Atonement (Angel's Halo MC 5)

Church lasted another twenty minutes or so before Bash dismissed us. I stood and followed my brothers out.

Downstairs, Colt stopped me before I could head back to my room. “Let’s get a beer,” he suggested, but from the glint in his eyes, I knew it wasn’t a request so much as an order.

Not wanting to fight with my little brother, I nodded. “Sure. But just one. I don’t want to leave Quinn for too long.”

“One,” he agreed, and then we headed into the kitchen.

The place was full of women running around to fix food for the brothers. One after another asked us if we wanted a plate. I wasn’t hungry, so I went to the fridge and pulled out two beers. Handing one to Colt, we headed outside through the back door.

The air was muggy, but there was a hint of rain on the wind. Two brothers were already standing out there, guarding the rear entrance. Up on the wall, at least four other brothers were walking the perimeter with guns at the ready at all times. The place was heavily armed and guarded, but I couldn’t help feeling edgy after what had happened earlier.

I couldn’t stop wondering who they would try to hit next. There wasn’t much chance of them getting into this compound, but that didn’t mean those fuckers weren’t waiting and watching for the first person to leave.

“Look, I …” Colt broke off with a grimace, pulling me out of my musings. He shook his head before taking a deep swallow of his beer. “I heard some of what you were saying to Quinn earlier.”

“So?” I twisted off the top of my own beer. I didn’t care who had heard it, or what anyone would think of me for all the emotional stuff I had been lying at her feet. “I meant every word I told her.”

My little brother looked off into the dark night. After a long pause, he finally nodded. “I know.” He lowered his eyes to his beer, peeling at the edges of the label. “You’ve changed, Raider. At first, I didn’t really believe it was a good thing, but the more I see you with Quinn, the more I watch the way you look at her, I believe that you really care about her.”

“I love her.”

Another long pause came from him before he blew out a long, pent-up breath. “Yeah, I can tell that, too.”

“She doesn’t believe me,” I confessed, tossing the cap of my beer on the ground.

Colt grunted. “Can you blame her? She’s loved you since she was practically a kid. All that time you pushed her away, fucked everything with a pussy but her, and then suddenly you do a complete one-eighty? The girl is feeling confused as fuck right now, on top of all those damn pregnancy hormones wreaking havoc on her. Shit, Raid, you remember what Raven was like when she was pregnant with Max? She qualified as a mental patient at times.”

“Fuck you,” I thought I heard Raven call through the door to the kitchen, making us both chuckle despite the seriousness of our conversation.

For a long while, we just stood out there, not talking, just finishing our beers. Finally, I got up the courage to ask the one question I figured he would be the only one to answer for me. “Will she ever believe that I love her?”

“I think she already does, brother.” He poured out the suds that were the only thing now left of his drink. Tossing the now empty brown bottle into the trashcan, he gave me an affectionate, but hard punch in the shoulder. “Just give her a little time to realize that for herself, though, okay?”

Chapter 27

Quinn

There was only a small window in Raider’s room, but it let in enough light, even through the blinds and curtains, it made it seem like a huge one. I groaned as the now bright room tried to pull me from a deep sleep. I was comfortable, dammit. All I wanted was to sleep a few more hours, but that window was the perfect alarm clock for anyone who couldn’t sleep with the lights on.

The hard body behind me shifted when I tried to get out of bed, huge hands locking around my lower abdominal and refusing to let go. “Don’t go,” Raider murmured against my ear before kissing it. “We have the entire day off. Let’s sleep a little longer.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep, especially now that my stomach was starting to toss and turn from the stupid morning sickness that wanted to take over my damn life. However, the feel of the heat coming from him as he molded me back against his hard body was too tempting to resist. Without giving it much thought, I snugged into him, savoring this moment with him.

It had been four days since we had gone on lockdown. Four days of sleeping in Raider’s bed with him every night. Four nights of him holding me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. He had even kept his promise and hadn’t attempted to touch me in any sexual way, even though I knew it cost him. Even now, his rock-hard cock was pressing into my ass, straining for attention, but he didn’t do anything more than kiss my ear again before releasing a long, contented sigh.

Lower, he unchained his hands and started caressing over the same place he had been holding me all night. Right over our baby. It was when he did little things like that, that my heart threatened to melt for him, and I was in danger of loving him all over again.

“What’s going through that beautiful head of yours right now, sweetheart?”

I couldn’t possibly tell him that. It was hard enough to remain neutral where he was concerned without spilling everything I was thinking about him. “I’m trying not to vomit all over your bed,” I told him instead. Not a lie. This morning sickness bullshit was anything but fun. Thankfully, it only lasted a few hours in the morning.

“Ah, hell, babe. I’m sorry.” He released me and sat up in bed. Leaning over the bed, he opened his nightstand drawer and pulled something out before turning back to me.

I stayed where I was, hoping that I didn’t throw up. I wasn’t sure how many changes of sheets the clubhouse had, but I was pretty sure there weren’t any extra to spare at the moment. People were sleeping on cots and the floor all over the clubhouse. They were sharing pillows and blankets because there wasn’t enough to go around.

Raider sat something beside me, then offered me what was in his hand. A cracker?

“I’m seriously not hungry right now.”