Chapter 25
Colt
Two weeks later
I sat on my back porch, waiting for Liv to arrive. Ever since they took Diego into custody a couple of weeks back, she’d been a bit jumpy. And she had every right to be. I’d had my eye looking over my shoulder for the past week. When she told me what Diego told her, I almost couldn’t believe it. I was very careful wherever I went. I knew damn good and well I hadn’t been watched or followed in any way. No one should have known about Liv and I. And yet, all signs pointed to exactly that.
I had Jace come in and sweep my place for bugs. I had Maverick come in and help me lock down my place with a security system. When they asked me why the fuck I was doing all this, I was upfront with them. Well, mostly. I told them Diego knew about the fact that I was meeting up with a DEA agent, and he said something to Liv to spook her.
Pretty sure I gave away what was actually going on when I called her “Liv”, but the guys shrugged it off nonetheless.
I was thankful for that shit. For being around guys who knew when to keep their mouths shut.
I made Liv a promise when she talked to me that next day. When she showed up at five in the morning after Diego had been taken into custody. I brought her into my home and wrapped her up. I carried her to bed and listened to her as she cried and shared her fears. And when she was done snotting up my damn pillow, I looked her dead in her eyes and told her I’d do everything in my power to keep her safe.
Especially since we had no fucking clue how Diego had gotten his information.
“I smell beer,” Liv said.
I looked over at the side of the house and watched her beautiful form come into view. Her hair wafting in the breeze. Her clothes, loose around her body. Off work for the weekend and ready to spend it with me.
Just the way I liked it.
“Got one for ya,” I said as I pushed a bottle to her.
“Thanks,” she breathed.
“Long day at work?”
She chugged back a few gulps before nodding her head.
“Diego’s being transferred to prison today,” she said.
“How’d his arraignment go?” I asked.
“Like we expected. No option for bail, after we presented all we finally dug up on him. His trial is pushed up because of who he’s connected with, so he should be on the bench in front of a jury within the month.”
“That’s really fucking good.”
“I had to pull a lot of strings with my boss to get that to happen, but we pulled it off.”
“You think you got enough information to put him away for good?” I asked.
Liv nodded as she took another sip of her beer.
“I actually think we got it this time, yes,” she said.
But, I could tell something was still on her mind.
“Why haven’t you looked at me since you sat down?” I asked.
She slowly panned her eyes over to me and I saw the uncertainty in her eyes.
“And before you lie to me, you might as well know I can read you about as well as you can read me,” I said.
“At least you finally admitted it,” Liv said, grinning.
“I’m a man who knows when he’s been bested,” I said, chuckling.
And even though she cracked a smile, it was still tainted with a sadness I wanted to eliminate.
“What is it, Liv?”
“So, I know we agreed that I’d stay in the area until Diego’s trial is over,” she said.
“I’m aware. Though I still don’t agree with you staying in that shoddy hotel. I still think you should come stay here,” I said.
“You know that if someone at the station catches wind of me fraternizing with you personally, it’s going to be a bad day for me.”
“Which is why we agreed to keep this little thing between us a secret. For now, at least.”
“I’m just… wondering what happens after the trial,” she said.
I narrowed my eyes and watched her brace herself for my answer. Her body tightened up. Her shoulders rose a bit. Like she was in attack mode, if I didn’t give her the answer she wanted.
“Well, is there a reason you’d want to stay in a shithole like this after the trial’s over?” I asked.
“Depends if someone gave me a good enough reason,” Liv said.
“Just anyone?”
Her eyes fell slowly down my body before she threw back the rest of the beer.
“Maybe a particular someone,” Liv said.
“If you’re talking about me, I could give you several reasons to stay,” I said.
She grinned as she set her empty beer bottle down.
“You’ve given me several reasons over the last couple of weeks to stick around through the trial, sure,” Liv said.
“But…?”
“But, sex isn’t enough to keep me around,” she said.
I stood up from my chair and set my beer down. I walked over to her and took her hands within mine. I helped her up from her seated position, then I wrapped my arms around her and dipped down. She giggled as I picked her up. I marched her beautiful ass back into my house and sat her on top of my kitchen island. The cool breeze filtered through the open porch door as I cupped her cheek, running my thumb along her lower lip.
“Would I be enough?” I asked.
I gazed into her eyes before she crashed her body into mine. Our lips locked and her hands threaded around my neck as if she had been doing it for years. I groaned against her mouth. I nibbled on her lower lip as her legs spread wide for me. I slipped my tongue deep into her mouth, kissing her in a way I hadn’t kissed her yet. Her hands gripped my shirt. She tugged it over my head, breaking our kiss momentarily. We took to stripping one another of our clothes. We tossed them to the kitchen floor as my cock stood happy and proud, ready to nestle into its home.
I captured her lips with mine as I hopped up onto the edge of the counter, watching as she straddled me.
“I want you to be the reason I stay, Colt,” she whispered.
I felt her pussy hovering over the leaking tip of my dick as her hands ran through my hair. I tilted my gaze up to meet hers. I looked into her piercing green stare as she slowly slipped down my cock. Her juices dripped all over me. Coated my shaft and my balls as she slid down. I groaned out my want for her as my toes curled and her hips bottomed out against mine.
Her pussy swallowed me down effortlessly, and I felt her walls pulsing around me.
“Would loving you be enough?” I asked gruffly.
Her eyes widened as her stare danced between my eyes.
“Would giving you my future be enough?” I whispered.
Our foreheads fell together and she slowly rolled her hips. Our eyes stayed connected. Our bodies moved as one. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her luscious body against my muscles as I rocked against her. We bucked and swayed, putting on a show for the desert behind my house as we sat there, perched on the kitchen island.
I laid my back down, taking her with me as she thrusted against my body.
I kissed her, over and over. I filled her body with my cock as it swelled against her walls. Her pussy sucked me down, over and over, until there was nothing left but my soul to take. And she could have that, too, if she wanted it. If it would make her stay.
Because holy fuck, one month wasn’t enough.
“Yes, Colt. Yes,” she whispered.
“Mmm, fuck, Liv. Ride that dick,” I growled.
“Take me. In any way you choose.”
And that phrase popped something inside of me I couldn’t control.
I wrapped my arms around her and whipped us around. In a flash, she was on her back, and her legs were tossed over my shoulders. I folded her in half. I dug my knees into the kitchen island as my feet hung off the edge. I captured Liv’s lips with mine as I cradled her head, diving deeper into her body than I’d ever been before.
“Oh, Colt! Yes!”
“That’s it, Liv. Let me hear you.”
“Colt! Faster!”
“Oh, you like it when I fuck you, don’t you? You don’t like it soft. You don’t like it romantic.”
“I like it rough. Rough with you. All of you. I love you, Colt.”
Her moans caught my ears and I gazed into her eyes. I didn’t stop fucking her. Didn’t stop pounding into her. But, something in the pit of my heart flipped. It turned on a light that ignited my soul, and my pounds became thrusts. I stopped seeing it as fucking her and started seeing it as being with her. Becoming one with her. I lost myself in her body and lost control of my own restraint.
“Say it again,” I commanded.
“I love you, Colt,” she whispered.
“Again.”
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you, Colt! Please! I love you so much,” she begged.
My hands slammed down beside her head and I forced my lips upon hers. I felt her body tense up as I swiveled my hips, raking my curls against her clit. She shook beneath me. Quivered as I swallowed her whimpers down my throat. Her pussy fluttered and held me in its vice grip as her juices poured from her body. Sprayed. Coated me in her scent as my cock exploded deep within her body.
I breathed her air. Felt her heart beating against my chest. And as I stuffed her full of my cock and rested against her body, my lips found their way to her ear.
“I love you too, Liv. And I promise you, we’ll figure all of this out together.”
She wrapped her arms around me and held me close. I felt her shivering against me as I slowly pulled my cock out. I eased us off the kitchen island. I carried her up the stairs and into my room. I settled her tired body down into the covers, watching as she slept while I tucked her in. I leaned down and kissed her cheek. I whispered how much she meant to me in her ear before I sat on the edge of the bed.
Then, my mind began to swirl.
I didn’t think she was safe in that motel of hers. In fact, I knew she wasn’t. Fuck the threat of us possibly being watched, that place was a fucking dump. And if she didn’t want to come stay with me, there were plenty of other places we could put her up at. A safe house. The lodge. Damn it, I’d pay out of my pocket for her to stay in a nicer hotel on my side of fucking town. Anything to get her out of that roach-infested place.
My way of protecting her was simple. I wanted her watched. Not stalked, but watched. I wanted someone posted in the parking lot of that motel whenever she wasn’t staying at my place. I wanted someone watching my house whenever she was at my place. I would be armed at all times whenever she was around, and I would keep my eyes peeled for anything that looked suspicious. I’d have Jace run background checks on the police in the department she was set up in. I’d have Maverick work with me on a budget to get her put up in a better hotel where I’d feel better about her sleeping.
Liv was precious to me. And the fact that someone dug up information on her didn’t sit well with me.
I brushed her hair away from her face, taking in the beauty of her sleeping form. I didn’t know how she managed to wrap me around her finger within the span of a month, but she had done it. I’d completely closed myself off to the idea of being with someone. Anyone, because of the life I led. And here I was, trying to figure out how to keep this woman safe because I wanted her around. Because I didn’t want to experience my life without her anymore.
She really was an enigma.
I bent over and kissed her ear. I stood up and turned the lamplight off on the bedside table before I headed for my bathroom. I cleaned myself up a bit. Pulled out a few things Liv would need when she woke up. A washcloth. A toothbrush. Some all-purpose soap. Things like that. I took a quick shower, making sure to set my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash where she could easily see it. I washed myself of my sweat and her scent before I dried myself off, silently making my way out of my room and to the stairs.
Then, I heard my cell phone ringing from the kitchen floor.
Fucking Duke.
“Yep?” I asked as I answered the phone.
I grinned at the massive wet mess Liv and myself had left behind on my kitchen counter.
“We got a problem,” Duke said.
I furrowed my brow as I slipped into my boxers. I went over and closed the porch door, chastising myself for being so reckless with our concealment. There was nothing proving to either myself nor the crew that Liv and myself weren’t being watched any longer.
I had to take greater strides to not be so reckless when she was around.
“What’s the problem?” I asked as I locked the door.
“A threat’s been sent to the clubhouse. A threat you’re gonna want to hear.”
“What kind of threat?”
“It’s a threat on Olivia’s life, Colt.”
“Why would you think I cared—?”
“Cut the shit, Colt. I know we don’t make it a habit of talking about our women when there’s official shit going down, but we know,” he said.
“All of you?” I asked.
“I mean, Jace and Maverick said you call her ‘Liv’, man. And honestly? I’m happy as hell for you. Maybe now you won’t be such a pissant since you’re getting laid regularly.”
“You want to try that statement again?”
“You’re going to want to hear this threat, Colt,” he said.
“Then hit me with it,” I said.
“It says, ‘Bitches with secrets are the worst kinds of women. But DEA agents with secrets tread a line. Back the fuck off, or she’s the first kill.’”
Anger unlike anything I’d ever experienced rushed through my veins.
“It even comes with pictures of the two of you, Colt. There’s a picture of you and her fucking sharing ice cream at that place in town. There’s a picture of her knocking on your damn door. They’ve all got dates on them, too,” Duke said.
“Let me guess. All within the last week or so,” I said.
“Yep. Ever since Diego was arrested and tossed into a holding cell without bail.”
“Shit!” I exclaimed.
“The guys have already seen this. Dean’s already seen it. Far as we’re concerned, Liv’s now a client. We’ve been swept into this cartel shit and we have to ride it out now. Is she sticking around town? Or is she leaving now that—.”
“She’s sticking around,” I said, groaning.
“Okay. Honestly, my knee jerk reaction—.”
“You let me handle her protection. I made her a promise that I would do this. That I would make sure she was safe so long as she was in town. I’ll figure it out. What I need you to do is tell Thor I need to speak with him personally the second he’s got time,” I said.
“And if you would have let me keep talking, you would have known I was already sending him your way,” he said.
“Sorry. I just… fuck!”
“Take some breaths, Colt. We all got people we’re trying to protect here.”
“This would be so much fucking easier if I had more control over this shit,” I growled.
“Well, funny you should mention that,” he said.
My ears perked up as my brow furrowed.
“The hell does that mean?” I asked.
“Well, I told you I’d talk with the guys. I did that. So, I guess the question I’ve got for you is, how would you like more control?”
My eyes narrowed as my body froze.
“What the hell are you talking about, Duke?”
“I pulled the guys aside. One by one. Just like we talked about. And, I simply asked them how they felt Dean was doing. How they felt about Dean and some of the decisions he’s made. And it turns out, we’re not the only ones that think he’s lost his marbles.”
“Uh huh. Who else thinks that?” I asked.
“Everyone.”
I almost swallowed my tongue.
“All of them?” I asked.
“Yep,” Duke said.
“Including Jace?”
“Believe it or not, especially Jace. It’s why he’s been so on edge and up everyone’s ass lately. He’s been anticipating something reckless happening, and him having to step up and take the position of President.”
“I take it Jace still doesn’t want that?” I asked.
“Nope. In fact, he was digging through the bylaws of the group when I approached him with my question.”
“Bylaws.”
“Regarding how to deal with club issues. Voting. Church meetings. Instating new members. Changing of the guard. Electing new Presidents…”
He dragged out that last line a little too much for my liking.
“What are you saying, Duke?” I asked.
“I’m saying, I’ve talked to the guys, and we all agree that Dean is no longer fit to be in the position he’s in. He’s getting worn down, we think his PTSD is leading the charge a little too much, and we think he might enjoy a lower position. Like Road Captain,” Duke said.
“Like my position.”
“Yep.”
“So, where does that leave me?” I asked.
“Depends, Colt. How do you feel about being President?”