Page 13

Chelsea

“What did you say these are called?”

I look up from the soil, lifting my hand to shield my eyes from the warm sun as I turn to Jade.

She’s crouched next to the rosemary seedlings, holding a delicate fern ready to be transplanted into a terracotta pot.

Unlike her clean hands, my fingers are stained with rich, dark soil—the kind that smells alive and promises to nourish the plants.

“It’s a fern,” I say with a smile. It still feels surreal, having a friend here.

Well, multiple friends who are willing to not just keep me company but encourage my hobby.

When I was introduced to Jade and Ingrid, I was a little nervous about fitting in.

Unlike them, I wasn’t someone who had come here willingly.

I wasn’t dating a Rebel. And yet, they made me feel welcome.

They introduced me to Brooke and Scarlett, but the pair of best friends are both still in school and rarely at the clubhouse.

I could get used to this, I realize.

Friends, a place with a courtyard garden, and a man I have fallen hopelessly in love with.

Hound and I have sex, lots and lots of sex, but neither of us have brought up that there is something else developing between us.

A part of me wants to believe that a man like him would never make love to me the way he does if he didn’t have some kind of romantic feelings for me.

“What about that one?”

I follow Jade’s eyes to a small collection of spiky plants I’ve arranged in a sun-drenched corner of the garden.

I chuckle when Ingrid touches one and hisses as she gets pricked.

“Careful with those. They’re all succulents.

They do well in the sun and don’t need much care,” I say, trying not to imagine what will happen to this garden when I’m gone.

It was overgrown and wild when Jade showed me the little space that had been left unattended for who knows how long.

It had taken the girls and me two days to pull out the weeds and get it ready for planting. “The aloe vera is my favorite.”

“Why?” Ingrid asks, the crescent moon birthmark under her cheek visible when she turns to me. I remembered when we first met and she always turned away to hide it. That she so willingly shows it to me now only adds to my feelings of belonging here.

“It reminds me of my mother.” I reach out and take one, running a finger gently over the fat leaves.

“My mother tried keeping some in our home, but she was never very good with house plants and always overwatered them. These will have to be brought in when it starts to get cold.” I look up and smile at the girls.

“Besides, it has healing properties. Might prove to be helpful around here.”

Jade chuckles. “With these adrenaline junkies, they’ll need it.”

We share a laugh and a few more jokes at the guys’ expense before falling into a comfortable silence, the only sounds the rustling of leaves from the single tree at the corner of the courtyard and the soft thud of soil as I work.

This garden, as small as it is, has become one of my favorite places.

A few more trips to a local nursery, and soon, the place will be bursting with life.

I’ll have Bougainvillea spilling over the railing in vibrant magenta, with basil and rosemary perfuming the breeze.

I’ll add a few tomato plants for the girls’ homemade sauces.

“So, Chelsea,” Jade breaks the silence, her voice casual. “Hound… How’s that going?”

A warmth spreads through my chest, and I try to fight the flush that climbs up my neck.

It’s still new, this feeling—the lightness that settles inside of me whenever I think of him.

It’s like my body has been set aflame every time he touches me, but it’s not always physical.

Although we never discuss our feelings, Hound is surprisingly easy to talk to.

His humor is often dry and quick, and sometimes, I just want to hear the sound of his voice.

“Good,” I say, maybe a little too quickly for it to not sound suspicious. I pluck a stray weed from the soil so I have something to do with my fingers. “Really, good. He…um, takes care of me.”

Jade nods, her eyes twinkling. “Takes care, huh?”

I blush, ready to come up with some lame example that doesn’t include fucking like rabbits when a sudden flash of movement catches my eye. A figure appears in the courtyard, and I turn around to watch Scarlett approach.

“Hey, Scarlett, where’s your better half?” Jade teases as she approaches us.

Scarlett lifts a single, perfectly trimmed brow. “Do you mean Gray or Brooke?”

Jade smirks. “Both.”

“Gray is with Saint,” she says, stopping next to us and looking curiously at the plants. “As for Brooke, she left with Axel. My bet is they want a quiet weekend away from the chaos of the clubhouse.”

I sigh at the thought of going away somewhere with Hound. Maybe to a beach or a cabin deep in the mountains where we could spend the weekend making love and talking about our future, not as a woman and her sort-of keeper, but as two people in love with each other.

“Want to join us?” Ingrid’s words cut through my thoughts. “We’re helping Chelsea with gardening.”

I look up at Scarlett’s pale blue dress and six-inch stilettos. “I don’t think she’s dressed for it,” I say with a laugh. “You’ll need a change of clothes.”

She laughs, then sobers quickly. “Maybe another time. I actually came to get you, Chelsea,” she says, surprising me. “Your brother is here. In Saint’s office. He’s demanding to see you.”

I stand up, eyes wide with excitement as her words sink in. “Ransom? He’s here?”

She nods. “Yeah. Saint asked me to get you.” Scarlett offers a small smile. “I’ll go tell them you’ll be a few minutes if you want a chance to wash up, but your brother seems anxious to see you.”

I’m practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of seeing my brother after a week.

It’s the longest we’ve ever been apart, and we haven’t been talking much as I found myself distracted by Hound.

We text daily, but I imagine that the lack of calls might have worried him enough to come all the way here.

Christ, I’ve missed both him and my grandmother.

I turn to the other girls, who smile at me and motion for me to go ahead. I take enough time to wash my hands, but there’s little I can do about the mud sticking to my jeans and shirt.

Saint’s office is on the first floor, so we don’t have to go far.

My heart is racing when the door is pushed open and I walk in.

I spot Hound first, his stony face something I’ve come to find comforting.

There are three other men in the room, and I recognize the blue-eyed man seated behind the massive desk as Saint, the president and Jade’s husband.

The other two I don’t recognize, but the patches on their leather jackets let me know they are club members.

Scarlett walks to the dark-haired man and takes his hand, so I assume he must be Gray.

“CJ!”

Before I can turn, I am quickly engulfed in familiar arms, and I choke back a sob as I hug my brother back. “Ransom!”

“Are you okay?” He pushes back from the embrace to look at me, and he must see something because his eyes flare with fury before he turns accusingly to Hound.

“Where the hell have you been keeping my sister, you psycho? She looks like she crawled out of a hole. You promised you would take care of her.”

I look down at my clothes and realize that I do look like I crawled out of a hole.

I bet my face and hair weren’t spared from the mess of the garden.

I grab my brother’s arm before he can get into Hound’s face and get himself killed.

There is restrained fury on Hound’s face that tells me he might not stop at simply punching my brother.

The tension in the room is palpable.

“I was gardening,” I tell my brother in an attempt to alleviate some of it. “I’m fine, Ransom. Some girls and I were gardening. For fun.” I quickly add the last bit before he can make an assumption.

Someone clears their throat, and all attention shifts to the man seated behind the massive desk. “Well, now that you’ve seen your sister, where’s the rest of our money?”

My head whips to my brother. “You have it? The money?”

Ransom looks uncomfortable as he shuffles his feet nervously.

“Not all of it,” he says, and if possible, the room’s temperature falls a few degrees.

I shudder at the chill, shifting protectively next to my brother even as my eyes search Hound’s.

I know he’s the club’s tracker and an enforcer, but he promised he wouldn’t kill Ransom.

He promised!

“Do we look like a joke to you?” Saint’s voice is hard as steel and dangerously low. “How dare you come here making demands without fulfilling your end of the bargain.”

Ransom’s eyes widen slightly as he turns to me, and I see the dark circles under his eyes. He looks bone tired, like he hasn’t had a wink of sleep in days, and my heart breaks at the thought. “You still have three weeks. I have some savings from working at the shop—” I start.

“No,” Ransom cuts in, placing an arm protectively around me. “Chelsea doesn’t deserve to pay for something I did. My sister has suffered enough. Let her leave. Please. Take me instead.”

The room falls into a tense quiet, and I turn to find Hound watching me.

His eyes are unreadable, and something painful twists in my stomach.

A part of me wants to go to him, beg him to fix this, but even I understand that it’s beyond his control.

My brother stole money from the club; it’s not Hound’s fault.

“How did you steal the money?” Saint asks, his hard blue eyes trained on my brother. “What exactly do you do?”