Chapter Ten
Roman
The sounds of several motorcycles echo through the air as we watch Oz and his boys pull through the gate. They park their bikes and remove their helmets, their cuts proudly stating they’re The Hell’s Bastards. Oz reaches his hand out to Leo, giving it a firm shake. “What in the hell is all this shit?”
“Man, I’m sorry, our new CO is a real prick and I hate they’ve pulled you into this,” Leo tells him.
“Exactly what is this?” Cruz asks, taking Leo’s hand next.
“A whole bunch of fucked up shit,” Matty adds, making the rounds too. “Dex, hey, man. Mose.” He nods to each of the men.
Leo turns and Oz moves with him as we all make our way back into the clubhouse.
“What the hell?” Eno asks, making us stop and turn to see all the SUVs of our women pull through the gate.
Avery’s the first to jump out, waving wildly at us. “Hey, boys.” The rest of her posse unloads from the two vehicles behind hers.
“Please God, tell me they brought some single friends with them,” Mose says, laughing. I cut my eyes to him, shaking my head.
“What the hell are y’all doing here?” Leo asks as he takes the bags from Avery, who also has a baby Gia propped up on her hip.
“We brought food, and by the looks of it, it’s a good thing we brought so much.” She looks around at the four extra men standing with us. “Hey, fellas,” she greets them.
“Avery.” Oz tips his head to her.
Leo takes a deep breath. “I think you all know our ladies, but Josie and Tessa,” he tells Oz and his crew, but I notice Cruz is staying back with his face tipped down.
“Nice to meet you, ladies. This is Mose, Dex, and Cruz.” Mose and Dex shake both of the women’s hands, but Cruz stays in the back, keeping his head down.
“Hey, I’m Tessa.” The petite blonde walks up to the man, holding her hand out to him.
Oz punches him. “Don’t be fucking rude, man.” Finally, he holds up his hand for Tessa and Josie to shake.
Josie tilts her head to the side, eyeing Cruz’s face heavily. “You look so familiar to me.” Then her eyes go wide and her mouth forms a perfect O. “He works for that man.” She’s almost in a panic as she rips her hand from Cruz’s and runs for Eno.
“What’s up with you, baby?” Eno looks down at Josie as she wraps herself around him in fear.
“He works for that man who kidnapped me,” she shrieks, pointing back behind her at a shocked Cruz.
I watch as the veil of anger is pulled down over Eno’s face. He tucks her behind him, balling his hands into fists as he rushes toward Cruz, who’s backing up with his hands held up in surrender.
“Hold up, man, wait—,” Before he can get his plea out, Eno clocks him in the side of the head, the blow jerking his big body around and throwing it to the ground. Eno doesn’t waste any time, jumping on the man lying on the ground, landing punch after punch on Cruz.
“Fuck.” Leo shoves the bags into Piper’s hands as he and I lunge into action, going to separate the two men. It takes four of us to pull them apart. Eno’s still swinging while Oz and Leo drag him back from Cruz, who Dalton and I are holding up, bloody and beaten. Leo wraps his strong arms around Eno. “Would you quit your shit for a fucking minute and let us explain.” A crying Josie comes to help calm Eno down.
Caden and Jax, along with Gia, are all three crying. “Ladies, get the kids and food inside,” I tell them, picking up some of the items that had been dropped in the chaos. I follow them to the door, handing off what I have in my hands to Hollis as they escort a visibly upset Josie through the door.
I drag a camp chair over to place a little worse for wear Cruz in. “I don’t need that fucking thing,” he says as he wipes his face free of the blood and dirt with his T-shirt.
Eno throws his brother’s arms off of him, wiping the blood running from his nose with his busted-up hand. “What the fuck do you mean, let us explain?” He’s turned his anger on his brother and is up in his face.
Leo takes a step back, putting some much-needed space between him and his younger brother. He nods back to the door. “Let’s go to the table room, I’ll tell you there.” Leo walks past him, knocking into Eno with his shoulder, making him stumble a little bit, still rattled from his anger.
~~~~~~
Hollis
“What the hell was that all about?” I ask as I place the bags on the kitchen counter.
“I don’t know, but Eno ripped into Cruz like a mad man,” Piper says, standing beside me, and we both turn to look at Josie who Emily deposits on one of the stools at the island and hands her a box of tissues.
She looks up at us as we wait for her to explain what the hell she started out in the parking lot. She sniffs a couple of times, wiping her nose. “He was working with that man who kidnapped me because of my father last year. He was one of the ones assigned to watch me when I was bound and lying on the floor in that warehouse.”
“There’s no way, Josie. You must be mistaken. Cruz is a good guy, I’ve known him for years.” I lean into the island, catching her bloodshot eyes with mine.
She stands up, coming around to me. “It was him, Hollis.” Her voice is steady, and she sounds so sure of herself.
“Okay, hold on a second.” Avery holds her hands up in the air, narrowing her eyes at all of us. “I’m getting ready to divulge some information that could get Leo in trouble, so not a fucking word leaves this room.” We all nod our acceptance. “Cruz was planted to protect you. He was there to make sure you were brought home safe.”
Josie slumps back against the counter, her eyes far away, going back through that day’s events. Avery places her hand on Josie’s arm. “Honey, you were sleep deprived, hungry, and scared out of your mind, and you thought you’d lost Eno. Yes, he was there, but your view of the events that afternoon were seen through fear. He’s the one who brought you back here to the clubhouse for medical attention.”
The room falls silent as Josie works through the events of that horrific weekend, living the fear she felt all over again. I watch as she fights to come to terms with what she saw and what actually happened. I never knew Cruz was there with her, but now I know why. The question is, why that information had been kept from Eno.
~~~~~~
Roman
“Cruz was planted because he was thought to be the least visible and we needed to flush the man who was responsible out,” Leo explains to a bloody Eno and the rest of us the details of a case. “Only the ones that needed to know, knew.”
Eno jumps to his feet. “That was my woman. I think I should’ve fucking known.”
Leo, for the first time, doesn’t fly to anger but looks at his brother with an almost sympathetic look on his face. He holds up his hands and lets his little brother work through his anger about the whole fucked up situation, which seems to be all we’re dealing with these days. “I know, brother. I thought the same thing and fought for it, but in the end, I was told what to do, and unfortunately, it was not to let you in on the whole thing.”
Cruz sits silently to my left. I give him a nod, letting him know that I was grateful for what he’d done for Josie.
Oz taps the table. “I agreed with them. The less who knew, the better. The more we,” he uses his thumb to point at himself, Mose, and Dex, “could move through public and bring back the information being fed to us by Cruz.”
I furrow my brows. “And this was the agency’s idea too?”
“Yes,” Leo answers.
“So the agency thought it would be better to trust this information to a bunch of outlaw bikers instead of their own agents?” Cowboy asks, sitting up to look at the Bastards. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Mose replies. “I would be worried if you didn’t ask that question.” He smiles down the table at the big man whose features are set in stone.
“They did.” Leo’s vagueness with his answers and his solemn demeanor has me worried that there’s more to this than what he and Oz are telling us, but now isn’t the time to ask or dredge up more than what we’re already dealing with. The explanations that are being given are enough for the moment to hopefully appease Eno.
The younger of the Tucker’s sits back down in his seat, but his face is still a mask of anger and deceit.
“Are we good here, because we have a ton more shit we have to deal with today?” Leo asks a still seething Eno, who looks down the table to Cruz, who throws up his hands up in a ‘what could I have done’ gesture.
“For now.” He leans back in his chair, wiping his bloody knuckles off on his jean clad thighs.
Leo sighs as he stands up. “Let’s go pacify the women before we get into the other shit.”
Dex shoots up from his chair with a smile on his face. “I’m always ready to eat.” The once skinny, drugged out man has put on weight, muscle weight, and looks healthier than I’ve ever seen him.
I grab Cruz’s arm, making him tense up. “Hey, man.” I give Dex a chin lift. “What’s up with your man?”
“We sent his dumbass to rehab, told him he was out of the club if it didn’t stick this time.” He shakes my hand off.
“Is it sticking?” I ask him.
“It seems to be.” He walks out of the room and down the hall where the women wait on us, all looking a bit anxious.
When Hollis sees me, she runs into my arms. “Is everything all right?” she whispers.
I place my lips against the top of her head and nod, knowing she can feel it. I lead her, along with the others, into the kitchen to fill our plates and take our place at the large dining table we’d purchased a couple of months ago. It’s a tight fit, but we make it work.
There are a lot of glances thrown around the table between Josie, Eno, and Cruz. After several ‘eat shit’ looks, Cruz drops his fork. “Okay, listen, I’m sorry I hit you, Josie. I didn’t want to, I knew I would pay for it the minute I did it. But I had to get us both the hell out of there and you were freaking the fuck out, remember that?” He looks at Eno, daring him to say something. The whole table stops, no one interfering, knowing this has to be done. “I was under orders to protect her, and me knocking her out and getting her away from that man is what I had to do.”
Josie slowly wipes her mouth and moves to stand, but Eno grabs her hand. “What are you doing?”
She smiles and lays her hand on his shoulder, silently telling him what she intends to do. Walking around the table, she wraps her arms around a stunned Cruz. “Thank you.”
Not knowing how to react, the uncomfortable man removes himself from Josie’s arms and stands to reach across the table, holding out his hand to Eno. Eno stands and looks to Josie for guidance before taking the man’s hand, giving it a hard shake. “Thanks, man.” Eno throws his head back in the direction of the parking lot. “And sorry about that, but you understand?” Eno jerks his hand away, and I do understand, but I’m not sure Cruz does. Josie gives Cruz another hug before taking her seat again beside Eno. The chatter around the table begins again, and everything falls back to normal, as much as it can for now.
~~~~~~
Roman
After another long ass day, I walk through the door to find Hollis once again asleep in my recliner, in one of my shirts. I long for a day when I can sit in that thing after putting a day in at the security business with her on my lap, enjoying a calm night at home with my woman, maybe surrounded by a few kids.
I love my job, being a DEA agent. It’s right in line for an adrenaline junkie like me. But my age and the dangers that weren’t out there ten years ago are threating what I’m trying to build inside these four walls. And the fact that neither Hollis or I are getting any younger, and seeing Tessa all blowed up with the twins, makes me want that, what she and Matty have, more and more.
I have enough money to keep us comfortable until we die, so it’s not that. But I know it’s time to figure out what I want more in life: a job that’s gotten me and my woman shot, or a life of mowing the yard in knee-high socks with plaid shorts on.
I shake my head and quietly walk past Hollis to the kitchen, needing some Jack. I pour myself a glass and sit down at the island. The kitchen is spotless, and living with a woman who cleans for a living has its perks. Hollis doesn’t need to work, I’ve told her as much, but she insists. Her adamant protests when I’d told her makes me smile. She has a fire in her soul, and the longer she and I are together, I’m starting to see the woman I’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
The Hell’s boys had crashed at the clubhouse, sleeping in the rooms we rarely ever used anymore. I’d like to say those were the good old days, and some of them were, the ones I’d spent with Hollis, laying naked in that bed were the best. But the days since have been what I will remember the most when lying on my death bed, the sounds she makes when she’s asleep and the look in her eyes when she first wakes up in the morning. Or how she laughs when her and Caden are joking around. These are the real things. Those days of drinking my time away are over and I couldn’t be happier.
She’s the one and only woman who has ever had my heart. Even if she hadn’t come back, I know there would’ve never been a love like the one I share with her.
I feel a small hand on my shoulder, making me turn to see a sleepy Hollis standing at my side, rubbing her eyes. I turn on my stool and bring her into me. She walks between my spread knees and I bury my face in her chest, taking her fine bare ass in my hands and giving it a squeeze. Rocking my face back and forth, the soft mounds of her chest brush easily against me. “No bra or panties?” My words are muffled by her shirt and skin.
She giggles, rounding her back, my hot breath tickling her now pebbled nipples. “No.” She runs her fingers through my hair. “Are you going to cut this before the wedding?”
She pulls my head back by my hair, and I look up at her. “Only if you want me to.” I dip my head back down, resting it in its happy place, between her luscious boobs.
She uses her fingers to pull the locks up from my head, eyeing the length. “Just a little trim, not too much though, okay? I need something to hold on to when your face is between my legs.” She wraps her arms around my head, holding my face close to her.
“Shower and bed?”
“No shower, already had one. But I’ll meet you in bed when you’re done.” My head jerks up in shock.
She lays her hand on my check. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’ll be fine, and I’ll be waiting for you in the bed, naked.” She tries to pull back from me, but I grab her ass and pull her back.
“You’re already naked, woman.” As I stand, I pick her up. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She hesitates. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to get, you know?” She tilts her head back and forth, rolling her eyes.
“What?”
“Juice on your suit.” Her face flushes the brightest red I’ve ever seen.
My eyebrows fly up into my hairline. “Juice?”
“Pussy juice.” She looks down between us at her bare pussy.
I throw my head back in laughter. “That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth, but it sounds appetizing.” I force her up and around me, then carry her upstairs. She takes a shower with me anyway.