Payback (Dueling Devils 2)

“Stop what? Thinking she knows what you look like naked and how good your dick feels inside her?”

“That shit ended a while ago and she knows it ain’t never happening again.”

Her stomach turned. “Funny. She didn’t’ seem to act like it.” She poured the ingredients together and continued to whisk. “You owe me more respect than this.”

“I was backed into a corner. What did you want me to do, Ardy?”

She paused in mid stir, jerked away from the hands at her waist and spun around. “Show me that I’m number one. I get that the club comes first, but I’ll be damned if I come second to bitches who shouldn’t be here in the first place.” He opened his mouth and she shook her hair. Curls obscured her vision as they swung around her face. “No. I have limits. You can’t ask me to leave everything I know, enter this world and just take it like a little bitch because you’re Demon President of the Dueling Devils. I didn’t get with you for a title. I got with you for the man I thought existed behind the public persona. Maybe I was wrong. “

He stepped forward and pinned her to the counter with his hips. Placing his arms on either side of her body, he caged her. Anger flared in his dark eyes.

“Don’t touch me.” She whispered.

“I will touch you, because you’re mine and you got this shit twisted. Yes. I know it wasn’t the best idea, but this is a life or death matter. Despite her sudden round of bitchiness, Gia is a good woman. She’s had Dueling Devil’s back and for the most part, I trust her. I’ll set her straight again if it makes you happy. But you can’t be doubting me every time a skeleton jumps out of my closet. ‘Cause baby they are many. Most of me is ugly, Ardy. The things I have to do, the associates I keep company with…I never pretended otherwise. I do my best to keep a lot of that shit away from my family, but there are times when the two worlds will collide. I need you to be able to process it and move forward.”

“That’s a lot, Jonah,” she whispered.

“Baby, you offered yourself up to pay your fathers’ debt without batting an eyelash. I know you have it in you. The only thing you need to know when it comes to bitches from my past is they meant nothing. It was a quick, easy rel

ease. Even Natasha was no love match.”

“But I’m different. Why? It hasn’t been that long.”

“Baby, it doesn’t matter. From the first time, I looked at you and felt more than I should. Watching you with my kids and living with you day in and day out, just made that spark grow.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “I don’ t have a filter with you Ardy. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I didn’t plan on it. Relationships rarely pan out in this life. But this shit between us is right. I’m not going to let you go. I can’t—you...” His voice warbled.

Shock splashed her like a bucket of cold water. “Jonah?” She brought her hands up to cup his firm jaw.

“Every day you bring me back into the light a little bit more. I was in a dark place before you. Too much happened too fast. The blood on my hands won’t ever rinse off, but with the kids and you, I can manage it.”

She lifted his face. The horror in his eyes frightened her. “What’s going on?”

“Now’s not the time. But soon, I’ll tell you. I’m capable of shit that’ll turn your stomach Ardy. I knew that when I asked you to commit. I should’ve—you don’t belong with a man like me.” His hands shook a little.

“You’re scaring me.”

“You should be.” His serious tone painted violent depictions of violence and gore in her mind. Streets ran red with blood and bodies littered the pavement. She wasn’t ignorant to what he did. People who lived by the gun, usually died by them and the ones left standing were tough as shit.

“For a long time my only thought was survival. So, when I say I lived like an animal, I mean that.”

The sound of little feet on wooden floors killed the moment and D stepped back. “I’ll run interference, so you can get breakfast going.” A shutter came down over his face as he stepped away.

Arty wondered if he revealed more than he’d intended to. Damn you for sucking me further into the black hole of Jonah. Forcing herself to return to cooking, she vowed to find out more about this man she couldn’t walk away from, even when logic dictated it might not be the wisest course. She loved Rocket and Harley, but this was about more than that. The more Demon showed her of Jonah. The harder she fell. He spent his days saving others. How could she walk away from him, when it was clear beneath that gruffness he was hurting something fierce?

On route, she completed the task of making muffins and moved on to cutting up fruit for a salad. With the kids up, they’d have to play nice, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t get her pound of flesh. She’d never been the type to back down when it was truly important and it was clear Ms. Gia needed to be put in her place. She ran a business with D and one thing Ardy understood was you didn’t fuck up money flow. She wouldn’t be that woman, but she would make it clear. Being a President’s old lady required some serious ass kicking when necessary. Common sense told her that. There were certain women who lusted after men in power and D was high on that totem pole.

“Good morning, Ardy.”

The sound of Rocket’s voice took away the irritation and she bent to receive his hug. “Morning Rocket, did you have a good sleep?”

“Yep. I like it out here. I told Dad how you took us to the river and we skipped stones and saw the big fat toad.” He burst into giggles that put a vice grip on her heart.

How had this little boy come to mean so much to her so soon?

“Yeah, it sounds like you guys have been having all the fun without me,” D said.

Rocket glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t worry Dad, you can come with us next time. Right, Ardy?”

“Absolutely. Why don’t you and your Dad go watch some television while I get breakfast together and wake up Harley?”