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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Rook

From the moment Tessa flew into my arms after going to see my mom for the first time, it was like something finally, I don’t know, clicked with us.

Or, perhaps more accurately, like the walls Tessa put up between us crumbled. And, for once, she didn’t stoop to try to build from the rubble.

When we went back to the apartment after dinner—celebrating with cake we bought from the diner that was nowhere near as good as the one Detroit and Everleigh had made—and sat close on the couch that no one could call it anything other than ‘cuddling.’

We talked more about my mom, about needing to make another collage for her, and bring her more snacks.

Eventually, though, there was no talking.

Because her head angled up to look at me. And I couldn’t stop myself from leaning down and stealing a kiss.

It was just a soft, sweet one. More gratitude and shared happiness than anything heated.

It wasn’t long, though, before our bodies were remembering how much we liked being close, how well we moved together.

It didn’t take long before she was starting to straddle me. Before my hands were reaching to pull her clothes off.

Then all there was in the world was touching, tasting, riding, getting completely lost in each other.

And afterward, bed. Together.

When she woke up in the morning with me behind her, my cock already hard against her, she rocked back into me, let me finger her until she couldn’t take it for another moment, then begged me to slide into her.

We didn’t talk about it as the next few days basically went the same way—sex, meals, work, more sex, and sleep—because I somehow got the feeling that if I tried to make her discuss it, to talk about how much feelings were starting to grow, about how I didn’t really want this marriage to be only on paper anymore, she would panic.

And as close as we were getting, as much like a real couple as we were being, Tessa was still pretty tight-lipped about her past.

Sure, she mentioned her mom. Especially as we talked more about my own because she was visiting her. But Tessa seemed to choose her words very carefully, never mentioning biker clubs except as they pertained to her mother’s addiction. Hell, she never actually told me her mother’s name.

So as horrific as her mother was—and her stories made me want to track the woman down and give her a damn earful—I could only conclude that whatever her past involving the actual clubs and the men in it, was where the most significant amount of her trauma came from.

I wouldn’t pretend to say I knew a lot about how other clubs operated. This was my first one. But Riff and Raff always came back to Shady Valley with stories about the clubs they came across while driving from California to Florida and back again.

And, yeah, some of those places sounded like real hellholes full of true scumbags.

If that was the environment Tessa had been raised in, I could see how that normalized it for her, trapping her in a cycle of abuse because she simply didn’t know any better until she got herself out.

I knew she would tell me eventually. We hadn’t even known each other that long. We’d been intimate for an even shorter time than that. It was going to take a while for her trust to grow, to evolve.

And we had nothing but time.

Or so it seemed.

It wasn’t a visiting day for Tessa, so when I came out of the shower, she was dressed in her usual work uniform of biker shorts and a loose tee. Her aquamarine hair was pushed back with a headband. And for the first time, I noticed her roots growing in.

Light blonde.

I mean, of course, her hair wasn’t naturally blue, but it was so much a part of her at that point that I hadn’t really given her natural hair color a second thought.

“What—” she started. But then her head lifted, her gaze tracking over me, getting hungrier with each inch her eyes moved over.

A strange, choked little whimper escaped her.

Before I could even guess her intention, she was dropping her bag and keys right to the floor and making her way over to me.

I reached out, but before I could even touch her, she was lowering herself down on her knees in front of me.

“Babe…”

“You said when I want to,” she reminded me, reaching up to undo the tuck of my towel. “I want to.”

I couldn’t argue with her on that, now, could I?

She sucked me into her mouth, letting out a little moan as I slid in, the sound vibrating around my cock as her hand rose, toying with my balls as she started to move up and down my length.

“Fuck, baby,” I groaned, my hand going to the back of her neck as she worked me faster.

She was relentless, sucking with a single-minded determination, making my damn legs start to feel weak as she drove me right to the edge.

Then, before I could even insist that she stop, that she let me fuck her, she made the world go white as I came hard and fast, my legs shaking, a strangled groan escaping me.

Tessa swallowed down my release, sucking me slowly back up to the tip, letting her tongue tease around my head for a second before releasing me completely.

And when she looked up at me, it was pleasure in her pretty eyes.

“Now, I have to get to work,” she said, getting to her feet casually. Like she hadn’t damn near sucked the life out of me.

I didn’t know at the moment that I would spend the day panicking, wishing I’d forced her to stay home, that I’d pulled her into bed and worshiped every inch of her for hours until she was practically humming with pleasure, until she was all soft and sweet. Then tell her how I was feeling, how serious I’d gotten about her in such a short period of time.

Not knowing what was to come, though, I just… got myself dressed and headed to the clubhouse for church.

“This better be good,” Riff said as he scooped his and Vienna’s cat, Vernon, up off the cat tree. “Vienna is making something that smells like it might be better than Detroit’s lasagna.”

“I’ll keep this short,” Slash said, moving in front of everyone with three files in his hand. “We have four men getting out of the pen soon. I want your opinions on them.”

With that, he handed out rap sheets with mugshots.

Colter, Coach, and I each looked at the first guy then shared a look with one another.

“This is a no,” Colter called, holding up the paper.

“An immediate one,” I added.

“Okay,” Slash said, looking at the paper. “Why?”

“He’s a jailhouse snitch,” Colter explained. “Doesn’t have a loyal bone in his body.”

“Okay. Yeah, he’s out,” Slash said, tossing his file onto the dining table. “What about the others?”

I flipped to the next paper, getting vague flashbacks to seeing the guy’s hawk-like face, but coming up blank.

I mean, the prison was a big place. And while most people got to know some of the larger-than-life characters no matter what cell block you were living in, a lot of the other guys who kept to themselves just became faces in the crowd.

“I dunno. I guess he’s… fine,” Colter said.

“Why just fine?”

“I just remember that anytime there was some drama going on, he had his hand in it. I guess that means he’s well-connected, but maybe you’d want to consider what would drive someone to always want to be involved in shit like that?”

“Okay. Noted. We will discuss it further once we’re done with everyone else. Next?”

“Oh, yeah, no,” Judge said, shaking his head at the next one.

“Why not?” Slash asked, looking a little off-put.

“See his last name?” Judge asked.

“O’Malley?” Slash read, not making the connection.

“He’s a cousin to the Murphy brothers,” Judge explained, knowing the scoop since he was married to Delaney Murphy. “I mean, you could make him the offer, but he’s gonna choose family.”

“Fuck,” Slash said, sighing. “Okay. Well, I don’t have high hopes for the last one then, I guess.”

I flipped to the last page and felt my brows immediately raise.

My gaze slid to Coach and Colter, but found blank looks on their faces.

“Anyone?” Slash asked.

“Saint Courtland?” I asked, hearing the damn fanboy awe in my own voice.

“You know him?”

“I know of him. He was always a recluse. But his reputation preceded him.”

“What reputation? He went away for obstruction…” Slash said.

“He went away for not rolling on his little brother. He was offered immunity. He tore up the free pass and did five years, so his brother didn’t do ten.”

“Okay. For what? What was the brother in?”

“What was Saint in, is the better question. Saint was a smuggler. Word was, no one around had the kind of smuggling routes he had. And he was able to ghost shipments—fake manifests, shit like that. Heard a rumor that he once drove a stash of semiautomatics out of a cartel compound in a hearse.”

“How?”

“By picking up a dead body there too.”

“What’d he do with the body then?” Slash asked.

“Dropped it off in front of the funeral home he was supposed to be from. His name is… ironic,” I said, shrugging.

“Have you heard any other rumors about him?” Detroit asked from the kitchen, where he was pulling meat out from the freezer to thaw in the fridge.

“I mean, it’s hard to know truth from stories inside. But I can do some more digging on him, see what I can find about in online spaces.”

“Yeah, that’d be good. And maybe figure out what his brother is up to as well. If he’s been holding down the business, I can’t see Saint coming to work for us.”

“On it.”

You know… in the morning. After spending a night tangled in the sheets with Tessa.

Then maybe planning what she would bring to her next visit with my mom. Each time she went, it seemed like the items she brought—and, of course, the continued balancing of her meds—brought her back little by little.

I knew that, even if she did get well enough to be released, I likely wouldn’t be allowed to move her to Shady Valley. Nancy would have shit to say about how my mother was, in a way, part of the reason for my crimes, so access to her would—I dunno—make me more likely to reoffend.

It was complete bullshit, of course. But Nancy was, well, Nancy. And I didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

But I could move her somewhere relatively nearby and have members of the club keep a really close eye on her. And Tessa, of course. I could even sneak there for a long-awaited visit here or there when I was sure Nancy wasn’t watching me.

I was probably getting ahead of myself, but I’d even been looking at some properties within forty-five minutes of Shady Valley, trying to find one that was just right for her. Somewhere with a town in walkable distance, but with her own yard, so she could fiddle in the garden and put up a million birdhouses.

It didn’t hurt to be prepared.

My mom’s bipolar could swing violently from one end of the spectrum to the other. And state facilities didn’t want to hold onto someone any longer than they had to; those beds were coveted.

I needed to have somewhere for her to go when the time came.

And it would.

I was more sure than ever before.

Ideally, I’d love to move her to Shady Valley. But that, like buying my own damn place to live, was going to need to wait until I was off parole.

“Rook?” Slash called, making me glance over, realizing I’d been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t been paying attention to church at all.

“Yeah?”

“You think you can get me that info in… less than three days?”

“Probably. Why so fast?”

“Because that’s when Saint is getting out. Yeah, I know,” Slash said at my surprised look. “We’re usually more on top of it than this, but he slipped through the cracks, given his charge.”

Slash was trying to build our numbers in general, sure, but he was also trying to pad our club with various experts when and where he could.

Like with me. A hacker was a valuable asset to any criminal organization.

Colter’s prior military background meant he was good at taking orders… and knew a lot about weapons.

Judge’s history with organized crime made him valuable as well.

And we already had four or five guys marked to offer an invitation to who were getting out in the next few years, each with their own unique skill sets.

“Alright, yeah, I can head out now and get some work done before Tessa gets home.”

A couple of the guys shared a look. Because while we were still insisting the marriage was one of convenience, it was clear something was growing between us. Something everyone could feel. Even if Tessa wasn’t quite ready to admit that yet.

In time, I reminded myself.

“Appreciate it,” Slash said as I got up and made my way to the door.

Not seeing Tessa’s car on the street when I got back to town, I let myself into the karate studio and into the office that Tessa had decorated with twinkle lights and matching desk decor, despite the fact that she never actually used the desk.

It was unexpectedly nice, though, to see reminders of her all around as I slowly slipped into work mode.

By the time I surfaced, I had a crick in my neck, and more hours had passed than I’d realized.

I immediately reached for my phone, expecting a text or two from Tessa asking where I was and what I wanted to order for dinner.

But there was nothing.

I wasn’t exactly worried as I rose from my desk and made my way out to the street, but there was a tingle up my spine that I didn’t exactly like, either.

When I didn’t see her car on the street or find traces of her in the apartment, yeah, that was when the worry started to settle in.

“Got something already?” Slash asked when I called.

“Uh, maybe. But I’m not calling about that. Is Tessa at the clubhouse?”

“No. Why would she be here?”

“Because she’s not home.”

“Maybe she just took another job when she didn’t see you in the apartment.”

“Maybe,” I agreed, but something felt wrong. “Thanks.”

I moved back outside, standing on the top landing of the stairs, looking down on the town, searching for any signs of her or her car.

When another half an hour passed, I was making my way down.

Shady Valley was small.

If she’d already gotten the order from the grocery store, she should have been back in town by then, regardless of how big the order might have been.

I made my way down the street, climbing on my bike, ready to take a drive around, thinking maybe that junker of a car of hers finally crapped out on her.

But why wouldn’t she have called then?

I shook that thought away, not wanting to get myself freaked out without reason.

I drove up the town first, going all the way to the gas station—which was the last stop before the prison—but saw her nowhere.

I drove through Millionaire’s Row on the way to the suburbs—where most of her orders came from these days.

She wasn’t on the street or in anyone’s driveways.

It wasn’t until I circled around to the apartment buildings that I caught a glimpse of gold.

Something felt… off about the placement. Parked on the wrong side of the road outside of the parking lot.

It wasn’t somewhere Tessa, who was now familiar with Shady Valley, would park. Unless she was looking for a ticket.

I rode over, my heart feeling constricted as I got nearer and found she wasn’t inside.

And when I got off my bike and looked in the windows, her fucking purse and phone were still on the seat.

“Again?” Slash answered as I dialed with shaking fucking hands.

Because I knew.

Somehow I knew, with no other clues, that whatever it was that Tessa had been running away from had finally caught up with her.

“Tessa’s missing.”