Bad Boy Love (Whiskey Run Sugar 4)

I let out a breath and fall to the chair next to her bed. I hold on to her hand and sit there and watch her. Hours go by before she finally opens her eyes. She blinks, looking at me, and smiles. "You saved me."

I stand up and hover over her, stroking my hand across her head and face. "Tell me now," I demand.

She knows exactly what I'm asking of her. "I love you, Jason."

Hearing her say it hits me right in the heart. I’ve never truly known what love was until now. "I love you, too, Mama. Don't ever do me like that again."

She rolls her eyes. "I'll try not to get caught in another fire. Oh God," she gasps suddenly, half scaring me to death. "It was Mark. He took my battery out of my car. It has to be him."

She tries to get up out of the bed, and I put my hands on her shoulders to hold her still. "He was caught with gas cans at the bottom of the mountain. Tara, it’s okay. He’s in jail right now, and he's never coming near you ever again."

I sit on the bed, my hip next to her waist. "And what I mean is, you don't ever not tell me where you're at."

She looks up at me sadly. "I didn't want you to get hurt trying to save me."

I lean down until we're almost nose to nose. “You don't get it. If something happens to you, I might as well be dead too, Mama.”

Because I've refrained for so long, I lean down and press my lips to hers. It’s meant to be a simple kiss, even though I want so much more. The only thing stopping me is knowing how tired she is. Plus there are a lot of people that are here to see her.

I lean back and search her eyes. "You up for visitors?"

"Yeah, I guess so.”

I squeeze her hand. “Just a few minutes. They just need to make sure that you're okay. And then I'll kick everybody out."

I start to stand up, but her hand tightens on mine. “But you're not leaving, right?"

I laugh. "Honey, there's no way you're getting rid of me now."

Instead of going to the door and opening it, I just holler through it. “You guys can come in.”

Becca, April, and Emery, all the girls she works with come in first and hover around her on the bed, but I never let go of her hand. Next comes Walker, Nash, and Aidan, and then all of my biker brothers come in covered in soot. She seems surprised at the number of people that have stuck around to check on her to make sure she's okay. That's one thing she'll definitely need to learn about my club. Once you're claimed as an ol’ lady, you have every one of these men at your back.

I point at my brothers who are covered in black from the smoke. And then I lean down to tell Tara, "I know how important your house was to you. The fire department did a good job of putting out the fire. But my brothers stayed and helped."

She starts to cry, overwhelmed by everything. “I can't thank you all enough. I'm definitely going to have to make you some special desserts and bring them to the clubhouse.”

I lean down and kiss her lips right in front of all of our friends and then pull back. "They can have anything except for the strawberry pie. That's mine."

The crowd around us all laughs. We talk for just a few minutes, and then they all leave. I sit down on the bed next to Tara. “You know, you may have to stay with me at the clubhouse for a little while until we figure out what's next.”

“I thought—” she starts.

I hold my hands up. “Your house is fine, but there's a lot of trees down, and some heat damage. It's going to have to be looked at and maybe a few things fixed.”

She sits up on the bed. “I mean, I can probably stay with Emery.”

I grab on to her hands and hold them with my own and then press my lips to hers. It's a possessive kiss, letting her know exactly how I feel about her. “You're my old lady. You're my responsibility now. Where you go, I go, where I go, you go.”

She pulls her hands from mine and then loops them around my neck. "That sounds about perfect to me, Jason."

I lean in, and before I press my lips to hers, I tell her, "It does to me too, Mama."

Epilogue

Jason

A few months later

I don’t think life could get much better. At least right now, it doesn’t feel like it. Today’s the day. The custom bike shop is picking up business, and we’re getting orders from all over the East Coast. The bar finally opened, and we’re bringing in business from Whiskey Run and Jasper. Both establishments are staying busy. We’re almost unable to keep up with it all. Especially considering what we’re all really doing here.