Shattered & Scarred: The Sacred Hearts MC (18 page)

She dragged my face down to hers and kissed me deeply with the taste of herself still on my mouth and I swear to god I stiffened just that much more inside her. She felt like sin made flesh with no barriers between us. I knew I was clean and
at this point I didn’t give a fuck. I didn’t have to worry about pregnancy, and fucked if I was going to let that slide when it came to her ex either, but for now, right now, none of that bull shit mattered. Not one fucking tiny iota because right now it was just me and my girl and I wanted her to feel
good
.

I set a fast but gentle rhythm, thrusting without slamming into her. I hooked one
of her legs high over my hip and held it there, keeping my weight off of her by bracing my other arm on the bed. She stared me in the eyes, lips parted, gasping for breath, expression filled with love and lust and I grinned savagely. God she was perfect! The sun to my moon, fire to my ice, she was just fucking everything to me and I poured that into my body, into moving over her and inside her into loving the ever living shit out of her.

“One more time B
aby, come for me one more time.” I moaned into her ear and she cried out, her walls clenching around me, milking my cock. I groaned and went over the edge with her, feeling my cock jerk in counterpoint to her body’s grip.

S
he was, just… so…
perfect
.

We came back to earth slowly, holding each other. She stared at me with her ethereal eyes and I stared back.

“What are we going to do?” she asked softly.

“You don’t worry ‘bout that.” I kissed her forehead and her eyes drifted shut.

“I can’t go through that again.” She whispered brokenly and it wrenched at my heart.

“I know babe, I know.” I held her tighter against me and thought hard on what could be done.
I sighed and cuddled her close.

“I’m here Ashton.” I whispered into the dimming room and was met with a
sigh that was one part contentment and one part relief.

Ashton…

“Lake run next week right?” Reaver asked I turned from my place at the sink and looked at them both with apprehension. The last run was only two weeks ago and my husband sent those people pretending to be detectives. The phone had rung in the shop the next day and I had answered it. Chadwick’s cultured voice had crackled over the line, he’d said,

“You see how easy it would be? He can’t protect you forever Ashton. You belong to me and I keep what’s mine…”

I’d slammed the phone down and Zander had taken one look at my face and yelled for Ethan. I’d told them what had happened and Ethan had snorted, going as still and cold as Death himself and said he’d like to see Chadwick try.

Now, a
bubble of panic was rising in my chest but Ethan knew and was already undoing the effects of Reaver’s innocuous question.

“A lake run is different baby, you go too. Happens twice a year, once in the late spring, early summer, and one at the end of summer before the kids go back to school. We make the day’s ride out to the cabin and lodge out at Lake
Eversong. It’s one of the club’s legit business ventures. We take over the lake, party, live music and barbeque, some fun in the sun and swimming. It’s a blast.” His silver eyes smiled at me from the table where he and Reaver sat while I fixed breakfast.

“Sounds like I need a swimsuit.” I murmured and both of them smiled bigger.

“Yeah you do! A two piece. Preferably something really slutty.” Reaver gave a sidelong look at Ethan who was glaring at him, “You know, because Trigger would like that.” Reaver finished. I laughed.

“You get what you want babe, I love you any way you look.” Ethan said and I felt a surge of love myself for the man. He looked absolutely delicious sitting there, jeans riding low on his hips, shirtless, hair in a wild blonde mane around his face making his light eyes seem even lighter.

I finished making the coffee. It was a work out day and so breakfast would come later. The boys measured out their protein shakes or whatever while I went and changed. Over the last two weeks Ethan and I had grown closer. He had gone cell phone shopping with me the day after he’d come home from the run and I was still trying to figure everything out on the fancy smart phone.

We hadn’t been parted for more than eight hours in all that time, and the time he had spent away from me was spent
dealing with club politics. He was trying to work out a deal with other chapters of the MC, over what I didn’t know and the fact that he wouldn’t talk to me about it and seemed even more stressed out than usual was very telling to me that it was not going well.

I came back out of my bedroom where I still kept all my clothes and found
Reaver and Ethan waiting. I took up my yoga mat which was propped by the door and went out with them. The sun was shining and the birds were singing and the trees were a riot of green. Spring may have come in like a lamb but it was going to go out like a lion. I scanned the parking lot as I went down the stairs looking for anything out of place.

We had come to the conclusion that my husband had sent people to watch us. How else woul
d he have known Ethan was gone, to send those two men? The police were sure that one of them was an officer or related to one somehow but they had yet to catch anyone. Reports had been filed and a lawyer contacted. God knew how I was going to be able to afford one if Dragon and the club hadn’t stepped in to help. I wanted a divorce but they didn’t come cheap or easy.

“We
gotta get you a car Sunshine.” Ethan groaned when the old truck he borrowed from Dragon didn’t turn over right away. It finally fired up, backfired which made me jump and we pulled out of the lot to head to the ‘Y’.

Hayden met me at the door and was nearly jumping out of her skin. She and I had made fast friends after my second time to yoga, and Ethan had even taken me to meet her for a lunch date. Staying out in the parking lot smoking his e-cigarette, talking or playing games on his phone, patiently waiting for me. Hayden had thought it was weird and I agreed that it was but then I had explained about when he’d gone on his run and her compassion for my situation took over.

“He finally asked me!” she squealed at me excitedly and thrust her left hand in my face. I squealed in delight with her and looked at the ring, a simple band of white gold with a diamond solitaire set in it. Reaver and Ethan exchanged looks and rolled their eyes, but they were smiling, well Ethan was, Reaver’s face was shuttered and his eyes distant and cool.

Hayden and her boyfriend had been together for three years and she had confessed she was growing unhappy, that she really wanted him to propose so she could take that next step with him into forever. I’d sighed, she was twenty-four. I had been married t
wo years by that age. It took me until I was thirty to escape and find my prince charming, the man I felt I was really supposed to be with. I smiled at Ethan and he smiled back.

I
shared in my new friend’s joy despite my own misgivings, which, truth be told, were likely just a byproduct of my own story. My own insecurities and damage… I turned and waved at Reaver and Ethan. Ethan’s smile got wider and my whole world suffused with warmth, the dark clouds of my past scudding quickly overhead and off into the distance again.

I love you,
he mouthed at me as Hayden hauled me around the corner and into the yoga class room so we could set up. She was already asking about colors and flowers and gushing about venues she’d been thinking about. I wasn’t even sure that she’d set a date with him yet! I listened patiently, smiling and nodding until the instructor for today’s class took her place at the front of the room.

We were set up near the pool and so the class was accompanied by the sounds of water and the ethereal piped in music. I rolled out my mat and took off my shoes and breathed deep the warm humid air that brought with it the
chemical tang of chlorine. The class began and my focus honed inward. I breathed, deeply and evenly, following the cadence of the instructors soothing voice as she took us fluidly from one pose to the next. My world narrowed to the beat of my heart, ebb and flow of air in my lungs and the rush of blood through my veins. Peace descended on me, a warm blanket insulating me from all of the chaos swirling outside these moments.

The class ended and I felt centered and refreshed. I opened my eyes and we did our traditional exit ritual. I rolled up my mat and was sitting putting my shoes and socks back on and I turned to say something to Hayden.

A
shout from out in the weights area and a crash had all the heads in the class room turning as one.

“Son of a bitch!”
Reaver’s voice… adrenaline surged in my body and I barely heard Hayden say,

“Ashton stay here!”
but my feet were already carrying me to the door out into the rest of the facility.

“
Ahhhhhh!” I heard an angry male grunt and rounded the corner to see Reaver sitting on a wiry man’s back. Another, burly man lay sprawled on his back on the carpet. Ethan stood over that man, bleeding from a cut over his eyebrow. He looked down on the man dispassionately, that icy cold faraway look on his face that he sometimes woke up with after one of his nightmares. I shivered.

“Cops on their way?”
Reaver asked one of the gym attendants. The man nodded mutely and I looked back down to Reaver on the floor. He had a reckless grin on his face, turned rictus and frightening by the coat of blood on his teeth. The glint of his blue eyes was cold and something all around horrifying. I swallowed hard. I’d never seen my friend this way, and if at all possible I never wanted to see him this way again.

“Ashton!” Ethan said sharply and I looked up at him blinking. He hadn’t moved from his place above the unconscious man but his gaze had shifted to where I stood. I was under the impression that this wasn’t the first time he’d called my name.

“Go back to your yoga classroom.” He said. An arm went around me and I jumped and let out a little yip of surprise.

“It’s just me!” Hayden said and I looked over into her green eyes, the color of new spring leaves.

“He’s going to get you! You stupid bitch! Only a matter of time, he has the money and the power and he’s going to find you!” the man Reaver was sitting on screamed at me, tauntingly and it dawned on me what was going on. These men, Chadwick had sent them.

“Shut up!”
Reaver snarled and bounced the man’s head off the carpeted floor. The man cursed and started struggling anew. I started shaking. Hayden led me into the women’s locker room.

“What happened?” I asked and my voice came out a ghost of a whisper.

“I don’t know Sweetheart,” she said, “I’m sure the boys will come get us and tell us after the police get here.” I nodded the careful calm I’d spent an hour cultivating and had just achieved minutes ago cracked but held true in the face of the current predicament. My heart thudded heavy in my chest and my hands shook with the effects of the adrenaline but I was okay. I was okay and Ethan was okay and Reaver was okay. I closed my eyes.

“I really hate that man.” I murmured.

“Who is he?” Hayden asked, taken aback and misunderstanding.

“Not the man in the next room, I don’t know who he is, I’m talking about Chadwick.” I opened my eyes and stood up. The man’s screaming was growing fainter as he was dragged out the front of the building. I assumed by the police.

I went out into the hall and spotted Ethan giving a statement to a uniformed police officer. Reaver was talking to an officer of his own. I went to Ethan and slipped my hand in his where it hung at his side. He pulled me against his side and kissed the top of my head.

“Where were you?” the police officer asked me.

“She was in yoga class with me.” Hayden said, her arms crossed over her stomach.

“And you are?” the police officer asked.

“Hayden Michaels.” I tuned out the rest of their conversation. Ethan’s hand smoothed up and down my arm, warming the chill that stole over me. My gaze had been captured by the small black and white monitor behind the reception wrap in the lobby where an attendant was replaying the security footage from the weight room.

The two men stood in the
doorway and had said something to Ethan and Reaver. Reaver hefted the weight and put it back on the rack. He said something back to the men and sat up. The men exchanged looks and stepped into the room. They spoke back and forth. Ethan said nothing, letting Reaver do all the talking. Ethan studied the two men who looked like bikers too, but not like Sacred Heart men. No these men looked rougher, sinister. The smaller one, twitchy, brandished a short length of pipe. Finally the men flew at Reaver and Ethan who stood empty handed. I jumped as Ethan put up an arm to block an incoming length of chain. The chain wrapped around his thick forearm, the bend in it connecting, glancing off his eyebrow as it swung round. 

Ethan pulled the man forward by the chain, his opposite hand plowing forward into the man’s face and the man dropped lik
e a stone. The skinny man had the pipe and swung at Reaver who dodged the pipe but caught the man’s other fist in his mouth. He pulled back and grinned and twisted the man’s wrist savagely. The pipe dropped and Reaver wrestled him to the ground.

I looked up at Ethan but he was looking down at me, his eyes slowly warming as he came back from where ever he’d went. What did the men want, why were they there? I searched for answers on my lover’s face and found none though I was certain he’d read my questions clearly.

The police officer left us and Reaver came over. The police held a little powwow of their own by reception.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Those guys? They were pussies.” Reaver looked like he was going to spit on the floor but Hayden made a noise and he thought better of it.

“What was that all about?” she asked and the men both looked at me.

“They were looking for a fight, trying to get us arrested.” Ethan stated.

“Why?” Hayden frowned.

Because the honeymoon was over… The media frenzy had died down surrounding Chadwick and now it was time for retribution. The thoughts and emotions must have gone across my face like a reader board.

“Hey B
abe no worries.” Reaver said, smile one sided.

“We aren’t ones to lose our cool.” Ethan said.

“Helps that I’m one majorly annoying prick and got them to attack first.” Reaver grinned and I couldn’t help myself, I gave a little laugh. Hayden frowned at him.

“I’m not sure that’s a brag-worthy quality.” She commented dryly.

“Worked this time.” He shrugged and she frowned harder.

“What now?” I whispered but before they could answer the police came over to us.

“These two,” he said jerking a thumb over his shoulder, “Say they have no idea who Chadwick Granger is.” He frowned, “They say they belong to The Laughing Skulls. Isn’t that a rival of your guys’?” he asked.

Reaver
cocked an eyebrow, “Never even heard of such an MC,” he said and Ethan looked equally confused.

“Well
that’s what they say. The surveillance system doesn’t have audio but it’s pretty clear who attacked who. You’re free to go, try to stay out of anymore trouble for a while.” He wrote down a final note in his little book and walked away.