Page 61 of The Souls We Claim

Jax’s arms tighten around me. “Jesus, Ari. Promise me you won’t let anyone treat you like that ever again.”

“I won’t.” I had an orgasm at someone else’s hands. Now that I know what it feels like, I couldn’t go back if I wanted to.

And being a brat, while I wouldn’t have used that term, is something I’ve missed. “I just remembered something, I used to be playful as a child. I enjoyed having fun, laughing. Jump-scaring Mercy and playing tricks on my friends. I feel like life has stamped that out of me. I want to be her again.”

His lips brush my hair. “Then be her, kitten. You deserve more than the shit you were dealt.”

“You said ‘once.’ Did you mean it?”

Arms tighten around me. “I did.”

I try to hold on to the high I’m currently riding, but those two words kick it out of reach. “Why?”

“The reasons are long, and I’m fucking tired. Let’s sleep, Ari. Lola will be waking us soon enough.”

He sighs but doesn’t release me. And I don’t roll away from him. Because for the first time in a really long time, I feel safe. Instead, I close my eyes and fall dead asleep.

19

HALO

Two days later, I stroke the handle of my motorbike like she’s a familiar lover. This is one of my favorite Harleys. It’s not the newest, or the fastest, but she’s a sweet ride.

And I’ve been feeling cooped up lately. Locked down in the clubhouse, cooped up in my truck more often than not when I’m not riding with the club because I have Lola with me, and she comes with stuff.

So much stuff.

Car seats and diaper bags, and changes of clothes, and fucking snacks.

Always snacks.

So, when Ari walks out of the clubhouse, I’m ready to punch my shit-stirring brother, Spark, with anything made of solid steel. Because Iris’s leathers fit Ari like a glove. Spark holds Lola and waves her hand in my direction.

I wave back, then flip him the bird as he steps back inside the clubhouse with a chuckle.

Iris has morning sickness that kinda lasts all day, and Spark didn’t feel comfortable leaving her behind at the clubhouse alone. When Ari offered to stay with Lola and Iris, Spark insteadoffered to look after Lola so Ari could experience what it felt like to be on the back of a bike.

Mine.

I’m the fucking road captain. My mind should be on the road. Thinking about the route, the location, where we’re going for our ride out. Most people would think it ludicrous to go out en masse in public, but that’s the MC life. We don’t stay cooped up out of fear. Only genuine threat.

And we haven’t seen any signs of the Righteous Brotherhood since my father’s house caught fire.

This is a show of power. A show of courage, that we won’t be cowed into submission.

And Ari will be on the back of my bike.

In that leather jacket and whatever she’s wearing beneath that perches her tits nice and high. With Lola safe and happy with Spark and Iris while utterly secure in the clubhouse, it’s just the two of us.

Last night, I avoided Ari and slept in Dad’s old room after beginning the process of boxing up his stuff. It was easy but heartbreaking work. Old photographs of him as a young biker. Me and him on the first ever ride out I did with the club. More blue pills than I care to think about suggest Lola’s creation was a medical miracle.

But the truth is, I did it so I could avoid Ari most of the day, and we both know it. I was gone when she woke. What time I had left over from cleaning out Dad’s room was spent with Vex in his cupboard at the back of the kitchen, trying to track down Bradley Collins, but the guy is like a ghost.

We made progress on some of his lower-level key players, and I’ve proposed a ride out to Camden, New Jersey, soon to follow up on a lead of a Righteous Brotherhood cell there.

We also dispatched some hang arounds to clean the paint off my house.

Thankfully, I just need to get through the day without touching her. I’ve always been an obvious kind of guy. A sucker for a nice rack and a juicy ass and an attitude about sex that matches my own.