Renegade Hearts (Rebels of Sandland 1)

I noticed Zak grimace. They wanted to talk about me, or my father. It didn’t take a genius to figure out they were digging dirt. But to be honest, I didn’t care what they had to say.

“Okay, I’ll keep it brief.” Zak folded his arms over his chest, took a deep breath in and then looked around the room at each of the boys. “We have it all set up. We have everything we need. We go live next Friday. How you want to play this is entirely your call, Ry. Finn, you know what you need to do. Brandon and me will sort out the security. Kian, I’ll speak to you separately. Is everyone cool?” They all nodded in agreement and I just bit my lip. Talk about cryptic.

I had no idea what they were on about, but I’d find out.

Whatever was going live on Friday, I wanted to know about it.

“What’s going on, Ryan? What’s going live on Friday?”

I couldn’t get Emily out of there fast enough. I was buzzing that we were finally shutting this shit down, but at the same time I felt like a lead weight had hit my stomach. The thought of hurting her, which we would, felt like the biggest tug to my gut. I didn’t want to lose her. Not now. I couldn’t. I’d only just found what I’d dreamed of for so many years. There was no one like my Em. No one that sparked a fire in me like she did, and I wasn’t going to let that go, not for anybody.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about, babe.” I knew she liked me calling her that. Her face was an open book to me, but she didn’t flinch or soften her look.

“Don’t bullshit me. Something is going on and you don’t want me to know about it.”

What was I supposed to say? Your dad is about to go down for a stretch? You’ll probably lose your house, your reputation and your dignity?

I knew Zak had found something out from Troy Barker, the mechanic, or rather the fixer for her father. I didn’t know what exactly, but whatever it was wasn’t going to be good for Emily, that much was certain. I had to protect her first. And if that meant keeping this from her until I’d done what I had to do with the guys, I would. Then I could focus my full attention on her. Make sure I was there to pick up the pieces. If she’d let me.

If I told her before Friday what I knew, I doubted I’d be able to go through with it. It was a fucked-up logic, but it was the only logic I had. Out the fucker first, deal with the fallout later. Show my girl I was there for her one-hundred-percent and pray she didn’t hold me responsible for how shit went down.

“It’s just business. Call it another revenge plan, a bit like Brandon’s fight tonight. Once it’s done, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Please tell me you aren’t going into bare-knuckle boxing? I don’t think I could survive that.” I watched as she swallowed back, looking like she was about to either pass out or go ape shit on my ass.

“No. I promise you, I’m not going to fight. Not with my fists, anyway.” I kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around me, finally softening and moulding herself into me. I had to remember that. Contact and holding her close was the key to cutting off an argument or distracting her as best I could from stuff I needed to protect her from.

“I trust you,” she said all breathy, in a voice that went straight to my dick. Jesus, if I didn’t have inside of her soon, I was going to explode. I wanted to give her time and I stood by my rule, no pressure. But damn, I don’t think I’d jerked off as much as I had lately at any other time in my life. This woman was all I thought about, and knowing how soft and tight she felt on my fingers had me imagining all kinds of fucked-up shit I wanted to do to her. I was losing my goddamn mind.

“I need you to do something for me,” I whispered into her ear, running my hands down to her ass and giving it a good squeeze.

“Anything.” She gasped, burying her head into the crook of my neck and making me want to pick her up, leave this shithole and never come back.

“Stay with Effy or Liv on Friday night. Do whatever you girls do, have a girl’s night in or whatever, but stay with them. I don’t want you at home on your own on Friday.”

She pulled away, looking at me with a million questions burning in her eyes, but a deep set frown on her face.

“Why? Can’t I stay with you?” I had three answers to that question. The one my heart gave, which went along the lines of, ‘Baby, you’re always with me. On Friday, I’d love nothing more than to hold you all night long in my arms.’ Then there was the one my head gave, that went something like, ‘Em, I need you safe. After I’ve dealt with my shit, I will be by your side twenty-four-seven, but please, let me do this.’ Then lastly it was my dick, which always had a say whenever it came to her. That answer involved my bed, my empty house at the weekend courtesy of my dad’s overnight stay at a trade show, and a whole lot of time spent making her forget whatever it was we were about to put her family through. The jury was still out on which one would win, but eventually I went with the head on my shoulders as opposed to the one in my pants and repeated myself. She needed to be with her friends. I needed her away from it all.

“Fine. I can do that.” She wasn’t happy, and if I was being completely honest with myself, I didn’t fully believe that she would stay with them, but I didn’t want to argue. I was done talking about this.

She sighed, obviously done with this conversation too and leant up to kiss me. I pushed her up against the wall of the corridor where we stood. The bass from Zak’s set vibrated the walls and people knocked past us as they moved from the basement to the main area. I didn’t care though. I kissed the ever-loving-fuck out of her and grabbed her ass again, pulling her closer so she knew what she was doing to me. She hooked her leg up over my hip and I held it in place, using my hand behind her knee so I could grind my dick into her, letting her know where I wanted to be; buried right between her thighs.

Pure fucking heaven.

I let him kiss me and I kissed him back with everything I had, but this wasn’t over. I wasn’t going to bow down like the little woman. If something was going to happen on Friday, I wanted to be at the front and centre of it. I wasn’t going to be beaten down by anyone, no matter how good a kisser they were, or how much they made me yearn for more.

I knew the boys were as thick as thieves when it came to their little crew, but they had a weakness, every organisation does. Lucky for me, when Friday came, that little weakness was sitting in the corner of a local café nursing a hangover and an espresso with extra shots.

“Hey, Kian.” I sat down opposite him, blowing on the latte I’d bought as he shuffled uncomfortably in his chair. “You all ready for tonight?” I wasn’t sure how much Kian knew about me, but he knew a lot more about the boys’ plans than I did, and I was going to use that to my advantage.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I’m on the doors.” He shrugged, not looking happy with that job, so I pressed further.

“Where did you want to be?”

He took a sip of his molten coffee and winced. Probably because it tasted like liquid shit, then he banged his hand down on the table in frustration.

“I wanted in on the whole show. I wanted to be on the stage or sorting the tech out with Zak. I’m good at that. I know as much stuff as he does. I guess they don’t trust me enough yet.” He darted his eyes around the coffee shop and then settled them back on me. “I might not have a