Page 6 of Wild Night (Vicious Reapers MC #2)

CHAPTER FIVE

IVY

Bullet watches me from across the room. He tilts his head to the side, his gaze searching mine for a silent moment. I know he wants to ask me something, but I’m not sure what it is.

“What do you know?” he demands.

Evasively, I want to ask him, “ About what?” but decide against it. Instead, I tell him because if I keep a secret from this man and he finds out, there will be hell to pay, especially since his woman is involved.

“I fucked Posey last night,” I announce. He doesn’t seem surprised. He, along with everyone else, likely saw me take her to my room. “Then I went home early this morning and couldn’t get her off my mind. I just had this nagging feeling that she was hiding something.”

“Yeah?” he says with a grunt. “No fuckin’ shit.”

Yeah. No fucking shit is right. “I just didn’t know what it was, so I started digging this morning. I don’t think it’s her so much as it’s the man she married.”

“Married?” Bullet asks.

Dipping my chin in a single nod, I clear my throat before I continue. “I couldn’t find the guy anywhere. Almost like he didn’t fucking exist. So I had to call in Piggy to find out what the fuck was going on.”

“And?” Bullet asks, his tone serious and laced with the same concern I’m feeling.

“Piggy can’t find much of anything either.

I have a feeling there is a story behind him, but I don’t know what the fuck it is.

I was going to try and get it out of her while you were on your honeymoon.

And get whatever the fuck shitstorm is likely swirling around her handled before you get back so there’s no blowback on Dakota or the club. ”

Bullet doesn’t speak immediately. He tips his chin down, looking at the floor, then slowly lifts his gaze to meet mine.

“Ivy, can’t thank you enough for wanting to do that for Dakota and the club. Mostly for Dakota, though. Fuck,” he hisses. “What are your thoughts on this? Just gut feeling.”

I wrap my fingers around the back of my neck and gently massage there, trying to ease the tension in my body as I think about that question. About my gut feeling. About any feelings when it pertains to Posey. Because, honest to fuck, I already feel far more than I should for her.

“Gut feeling,” I murmur. “She’s mixed up in some shit. She may not realize it, but then again, she may. But said shit is linked to this guy, and she came here for more than just a wedding. She came here for protection.”

“Then protection she’ll get,” Bullet grinds out. “At least until I know more.”

“Agreed.”

Releasing my hand from my neck, I exhale a long breath, then shake my head. “I did not see this shit coming,” I mutter.

Bullet snorts. “You’re preaching to the goddamn choir on that. Update me via text while I’m gone. May or may not answer, but I want updated.”

I smirk, knowing that he likely will not be answering shit while away on his fucking honeymoon. “You got Nathan taken care of while you’re away?”

“Briana is going to keep him. Lainey is second backup in case Briana needs to do something and can’t take him.”

Dipping my chin in a nod, I clear my throat. “Let me know if you need any help with that. I got Cidney at the office, so I can send her out to get Nathan at any time.”

Bullet curls his fingers around my shoulder before he gives me a gentle shake. “Thanks, brother. Focus on this shit. Get it figured out.”

“Will do.”

I say those words like a promise, knowing that I can’t promise a fucking thing. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to figure it out by the time he gets back, but I’m going to give it a good fucking try.

We leave Bullet’s office a few moments later and walk back into the bar area, where I see fucking Viking standing a little too close to Posey again. I’m not sure what his deal is with her, but I’m about to nip this shit in the fucking bud.

I may not claim Posey as my old lady now or ever, but I can make fucking sure that nobody else touches her, and that begins with Viking. Which I thought he already knew. Unless he’s just trying to get my goat, in which case he’s just being a dick.

Either way, I’m going to find the fuck out right now.

Instead of walking directly to the group, I stop a few feet away. Viking jerks his chin toward me with a grin.

I’m not amused.

Which only makes him actually fucking chuckle. I ball my hand into a fist. He clears his throat and walks toward me, stopping when he’s directly in front of me.

Viking is a big motherfucker and stands a few inches taller than my six-foot frame. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t go toe-to-toe with him if need be. But I honestly don’t think this is going to get that far.

“Are you fucking with me?” I ask.

His lips twitch and curve up even more, then he lets out a laugh again. “I’m fucking with you, but you don’t want to jump on that… then it’s game fucking on.”

Game on. Funny.

“How about it’s hands off?”

Viking rocks back on his heels, his eyes fucking dancing as he looks at me. I am tempted to slap the goddamn look off his face. I don’t do that, though, even if I want to. Instead, I arch a brow and give him my own smirk.

“Hands off,” he says, lifting his hands in surrender.

“Hands off,” I repeat.

“You claiming that, then?”

Shifting my gaze from him to Posey, I take her in for a moment. Then slide my eyes back to meet his.

“Apparently, me taking her to a room last night wasn’t enough. Just so you know, she’s mine.”

And that is that.

Walking past him, I make my way toward Posey, trying to ignore Viking’s laughter behind me.

Asshole.

POSEY

Viking walks away, but I don’t look at where he’s going. He’s hot and funny and all of that, but he doesn’t make me nervous. He doesn’t give me butterflies. He doesn’t excite me the way Ivy does.

Ivy.

The man I’m trying to forget, and yet he’s right here again, acting as if he didn’t totally brush me off this morning. Dakota clears her throat, and I look over at her. I watch as her gaze flicks past me and starts to dance before she brings her attention back to meet mine.

“You and Ivy?” she asks, and if I’m not mistaken, there is some excitement in her voice.

I’m not sure if she should be excited at all. She doesn’t know the whole story. She doesn’t know that I’m married and on the run from said husband. Pressing my lips together, I shrug a shoulder.

“He’s really smart,” she whispers. “He’s an attorney.”

My eyes widen at her words. “A what?” I hiss.

Dakota giggles, and for just a split second, I’m taken back to the past. Decades ago. When my sister and I would talk about boys. When she would giggle the exact same way. Although back then, I didn’t always understand why my sister would giggle.

A lot of the memories are fleeting because of our large age difference, but some of them are still right there in the forefront of my mind. I looked up to my sister, wished I could be her, and wanted to run away with her.

I hoped and prayed, wished and pleaded with God and whoever would listen that my sister would come back and take me away. She never did. I never saw her again, but I can see her now in Dakota, and that’s something almost magical.

“A criminal defense attorney,” Dakota breaks me out of my thoughts about the past. “They call him Ivy because he graduated from an Ivy League law school.”

Shit.

So he’s totally legit.

I open my mouth, then snap my lips closed again.

I’m not quite sure what to ask past that.

All I can think about is that maybe, just maybe, my luck has changed.

What are the odds that I would fall into bed with an attorney who is also part of a ruthless motorcycle club?

And I know that they’re ruthless because I looked them up before I got in my car and drove away from California.

A warm palm presses against my lower back and a shiver of excitement slides up my spine. My belly flips then flops before it’s filled with butterflies. It’s him. I know it is because of the way he makes my body feel when he’s near.

I’ve known this man for less than twenty-four hours, and I can already sense his presence. It should not be this way. I don’t even know him. But as I turn my head, I tip it backward slightly and look up at him.

His eyes find mine, and he winks.

God.

What that simple wink does to me. Clenching my thighs together, I wonder if anyone else can sense just how much he turns me on. If they do, they’re polite enough not to say anything, at least to my face.

Dakota’s eyes glitter as they shift between us.

I’m not sure how to respond to that. She is full of unabashed hope, and I can’t dash that for her.

If I did, I would have to tell her that I’m married to a lying psychopath who I don’t even know.

I’d have to tell her that I’m just like her mother.

I’m selfish and pick the wrong men. That there is something inside of me that’s broken.

I can’t do that to her, not when she’s so damn happy. She made it out. She broke the cycle. She has a whole family around her, people who absolutely adore her. She has a best friend, she has another woman she works with at a bakery, and she has a baby.

I’ve never had a best friend. I’ll probably never have a baby. And I’ll never have a man who treats me as if I am a precious gem. It’s not in the cards for me, but she’s risen above, and she did that with zero help.

She did that because she’s just that freaking wonderful.

I’m not that great.

The most I can hope for is a chance to not worry about Lucian Whitmore coming back—ever.