Page 23

Twenty-Three

She believed she could, but it was 96 degrees and humid as hell outside. So she didn’t.

— Aella’s secret thoughts

AELLA

I wasn’t sure how it happened, but I woke up on my day off two days later with a very naked, very clingy man in my bed.

I hated, no, loathed the fact that my school year started today.

I had classes that started today, clinicals that started tomorrow, and work through the weekend.

Just the thought of all the time I would be spending away from Chevy really broke my heart.

Not that I knew if I really should be so in deep with him yet.

I mean, sure, we’d spent almost every waking moment that we weren’t working together—and even some of those that we were working. We had hella good sex.

And when I say hella good, I mean, I’ll never have sex with another man again, good.

If it came down to it, and whatever I had with Chevy Clayborne didn’t work out—please, God, work out—I would have to go to bat for the other team. I didn’t think I could go back to regular men after this.

Slowly disentangling myself from the very asleep, sexy beast of a man in my bed, as quietly as I could, I got ready for school.

My last semester.

I was so freakin’ ecstatic.

I couldn’t wait to be done and working my big girl job.

I was just slipping my feet into the shoes that Chevy bought me when I got a text from my sister.

I cursed inwardly and switched it to silent, looking over to the bed at the mountain of a man.

He didn’t stir, which tracked.

He’d come in so late last night and slept so little the night before due to emergency surgeries and being on call, that it was no wonder he was dead to the world.

I quickly grabbed my bag and glanced at my phone.

Silver:

Oh my god. Call me ASAP!

I snatched my keys as quietly as I could and disappeared outside, being sure to lock up despite the lock and door being a joke.

I was halfway to my car when I called her.

“Oh my god!” Silver screeched. “You’re never going to believe what happened!”

“What?” I asked as I fell into my car.

“Well, first off, Cakes was serious. He made Mom turn herself in, and she confessed to every single crime she’s ever committed. That includes baby trapping our fathers!” she jabbered. “Then she confessed to fucking with our credit. She confessed to taking out loans in our name. She confessed to so much that it’s made national news!”

I couldn’t help but shake my head, a smile forming on my face for what Cakes, my father, had forced her to do.

“All these years, I’ve been hoping this would happen,” I said. “Though, I’m not really sure what they can do at this point.”

“Agreed,” she said. “But that’s where my other bit of excitement comes in. Your dad talked to Apollo, and we’ve been conversing back and forth all night. He’s fixing our credit as we speak, deleting loans, and pretty much making it to where we have the ability to make a life again! He’s working with some mobster guy that works for your new man’s sister-in-law. Or something. I don’t know. I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I didn’t ask too many questions. Anyway, get this. Apollo told me that I would be able to open a bank account today!”

Why that made my heart soar like it did, I couldn’t tell you.

But seriously, just the ability to do that was freeing.

I glanced to the side just as I made to pull out and saw a shiny black SUV that I’d never seen before parked illegally across two parking spaces.

When I glanced at the person inside, I felt like the man was familiar, so I assumed it was some dude from my apartment complex and headed to school.

“That’s amazing,” I said once I was merged into traffic. “I can’t believe this. What are they saying on the news? Are our names mentioned?”

“No,” she replied thankfully. “They’re just talking about how bad of a person she is, and what she did to her daughters. Apollo said that he’s monitoring it and is making sure that we won’t be listed as her daughters.” She hesitated. “But bro, I think you should change your last name.”

I rubbed my hand over my face for a long second before returning my eyes to the road.

“I’d love to, but that’s a process,” I admitted. “All of my school and work stuff is listed as Cowan. I’m screwed.”

She sighed. “You’re probably right.”

I wished that I wasn’t.

If I could get rid of that woman’s name, I would.

It’d been something I’d been thinking about for a really long time.

Unfortunately, every time I thought about the monumental task of having a name change, I just never did it.

“But seriously, I think you should reward yourself today and go open up a bank account.” She paused. “I’m even getting checks!”

I laughed. Only two girls that’d been so screwed over in life would be excited about such a minuscule, outdated form of payment.

“That’s gonna happen!” I decreed. “Though, I’m meeting the family for real tonight. That includes the grandfather that they talk about but barely ever see. Apparently he’s a really busy man and has zero time for them. But not in a bad way, but in a social old man kind of way.”

“That sounds pretty exciting.” Silver sighed dreamily. “I’m gonna try to go to bed. I think I might sleep with my bank account application form, though. I’ve become kind of attached to it.”

I snickered and hung up, then resumed my ride to school.

The day went by fairly easily, and I was happy to catch up with the rest of our graduating class.

But, since my adviser wanted to meet with me, I was a little later than I’d planned and had to text Chevy that I’d meet him at the restaurant where we were meeting his family for dinner.

He was waiting for me out in the parking lot when I arrived, leaning against the pillar to the right of the restaurant door.

I had to stop in the middle of the parking lot for a moment because he just looked so damn sexy that he took my breath away.

When he caught me staring, I waved at him like the weirdo I was.

He grinned.

That grin fell off his face when he spotted something behind me.

I looked, completely unaware of the backup of people, and ducked my head in embarrassment.

Parking in the first spot that I could find, which happened to be at the back of the lot nearest a black SUV that had its running lights on, I got out and had just turned to head toward the door when I was stopped.

The SUV with the running lights on had just rolled down the window and said, “That spot was saved.”

My brows rose. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“Move,” he snapped.

“Or,” I heard an angry voice drawl from beside me, “you could move. There are two spots over there.” He pointed even deeper into the parking lot. “And saving spots is useless in Dallas. There are too many people to be worrying about trying to find one right next to each other.”

“I was here first,” the man in the SUV snarled.

“You were. Congrats. Also, go fuck yourself,” Chevy grunted, then caught my hand. “Come on, Pops isn’t a very patient man, and if we take too long, we’ll cut into his social hour. Then I’ll only get to see him for a short amount of time.”

“Why don’t you see your grandfather very much?” I asked curiously.

If I had a grandparent, I’d see her or him all the time.

Chevy shrugged, putting the confrontation with the man in the SUV behind him. “He’s really fuckin’ busy. And between his schedule and mine, we have barely any time that we’re both free to meet up. I think this is the first family dinner I’ve made with everyone in a very long time.”

My belly started to flutter with nerves.

I was meeting his entire family.

Though I’d already met Keely and Cutter, as well as their spouses, I hadn’t met Copper or their grandfather, whom they all referred to as ‘Pops.’

Chevy’s warm hand engulfed mine, and I felt the best I’d felt since I left him this morning.

It was weird.

On one hand, I wanted to be this strong, independent woman that didn’t need to depend on anyone to make herself feel complete.

But then there was the other hand, probably the one Chevy was holding right now, that felt happier. More complete. More everything.

I liked how I felt when I was with him.

I liked how he always protected me.

I liked how he made my heart beat fast.

I liked the constant state of butterflies in my belly that would take flight each time he gave me a smile.

I liked even more that he reserved his smiles only for me.

I’d yet to see him smile at anyone other than me, even his own family.

He was amused by them. He loved them. But he didn’t expend the effort of smiling toward them.

So what did that mean?

Did he like me as much as I liked him?

No, like wasn’t a strong enough word.

I didn’t just like him.

I loved him.

I adored him.

I wanted him there forever and ever.

A loud, shaky voice said, “Is this your girlfriend, Chevy?”

Pops.

“Sure is, Pops,” Chevy said as he came to a stop to watch his grandfather climb out of a Porsche 911.

A Porsche.

Wow.

“Ahh,” Pops said. “Nice to meet you. I can see why he likes you. You got those baby birthing hips.”

I blinked.

I did, but usually no one pointed it out.

Then again, the only elderly that I interacted with on a regular basis were usually hopped up on drugs and didn’t say exactly what was on their mind.

“Pops,” Chevy grumbled. “Please, for the love of all that’s holy, act like you have some manners.”

“My manners went out the window after having to raise you four fuckfaces.” Pops rolled his eyes. “Having birthing hips is a good thing.”

My lips quirked up at the corner, and I had to suppress a laugh because this man would be Chevy in a few years. They were both crotchety, but at least Pops was open about his crotchetiness.

Chevy just waited for whomever was annoying him to leave before talking shit about him.

“What’s the holdup?” Cutter grumbled as he came outside. “I’m fucking starving. I skipped my lunch since we had to eat so goddamn early to accommodate this old geezer’s dinnertime.”

“Keep your pants on,” Pops said. “I was getting to know the new girl’s birthing hips.”

Cutter rolled his eyes and said, “I’m ordering appetizers. Then I’m ordering my food when the apps get here. If you’re not inside when the pickles hit the table, you’re fuck out of luck.”

This family.

“You know, Marv,” the older lady with Pops said. “You really only have yourself to blame. I can see you in both of those boys.”

Chevy got the door, and everyone went inside.

He smoothed a palm over my ass as I passed him, and I looked up at him with a grin.

“Sorry, just checking out those birthing hips,” he teased.

I rolled my eyes and followed the older couple in front of me to the table that was in the back of the room nearest the fire exit.

Cutter and his wife, as well as Keely and her husband were already there.

Copper came up at our backs, surprising both me and the older people in front of me when he said, “Geez, Pops. When did you get so fuckin’ slow?”

“Fuck you,” Pops grumbled without turning around. “It’s all the fuckin’ stress from having to deal with your ass being in prison for fifteen years.”

I bit my lip, fully expecting Copper to lose his shit at that, but he surprised me by laughing.

Crisis diverted, we finally got to the table and took a seat.

And they did, in fact, have appetizers already ordered.

Though, I’d learned something new that day.

You could order appetizers at a buffet.

Who knew?

The way the seating was set up, the family members that I’d already met were on one end of the long table, and I was on the other with all of the new ones.

Pops took the head of the table, leaving his girlfriend to take the seat to his right.

I sat down next to Pops, and Chevy took the seat to my left, while Copper took the seat across the table from me.

His eyes immediately landed on me, and he said, “I agree with the birthing hips.”

The way he said it, though, with such a look of complete lack of emotion on his face, left me wondering how to respond.

Chevy sighed. “Y’all are fuckin’ awful.”

“There’s a lot of fucks being spread around this table right now,” the elderly woman said. “Is this normal?”

“Who even are you?” Copper asked. “You must’ve not known Pops long, or you would’ve known better than to comment on the amount of fucks going on.”

“About an hour and a half,” the woman replied. “We decided to test out his blue pills after this, so he said he’d take me to dinner first. He forgot about your dinner date, though, or he probably would’ve saved the blue pill for tomorrow.”

Utter and complete silence at the table.

Then Keely, who I could just barely hear, said, “Thank God I’m not down there.”

“I’ve heard the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” I teased. “Maybe you should’ve cooked him dinner.”

“Don’t cook to impress him,” the patriarch’s date said. “Impress him with blow jobs. Men will eat three-day-old pizza, so they’re not gonna be falling all over themselves if you pack him a great lunch.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it.

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“Um,” Milena said quietly, being the closest to the rest of us, sitting on the opposite side of Copper. “That’s a very interesting take. Thank you for sharing it with us, Merna.”

The waiter finally arrived with our drink orders and said, “Please help yourself to the buffet. I’ll be getting you some refills throughout the night and taking away the empties.”

Oh, did I mention that Pops had required everyone to go to a buffet for dinner?

Apparently, they had the best early dine options in the city.

Who knew?

Everyone got up at once, and I volunteered to stay behind to watch everyone’s stuff.

Chevy ran his hand down the length of my hair and took off, as did the rest of the table.

Milena was the first one back with a modest single plate of food.

Merna was back second with so much food piled onto her plate that it was wobbling with each unsteady step that she took. There was no way she was going to be able to eat all that food.

I took that as my sign to go gather my own food, and when I saw all the options, I realized that I was going to leave this place stuffed to the gills.

Chevy passed behind me with two plates of food, each piled decently high.

“Wow,” I said as he passed.

Chevy shot me a grin and kept walking.

Keely followed up, and she had a regular plate with a regular amount of food.

Dima, on the other hand, had so much food on his plate that it looked like he would pop if he ate it all.

I looked down at my meager four pieces of orange chicken and small amount of noodles.

Should I get more?

I’d never been to a buffet before.

I had zero idea how much food I could actually eat.

So I got little tastes of everything, heading to the table with my food.

“That’s pitiful,” Merna said as she saw all my food. “You’re paying nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents to eat that?”

I shrugged. “I’ll get more if I like what I got.”

Everyone dug in.

Everyone was talking about everything, but I was most interested in the conversation that Chevy was having with Copper and Cutter.

“What time do we ride out tomorrow?” Copper asked, sounding distracted.

“Two,” he answered. “You bringing Reign?”

“No.” Copper paused. “I do need to talk to y’all soon, though.”

Cutter sighed. “I thought you weren’t going to get involved with her anymore?”

“I hadn’t planned on it, but things have changed,” he said. “But I’m not talking about it right now.”

I wondered if it was because of me and Merna, not being a full member of their family, that he was holding back on talking about it.

I decided to not let it bother me and tested all of my food.

After deciding on a plan of attack, I went back out, and this time returned with a full plate of food.

“That’s good for the birthing hips,” Merna said. “At least now you’re closer to paying off this enormous price tag.”

I smiled and sat down, instantly being intrigued by the new conversation that Copper and Cutter were having.

Chevy had left at some point while I was gone to gather more food, leaving the two Clayborne men to talk about what their plans were for this weekend.

Sadly, I had to work to make sure that I had money to survive, though I was only working half a shift today.

And also sadly, Chevy was off and would be at the big bash that Laney had planned all day.

I’d be heading to the Truth Tellers’ compound after work and I’d join him for a couple of hours before I had to go home and meet up with Silver.

I’d just taken a bite of mashed potatoes with a very savory roll when something caught Cutter’s eye at the next table.

Cutter jerked his elbow at Chevy and said, “Look.”

Chevy looked, and he stood up very slowly.

I turned to see what he saw and saw a kid in a high chair turning blue.

“Fuck,” Chevy said as he kicked his chair over he pushed it back so far. “Ma’am.”

The mother, who’d been helping her toddler butter a roll, looked up and froze.

I know what she saw.

A very large, very intimidating, very scary looking man looking at her with intensity in his eyes. A biker that was rough around the edges and looked like he could snap you in half with only a look.

Oh, and let’s not forget that one percent patch on his vest that clearly said that he couldn’t care less about the law.

So, of course, she was instantly scared. “W-what?”

“Your kid. He’s choking,” Chevy said, sounding bored.

“Oh my god, Daniel. Are you choking?” the woman screeched, whipping her head toward her other child at the table.

She got him out of his seat but didn’t know what to do past that.

Chevy calmly took the child from her arms and turned the baby around on his forearm.

Using his hand to support the baby’s head and his arm to support the baby’s torso, he flipped the baby and started to give solid thrusts to the baby’s back with the heel of his hand.

We all sat in tense silence, every last patron of the buffet, staring in shock.

A large piece of chicken nugget hit the floor, and then the baby was wailing.

Chevy instantly handed the child back to the mother and took a step back.

The mother was crying, and Chevy turned back to his table and his food like he did this every day.

The mother stared at him for a long second before she retook her seat.

“Our hero.” Keely batted her eyes at her brother.

Chevy flipped her off. “Fuck you.”

“Rude.” Keely rolled her eyes and sat back down next to her husband. “I hope that never happens to us with our children. I would freak way the fuck out.”

Same.

Though, with a father like Chevy, maybe I wouldn’t ever have to worry about the safety of my children when he seemed like a miracle worker.

The Asian lady that’d been waiting on us came up with a handful of paper in her hands and said, “Free food. For you.”

Chevy blinked. “Uh, that’s not necessary.”

“Yes, it’s very necessary.” The woman nodded, and I realized that our waitress was likely also the owner of the entire restaurant. “That would’ve been a nightmare for us of bad business. It would literally spread like wildfire through social media, and we’d be the most liked video on TokTik within the hour.”

TokTik.

Oh, she was adorable.

“It was…” Chevy tried, but the Asian lady shook her head. “You’re a hero.”

Chevy looked down at his plate of food, and I patted his shoulder.

Oh, he was definitely uncomfortable. “We’ll take them. Thank you so much.”

The Asian lady smiled and waved, but then turned around again and took every single plate she could carry, balancing the plates filled with food so expertly that not a single piece of food fell.

“Y’all are so wasteful,” Marv grumbled. “Fuck me, your grandmother would’ve shit herself if she saw all the waste.”

“You were meant to waste food at a buffet,” Cutter said. “They would think poorly of us if we didn’t.”

“Whatever,” Marv said. “I have a date with my bed and this little lady right here. I’m finally erect. I’ll see y’all next week. Maybe if I can squeeze you in.”

And before any of us could say a word to his most inappropriate comment yet, he was heading out of the room with his date that was still snacking on a chicken skewer, his erect penis leading the way.

“Oh. My. God,” Keely said as she groaned into her hands. “I want to erase my family name sometimes.”

“You don’t carry that name anymore, darling,” Dima teased. “You’re a Semyonov. Very infamous. Very suave. Very demure.”

“Very mindful?” I teased.

Keely and Milena snickered.

The men all stared at me like I was nuts.

“It’s a trending sound right now,” I defended myself.

Chevy’s large palm came down onto my thigh, and I instantly forgot about what I’d been saying, and focused on his large palm on my bare thigh that was inches away from my panty seam.

“So tell us about yourself, Aella,” Copper encouraged.

I looked up into his beautiful eyes, so much like his brothers, and stared, enthralled, as he gave me his undivided attention for the first time.

Don’t get me wrong.

Chevy was by far the most superior human male on the planet—I was still holding out hope for sexy, barbarian aliens to pop out any second—but there was something so intense about Copper that I couldn’t help but pay attention.

So, because I had the full intensity of his gaze on me, I blurted out my entire life story.

His gaze stayed steady on me for the entire time, and when I was finally done and catching my breath, Copper looked to the man whose hand had tightened on my thigh the longer I talked and said, “I have some connections. Are you sure that you want your mother to live the rest of her life in prison?”

Chevy grunted. “I’d love to watch her spend the rest of her days rotting there. But there’s no rule here that says we can’t make her life miserable while she’s there.”

Needless to say, I felt like dinner was a success.

Chevy’s family didn’t hate me.

And I was one step closer to permanently insinuating myself into Chevy’s life.

Now I just had to make him realize he couldn’t live without me.

Which, as it turns out, wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

It only took getting shot in the face to prove it to me.