Mess Me Up (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 1)

I shook my head. “No. The other one. Slate. The one in jail.”

He blinked in confusion. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want him to lose everything,” I whispered. “Because when he gets out in a couple of years, I want him to have a place to go. Somewhere that isn’t tainted by my parents—who tried to take over the payments on it so that Slate would owe them. This way, if I cover it, when Slate gets out, he doesn’t owe them a goddamn thing.”

His eyes were intense on me.

“Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to drive,” he muttered. “And today we’ll do whatever you want to do. I don’t have anything going on that’s important.”

I looked down at my hands.

“You’re a good man, Rome,” I whispered. “Whether you think so or not, you’re a good man to me.”

He stood up then, drawing me up off the arm of the couch and wrapping his arms around me until I was plastered to him. “You were a good woman, first. Trust me when I say that I haven’t always been a good man. It was only when you came along that I pulled my head out of my ass.”

I looked up into his eyes, craning my neck almost as far back as it could go, and realized that this man was it for me.

He was my one.

All these years I’d been handed disappointment after disappointment, and I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t see that life would ever get better.

But then Rome happened, and it was getting to the point where I didn’t think I could live without him.

This thing we had happened fast. So much faster than it probably would have had our situation been different.

However, what we had was right. It was good. It was mine, and I would fight for it no matter what. Seeing the look on Rome’s face as he stared down at me, I knew that I’d never be able to walk away from him.

“Where are we going?” he asked, lifting his hand to push one of my curls out of my face.

I swallowed at the sweet act and said, “To Shreveport.”

He didn’t ask questions, and I was glad that he didn’t.

Instead, he let me go after a quick peck on the lips and then went to get his socks and shoes on.

Ten minutes later, we were in his truck driving down the interstate.

Forty-five minutes after that, we arrived at the man’s house that I was buying my item from.

“What is this, a tattoo parlor?” he questioned, looking around the area with an eye that clearly said he was ready to defend me from harm at a moment’s notice.

“Um, no.” I shook my head. “It’s something…else.”

Tugging on his hand, I led him to the door.

I could feel his hesitancy as we made our way up the uneven, broken concrete walkway that had weeds growing through the cracks. Rome did not like this place at all, and it showed in every aspect of his body language.

His shoulders were stiff, and his eyes were constantly scanning the area. His mouth was set in a firm line, and the hand holding mine was hanging on a little too tight. Not because he was scared for himself, but he was scared for me.

“Izzy…” he started.

I pulled free of his hold and knocked on the door. Rome cursed up a soft blue streak.

“Izzy, seriously, this isn’t…”

A teenager answered the door, and the smile on his face clearly conveyed his excitement.

“Ms. Izzy!”

Rome’s voice halted mid-reprimand, and I turned to him and gazed at his now-curious eyes.

They said, ‘what did you do?’

I turned with a smile tugging at my lips and said, “Chaz! We made it!”

Chaz, the boy I’d been talking to over the last week, not to mention FaceTiming with to make sure that I made the right choice, pumped his fist.

“And is this your man?” Chaz asked just as excitedly.

Rome was wearing his MC vest and had his scowl firmly in place.

There really was no smiling when Rome was in public, at least not unless I was the only one around.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “He’s who we’re getting him for.”

“Chaz rescues box tortoises,” I said softly. “I don’t know how I ended up looking at his page, really. It all started when I read a story about tortoises crossing the road, and someone explaining that a tortoise lives within a square mile area, and if you move them too far out of that area, you put them at risk of never finding their way back home again. Anyway, long story short, Chaz here was commenting on the thread about the tortoise, answering the questions people had, and I noticed his name. Chadwick Box Tortoise Rescues. I clicked on his link because I was curious at first. I remember Matias mentioning a box tortoise.” I didn’t expound on the day. He knew the day just as well as I did, as well as the exact moment.