She was right, it was cold, but my jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt were enough for me. I didn’t tend to feel the cold too much.
I sat next to her. “You sleep okay?”
She stared at me for a long moment before sighing. “Do you really care?”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “Fuck, Tatum, I’m not a complete bastard. I know you think I am, but—”
Her hand moved over my arm and her fingers curled around my wrist. “I don’t think you are, but you sure make it hard for people to think otherwise.”
My gaze was glued to her hand wrapped around my wrist. Her touch heated my skin like no other woman’s ever had before. The desire to fuck her took hostage of my mind. And on top of that, there was something else. Something I’d never experienced before. A desire to take her into my arms and just be with her. The idea of simply holding her, even if I wasn’t inside her, took hold like a needy fucking child.
Jesus, I was losing my shit. Even my breathing was under siege. Breaths forced their way from me in choppy waves. I stood, forcing her to let me go. “I’m hoping to get you home today or tomorrow. We should have things settled soon so it’ll be safe for you to be home.” I said, leaving the rest of our conversation unspoken.
She blinked. It was her only reaction to my swift change of direction. Thankfully, she moved right along with me. “How’s Kick?”
I gripped the back of my neck, massaging the kinks out. “I’m about to check on him. Doc was hopeful he’d pull through the night, but it was touch and go for a bit there.”
“So you guys have a doctor on call who comes here rather than you going to him?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s better that way.”
“I bet,” she muttered, her words full of acid.
I wasn’t a fucking mind reader so I had no understanding of why she switched her inner bitch on all of a sudden. My irritation at whatever the hell was happening between us flared into anger. “You bet? You have no fucking clue who we are or what we stand for, so don’t come here and throw your opinions at me.”
Her eyes widened and she stood in such a hurry and came at me with such force that she nearly knocked me over. I didn’t see her hand coming until it was too late. She slapped my face and spat out, “That was for all the asshole things you’ve said to me! And maybe you’ll recall that I didn’t choose to come here. And as far as me giving you my opinions… get the fuck used to it, because I keep my mouth closed for no one.”
As she strode back inside, I tried to push the realisation away that I’d checked on Tatum before Kick. I really was losing my shit.
* * *
“Kick’s doing better,” King said to me later that afternoon. “Doc’s hopeful.”
We stood out the back of the clubhouse, the cold wind whipping around us. Winter this year had been a bitch with unusually high winds and heavy rain, and that day hadn’t been any different.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Evie’s doing okay? The baby?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I had the doc check her out, too, and she’s fine.”
“Good.”
“I’m meeting with Dragon tonight.”
“And?” I understood the need to call a temporary truce, but I didn’t like it. That was why King would always make a better president than me. I would have led Storm right into hell because of my need to seek revenge. There would have been no coming back if I was in charge.
“I’ll take Hyde and some of the boys with me while you and Devil watch over things here. I’ll call you once it’s done.” He stopped for a beat, his eyes boring into mine. “If that call never comes, you need to see this through.”
Fuck.
“That’s not a scenario we ever wanna see around here, King. Take me and leave Hyde. He can see shit through if needed, but you never want to leave that up to me.”
Determination lit his eyes as he shook his head. “No,” he said with force. “Hyde’s not in the right place mentally to do it at the moment. You are.”
I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know what’s going on with Hyde, but I’m telling you, honest as fuck, that I’d take everyone down with me if I had to lead the club out of this shit. There would be no club left.”
The determination in his eyes glittered and morphed to crazy. “I’m counting on it, Nitro. If this goes south today, I want you to deliver a level of pain they’ve never known.” His face twisted with hate. “I want you to rip their fucking hearts from their bodies and burn their club to the ground.”
* * *