Page 13 of Saint (Soulless Outlaws Motorcycle Club #1)

And as I carried Soraya into their house after Ophelia unlocked the door, I looked down and up, and then... I only had one thought on my mind as I saw that black spot on the ceiling in the hallway.

That’s goddamned black mold.

I stopped dead and locked my eyes with Ophelia’s, “The two of you are not staying here. No fucking way.”

She lifted her brow, “What?”

I looked back up at the ceiling, as I tagged my phone with my free hand that wasn’t supporting Soraya, and snapped a picture of it, “That’s black fucking mold, baby.”

She gasped, “What?”

I nodded, “Yeah, get y’all’s things. Y’all are coming home with me.”

“Saint, we can stay with Harold and Lilly,” she said as she moved to Soraya’s room.

I followed her, and when I reached her, I growled, “Baby. The moment you said yes to a date with me, you gave me part of you. And that part I plan to protect. Same goes for Soraya. I won’t be able to rest easy unless I know y’all are safe and in a place that isn’t dangerous.

No knocks to Harold or Lilly. But I’ve got a shit ton more room, which you know.

And it just so happens that I got a bedroom already painted almost the same color as Soraya’s room. ”

As I was talking, I was also pulling out my phone and sending a text.

The brothers would be here to help move them and all their stuff to my place.

She looked at me and said, “I can’t have a repeat, Saint. I just can’t.”

My heart broke for this woman.

Even though she told me about some of the things that he did or said, I knew there was a lot more baggage there to unpack and put away in a box, never to be opened again, because I would make it so.

I also knew that underneath that baggage was pain from her deadbeat father.

That was why I said without hesitation, “Okay. First thing in the morning, I’ll get your name added to the deed.”

She stopped and stared, then she said, “Saint. Don’t say things like that. We’ve only known each other for like five minutes.”

I moved then, placed my free hand on the side of her neck, and rejoiced when she didn’t even flinch away from my touch, “Baby, don’t give a shit if I’ve known you for a fucking minute.

Everything with us is right. Please. Just trust me.

I’ll never give you a reason not to. I’m going to go lay Soraya down on the couch.

You have until the brothers get here to decide. ”

I waited after I laid Soraya on the couch and covered her up with a red throw blanket they had on the back of their couch.

I had just moved a blonde curl from Soraya’s face and tucked it behind her ear when I looked up and saw Ophelia loaded down with a few bags.

I moved to take them from her, then she glanced at Soraya and then back at me, “Might be a fool. But yes. After what I watched you do for Soraya, yes.”

The brothers had shown up, and so had the Robbins. Harold was already trying to get out the door to visit her landlord when he saw the black mold.

He hadn’t seen it when he had been here.

Probably because he wasn’t nearly as tall as I was.

After I carried the bags out to the van, the brothers loaded up the rest of her stuff.

I had Soraya in my truck, buckled up, and the heat blasting when I walked to the van, and when I saw that they were done, I looked at all of it and the empty truck beds and asked, “This is all y’all have?”

Ophelia sighed, her eyes showed she was tired when she said, “It’s all he allowed us to take.”

I bit back a few curses and got a lot of growls from my brothers.

That night, after I tucked Soraya and Ophelia in bed, I asked Gavel to stay on my porch as I made a little visit. Well, the first visit of three I planned to make.

But first, I stood there as I stared at the two of them in my bed.

Looking fucking perfect.

Looking fucking right.

And it was that image that remained solidly in place as I left to mete out justice.

Hank Stillwell lived five minutes out of town. Their piece of shit landlord.

My brothers were at my back as I kicked open the door with one solid kick from my booted foot.

I backhanded the piece of shit as I growled, shoving the printed-out picture of the black mold in his face, “This is goddamned unacceptable. How the fuck do you sleep at night?”

The fucker had the audacity to smirk, “Just fine. Since she is paying to stay there.”

And that, boys and girls, is when I lost my shit.

Let’s just say I tore up the skin on my knuckles that was already starting to heal.

And I needed to get myself a new pair of boots.

Cause getting piss stains out of leather was an impossible feat.

Yeah, the fucker pissed himself after I lost my shit.

He was still breathing.

But he would need to be fed via a tube for the foreseeable future.

After we walked out of the motherfucker’s house, I locked eyes with Nuke, “Need a few brothers for a trip.”

He jerked up his chin, “Wanna share?”

“Let’s just say some piece of shit stole from my girls. Un-fucking-acceptable.”

He nodded.

***

After I cleaned myself up and tossed my ruined fucking boots, I thought about climbing into bed with the two of them, but thought better of it.

This was strange for Soraya, and I wanted Ophelia to trust me. To trust me in such a way that she knew I’d be there no matter what life threw our way.

So, I got comfortable on my couch.

***

A little hand was stroking my beard.

It took a moment for my brain to come online, and when it did, I slowly opened my eyes in time to see Soraya’s blonde curls, her little cherub face, and those blue eyes just like her mother’s, looking at me.

“Saint?” her little voice asked.

“Yeah, Princess?”

“Is this your house?”

I winked, “Nope. It’s your castle.”

She gasped.

Her little eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open, “Really?”

I grinned, “Of course it is. Did you ever hear about the Queen, the Princess, and the lonely Knight?”

She shook her head.

Again, going with my gut, I gathered her in my arms and lifted her, so she was lying next to me, her back to the couch, her little head propped up in my chest.

“Once upon a time, there lived a Queen and a Princess in a really bad house.” I started.

“And one day, when a Knight came upon the two of them, he was mesmerized. So mesmerized by their beauty that he knew he needed to do something about it or risk the chance of never having such beauty in his life ever again.”

Her little eyes got even wider.

I nodded, “Oh yeah. Beauty as far as the eye could see. So, in order to make that happen, the Knight set out a plan to ask the Queen out for dinner.”

“Wait! You did that!” she shouted.

I winked, “The Knight did it. See, the Knight had never before seen a Queen and a Princess that had captured his heart like they had. And the Knight knew that the Princess was the Queen’s pride and joy. And when she said yes to dinner, the Knight felt something in his heart crack open.”

Soraya’s eyes were locked with mine.

“So, after their dinner, which had been perfect, he took the Queen home. And then, when the Queen bent down to gather her Princess in her arms, the Knight had stepped in. Because a Knight always does the lifting for his Queen and his Princess.”

“He does?” she asked.

I nodded, “Most Knights are big. They are made that way so they can be there for their fair maiden in every way imaginable, and they will stand strong and fierce.”

She nodded.

“So when the Knight carried the Princess into their home, he saw something on their ceiling that wasn’t right.

And the Knight, being the type of Knight he was, gathered both and brought them to his castle.

A castle that has never known the kind of warmth and love they would bring to it. ” I told her.

Then I lowered my voice and said, “Can you keep a secret?”

Her little head bobbed.

“The Knight had this house built for himself, but it wasn’t until he saw the Queen and the Princess in it, that he understood why he built it.”

Something from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I looked over, just in time to see Ophelia wipe a tear from her cheek from where she stood against the entrance to the hallway.

Obviously seeing her mother, Soraya jumped down, scaring me to death, and raced to her.

She started telling her about the story as Ophelia listened intently, her eyes coming to me over Soraya’s head a few times.

I was in the kitchen getting breakfast ready when I heard, “Did you mean that?”

I set the spatula down, turned, and looked at her.

Her blonde hair was falling around her shoulders; she had on a pair of black leggings that hugged every single delectable curve and a long-sleeved red shirt.

Her little feet were bare.

“Mean what?” I asked.

She made her way over to me, stopping when she was an inch away from me.

“What you told Soraya about knowing that the Queen and the Princess would bring warmth and love into his home?”

I had to grab the edge of the counter to stop myself from reaching out for her, pulling her close.

Instead, I simply nodded.

She seemed to process my response for a few seconds, and then she whispered, “This might be too soon.”

I lifted a brow, “What might be too soon?”

“This,” then she moved her hands to fist my t-shirt, reached up on her tiptoes, and then closed her eyes, and kissed me.

My brain turned to mush.

Everything stopped.

Everything stilled.

All except for tingles that raced up and down my spine.

And it wasn’t until she pulled away abruptly and gasped, then whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I finally moved.

I reached for her, gathered her in my arms, one arm reaching around to the small of her back so I could pull her to me, and the other hand cupping the back of her neck.

I applied slight pressure, so her head angled in the right direction, and then I kissed her.

She gasped in my mouth, and that was the perfect opening to slide my tongue in and tangle it with hers.

I moaned into her mouth, tasting her.

Feeling her.

Scenting her.

She drove me fucking wild.

So wild in fact that as our tongues danced to a rhythm only she and I understood, as her fingers roamed over my body, that I hadn’t heard a cell ringing.

I hadn’t heard a fucking thing.

Not until I slowly pulled my mouth from hers, nipping at her bottom lip as I did so.

I rested my forehead into hers, and that was when I realized that I had hauled her up my body with my arm.

She was inhaling deeply, and then she pulled her head away, looked deep into my eyes, and she smiled.

I winked, “Know what this means?”

She shook her head as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Means you're officially off the market, and so am I,” I said.

Soraya chose that time to make her presence known, and she did so by saying, “What’s that smell?”

I stood there for a moment, then turned my head and saw the burnt eggs in the pan, “Fuck.”

Ophelia buried her face into the side of my neck and giggled.

I winked at Soraya, “Feel like going out and getting pancakes?”

She smiled.