Page 3

Chapter Three

Adelaide

A soft groan spilled from my lips when I turned my head to look over at Tristan, wincing when pain stabbed through my neck from sleeping wrong. It was dark outside, and the only sound in the car was the soft purr of the car engine and the tires rolling over the asphalt of the highway. Tristan had one hand on the steering wheel, and the other was on the gear shift between us.

A pang pierced my heart for a moment as I remembered him always giving my knee a gentle squeeze before he used to switch gears. He had always preferred manual cars over automatics. He liked being in control of when his car would shift.

“Good to see you awake,” he spoke up, his voice low and gruff. He glanced over at me before he focused his eyes back on the road.

I grunted and rolled my neck around, groaning when my neck popped, but that ache finally eased off. “Where are you taking me?”

Tristan tapped the steering wheel with two of his fingers, looking in his rear-view mirror before he switched lanes to go around a slower car. “To my cousin’s since my house got blown up,” he informed me.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Should have kept your nose in your own business,” I retorted.

Tristan clenched his jaw. “You don’t belong with the Sons of Hell, Addy,” Tristan snapped at me. “You belong here with me.”

I snorted. “One, stop fucking calling me Addy. You lost that privilege three years ago.” Tristan’s hand tightened around the steering wheel, his teeth clenched so tightly that the muscle in his jaw began to tick. “Two, I belong with them a hell of a lot more than I belong with you,” I snarled.

Tristan shot a dark look in my direction. I only narrowed my eyes at him in return. He didn’t intimidate me anymore nor did he scare me. “You never used to be like this, Adelaide,” Tristan finally said, his voice a little calmer. I snorted. He didn’t know who the fuck I was today. He’d been gone for three goddamn years. I wasn’t sweet anymore. I was a fucking monster. “What the fuck is going on with you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Did you seriously expect me to still be the same sweet, innocent girl you were with three years ago?” I asked incredulously.

Tristan shrugged, almost as if he actually had been. I rolled my eyes. “The Sons of Hell aren’t known for allowing their women to get caught in the dirty shit.”

I barked out a laugh. Tristan had no idea how shit operated with the Sons of Hell. I was not only Joey’s off-again-on-again girlfriend, but I was also his right-hand woman. “I was in the middle of all of the dirty shit, Tristan,” I corrected him. He clenched his jaw again at that information, his eyes flashing with anger. “I smuggled their drugs back and forth across the Mexico border, and I fought when I needed extra cash. I blew shit up, and I delivered hired hits. You don’t know a fucking thing about me.”

Tristan shook his head, fury lighting up his eyes as he changed lanes again. “I don’t know which to be more pissed about,” he growled. “You smuggling drugs or you fighting. Helene refused to tell me about the shit that you were caught up in.”

“It wasn’t any of your fucking business,” I retorted. And it wasn’t. When it came down to it, Helene protected my secrets, even if she didn’t agree with them. And I knew she never spoke to her brother about what I was doing nor what was going on with me. She had at least agreed with me that Tristan didn’t deserve to know a damn thing about me after what he had done and after how he’d abandoned me.

“It was my fucking business!” Tristan finally roared, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. I clenched my jaw, getting ready for a fight. “Goddammit, Adelaide, I broke your heart all those years ago for your own fucking good, but two weeks ago, I saw you attached to Joey’s hip, and he was introducing you as his fucking girl to Vin.”

I flinched at Vin’s name.

If I thought Tristan had ruined me, then Vin had fucking destroyed me. That man had killed my soul.

Joey was trying to set up an alliance with Vin, and he knew Vin had a soft spot for me. I grimaced as I remembered that night and how I had barely escaped with my life.

Yeah, Vin had a soft spot for me alright.

“What’s that look for?” Tristan demanded as I grimaced.

Fuck, he was way too perceptive for his own good.

“Nothing.” I snarled, looking out the window. I was done talking to him. “Are we almost there?” I asked as Tristan took an exit.

“Almost,” he snapped, still aggravated and pissed off at me for being so secretive. He had no damn right to be pissed though. Had he seriously thought that he could pop back up into my life and I would fall into his arms again as if he had never hurt me, as if he had never ripped my fucking heart apart and tossed the pieces at my feet? “We’ll be at Noah’s in about ten minutes,” Tristan informed me.

I sighed and leaned my head against the window, looking out at the darkness surrounding us. There were no lights off of this exit, leaving everything drowned in pitch-black.

“Why couldn’t anyone from your crew take us in?” I asked him.

Tristan shot me a deadpan look. “My crew is the first place that whoever is after us is going to look. I need to keep you safe until I can deal with this problem, Addy.”

Every time he called me by my old nickname, my heart skipped a beat in my chest, and I fucking hated it. I didn’t want to react to him at all. I wasn’t that weak girl anymore. I was stronger now.

“I can take care of myself, Tristan. I’ve been doing it for three years now.” He tightened his grip around the steering wheel again, his knuckles turning white. “And stop calling me Addy,” I bit out. “My fucking name is Adelaide. Start fucking using it.”

Suddenly, Tristan yanked the car over to the shoulder of the road, threw it into neutral, and pulled the emergency brake up. He firmly gripped my chin in his hand and brought his face close to mine. My breath hitched in my throat, my heart thrumming hard in my chest.

“Three years ago, I let go of the most important person in the entire world to me to keep her safe from my enemies.” My breath hitched in my throat, and I suddenly felt a little nauseous in the face of new information. “Two weeks ago, I found that same woman in the middle of a deal with one of the most feared men of Mexico.” I swallowed hard, knowing he was talking about me.

“It took everything in me to not put a bullet through Vin’s head that night, Addy. But that night, I vowed to have you back with me, in my arms, by my side, where you fucking belong and where I know that I can keep you safe. You can fight me on this all you want, Addy, but my mind is set, and I will get what the fuck I want.”

He ran his thumb over my bottom lip, and I couldn’t help the little sigh that escaped my lips at his touch as I closed my eyes, hating that he still affected me so strongly, yet unable to help leaning into him, wanting more of that strength and security that he was offering me. “And I will not stop calling you Addy because you are mine , baby girl, whether you like it or not.”

With that, he threw his car back into first, put down the emergency brake, and pulled back into traffic. I drew in a shaky breath.

And there was the possessive, controlling Tristan at his finest.

A tired sigh escaped my lips as I stretched after stepping out of Tristan’s old ‘67 Mustang. Noah, Tristan’s cousin who I remembered as being more like a brother than a cousin to Tristan, stepped out of his small, brick house. I had always thought that Noah was extremely attractive, even though Tristan had always held my heart, as much as I hated it at that moment. Noah was also a lot more laid back, and he enjoyed getting on every single one of my nerves.

Noah was wearing only a pair of faded worn blue jeans that were hanging low on his hips. He didn’t have a shirt on, leaving all of his muscles and abs on display. I flashed him a wicked smirk, and he grinned back at me, his eyes lighting up.

“Adelaide, it’s been a while,” Noah commented as he strode down his porch steps toward me. Tristan rounded the hood of his car to stand next to me, a disgruntled look on his face.

I rolled my eyes. “It hasn’t been long enough,” I snarked.

“Ignore her,” Tristan told his cousin. Noah turned his amused eyes to his best friend. “Adelaide has been in a very pissy mood since she woke up a little while ago.”

I glared at Tristan. “Bite me,” I snarled, making Noah bark out a laugh.

Tristan’s lips tilted up into that devilish smirk that always made my belly twist with need as he leaned in close to me. My breath hitched in my throat at his proximity. “Don’t tempt me,” he breathed. I swallowed thickly, my heart pumping blood so fast through my veins that I could feel the rapid beats in my throat. “Because I know the perfect place to bite you in.” Lifting a hand, he ran his calloused index finger along the curve of my neck where it met my shoulder.

I shuddered at his touch as my eyes locked on his. His eyes darkened at the need shining in my own that I couldn’t hide from him, no matter how hard I tried to.

But I would fight that need with every fiber of my being.

“Anyway, if you two are done eye-fucking each other, I’ve got something to tell you two that I don’t think Adelaide is going to like too much,” Noah commented as he rocked back and forth on his heels, an amused grin on his features as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“What?” I snapped at him, dragging my heated gaze from the man I still somehow wanted more than anything.

And wanting Tristan was dangerous.

“I only have one extra bedroom, and my brother, Josh, is crashing on my couch, so you guys are going to have to share a room,” Noah informed us, his grin widening at the rage that flashed in my eyes.

My gaze narrowed on him, my hands twitching at my sides with the urge to fucking hit something. Noah held his hands up in a surrendering gesture as he took a step back from me. I looked up at Tristan, but his smirk only widened as he winked at me.

I fucking hated them both.

“Don’t look at me like that, Addy, because you know I’m going to take advantage of this arrangement as much as I can,” Tristan told me nonchalantly, but I took it as a warning.

I stepped up to him and jabbed my finger against his chest, making sure my nail hit him hard. He flinched and reached up to rub his chest. I was seething. “I’d rather fuck Vin again than let you touch me,” I snarled up at him, lying through my teeth. I’d never fucked Vin willingly, but Tristan didn’t know that. Hell, even Joey had no idea that Vin had touched me.

But I wanted to hit the son of a bitch where it fucking hurt.

Tristan wrapped his larger hand around mine, which was still against his chest, and tugged me closer to him. Leaning down, he finally spoke, his voice a deadly whisper that chilled the blood in my veins. “The only man touching you in any fucking way will be me, do I make myself clear?”

Unable to come up with a snarky remark when he was looking down at me so intently, I just wordlessly nodded my head.

Oh, boy, what had I just been dragged into?

Irritation bubbled in my gut as I stared at the single, full-size bed in the center of the bedroom.

Why couldn’t Noah at least have had a queen size bed?

With Tristan’s bulky frame, there was no way we were going to sleep on this bed tonight without touching each other. I knew that Tristan wasn’t going to mind in the slightest, considering for some reason he was trying to stay as close as possible to me—wanted me back as his—but I couldn’t have that. I had to protect myself and my heart from him at all costs, no matter how hard it was going to be.

At that moment, I missed Joey more than I ever had before. I knew what to expect with Joey. We fought, we fucked, and we were good for a few days. It was like a routine.

I fucking craved that toxic cycle.

“Well, this is nice,” Tristan drawled as he sauntered into the bedroom, a smirk tilting his lips. I scowled at him. “Ready to cuddle, Addy? It’ll be just like old times.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

My scowl deepened, only causing his smirk to widen.

This was about to be a long night.

“I’m not sleeping on that bed with you,” I snapped, pointing at it. I’d rather fucking sleep outside.

He clenched his jaw, his amusement quickly disappearing. “Oh, yes, you are,” he told me, his voice firm.

I clenched my jaw. I was just about seething, and he didn’t want to see how lethal I was when I finally lost my shit. “No, I’m not,” I snarled.

His eyes lit up with fury, and he stormed over to me in all of his dominating, masculine glory. I stood my ground because fuck him . “Oh, yes, you are.” He gripped my upper arms and yanked me against him. My heart slammed hard against my breastbone at his proximity. I swallowed nervously. I hated not knowing what to expect with Tristan. “Your life is in danger, and I am not letting you out of my arms while we sleep and are at our most vulnerable.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he put his finger over my lips, silencing me as his eyes bored into mine.

“You are the most important person to me, Addy, and I will not risk anything.”

As much as I hated it, my heart melted, my destroyed soul crying out for him to heal us and to put us back together again.