Page 8

W ith my arms wrapped around his waist as he cruises down the road, I tip my head back, letting the sunshine down on my face as the wind whips around me. I feel like I can take a deep breath for the first time in years.

God, how I’ve missed this feeling.

Hayes had me on the back of his bike as soon as he learned to ride. Every day for years, with the exception of when the weather was bad, I was wrapped around him as he got us to our destination.

Then one day it stopped.

Sure, I had opportunities to ride with other guys while he was gone, but there’s something about being on the back of a bike that requires a certain level of trust, and I just couldn’t do it. Not without him.

No, this has always been our thing and always will be.

All too soon, we pull up to the clubhouse, and he shuts off his bike.

Hayes chuckles when I sigh. “Did you enjoy the ride?”

I shrug and pretend to be unimpressed. “Eh, it was mediocre at best. I’d rate it a five overall.”

His lip twitches. “Please, we both know you were in heaven back there.”

“I mean, I won’t deny it, but I hope you realize you fucked up.”

“How so?”

“You activated my inner passenger princess again. Now it’s your job to take me wherever I want whenever I want.”

Hayes hums as we get off the bike. “We might be able to arrange that.”

“Good. Glad we had that talk,” I say as we head into the clubhouse.

Some of the guys call out to Savage, and he gives them a head nod before turning toward me. “I have some shit I need to handle, do you want to hang out in my room?”

I gasp, placing my hand over my chest, dramatically. “You’d give me access to your room without supervision? Where I could find all your deepest, darkest secrets?”

Hayes rolls his eyes. “You’ve been in my room plenty of times before. The only difference is that we’re a little bit older now. Now do you want me to take you back there or not?”

I look around the room and see that the guys are all on different stages of projects, trying to clean the place up.

I turn back to Hayes and shrug. “I mean, if you want me to hide out in your room, I will, but I could always help these guys though.”

Hayes’s eyes slowly widen. “Wait, you would be willing to help clean up this shithole?”

“I mean, it’s your shithole, and I used to help you clean your room…so is it that much different?”

He rubs the back of his head. “I mean, yeah, you can help if you want to. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to.”

“Trust me, I don’t. Now tell me where you want me.”

Hayes looks around the room until his eyes land on who he’s looking for. “Loyal, can you come up here for a sec?”

Loyal looks over at us and nods. I watch the kid come toward us, and I suddenly understand what they mean when they say someone has swagger. He’s got a ring on each pointer finger and two chains around his neck that fall under his shirt. His hair is shaggy, falling right around eye level, and is messy from running his hands through it.

I suck in a gasp when I see his eyes. Holy shit. He’s a good-looking guy, but his eyes send him to the next level. They are a shocking green with a little bit of yellow next to the pupil.

He shoots me a smile before looking over at Hayes. “What’s up? Everything okay?”

“You still got that list of shit that needs done?” Hayes asks him.

Loyal reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. Hayes raises a brow as he tries to open it without tearing it, and Loyal shrugs with a smirk.

Men. I swear they are all the same.

“Okay, do you want to do any of these?” Hayes asks, showing me what they have written down.

Floors: sweep and mop

Put in new faucet

Paint

Bathrooms

Cabinets

Repair holes in the walls

Clean out the fridge

Hang shit

Mow

Power wash the steps

Stay hydrated

Shaking my head, I look up and look between them. “How long have you been working on this list?

“For a couple weeks. Pres fixed the sink too, but that’s not on the list. It was squirting water all over under the cabinets,” Loyal tells me.

The sound of a hammer hitting a nail has me looking over my shoulder. I blink, convinced I’m imagining it. Nope. Sure enough, there is a guy hanging a poster of a woman with her breasts out as she sits on a bike on the wall when the walls are clearly dirty and still needing a fresh coat of paint.

I look back at the two guys in front of me and take the paper from Hayes. “So that just happened. Hayes, how would you feel if I tasked some of the guys with these jobs to knock them out?”

“If you want to. If anyone gives you shit, come find me, but as long as you stick close to Loyal, everyone should listen,” Hayes tells me.

“Sounds good. Go run along and do whatever the hell it is that you do,” I tell him, making a shooing motion.

Hayes chuckles and kisses my head. “Be good,” he says before sauntering off.

I can’t help but watch the way his jeans mold to his ass. I swear to God, that thing has gotten bubblier in his time away.

Loyal clears his throat, bringing my attention back to him. “You got a little bit of drool…” he says, pointing at the corner of his mouth.

I roll my eyes. “You little shit. Let’s get everyone together and get this started.”

He whistles and waves the guys over. Four gruff-looking bikers, and everyone is nice and doesn’t say anything when I task out what needs done. When we break, Loyal and I head back to the kitchen. I find a bowl and fill it up with soapy water before unearthing a sponge from a drawer that’s full of miscellaneous shit while Loyal starts cleaning out the fridge.

“That thing is disgusting,” I say as I eye the fridge.

“You have no idea. I’m pretty sure some of this shit is older than I am.”

“That doesn’t take much though, does it, Loyal?” one of the guys calls out, making everyone laugh.

As I start to wipe down the cabinets, I smile.

“I’d rather be young and dumb than old and whatever the hell you are,” Loyal dishes back.

While I clean, I listen to the guys banter back and forth and occasionally I’ll add my two cents. When I finish the cabinets, I dump the murky water down the drain, barely withholding the urge to gag.

“So, Bailey, I heard you grew up with our Savage,” Quick, a guy about my age says.

“I did. Our parents were friends, and we lived next door to each other. We spent a lot of time together growing up.”

“I can’t imagine him as a kid,” one of the younger guys says.

“What, did you just imagine that he came out of the womb as an adult?” Tiny asks.

“I just never thought about it.” The kid blushes as he ducks his head.

“Are you two dating?” Tiny asks.

“No,” I tell them.

“He’s a great guy. If you give him a chance, he will make you happy,” Loyal says.

“I know,” I say, biting back a smile.

Suddenly, it becomes clear how Loyal got his name, and I smile.

The guys continue to talk Hayes up, trying to convince me to give him a shot, and while it’s cute as hell and I continue to let them talk, I know the truth. Hayes isn’t only a good guy, but the best. I know I would be lucky to be his girl. I don’t have to choose him because, in all reality, I chose him a long time ago.

Now it’s just a matter of making it happen.

“What do you mean, you haven’t found anything?” I hiss into the phone.

“I don’t know how I can say it any differently for you to get it,” Dex says monotone.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You mean, you haven’t found anything on Phillip or on the dude who scared the shit out of my girl earlier?”

“First off, I can only do so many things at once. I have my system scanning Phillip’s computer, but this shit is clean. I’m talkin’ porn hasn’t even popped up. He has to either know someone who’s taught him how to cover his tracks or be a tech genius. Now as for Mr. Cowboy Hat from this morning, we got video of him going into a backyard that backed into a shopping center. Then he never showed up in the parking lot, so either he’s still there or he somehow figured out how to vanish.”

“What about his face? Did you get an ID?”

Dex hesitates. “No, his face was covered just enough by that damn hat. Then, when you add in the sunglasses, it was next to impossible. The dude doesn’t even walk with a limp or anything to make him stand out either.”

“Motherfucker,” I growl, hitting my fist against my desk.

It should be easier than this. How fucking hard is it to find one goddamn guy?

“I’m sorry, Savage, this shit takes time, and I’m doing the best I can.”

Sighing, I try to reign in my temper. “I know. It’s not your fault, and you are trying. I just fucking hate waiting.”

“And it doesn’t help that he scared your girl,” he tacks on.

“It doesn’t. Is there anything else I need to be aware of?”

Dex takes a deep breath. “Thankfully no. Everything is as it should be.”

“That’s something at least.” Someone knocks on the door. “I need to let you go. Let me know if you find anything.”

“Will do,” he says before hanging up.

“Come in,” I say as I toss my phone on my desk.

Fang steps inside, shutting the door behind him.

“What’s up?”

“You good, brother?” he asks as he sits down across from me.

“I’m fine. Why?”

Fang raises his brow. “Bailey.”

I fight the urge to shift under his scrutiny. “What about her?”

“She your old lady?”

“Bailey is Bailey.”

“That doesn’t tell me shit, man. Is she just some girl you know from when you were a kid or what? Because last I checked, we don’t let just anyone on the backs of our bikes. So I’ll ask again, who is she to you?” he asks bluntly.

Taking a deep breath, I drum my fingers on the desk as I try to find the words.

“Bailey is the keeper of my secrets, the one who knows me better than anyone else, even after not seeing or speaking to me for years. She’s the angel on my shoulder who pulls me out of the dark. She’s my conscience.” I run a hand over my mouth. “She’s my ride or die. The air I breathe and all that poetic shit. Bailey is just Bailey, but yeah, if I had to put a name on it, she’s my old lady, even if we aren’t technically together right now.”

Fang leans back in the chair, folding his hands across his stomach as he studies me. “You going to claim her in front of everyone?”

I smirk. “If I tried to claim her right now, she might kill me, but yeah, I’ll make it known to the guys she’s off-limits.”

“Good. Otherwise, one of the other fools might get attached to her,” he jokes.

I scoff. “She would chew them up and spit them out if they tried.”

He chuckles. “I can’t wait to really get to know her then. You should see her. The guys didn’t even bat an eye at her ordering them around. She’s good for this place.”

“I can’t wait to get to know her as an adult either,” I say, making us laugh. “No, she’s one of a kind. If anyone’s going to be able to deal with all this shit, it’s her. I’m not surprised the guys listen to her. She’s a force to be reckoned with.”

“Yeah, I noticed that when she put the guys to work. A little hellcat, if you ask me,” he says, pointing over his shoulder.

“She offered. It wasn’t even my idea. I just thought she would hang out in my room while I talked to Dex.”

“So what I’m hearing is she’s like her man, she doesn’t wade in but jumps right into the shit show,” Fang quips.

“Pretty much.” I sigh. “Now I just have to get her and everyone else on board. I don’t know how they will take it that I want to claim someone when the dust hasn’t even settled yet from Rogue and Fend.”

“Fuck em. It doesn’t matter. You can’t put love on a timeline. If anyone gives you hell, just know I have your back.”

“Thanks, brother.”

“Hey, speaking of the club, I was talkin’ to the Saint’s Outlaws over in Pensacola, and they are still havin’ a problem with that club.”

I frown as I think about it, trying to rack my memory, only nothing comes up.

“What club?” I ask, drawing a blank.

“Crossbones or whatever.”

“Seriously? They are still hounding them?”

“Apparently.”

“How are they causing issues?”

Fang smirks. “Look at you wanting all the gossip.”

I raise my hands and smile. “Hey, I spent many nights in the sandbox listening to other guys’ drama to make myself feel better about my own life.”

Fang chuckles. “I get it. Anyway, it’s basically normal turf shit, but they decided to start threatening…”

Before he can say anything else, a commotion catches our attention. Both of us jump up and rush out of the office and into the main room.

What we stumble into knocks the breath out of me and makes me see red all at once.