Page 17

CHAPTER 17

Toxic

“ I f you fucking hug my wife one more time,” Priest snapped, shoving me away from Jenny, “I’m going to lose my shit.”

As if I would ever make a move on his girl. “You still haven’t made it official,” I told him. “Means she’s fair game.”

“She’s pregnant with my baby, dickhead.”

“I’d make a great stepdad,” I teased.

Billie was shaking her head, but she seemed to understand that I was just yanking Priest’s chain. Just in case, I pulled her close and tucked her under my arm. She tried to shove away from me, but I didn’t allow her to put space between us. She needed to start getting used to me touching her. A friendly arm wrapped around her shoulders shouldn’t make her want to jump out of her skin to get away from me. She was going to make this difficult on me and I wasn’t even sure why. The guys weren’t wrong; women didn’t usually make it hard for me to get to know them.

“We actually did get married,” Jenny admitted.

The women gasped. “Wait… What?” Seek asked.

“We just went to the courthouse a few weeks ago,” Jenny told us with a sheepish smile. “I didn’t want a huge wedding. Just something small at the courthouse with our children and then a party here with all the rest of our family.” There was a worried look on her face. “I hope that doesn’t hurt any of your feelings. I just-”

“Jenny, stop,” Kit said, taking her hand. “You’re allowed to have whatever kind of wedding you want.”

“Exactly,” Sloane told her.

“What we want doesn’t matter at all,” Seek added. “We’re just so happy for you!”

“Taylor!”

Taylor froze as Priest narrowed his eyes on her. “Where did you get carrots from?”

Billie gasped and patted her pockets, then groaned.

“Wait,” Jenny said, pulling something out of Caitlyn’s hand. “What is this?”

“Um,” Billie spoke up, pressing closer to me. “That’s an apple treat.”

Jenny blinked at her. “A…what?”

“An apple treat,” Billie explained, “for llamas and alpacas. Really it’s good for any ruminant animal. They all love them.”

Priest’s brows shot up. “You gave my kids…apple treats?”

“Oh, no,” Billie said, shaking her head. “Did you know your girls are really proficient in pickpocketing?” She patted her pockets again with a weak smile.

Isla reached over and tapped knuckles with Caitlyn. “Good job. Those are tight jeans she’s wearing, too.”

“She didn’t even notice,” Caitlyn whispered loudly enough we could hear.

I tried to hold back the laughter, but once I started there was no stopping. We were all laughing by the end, even Priest and Jenny.

Eventually we all died down and Jenny asked, “Should I take her to the emergency room or anything?”

“No, those are made of oats and chopped apples,” Billie assured her. “Perfectly safe. I’ve eaten them on days where I forgot my lunch and couldn’t be bothered to go back to the house.”

Dani laughed. “Girl, don’t admit that.”

Billie just shrugged and grinned.

“Ranch life,” I said. “You’d be surprised what I’ve eaten.”

“No, Toxic,” Seek replied. “We really wouldn’t.”

That had everyone laughing again. I looked around and marveled at the difference a couple of years had made on us. Our parties mostly consisted of kids’ birthdays these days and everyone was settling down into family life. And not one of us had any issues with that. I’d never seen my brothers look happier.

“We’ll leave soon,” I told Billie a couple hours later.

She was holding Dani’s daughter and smiled up at me. “I don’t mind staying.”

My heart thumped hard against my rib cage. Fuck. Seeing her holding a baby and getting along with my family? If I wasn’t already falling for her, I would have started then.

I moved around the room, speaking to my brothers, making plans for the next couple of days of work when I noticed something. The kids were missing. And so was Isla. I tried to catch Butcher’s attention, but he was busy talking to a wide-eyed Gwen.

Judging by the motions he was making I was pretty sure he was telling her how to disembowel somebody. I started toward the stairs and noticed the door at the back of the hallway was open, so I changed directions.

They were in the gym. The kids idolized Isla at this point and she was really finding a groove with them. She didn’t seem to realize how personable she actually was. The women loved her. The kids loved her. Hell, she’d managed to mostly tame Butcher, so we loved her too. Not that he’d ever be fully tamed.

I frowned as I watched her tie Taylor and Sean’s hands together. They both had knives in their free hands.

“Okay. This is how I was taught to settle arguments. There will be a three-minute time limit. You stay tied together and whoever has the least amount of cuts on their body at the end, wins the argument.”

My jaw dropped and I studied the blades. They weren’t the fake knives Lock had bought after he’d caught us practicing with real knives. These were as real as the blades we’d used on each other.

“Isla,” I barked. Everyone froze. “You can’t let them use real knives,” I told her.

She frowned. “How are we supposed to know how many strikes there were?”

“Where the hell were you taught this?” I asked. “You know what? Don’t answer that, I have an idea.” Grabbing the knives from the two kids, I scowled at her. “No knives while I’m gone.”

“But they were arguing…” she said as if this were some justification for a knife fight.

I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to actually let them use the blades on each other. I paused. Somewhat sure. Not really that sure at all. I moved faster. I opened Lock’s office and grabbed two permanent markers. Bringing them back, I handed them over. “Whoever gives the most marks wins,” I explained.

“Oh great idea!” Isla said. She looked down at her watch. “Go!”

I leaned toward her. “What’s the argument over?”

She shrugged. “Not sure. Found them about ready to brawl and figured I’d better intervene. I’ll remember the marker trick for next time. Can’t have the mom brigade getting all squeamish on me.”

Eyeing her, I asked, “You weren’t actually going to let them cut each other, right?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “I’m not a monster. I was going to switch them out with the fakes before actually starting the fight. Jenny and Gwen would kill me if I let them cut each other. I just wanted them to feel the anticipation first.” By her tone I still wasn’t sure that the issue was kids cutting each other versus getting bitched at by the moms.

I chuckled. “You’re diabolical.” I watched as Taylor tugged Sean in close and raked her marker across exposed skin. Feeling better about leaving them alone with Isla, I walked back out to join the others.

“Do you know the gender yet?” Eva asked Jenny as I approached.

“Oh man,” Smoke groaned. Everyone looked over at him. “I’m just saying, it’d better be a boy.”

“Why?” Priest growled at him.

“Because your girls are little hellions,” Idaho said with a chuckle. “We’re hoping a boy will be more calm.”

“More calm?” I said with a laugh. “He’d be a feral little raccoon.”

“Badger,” Butcher corrected.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s better.”

“Can we please stop speaking about my baby like he, or she, is going to be an animal,” Jenny said, scowling at us.

“Sure,” I said, eyes wide and innocent.

“You’re so bad,” Billie whispered to me. “You just like to rile them all up.”

“Come on,” I told her, grabbing her by the waist and hauling her along with me. Her grandfather hastily hid the drink he was holding as we walked by. I wasn’t about to rat anyone out for drinking so I kept her attention on me until we were out the door. “I want to show you something.” I led her outside the clubhouse and over to my bike. “This is Nora.”

She laughed. “You named your bike?”

“Of course,” I said, winking at her. “It’s a rite of passage.”

“Okay,” she said in a teasing tone. Her fingers ran over the bike as she moved around it. “It’s gorgeous.”

“Thanks.” My bike was my pride and joy. All black and chrome and I kept her purring like a kitten, as any female should.

“Thanks for showing me. Maybe you could let me ride her one day?”

I narrowed my eyes. “You mean ride on the back, right?”

“Or drive.”

I snorted. “No way. On the back, sure.”

She fisted her hands on her hips and gave me a teasing grin. “You wouldn’t let me drive her?”

“Hell no.”

“I let you ride my horses.”

“That’s different.”

“How?” she countered.

“They’re not as finicky as Nora.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “You’ve been riding Irene.”

“So?”

“She’s my most headstrong mare, Toxic.”

“I like headstrong mares,” I told her, crowding close to her. She was pinned between my body and the bike. “More of a challenge.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I know you’re not implying that I’m a stubborn animal.”

“Stubborn female,” I corrected.

“That’s-”

She didn’t get the chance to say anything else before I kissed her. I wasn’t a fucking idiot. I knew she was trying to keep some distance from me. She didn’t want to like me. Which meant I needed to take every opportunity to show her why she did like me. And what I could bring to her life. Plus, kissing her was fun.

She melted against me, forgetting herself for a moment before she stiffened. It was probably too much, kissing her twice in one day. She put her hands against my chest. They slid underneath my cut and I growled in pleasure that there was only my thin cotton t-shirt between us.

“You’re killing me, Lightning.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ll live, Cowboy,” she teased. Then she frowned.

“What?” I asked, bending my head toward her. She didn’t complain or move away so I rubbed my lips along her skin.

“Well,” she said, lost in thought. “You’re not really a cowboy. But you kind of are.” She seemed to realize what I was doing and the fact that she was leaning her head to the side to allow me more access around the same time that she stopped speaking. She stepped away from me. “You’re very…”

“Handsome?” I offered when she seemed to be searching for a word. I grinned at her.

“Handsy,” she said, glaring at me.

If she thought that was handsy, then she was going to be in for a surprise. I was going to do my best to rub every inch of me against every part of her every damn opportunity I got. I just gave her an innocent smile.

“New rule.”

Her and her rules.

“No more…touching,” she said, waving her hands at me.

“You don’t like touching?” I teased. She was flustered and I liked knowing I’d done that to her.

“Yes. No. Just, stay over there,” she finally huffed out.

“Okay, Sweet Girl. Whatever you want.” I laughed to myself because it wasn’t happening. She could make up all the rules she wanted. I was great at breaking them.

“And no more calling me Sweet Girl,” she added.

“Why?” I asked, falling in step with her as she headed back to the clubhouse.

“Because it makes me wonder how many women you’ve called that,” she snapped.

My brows shot up. “None.”

“Yeah right.” She rolled her eyes when I opened the door for her and stomped inside. “Probably too many to remember.”

She definitely had me pegged. The old me anyway. Only I hadn’t been lying. I never called women Sweet Girl. Darling, Honey, maybe an occasional Babe, but not Sweet Girl. That was for my lightning girl only.

She didn’t realize I could read her like a book. Her breath had caught when I’d said Sweet Girl. She liked that I called her that. Too much. Which was why she didn’t want me doing it anymore. I grinned as I followed her inside. This was going to be more fun than I thought.