“You know where the door is. I’m not stopping you. You’d be doing me a fucking favor.”

We both know his words are hollow. If I tried to leave right now he’d drag me back. I know too damn much.

I sigh and lean on my elbows.

Justin?

??s eyes meet mine. Green with tiny flecks of gold and brown. Sometimes his eyes appear green. Other days they are the gooey center of a brownie fresh out the oven. Today though they are a mossy green. I believe his eyes change colors depending on the man’s mood. Green is a good sign. It’s when they are dark like his heart that I worry.

Chapter 6

—Uno

“I need to get on the road.” I shove up off the bed and move to the closet for a pair of jeans. Steph moves to stand behind me. Her arms circle my waist and her deft fingers rub along my abs as she lays her cheek to the center of my back.

“I wish I could be the woman you want me to be. The strong girl who takes no shit and dishes it out, but I’m not. I’m drowning, Justin.” Her tears fall, trickling down my spine. I place a hand on hers not knowing what to do or say. She’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve never strayed. Never even looked at another woman, because I take my vows seriously. I made Stephanie promises that I never should have agreed to. We both have made our share of mistakes, but I’m torn. I don’t know how to be without her.

As much as I swear I want her gone she’s a part of me. “Hey now.” I turn around and kiss her forehead. “You’re plenty strong. You’re one of the baddest bitches I know.” I smirk at her and she shakes her head, pulling away. She’s spiraling. I know her. If I don’t pull her back from the ledge she’s going to do something stupid to get us both killed. “I’m selfish, Steph, I know I need to let you go, but I can’t.” I bring my mouth down on hers, kissing her slowly. Her tongue sweeps against mine and I know I’ve won this time.

“You better go. Tiny isn’t a patient man.” Her hands move around me and she grabs a pair of my jeans from the shelf. “Wear these.” I accept them and tug them up my legs.

“What are you getting into today?”

“Mom has an appointment today and I said I would take her.”

“I’ll call you when I get back.”

“Okay. Um, I’m not sure what time I’ll leave from Mom’s, it depends on how this new doctor is. You know how she gets.” That’s for damn sure. My mother-in-law is a hypochondriac. Every damn day she is calling Steph or me swearing she’s got cancer or having a heart attack. Bitch is crazy as hell. I don’t know how my wife deals with it all the time. I grab a plain black t-shirt out of the dresser and Stephanie slips her bathrobe on before handing me a pair of socks and fetching my boots.

I shrug my cut on and light up a cigarette. Waving her hands and wrinkling her nose in irritation she gripes, “You know I hate when you smoke in the house. Makes my clothes stink and my hair. Now I have to wash it again.”

I roll my eyes at her but stay quiet. I have bigger fish to fry like what the fuck I am going to do about Tiny. He’s pumping me for information. Bastard is never satisfied. I swear he gets off on making us dance like his little puppets. “I’m gone.” I pull her to me, tracing the curve of her breast with my thumb and she shivers. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay.”

“About what you said earlier. I hear you. We just gotta find a compromise.”

“Don’t you want something more? Something better for yourself than this, Justin?”

I take a hard drag off my cigarette. The smoke blows in her face but she doesn’t flinch. “Since I was fifteen, a future with you was all I wanted. I didn’t care what it costs me, Steph. I hated how my brother treated you. Most days I hated him, but I also loved him because he gave me you. I paid the price for you and I’d pay it again. A million times over, I’d do it all again if it still left me standing here with you.”

Her gaze softens, and I move to snuff my cigarette out in the ashtray on the coffee table. “You never told me that before.”

I shrug. “I’m sure I have. You just never listened till now. You know what I want. All I’ve ever known is you. I’ve been patient too you know.” My hands go to her waist. “To see you with your belly growing…I want a baby with you.”

“I know. I’ll make an appointment. I promise.”

“Good. You do that.” I leave her to start her day. When I get on my bike I put in a call to Boogeyman. “Follow her today.”

“Will do,” he grunts, and I roar off on my bike to go meet Tiny.

——

Three hours later I pull into the back lot of pool hall North Carolina. We never meet at the same location. Though I have stopped here before. I don’t like seeing the dirty fucker if I can avoid it, but he insisted and when a man like Tiny Leone calls you don’t refuse. It’s afternoon and the music filters out the backdoor when someone tosses a bag of trash into the dumpster. I survey the lot, not seeing the black sedan that is usually present when we are meeting. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t arrived.

I go through the backdoor of the kitchen area and slip into the bathroom to take a leak. When I exit one of his goons is waiting for me. “Come with me,” he barks and leads me to a storage closet and I give him a cross look until he slides a panel of the wall that opens to a secret stairway that goes into the basement. Downstairs is far removed from the scene above. Leather couches, and scantily clad women dancing on a pole. Upstairs is filled with worn tables with watermarks on the tops and fat bastards who have nothing better to do all day than drink, belch, and fart. The carpeting is sticky, but down here the floors are hardwood and so clean you could eat off them.

Tiny is seated on a couch with a woman on either side of him rubbing on his chest and thighs. He holds a hand up and they scatter like roaches. “How’s my favorite outlaw,” he crows. I’d like to say I find him in poor health, but truth is the asshole is fit as an ox and in his prime. My life would be a hell of a lot simpler if I could just kill him for Reaper and get it over with, but like my wife, he simply knows too damn much. They both have me by the balls.

Tags: Glenna Maynard Devils Rejects MC Dark
Source: readsnovelonline.net