“Come on, I’m driving you home.”
Her instinct was to argue, but she bit her tongue and let him open the door for her. Once he was in the driver’s seat, they were off. “No bike today?”
“I don’t want to hurt you. What you need is some rest.”
“I guess.”
He watched the road, silence filling the cab of the truck.
“Jeff needs to be dealt with.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Callie, he hurt you. I can’t leave that alone.”
She began to panic. Callie didn’t want Brick to do something stupid and get into trouble, and she couldn’t lose her job because her boyfriend crossed the line with Jeff.
“Just leave it alone, okay? It was an accident. Ever since the Skull Nation have been around buying supplies, he’s been on edge. I know they’ve beat him up on more than one occasion.”
“You want me to feel sorry for that piece of shit? You’re mine, Callie. He never should have put his filthy hands on you.”
“I’ll deal with it. I’m sure he’ll have forgotten all about what happened on my next shift.”
“You’re actually going back there?”
“I have rent and bills to pay, Brick. I don’t have the luxury of walking away from that job.” Tears threatened to take over again. A frog built up in her throat. “I’m twenty-six years old, I’ve never been to college, and before I got that job, I was homeless without a penny to my name. I need that job.”
“You think too little of yourself. The whole world is yours. You can be anything, Callie.”
“Those are just pretty words.”
“Then you think too little of me,” he said. “Don’t underestimate my reach.”
Chapter Six
Brick had every intention of dropping Callie off and going to deal with her boss. Instead, one look inside her pitiful apartment, and he knew what he needed to do. While she rested on the sofa, he called the boys at the clubhouse and told them to get everything ready for him. He was coming back home and bringing his woman with him. She’d have full round-the-clock care, and it meant she could start to get used to being around him and the club.
He made her a coffee and disappeared into her bedroom, packing away her paltry belongings. The clothes she wore weren’t suitable. Most of them looked like they’d been purchased from thrift stores and should have gone straight into the trash. Holes, and he saw stitch mark after stitch mark.
His woman wasn’t going to be dealing with second-rate belongings anymore.
Still, until he got the time to go shopping with her, he packed what he thought was suitable for the club. Some of the brothers just needed to see a little slither of skin and were ready to fuck.
Damn, this was a fucking nightmare. For a woman like Callie to capture his attention, she was going to be the spectacle of the year. The guys were going to be ribbing him about this for months, and the women, he didn’t even want to think about them.
They were all going to be told she was off-limits.
She was his woman.
There was no way he’d allow anyone else to go near her or to fucking touch her. She belonged to him and him alone.
With a case packed, he returned to the living room, finding Callie with her eyes closed.
He walked closer, and she opened them. “Hey,” she said.
Her gaze fell to the bag. “Are you stealing my stuff?”
“No, you’re coming with me.”
“Brick, I’m really tired.”
“This isn’t a request. You’re coming with me whether you like it or not.”
Her eyes went wide. “Brick, don’t.”
“You either walk to the car, or I’ll carry you. The choice is yours, and you’ve got less than a minute to make it.”
“I’m not leaving my place.”
“Ten … nine … eight…”
“You can’t be serious?” she asked.
“Seven … six…”
She got to her feet, and he was a little gutted as he’d hoped she’d pick a different path. He would’ve loved a reason to have her body pressed up against his.
Callie was a strong woman. She was clearly in pain, but she hid it. The pinched lips and stilted gaze gave it away. He wanted to take the pain from her.
Following close behind, they walked down to his car. He helped her inside before throwing her suitcase in the back.
It was a long drive back to the clubhouse.
Neither of them spoke for the longest time.
“I didn’t want you to freak out about me,” Brick said.
“Why do you think I would’ve done that?”
“Before I got a chance to say who I was or what I did, you already made assumptions, Callie. I tried to hide it all because I didn’t want to expose you.”
“You can’t be like that,” she said. “I’m not weak. I can handle anything.”
He glanced over to see her rubbing at her temple.
“Babe, you passed out.”
“I was in pain. Jeff had hurt me.” She shrugged. “It was no big deal.”