Chapter 22

Matt

 

I felt like I was a chauffeur, driving around with my brother. I couldn’t remember the last time we had been in the same vehicle together. From the time we could ride a hog on our own, that was how we got from Point A to Point B.

However, ever since I had broken my fucking hand punching some douchebag college kid at the bar, I couldn’t ride much. Not at all. Which was driving me fucking crazy. The cast wouldn’t allow me to drive my bike so we were stuck in my truck since it was the only thing I could drive one-handed these days.

The only reason he was even with me was because we were on red alert for the fucking Italians. Santino’s man, Fontana, had a grudge with us. Nothing new about that. The Santino crime family always had their panties in a twist over us for one thing or another every day of the week. We worked for their opposition, so we were just as much enemy number one as the Vituccis were.

“Where we going?” Tanner asked from the passenger seat of my truck.

My F-150 double cab was usually in our garage, so it barely had a thousand miles on it, even though it was over three years old. Most of those miles I had put on it the last few weeks. It had been weird as fuck at first, but I was finally starting to get used to it again. I was itching to get the cast off, though, so I could go back to my hog.

“I gotta check on something,” I muttered, turning left at the intersection in town that would take us by the courthouse.

“Gracie got court today or something?”

“Don’t know,” I told him honestly.

Right then, Hawk’s female was at the bottom my list. Everything else could go to hell for the time being for all I cared. I only had one thing on my mind, one person. I needed my fix, or I was going to feel jumpy for the rest of the day.

I slowed but kept driving, passing the parking lot for the courthouse. I went by the municipal office that was beside it, then the police station that was on the next street. I could feel my brother’s eyes burning into the side of my head, trying to figure out what the fuck I was doing. He could judge me all he wanted; I didn’t give two shits what he would think once he realized what I was doing.

What I had been doing for weeks now.

The mayor’s office was on the other side of the police station. I drove past it at about fifty yards, then parked in the only space available on the same street. Turning off the truck, I unsnapped my seatbelt and sat back, waiting.

“What the hell are you doing, little brother?” Tanner was eyeballing me like I was insane now.

Maybe I was, but I didn’t honestly care.

I shrugged. “You’ll see.”

“Please tell me you aren’t hooking up with those bitches we were banging a while back.”

I shot a frown at him, not remembering who he was talking about. I had banged plenty of bitches over the years.

“I don’t remember their names, but one’s daddy is friends with the DA or some shit.”

“Oh.” I still didn’t remember the girl he was talking about, although I did remember that I had fucked some chick a few times because she had said her daddy was the district attorney’s best friend, or something like that. I hadn’t really cared enough to remember. It had just been a little fun to try to distract myself. Not that it had worked. “No, this isn’t about that bitch.”

“Good.” Tanner nodded. “So, what are we doing here, then?”

“I told you, you’ll see.”

He grumbled something low under his breath that I didn’t hear. I was too busy watching for the person I was waiting for to care.

A few more minutes passed, most of them filled with my brother huffing every few seconds because he was bored, or hungry, or whatever else he could think of to annoy me. He was worse than a kid, unable to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. He had no patience, which was one of the reasons he got himself into so much damn trouble.

“Can we get some dinner when you’re done losing your mind?”

I scrubbed a hand over my face, reminding myself that he was my brother. I loved him. I couldn’t kill him.

No matter how badly I wanted to.

Out of the corner of my eye, something caught my attention, and I made myself take it easy, despite the adrenaline now pouring through my veins. Moving slowly, I turned my head, watching the girl who was now walking out of the mayor’s office and heading toward my truck. Watching the way her hair bounced with each step she took in her girlie as hell heels. The way the sun shined off her honey-kissed skin. How her dimples popped out when she saw my truck and smiled that secret smile that made my dick rock-hard.

Every cell in my body was suddenly on alert, and all I could think about was how soft her skin was going to feel when I touched her.

“The fuck?” Tanner breathed beside me. “Is that …?”

“Yup.” I opened my door and climbed out as she rounded the front of the truck. “Hey, girl.”

Her bright green eyes lit up, her face turning radiant as she threw herself against me. My truck was tall enough that if anyone happened to look out of the mayor’s office right then, they wouldn’t be able to see us together. Not that I figured they would be looking. Once she was out of sight, she was usually out of mind when it came to the people in that fucking place.

She brought her arms around me, combing her fingers through the back of my hair, making me shiver at her soft touch. “Hi,” she breathed, her lips close to mine, teasing me with the taste of something lemony and sweet. “Miss me?”

“More than you fucking know.” I lowered my head, brushing my lips over her cheek when what I really wanted to do was kiss that ripe mouth of hers. If I let myself do that, though, I would just be begging for trouble. Mostly because I wouldn’t want to let her go when the time came for me to have to. “Can I take you home?”

“I wish. But I have an evening class in thirty minutes, and if I’m late, the professor will call my dad.” She lowered her lashes, biting into her naturally pouty bottom lip. The fucking little tease. She knew what that did to me. How hard my dick got for her when her teeth sunk deep into that perfect lip. “Will you call me later?”

I cupped her neck, tilting her chin up and making her give me her eyes. Those eyes had been the first thing to capture my attention … once I had stopped drooling over her body. “You still got minutes on that new burner I gave you?”

“I have plenty for now. But I might need more next time.”

“Okay, babe, I’ll get it for you.” I lowered my head more, rubbing my nose up and down her graceful neck. “Fuck, you smell so good.”

She was the one shivering now. Then, way too soon, she was pulling back. “I have to go,” she whispered, regret and reluctance dimming her eyes.

“Be safe,” I whispered back. “Text me and let me know you got there.”

She nodded. “I promise.” She turned to go, but my fingers caught her hand, pulling her back before she could get more than a few steps away.

I tucked her head against my chest, breathing in the floral scent of her shampoo.

“Matt.”

I closed my eye, mentally yelling at myself to let her go. Fucking shit, I felt like that was all I had ever done with this girl. “Just five more seconds.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist, holding on tight, giving me those five seconds.

All too soon, they were over, and she started to turn away again. Then her head snapped around, her eyes darkening. “Please be careful, Matt. I overheard my father talking to the DA. Something is going on. I think …” She swallowed hard and shook her head. “Daddy said they were getting close to making an arrest.”

“I’ll be okay, babe,” I told her with a wink that had some of the worry leaving her gorgeous face. “Don’t sweat over me, girl. Your pops can’t touch me.”

She tried to smile, but there was too much pain in them, too many memories. “Yes, he can. All he has to do is use me.”

I didn’t acknowledge that for truth, even though we both knew it was. “Go, Rory. I’ll call you before you go to bed tonight.”

I stood there, watching until she crossed the street and climbed into her BMW M2. It was a new car, baby blue, and perfect for the mayor’s daughter. It wasn’t what she wanted to be driving around in, though. No, she wanted to be on my bike, just as much as I did, just as much as I craved her there.

Only once she had her seatbelt on and had pulled into traffic, giving me one last wave, did I finally get back into my truck.

My brother’s face was clenched in hard lines. “So, she’s back.”

I nodded. “She’s been back for about three weeks or so now.” The only reason I hadn’t told my brother was because he had been gone. If I hadn’t broken my hand, I would have been gone, too. I never thought I would be glad I broke the damn thing, but when I looked at it from that point of view, I had to admit it was kind of a blessing. If I hadn’t been in Creswell Springs when she had first gotten home, it was hard to tell what might have happened.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“We both know I lost it when she left three years ago.”

Three years. That was how long it had been since Aurora’s dad had caught her with me. The mayor’s only daughter didn’t belong with a low life with the last name Reid, or so that fucking bastard had told us that night.

Three years. It was how long it had been since she had been sent away to some boarding school to finish out her last year of high school, and then to who knew where.

Three fucking years. I had felt like I had lost everything when she had left, but there had been nothing I had been able to do about it. She had been too young, and I had been too fucked up to think clearly.

Now she was back, all grown up, and I wasn’t about to let her get taken away from me again.

I would kill anyone who tried to fuck me over this time around. Rory was mine. She knew it. I knew it.

In the end, I would make sure the fucking world knew it, too.