Resonance (Marauders #4) (23 page)

The doctors had been slightly surprised by how fast he was recovering, but he knew his body. He’d come back from worse, so he knew the different kinds of pain, when he could push himself, and when he was at risk of hurting himself. The pain wasn’t a problem for him; he could deal with pain. What he couldn’t deal with was sitting around and waiting.

“It makes you even sexier,” Billie said from where she was standing in the door, and he wondered how long she’d been standing there.

“Hey,” he said and reached for his t-shirt, slightly embarrassed that she’d caught him admiring his own body—or rather, the scar.

Billie came up to him and took the t-shirt from him. She slid her fingertips over the scar and reached up for a kiss. She was wearing her sweats, so he assumed she’d been working out in the basement.

“Did you wash properly?” she asked.

“What? Why are you asking?”

“Because I need a shower, and I thought that you might be willing to come with me.”

Instead of answering, he pulled off his boxer briefs and went back into the bathroom. Billie wasn’t far behind, and he pulled her into the shower with him.

“Want me to help you wash?” he asked. “Or I can just stand over here and look at you? That would be just as awesome.”

With a smile, she handed him a shampoo bottle. “I’d like you to help. I like your hands on me.”

“Yeah?” he asked as he took a step towards here. “Where?”

“Everywhere. Wherever you wanna touch me, I’m fine with it.”

He squeezed some shampoo into his hand, but quickly concluded that she probably needed more shampoo for her long hair than he did for his short. After putting the bottle back on the shelf, he pulled her out of the running water and started massaging it into her hair. She smiled widely, and he remembered how much she used to like it when Leah brushed her hair when she was a kid. She’d never been very cuddly or much for touching in general, but she’d always loved it when someone played with her hair.

“I’m not sure I’m doing this right,” he admitted.

He’d had a buzz cut his entire life, so he didn’t know the first thing about washing longer hair. He was willing to give it a try, though, and despite getting his fingers tangled in her long threads, she was nice enough to not complain.

“This is good.”

“Think I need more practice at this,” he mumbled and gave her a kiss.

“Maybe a little,” she agreed. “But I’m up for it. I like this.”

“If it gets me into a shower with you, I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it in no time.”

“Think you’ll do great with the rest of me, though,” she said, and handed him the soap.

Eagerly, he lathered up his hands and reached for her. Sliding his hands over her breasts and down over her marks—or
his
marks—he decided that the feeling of her wet, soapy body was possibly the best feeling he’d ever experienced, and her low groan suggested she thought it felt pretty damn good, too.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said and took a step closer to her to wash her back. The position meant he was close enough for her to feel his very hard dick against her. “I love you, Billie.”

“I love you, too,” she hummed. “Don’t stop.”

He let her rinse it all off and made sure it was all gone from his own hands, too, before he gently pushed her against the wall. Standing close to her, to make sure he could feel her wet naked body against him, he reached down to the apex of her legs and stroked her soft curls until he found her nub.

“Kiss me,” she said, and he leaned down, giving her a soft kiss before nibbling her lower lip. “God.”

The water was cascading down his back, and his front was firmly pressed against Billie’s body. She felt so good against him, just like she always did. Tommy found it unlikely that he’d ever get enough of her.

“Conditioner,” he said, and laughed when she groaned in frustration.

As he applied the conditioner, he couldn’t take his eyes off her face. The soft roundness of her jaw and chin, her wide mouth with a top and bottom lip that were equally full and in the same light pink shade as her nipples, and her slightly curved and quite wide nose. When she opened her eyes, he smiled.

“Sometimes when I look at you, I can’t understand why I wasn’t in love with you before,” he said. “It seems strange, and sometimes when I remember things from back then, they seem so different now. Not necessarily in bad way, but different. Like I’ve been missing the obvious for years.”

“I know what you mean.” She stepped into the water and bent her head back to rinse out the conditioner.

“So you feel the same?” he asked when she was done.

“Yeah. I know I wasn’t in love with you then, but it feels like I should’ve been.”

“Well, you know what they say, you grow wiser with age.” He held her flush against his body. “Besides, I didn’t know what you felt like, or even what you looked like naked.”

“Mmm,” she hummed against his chest. “True.”

Holding her hair, he tilted her hair back and kissed her, but this time he didn’t stop. He kept tasting her, licking into her mouth to feel her tongue against his, and sucking on her lips. When he lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around his hips, and slowly stroked her mound against his dick. He moved over to hold her against the wall. This was probably something he shouldn’t be doing, but as long she didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t mention it either. It didn’t hurt—much. Not enough for him to stop anyway.

“Steer me in,” he mumbled, and groaned with impatience when she, instead of doing what he’d asked, kept rubbing her wet slit over his dick. “Please, babe.”

She let out a muffled cry when he sank into her fully in one thrust. Her tight, wet channel flexed around his dick as he let her adjust to him.

“Move,” she finally mumbled. “Fuck me.”

“Shit, Munchkin,” he groaned. “You can’t say things like that the first five minutes while I’m inside of you.”

He started slowly, rocking carefully into her to feel as much of her as possible, but it soon felt impossible to not slam himself into her as deep as he could go with each thrust, and he moved away from the wall. He needed his own weight to keep her in place without hurting himself, and he needed to fuck her properly.

“What?” she groaned. “Where are you going?”

“Putting you on the counter. I like to fuck you when you’re sitting on things,” he answered as he carefully stepped out of the shower and took the few steps needed to be able to seat her.

They were both dripping all over the floor, but right then he didn’t care. He wanted to come. It felt like he’d been needing it since the failed attempt to get some when they woke up that morning and Felix ran in and jumped on their bed. Still, it was just a question of time before someone came looking for them, since they’d start missing them at the dinner table soon, and he wasn’t gonna be interrupted twice in one day.

When Billie bit down on his shoulder and let out a muffled cry, he pulled her closer, and buried himself in her.

“Damn, you feel perfect around me,” he mumbled. “I’m close.”

He felt his balls tighten right along with Billie, who was still muffling her ever-increasing cries against his shoulder. With a firm grip around her waist, and the other hand at the back of her head, he slammed into her the last few times until he emptied himself inside of her with a restrained groan.

Then he stood still, hugging her closely and feeling her pulsate around his dick for a while before leaning back to see her face.

“Love you,” he said.

“Love you, too,” she smiled. “Think I need to rinse off again.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, and pulled out of her before helping her down from the counter. “Think I’ll need that, too. Then we should probably head downstairs.”

“What is it with us and bathrooms?” Billie asked once they were back in the shower.

“It’s not just bathrooms.”

“There’s been a lot of bathrooms.”

He pulled her closer and gave her a kiss. “It’ll change when we have a bedroom in our own house. And I think it’s all those half-dressed quick fucks. I like you naked, and that’s why I want to take any chance I can to see you. Hence the bathrooms.”

“Okay.” She smiled and put her arms around his neck, and he loved feeling her naked body against his—he couldn’t get enough of it. “Think I’m starting to look forward to living with you.”

“You’re just after my body,” he chuckled. “You love it.”

“You’re the one who just said you wanted to see me naked as much as possible. Besides, I admit it because you have a nice body, and a
very
nice cock.”

“All yours, baby,” he said smacked her ass. “Get out of the shower and get dressed before we get stuck in here for another half hour. That ass is perfection.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Two and a Half Minutes

~oOo~

WHEN TOMMY ENTERED THE kitchen, Felix was the only one in there. He was sitting by the table having his breakfast with a big smile. It was fascinating to see how the kid ‘discovered’ eating when it had become something that wasn’t as rigorously controlled. Tommy knew that Billie and Leah had done what they could to not make it into a big deal, but it had been anyway. It wasn’t like they could hide from Felix that his food wasn’t the same as theirs, or how they had to keep control over everything he put in his mouth. Even if there were still restrictions, it wasn’t anything close to what it used to be, and Felix’s food had a lot more
taste
than it used to. Tastes he really seemed to enjoy.

Something else Tommy had noticed was that they were close in a new way after the surgery—a very special way. He hadn’t known Felix for long, but they’d managed to establish some kind of relationship fairly quickly, probably because they both made an effort, but what they had now felt like something unique. He’d literally given a part of himself to Felix, and that felt… huge.

He leaned over him and gave his cheek a kiss.

“Hey, Champ. How are you?”

“Good,” Felix answered with a big smile. “I’m having chocolate milk.”

“Tasty?”

“Yes! I can only have one glass, but Mommy said I can have another tomorrow, too.”

“Sounds awesome. Any other plans for today?”

Felix shook his head. “Can we work on your bike when you get back?”

“Absolutely,” Tommy answered.

Mac and Mitch had often talked about how they remembered working with Brick on his bike, and he knew Dawg was doing it with his kids, too. He wanted those memories for Felix; it was something just for the two of them, and it had been since the first time they’d done it.

“Think Mommy will let me ride with you soon?” he asked.

“I’ll talk to her,” Tommy answered with a chuckle.

He had no idea how to spin that one, but he wanted to make it happen. He should probably ask when Billie was in a really good mood, though. Maybe after a shower.

*

Tommy was at the clubhouse by ten thirty, and sat down with a newspaper he found lying around and a cup of coffee, while he waited for Brick and Mitch. He had a feeling Brick’s decision to bring him was simply to make him feel like he was contributing, but he was okay with that. He needed to feel that he was doing
something
, even if it was just standing around and flexing his muscles in front of a crooked police detective.

He was surprised when he saw Mace come stumbling through the hallway, clearly hung over as hell. Then he figured it out.

“Where’s Kathleen?” he asked.

If Mace had spent the night at the clubhouse, it was because his old lady, Kathleen, was away, and it was quite possible she was somewhere highly unsafe. Judging by Mace’s hangover, that was the case, and Tommy was right.

“Africa somewhere. She’s fine. She hired some badass bodyguards for when she goes to the more unstable areas, but she’s mostly in some UN camp interviewing women. They’re pretty well guarded.”

He wasn’t as sure as Mace about the safety of the UN camps, but he figured there wasn’t any point in mentioning it. He was pretty sure Kathleen knew that, too, if she was working in them, and if she didn’t want Mace to know, Tommy didn’t want to be the one bursting the bubble. Mace probably knew anyway; Kathleen wasn’t much for working safe areas.

“Ah,” he smiled. “Thought you getting pissdrunk might’ve had something to do with her being away.”

“No, and I wasn’t that drunk. This here,” Mace pointed at his face, “is just about being old. So you’ve got something to look forward to.”

“Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome,” Mace said and reached for the coffee pot. “With only one kidney, it might even be faster.”

“Spreading the joy. So kind of you.”

“You know me, the Marauders’ very own ray of sunshine. How’s the kid?”

“Fine,” Tommy answered. “He’s doing great. Looks good, no signs of rejection or anything.”

“That’s great.”

Tommy looked at Mace who seemed to be settling in nicely by the bar with a magazine. Probably one with one of Kathleen’s articles in it; Mace wouldn’t bother with a magazine otherwise. Tommy shook his head. “Do you
ever
get to work on time?”

“No. Not really. Perks of being older and all that. We get ugly as fuck, but we’re expected to be slower.”

Mitch came to pick Tommy up not five minutes later, and Brick was already straddling his bike outside. They were meeting at a diner just outside Greenville. Tommy was surprised to see Roach on his bike and nodded towards him with a quizzical brow to Mitch.

“Think Dad wants to test him out,” Mitch explained.

“At something like this? Doubt there’s any trouble.”

“Think it’s more in the
does he know when to keep his fucking mouth shut
area. And how he deals with the law.”

That made more sense, but given how many words the kid had spoken so far, Tommy found it hard to believe he would chat away in front of a cop. On a ranking list of how much different groups hated cops, street kids were above bikers, without a doubt. In general, there was probably no other group of people who had less reason to trust any part of the government than street kids.

The diner they were going to was called Rick’s Diner and looked like most of them did. They took a booth, and not five minutes later Gordon walked inside. He sat down with them, and looked at Roach.

“Who’s the new star?” he asked Brick.

“Does it matter?” Mitch asked him in return.

They waited until their orders arrived, just coffee for all of them, and then Brick looked at Gordon, who put a file on the table.

“I don’t get why you don’t just get this info yourself,” Gordon said to Mitch. “Not like you don’t have access to all the databases anyway.”

“It’s nice to know that you know me, and sure, I’m an all-access kind of guy, but I like meeting you, Gordon,” Mitch answered with a big smile. “I just love our little chats. Don’t you?”

“Fuck you.” Gordon slid a file across the table to Brick. “It hasn’t gone unnoticed, if that’s what you thought. Five patched-over clubs in less than a year makes people take notice.”

“And?”

“And nothing. They’re keeping an eye on you. It’s not illegal to patch over clubs—yet. They assume you want a presence on the west coast as well. Another guess is that your sudden friendliness with Smiling Ghouls is because you wanted their permission to expand so close to their territories. The Amsterdam trip was either something to seal the bond or finding new markets. Even if it’s a US club, it’s not a big secret that their Dutch clubs are the moneymakers—not that they can prove how. The Dutch authorities aren’t big on helping, either. They’ve developed a serious case of ignorance as far as outlaw bikers go.”

Tommy assumed it was good news. If they thought the only reason they went to Amsterdam was to ‘seal the bond’ it meant they might not have picked up on the fact that the Marauders were smuggling more goods over the border and through the US than ever before.

“Anything about surveillance?” Brick asked.

The file was already off the table and presumably in Mitch’s bag. Brick often referred to it as Mitch’s
man-bag,
and Mitch kept saying it wasn’t a fucking man-bag. Tommy had to give it to Brick: it was a bag, and it was carried around by a man, so
man-bag
was an appropriate term. It was just a black canvas bag, with a shoulder strap, so it wasn’t anything special. If it hadn’t been for Brick’s comments, Tommy wouldn’t even have noticed it.

“No surveillance,” Gordon answered Brick’s question. “Some ATF agent tried, but no one would sign it. They’re more interested in the Ghouls, and she figured she could get them through you, but from what I heard, no one thought it would work. They don’t think you’re doing actual business with them. The assumption is that they’re in guns and women, while you’re into other things.”

“What other things?” Brick asked.

“Pot,” Gordon said and took a sip from his coffee.

That meant that the diamond muling was still something no one knew about. Tommy was surprised that they’d managed to keep it a secret for over two fucking decades. Bikers and diamonds was probably not a connection a lot of people made, though. The value in those tiny fucking stones made it important that it wasn’t well known, since it made them targets for so many worse things than the cops. With pot, the main competition was unorganized street gangs, and even if those could cause trouble enough, the competition with diamonds and heavier drugs was a lot more difficult.

Brick sent Gordon away without letting him finish his coffee. After a quick look on his mobile, he stood up. He pointed at the table.

“Leave a nice tip. I like the waitress here,” he said.

Tommy suspected the reason Brick liked the waitress was her huge tits and pretty face, but he did as Brick had asked. Not even Roach objected, and he left a few bills next to his cup.

“Let’s go welcome Crank and Dig,” Brick continued. “I wanna talk to someone who doesn’t make me need a shower.”

~oOo~

“WE’RE LIKE AN ARMY of blonde women,” Mom said with a happy voice, and she wasn’t completely wrong. She looked at Violet. “Except you, honey, but I suspect you’re blonde under all that violet.”

“Um… Sort of,” Violet answered. “I haven’t seen it in years, actually, but the roots look a little blonde.”

Besides Mom, Violet, and me, it was Mel and Eliza. Eliza was only going to be with us until her theater rehearsals. I hadn’t talked much to her before, and in a way I still wasn’t. Mom and she were pretty much talking enough for all of us.

I’d never understood what it was about Mom and connecting to young women, but she’d always been like that. A lot of my friends had been really close to her, which at times had been a little awkward. She claimed I’d inherited those traits, which was part of the reason she’d thought I would fit at the veterans’ center, but even if I had some of it, it was far from her skills.

So naturally, Eliza and she had hit it off immediately. It had started with a comment about Mom’s fancy handbag, and it continued from there to Mom pretty much finding out everything about Eliza’s life in less than thirty minutes. Probably not
everything
, but quite a lot. Some of it even seemed to surprise Mel—like Eliza’s dream of becoming a scriptwriter or a playwright.

After the second house, Mom turned to the rest of us.

“I don’t know about you girls, but I need a break and some iced tea. This heat is killing me.”

“It’s good, though,” Mel said. “That way we’ll find out if the ACs in the houses are worth a damn.”

It would also mean I took a good look at any house with a good AC just to get some relief from the blazing June sun. Or at least didn’t hate it immediately. I wasn’t sure I was truly needed for the inspections. Mom and Mel were in perfect control, but not in a bad way. Violet was a surprising companion, but she had an eye for details and seemed to be very good at seeing possibilities, which was probably why Mel had brought her along. I felt sorry for her, though; she was almost full term in her pregnancy, and traipsing around in the heat had to be torture for her. While we were having our iced tea, I finally had to ask her,

“Why are you doing this? It has to be horrible for you.”

“It’s not so bad, and I’m kind of hoping it’ll get the whole thing started,” she answered and stroked her belly with a smile.

“This is your second?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

Eliza leaned over and gave the bulge a kiss. “It’s a girl. I just know it’s a girl. We don’t get enough girls. I just don’t get why you didn’t find out. You did for the first one.”

“I’d like to be surprised this time,” Violet smiled. She looked through the window. “Isn’t that Miriam?”

“Oh shit!” Eliza yelled and started to collect her things. “I texted her to meet me here. We have rehearsals.”

“Now?” Mel asked with an eye on her watch. “I thought it was at four?”

“We’re gonna work on the costumes first.” She leaned down and gave her mother’s cheek a kiss. “I’ll see you tonight. Love you.”

“Love you, honey, take care.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you both,” Eliza said to my mom and me. She did it with a big smile on her bright red lips. Her smile was as radiant as her mother’s. It reminded me of something I’d read once about someone smiling like the universe had kissed them. It was from one of those Sci-Fi series Zach had made me read, probably ‘The Expanse’ series, but I wasn’t sure. I remembered it because I’d thought it was beautiful, and I’d wished I could smile that nicely and happily. Eliza sure could.

“Good luck with the house hunting,” she said to me, still smiling. “I’ll think of you as I rock the stage with my vigorous performance.”