“You say that again, you’ll be having blue balls for the end of time,” Bex cut in, her eyes narrowed at her husband before giving Gage a quick arm squeeze.
She wasn’t affectionate like her husband. Her demons gave Gage’s a run for their money.
They shared that.
Demons so dark, they both sought not to fight them but drown out their screams with a needle. With a high.
The problem with highs was you came down eventually.
And the difference between Bex and Gage was Bex had managed not to come down all the way. Not into the grave. She’d always fight the low that came with the itch underneath her skin known as addiction, but she’d found new highs.
Found the smiling fucker who worshipped the ground she walked on.
“Glad to see you’re back,” she murmured, winking at him and ignoring her husband. “I’m going to work. You’re going to think about what you’ve done,” she addressed Lucky, turning to look over her shoulder, swaying her hips. “And think of the fact that I’m not wearing any panties.”
Lucky groaned as she walked out the door, actual pain on his face, worse than any of the times the fucker had been shot. Despite his elementary humor, Lucky was one of the strongest people Gage knew. Apart from the bastard’s wife. He had his demons too, but he just smiled at them rather than grimacing.
He watched the doorway for a long time before shaking his head and punching Gage in the shoulder.
“That’s your fault, fucker,” he hissed.
Gage grinned. It hurt, but he did it. “What comes out of your fuckin’ mouth is no one’s fault but your own and you know it.”
Lucky scowled at him, then looked him up and down. “So you’re back from LA? For good?”
Gage had helped Killian head up the chapter in LA, then had taken the VP gavel when Killian gave it up in order to head the security detail for his wife.
No way the kid was going to be apart from his wife after she’d been almost killed by a crazed stalker. She was one of the most famous people in the world, and the safest; not only would Killian make sure nothing happened to her, but she had the Sons of Templar to back her.
But after that shit went down in LA, not even the worst of it, Gage had taken a vacation to someone else’s hell to make sure he didn’t end up in his own.
Rosie’s.
He’d known she’d had something licking at her heels.
Something bad.
Because he’d moved into her place. And he’d seen the very effective cleanup job. Would’ve passed everything but a blue light. But Gage knew when death had touched a room. He knew even better when it had been covered up.
First he’d known she was okay because he’d made sure Wire tapped every fake passport she had, including the third one she thought the club didn’t know about. Her brother might not have known, but Gage did.
He’d found Rosie in the depths of the underworld, using herself as bait to take down human trafficking rings. He didn’t stop her though. She was more than capable, and he suspected it was the only thing that was keeping her together—killing monsters. He knew that better than anyone.
So he let her be.
And then shit had gone down.
Like it always did when people connected to the club had any kind of romantic shit going down.
It worked out in the end.
For Rosie, at least.
They still had the shadow of the Fernandez fucker hanging over them, though Gage was already exploring every option they had on taking him down. Because the fucker had tried to strike the club. No one did that and lived.
Not even one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Because Gage wasn’t one of the most dangerous. He was the most.
Taking Fernandez down took time.
Patience.
So he took it.
Split his time between Amber and LA. More in LA of late because he got deep in some pussy he shouldn’t have.
“Killian said you had girl trouble,” Lucky said, a grin plastered on his face, as it always was these days. Especially with his wife around. “Now, I heard tales of shootings and explosions. Where is she?” He made a big show of looking around Gage as if he was hiding some bitch behind his back.
Gage folded his arms. “Who?”
“The woman, of course!” Lucky threw up his arms, his eyes touching on his wife, who was talking to Lily in the parking lot. Gage knew the fucker couldn’t go ten seconds without making sure she was still okay when she was in his eye line. Like he was terrified she might fall off the face of the Earth if he didn’t do so. Or maybe because he was terrified he might.
“There is no woman,” Gage said. He did not need a woman who threatened to throw him off the face of the Earth if something happened to her. He’d already had that.