Page 4 of Kaz (Salvation Kings MC: New Freedom Chapter #2)

“The lease was up anyway,” she said with a grin, her eyes twinkling. She turned to her closet and began pulling clothes off the hangers. “Trav promised to help me move the furniture and whatever I’m not taking with me tomorrow.”

“When? I’ll help.”

“In two weeks. Saturday and Sunday.”

He nodded slowly. He would help with that even if he hated the thought of her moving, and seeing as he had plenty of free time at the moment…

“I’m gonna go with you,” he said.

Emma spun around to look at him with surprise etched on her face. “You’re what now?”

“Going with you.”

She opened her mouth, but a few seconds went by before anything came out of it. The annoyed sound wasn’t what he’d hoped for. He’d expected it, though. It was Emma, after all.

“You’re so not going with me. I can’t with you guys. Honestly. I’m a grown-ass woman. I don’t need no man.”

“But you’ll always need your big bro,” he said with a wry smile and a shrug.

She gave him a deadpan look, and he smiled right back at her until he realized what she’d said.

“Wait. Trav is going, too?”

Travis and Emmett were the nephews of a King.

They, along with one of their fathers, were deaf.

Emmett had cochlear implants, while Travis and their father didn’t.

When they met as kids, Emma already knew some ASL, and she and Travis became instant friends.

Emmett and Travis were like family to them.

Emma nodded. “He even roped Emmett into going under the guise of making sure I get there alright. As if I can’t ride for an hour on my own. Definitely not because he doesn’t like the thought of me being alone with a bunch of biker dudes.”

“You don’t like biker dudes,” he said, then scrunched up his nose. “Or do you?”

He’d apparently been wrong about her not liking biker life, so who the fuck knew what else he was wrong about?

Emma didn’t answer him, which was probably worse than if she had.

“Doesn’t matter. No sex for you until you’re forty,” he said with a pointed look.

Dad was the one who’d made that rule. He was simply enforcing it.

Emma huffed out a laugh and said, “Honey, I’m sorry to break it to you, but—”

He stuck his fingers in his ears and lalala’d to the best of his abilities. She flipped him off, and he stuck his tongue out at her in response. Such maturity they always exhibited when together. It was astounding, really.

“But, seriously, if you need me to talk to Travis, let me know,” he said, grabbing her hand and tugging her down onto the bed next to him.

She gave him a pinched look.

“I can fight my own battles.”

“I know. Sometimes it’s just nice to have some support behind you.”

Emma pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Please don’t leave me.”

The last part was said in jest. Well, half in jest, at least.

“I wouldn’t be leaving you if you’d just join the club with me.”

He would rather eat nails. Old, rusty nails.

He’d have to see Kaz every day. He’d have to see Kaz with his girlfriend every day. That was a fuck no from him.

He’d also have to take orders from him, and just the thought made him shudder.

Not because he couldn’t take orders or because he thought Kaz was a bad leader, but because the kind of orders he remembered Kaz giving him…

No . He wasn’t continuing that line of thought.

Fuck no. Especially not because he’d just gotten out of yet another short-lived relationship and was a bit hard up at the moment, and sex with Kaz just so happened to be the best he’d ever had.

He cleared his throat and straightened.

“I thought you didn’t want me to go with you?”

She arched a brow at him. “I don’t want to be handed over like a kid at boarding school. You becoming a King with me is not that.”

He shook his head.

He knew what the Kings did, and he’d seen enough violence to last him a few lifetimes already.

Joining in on it? He hadn’t had one of his sweat-soaked, wake-up-screaming nightmares in years, but he was pretty sure they would return with a vengeance if he did something as stupid as becoming an outlaw biker.

“If I promise not to treat you like a child, can I still hand you over?”

Emma snorted and pinned him with a serious look.

“Only if you consider prospecting. For real.”

Perhaps seeing Kaz all lovey-dovey with his girlfriend would smack him right back down to Earth. He knew they were still together because he’d heard from some of the others that Jane was still around. Why she’d stay with Kaz’s cheating ass for over a decade, he didn’t know.

“Let’s see what happens, yeah?” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to tug her against him. She rested her head against his shoulder, and he soaked up the moment, hating that she would be an hour away instead of a few minutes.

A sigh rocked through him because he knew his new reality would consist of a lot of travel between Baltimore and Emma’s club.

He was ever the overprotective big brother, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to be checking in at least once or twice a week.

Unfortunately, that meant a whole lot more of Kaz in his life, and he wasn’t sure what the hell to think about that.

It would hurt to see him. To know that he’d had him. That he’d been nothing but a plaything to Kaz. That he’d given everything to Kaz only to receive heartbreak in return.