Razing Grace: Razing Grace Part 1 (32 page)

Me –
Fine. Pick me up when you have Ella ready, and then, you’re going to fill me in on this plan.

Raze –
Yeah, baby. I can do that. Get some sleep.

I scrunch my face up at his reply. Get some sleep? The man just woke me up. Huffing, I put my phone back down and close my eyes.

MILLIE

The next morning I’m stretching my arms over my head when the early morning sun breaks through my curtains. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I push the covers off and make my way into the bathroom to freshen up. Raking my fingers through my hair, I pile the bundle of mess on the top of my head and pull open the door to head towards the kitchen where I can smell oil frying with the sweet hint of bacon and the crackling of fried eggs.

“Morning!” I chirp, walking into the kitchen. Melissa turns around with a smile on her face and spatula in her hand.

“Morning, sis. Hungry?”

I nod, taking a seat onto one of the barstools. “Please.”

“So,” she begins, turning her back to face me again to tend to our breakfast. “How was your night?”

Reaching for the cold carton of orange juice and a glass that’s already filled with ice, I begin pouring the juice into my glass while answering her. “It was fine. Yours?” I ask, sucking off the juice that drips onto my finger.

She bobs her head. “Same club stuff. Drank too much and all that.” Turning around with the frying pan in one and the spatula in the other, she dishes some food onto my plate.

“Morning!” Hella steps into the kitchen with his grey sweatpants hanging loosely around his narrow waist. When I first met Hella, I thought he was attractive in a way that would mind-fuck you senseless. He has an impressive body, but then, nothing really impresses me now that I’ve seen Raze naked. Hell, Raze not naked is still a sight to behold.

“Morning.” I smile at him as he walks towards Melissa and pulls her in for a kiss. I grin at the two of them. I was worried for a second throughout their relationship, not being sure it would work out. They were explosive, to put it lightly. They were probably the most dysfunctional relationship I have ever witnessed, but seeing how they are now warms my heart.

Hella picks up a piece of bacon and smirks at me, biting off the end and chewing on it slowly.

I shuffle uncomfortably on my seat. “Umm, and what is that look for?” I point my finger towards his smug mouth.

He chews again and then his tongue darts out of his mouth and slides across his bottom lip, licking the salty oil off. “Nothing.” He grins again, keeping his eyes locked on mine.

I narrow my eyes. Melissa looks between us and exhales. “For the love of god, Hella! Leave her alone.”

“What!” I blurt out. “Why are you seriously looking at me like that? Those dimples should only be aimed at Melissa. She gets jealous, remember?” I smirk, remembering how jealous Melissa got when she thought Hella was into me.

His mischievous grin deepens. “Fuck, I think I like this side better than the little nun side.”

“Excuse me! You!” Melissa points her finger in my direction. “Shut the fuck up right now, and you!” She turns to Hella. “If you want any ass later, I’d suggest you flutter those eyelashes at me and only me.”

“Psshhh,” Hella whips his head back smugly, taking another piece of bacon with one hand and grabbing his crotch with the other. “You know you can’t deny this shit.” Melissa goes to whack him and he laughs deeply, stepping back and dodging her swing before running up the stairs.

“Yeah, you better run,” she yells towards Hella’s departing form. “Jerk.”

I’m stifling my chuckles when she turns her icy stare towards me. “Wow!” I throw my hands up in defeat. “I did nothing.” Her glare slowly drops and turns into a smile. “What was that about anyway?” I ask, throwing my head over my shoulder.

“Oh, that?” She points before sliding my plate towards me. “That was Hella letting you know that he knows you’re fucking the biggest kingpin—Lord, God, the mother-fucking Buddha of the underground. Jesus, Millie, really? Are you invested in this guy or what? Talk to me.” She walks around the breakfast bar with her plate in her hand.

“I don’t know,” I say, biting into my pancake. “I mean,” I add around a mouthful of food; I’m all manners. “Do I care about him? Yes. Is his sexy time good? Yes—”

“I’m sorry,” Melissa blurts out, banging on her chest to calm her choking on her pancake. “Did you just say ‘sexy time’?” She reaches for the orange juice.

“Yeah, like Ali G. You used to make me watch it all the time when we were kids! Why are you laughing at my reference now?”

She takes a large gulp of her orange juice, a smile evident around the rim of the glass, before clearing her throat. “Because, honey, no one watches Ali G now, and it sort of slapped me out of the blue.”

“Melissa.” I shake my head. “When are you going to learn that I don’t care about what anyone else thinks?”

“You’re right.”

We both clean the rest of the food on our plates just as Hella comes back down the stairs in his full biker clothes. And by that I mean jeans, a black t-shirt, and his Devil’s cut hanging off of him. He nudges his head at me and Melissa. “Meet you ladies down there.” He walks towards Melissa and wraps his hands around the back of her thighs, lifting her into the air so her legs have to wrap around his waist. She giggles shamelessly and I pick up my juice again, taking a long drink to take my eyes off of their PDA.

Hella places her back down and slaps her loudly on the ass. Melissa yelps, jumping forward. I turn my eyes back to Hella with a smile.

“What’re you smiling at, puddin’?” He grins and walks out the kitchen. My face drops and my eyes fall to a knowing glare.

“Huh.” Melissa takes my plate and slowly scrapes the leftovers into the bin that sits under the sink. “What’s going on Melissa?”

“Hmmm?”

“What’s going on?”

“Shit,” she mutters, placing the plates into the sink. “Don’t be mad…”

“Spit it out.”

“Okay. Raze… wants Beast and Hella to agree to swap something of importance to this club—you—for something equally as important, Beast and Raze’s sister Ella, which by the way is fucking messed the fuck up. Just when I thought things could—”

“Melissa! First of all, calm down, I already know about the swap, but second of all, I am not of importance to this club, so why would Raze offer that?”

“Okay, um, shit…” Melissa blurts out. “So, you’re right. You aren’t of importance to the club. I mean, you weren’t…”

“Pardon? Can you hurry up and get to the point, because you’re giving me anxiety.”

“Raze doesn’t know this yet…”

“Know…” My eyes search around the room. “What?”

“Well,” Melissa says, placing the plates into the dishwasher. “You needed to be of importance to the club in order for this swap to work or else it would be unbalanced. Hella tried to say because you were my sister that you were family, but it didn’t work for Beast. It’s why he’s the president; the man drives a hard bargain.” She begins wiping down the kitchen counter with a paper towel. “At church last night, Frost had an idea…”

I cock my head. “What kind of idea?”

“Well, actually, it’s already been done and you have to trust me…”

“Trust you?” I blurt out. “How can I when you won’t even spit out what the hell you’re saying?”

“In order for this swap to happen, for you to be protected by the club and protected in this exchange and for the exchange to be balanced…” She pauses and I suck in my breath. “You had to become Frost’s old lady.”

The breath gets punched out of me all at once and I curl over. “Fuck!”

RAZE

My phone ringing in my pocket pulls my brain out of Avenged Sevenfold’s lyrics. Reaching in, I pull it out and slide it unlocked to answer. “Yeah?”

“Do you fucking know what you’ve just done?” Millie’s tone is hushed and urgent.

My eyebrows draw together and I pull the other earbud out of my ear before walking towards the bench where my towel is hanging.

“What’d I do now?” After squirting the cool water down the back of my throat, I pour some over my head.

“You have just turned me into club property.”

That gets my attention. “Wait, what?” I drop the water bottle.

“Yeah, that’s right. As of now, I’m Frost’s old lady because fucking balance!”

“Shit,” I whisper, and Millie starts cussing at me through the other line but I can’t hear what she’s saying because I’m already trying to do the math in my head. Why would they benefit from that? It doesn’t make sense. If anyone was at a loss here and at a disadvantage, it’d be me, so why do they give a fuck about whose old lady Millie is? My thoughts come back around and I can still hear Millie spewing profanities. “Calm—Babe, calm the fuck down. This is nothing. I need to know why the fuck Beast did that, though…” I shudder away my thoughts.

“Why he did this?” She laughs, and I know that laugh. That’s the kind of laugh that should put the fear of God into kids. “He did this, Raze, because of Melissa! My crazy fucking sister needed reassurance of my safety. She knows that the club won’t let me die if I belong to a brother, so she made Frost patch me as his old lady!”

“Are you wearing that patch?” I ask, my temper kicking up a notch.

“What?” Her tone drops slightly. “No.”

“Good.” I calm down a bit. “You won’t wear that, do you understand me? I need to call Beast. Oh, and Millie?”

“What!” she snaps and I smirk; I love that little fire that burns in her now.

“Be ready by tonight. I need this shit done once and for all.” Hanging up, I launch it across the room just as Miles enters and ducks, dodging the flying device.

“Whoa!” He laughs. “What’s happened now? What’s my little puddin’ doing to you?”

I rub my temples together. “She’s fucking patched in as Frost’s old lady.”

Miles’ face screws up. “What the fuck? Why? Do I need to kill him? ‘Cause I will.”

“No,” I say sternly. “No, we don’t want them as enemies, Miles, we need them with us.”

“Why?” Miles questions. “Explain why exactly we need them? I’m looking around here, and I don’t think we do!”

Exhaling, I shake my head. “Because, Miles. Imagine them as allies. I’ve thought long and hard about this, and although we have a lot of allies, we are going to lose a couple by the time this is over.”

“Speaking of…” Miles rubs his hands together. “When does this shit start?” His eyes beam up in excitement as he rolls up the sleeves of his suit.

“Doing the swap of the girls tonight and then we’ll hold the meeting tomorrow. How’s Cassia?”

“Fuck you. You owe me for this shit.”

I laugh, throwing my head back and tossing the towel over my shoulder. “I need to leave. Kurr has a mission for me today. Shouldn’t take long.”

“Oh, yeah?” Miles falls in behind me. “What job are you doing?”

“Some measly shit. Just straight execution, no fucking around.”

“So he wants you to be theatrical about it? You know, the mask and all?”

I pause halfway up the stairs. “Shut the fuck up, Miles.”

“Sorry!” He throws his hands up with a chuckle. “I was just curious.”

Bullshit. He just loves any chance he can get to give me shit. Walking into the kitchen, Ella comes back inside from playing with the dogs.