Chapter Sixteen

 

 

 

 

Tessa parked in her driveway letting out a little sigh as she crawled out of the car. She hadn’t seen Buck since she’d kicked him out last night. She was sure this time it was over between them and she couldn’t help the little catch in her heart at the thought. She’d already gotten used to him being a part of her life and now he was gone. She reached back into the car to grab her purse before she shut the door and headed up the stairs. She unlocked the door and pushed it open, walking inside to stop dead, staring in utter disbelief at the man in her living room.

“Hey,” Buck said from the couch, looking quite comfortable in her living room. The brown leather L-shaped couch and the large screen TV that was now hanging on her wall also looked good in the room. The walls were a light cream. She’d painted them last weekend when she was off with Amber’s help but she hadn’t bought any furniture.

“You broke in again,” Tessa stated dumbly as she dropped her purse on the brand new cherry wood end table that rested beside the couch, noting that the matching coffee table was sitting in front of Buck.

“Yep,” Buck—a man of few words today—replied.

Tessa sighed heavily as she walked over to stand right in front of him, feeling oddly soothed by his lack of understanding about how wrong it was for him to keep entering her home without her permission.  It should annoy her or make her angry again but somehow it didn’t, and that was the moment she realized that she was already in way over her head with him.

“You can’t just break in whenever you feel like it and just add things.” Tessa made a gesture towards the TV and then to the rest of the new furniture.

“You took my key. How else was I supposed to get in?” he asked.

Tessa couldn’t help but shake her head at the big dumb man who thought he could just do whatever he wanted. She should jerk him off her couch and throw him out the front door but she didn’t. No, she stood there staring at him like a bimbo in some rom-com.

“Have you listened to yourself?” she finally asked, wondering how Buck could stand his own arrogance.

“What? You did take my key,” he stated as if that explained everything.

“Really?”

“Well I’m having some of the guys over tonight and we’re watching some bike races. Can’t watch that on that little tiny TV you have in the bedroom so I took care of it. Besides, Amber said when you looked at these couches you wanted them but said you’d have to wait a few months to get the money together. I just took out the waiting part.” Buck gestured with the beer he was holding, looking at her calmly and likely waiting for her to blow a gasket. Tessa decided not to give him the satisfaction of yelling at him again. She’d made her position very clear and he’d just ignored her and steamrolled over it like she hadn’t, so really—what was the point. 

“You’re not going to stop, are you?” she asked.

“Nope,” he replied, reaching out to pull her onto the couch beside him. Letting out another deep sigh of frustration, she snuggled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder.

“I give up,” she muttered and pressed her nose into his chest, feeling his hand rubbing through her hair in a gentle caress. She could admit defeat, at least for now, but she wasn’t going to allow the idiot to win all their skirmishes this way. She just wasn’t.

“About time. You can be really stubborn. It’s one of your faults,” Buck muttered, earning a hard jab to his stomach that made him grunt before he kissed the top of her head and changed the channel to put on her favorite show.

 

Entering the front door after a long night at the bar, Tessa felt like something was off and if she wasn’t sure that the big bastard who broke in every night with his now returned stolen key was about thirty minutes behind her, she would have ignored the feeling. She didn’t turn on the light and moved into the room, sensing someone lurking in the corner before he moved. He made a grab for her and she jerked to the right avoiding his move, only to be caught by someone on her left.

She felt the arm wrap around her waist and knew it was a man just before she used his body to toss him into the wall on her right, missing the other man by inches. Hearing the grunt he released when he hit was satisfying. She didn’t have time to celebrate though as the first man came at her again with a third joining in. That was when she realized who was in her house but she didn’t care. She still knocked the first man over the couch, hearing the shattering of a bottle likely left on her table by Buck—who was a slob—earlier in the day before he’d shown up at the bar. He’d moved in full time a week ago after the couches had appeared.

The second man came at her again and she used her elbow to knock him in the face, watching as he stumbled back, laughing a little at his cry of pain as he landed on his ass on her floor. She turned towards the door not thinking and was grabbed around the waist and lifted. That was when things went from bad to much, much worse.

“I think you might want to take your fucking hands off her, old man,” a coldly deadly voice rang out as a gun was pressed to the head of the man holding her. Damn, Buck was home early.

 

Buck was grateful that Dice offered to take the payload over to Choke’s place for him so he could go home and be with his woman. He’d missed the chance to make love to her last night when he’d come in at four in the morning and again when he’d woken up this afternoon and she’d been gone. Living with Tessa was working for him in a way he hadn’t thought it would. He was happy and that scared the shit out of him. He shouldn’t enjoy the everyday monotony of her being with him but he did. He was becoming damned possessive of her and any time he lost with her was torture.

He’d gotten quite a bit of shit over the past few months from the men he’d made fun of in the past but somehow, he didn’t give a shit. Being with Tessa was almost heaven and that was fucking weird. A woman like her should have nothing to do with him or his life and he should let her go but he just couldn’t. He already knew that he was keeping her, which was why he’d petitioned the club to make her his old lady last night. He’d won the vote and driven over to talk to Rodger about making her patch, which was why he’d been so late getting home. It would be worth it in a few days when she was walking around with his patch on her back proclaiming her his property.

He pulled up beside her car, cutting the engine at the curb and coasting up the drive. He took in the house as he slowly got off the bike, frowning. Tessa had left almost ten minutes before him but the lights in the house were dark and a feeling of dread took up residence in his stomach as he walked slowly closer to the house, his every instinct screaming at him that something was very wrong.

He snuck around to the back door, entering silently. He allowed his eyes to slowly adjust to the lack of light in the room before he moved forward, heading on silent feet to the living room.  Hearing the shattering of glass, he wanted to rush into the living room to save Tessa but experience held him in check, allowing him to stay calm. He moved into the room finding Tessa tossing one man off her with a flying hit that slammed him to the floor with a girly screech of pain. Buck slid his gun out of the holster, moving forward when the older man grabbed her as she made the mistake of turning to face the door.

“I think you might want to take your fucking hands off her, old man,” Buck muttered in a cold deadly voice as he pressed his gun against the head of the man who was holding her. Everyone in the room froze except for the one man he hadn’t seen. He stepped forward from the shadows pressing a gun into Buck’s head.

Well, fuck.

“You might want to rethink that position, son,” the man who’d been silently watching the scene said and Buck knew that he was the one to watch out for. This man was the one who would be the deadliest adversary. Buck knew it was always the ones who waited that caused the most trouble.

“And why is that?” Buck asked, not panicking because he knew he could disarm the man and still kill the one in front of him if he needed to.

“Because I think lil’ bean will take issue with you killin’ her uncle,” he dryly replied, removing the gun and stepping back from Buck. That was when he realized that Tessa was already out of the other man’s arm and was flipping the switch, blinking a little when light flooded into the room.

“Bean, did you have to break my nose?” whined the man she had thrown down, his face covered in blood as he got off the floor looking pathetic.

“Don’t call me that, Jim-bo,” Tessa snapped.

“Geeze, Jim, grow some balls. She didn’t break your nose, it’s just a little bloody,” the man Buck was holding the gun on muttered, shaking his head sadly. Buck realized that the people attacking Tessa weren’t burglars or rival club members; they were her family. What the hell? He slowly allowed the gun to drop from the older man’s head as he looked at her family as if they’d all lost their collective minds.

“May I ask why your family’s attacking you, duchess?” Buck asked, his confusion evident in his tone, which was coated with a deadly edge. No one would hurt her.

“How else are we gonna’ know that she’s serious about leavin’, boy?” her uncle asked gruffly.

Buck didn’t know what one had to do with the other so he waited for Tessa to make some sense of their crazy excuses. He watched her sigh and roll her eyes as she walked over to the one who’d made him a little leery. The one who’d called her lil’ bean in an almost fatherly tone. Her smile and the way she walked into the man’s arms told him that this man must be her father.

“Ah, lil’ bean, I missed you.”

“I missed you too, pappy,” Tessa whispered, accepting the man’s bear hug.

“Still waiting for an explanation here, duchess,” Buck grumbled, surprised to find himself a little jealous of her obviously close relationship with her father. Didn’t that ring all kinds of fucked up bells too.

“They wanted to be sure I hadn’t lost my edge and that I could protect myself if it was necessary,” Tessa explained, not helping him to understand at all. They wanted to protect her by attacking her and likely scaring the living daylights out of her? That was all kinds of fucked up.

“I’m thinking that isn’t a good reason to attack you,” Buck said, feeling his stomach clench and his fists ball up. He didn’t understand why they thought that attacking a woman in the dark was okay. He did know they were damned lucky because if they’d hurt her, family or no family, they would have been eviscerated.

“Relax, boy. She was never in any danger and she knew it ten seconds after the attack started. We were holding back and so was she,” her uncle muttered, shaking his head as he turned to Tessa. “Didn’t you tell the boy who you really are or is that something he can’t handle?”

“Watch the boy bullshit, old man,” Buck muttered.

Tessa sighed and shook her head. “Buck, I’m fine. And Uncle Grant, what I tell him or don’t isn’t your concern. With the three of you here, who’s running the compound?”

“Your Uncle Dale’s still there and he has things under control while we’re out here tracking you down to be sure you’re okay,” her father said.

“You left Uncle Dale in charge? Are you insane? You will be lucky if the compound isn’t destroyed by the time you get back, pappy. What were you thinking?” Tessa asked, sounding truly concerned about this Dale being in charge.

“First I was thinking my daughter might need me. She left without telling us where she was going, and second, your uncle can handle it. He isn’t as bad as you seem to think,” her father explained, his head shaking and his smile a bit forced.

Buck would bet that this Uncle Dale wasn’t as good as her dad was saying. Buck would bet that love for his daughter had overridden his concern that the man he’d left in charge might screw something up. He could almost respect the man for that if he hadn’t been standing idly by while they’d viscously attacked her. What he’d seen of the little tussle was going to give him grey hairs. When that boy had grabbed for her arm and she’d twisted, tossing him to the floor, he’d almost shot him. If Tessa hadn’t tossed him on his ass he might have and she would likely have been a little angry with him for it.

Buck wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and he still wasn’t happy with the fact that they’d come into her home in the middle of the night and attacked her. Nor did he understand what the uncle meant by the comment about wanting to be sure she was serious about leaving. It seemed to him that she was damned serious if she’d left them and hadn’t told them where she’d ended up. Hell, even if he’d left his hometown in the middle on the night just before Easter Sunday, he’d call his mother to let her know where he was.

“I think maybe someone should start explaining to me why you came into Tessa’s house and attacked her when she got home because I’m still not satisfied with the answers I’ve gotten so far.” Buck allowed some of the cold edge he knew he had enter his tone. He was done playing games.

“Shit, is he slow? Did you hook up with a slow idiot, bean?” her uncle asked, looking from her to him and back again. “We already told him twice, can’t he comprehend simple sentences?”

“Uncle Grant! Really! He isn’t like you, which means he doesn’t understand,” Tessa muttered, looking tired, and Buck wanted to kick these assholes out and take her to bed. He’d make love to her and then he’d make damned sure she got the rest she obviously needed.

“What’s to understand? You should explain to that boy who you really are. He thinks you’re some namby-pamby damsel he should protect. We didn’t raise any of those and you damned well know it, girl—not even one,” her uncle gruffly crowed, his brows furrowed as he glared at her, and it suddenly hit Buck that this man was part of the reason Tessa wasn’t afraid of the men at the bar. If she’d lived with these yahoos, she’d been dealing with gruff assholes her whole life. It explained a lot about her ability to handle the shit that happened at the bar.

“Enough, Grant,” her father said, his arm still around Tessa’s waist. “Boy isn’t bad. We didn’t see him coming.” He looked thoughtful and Buck wasn’t sure he liked that look.

“Diego, that doesn’t mean he understands the girl or that he can protect her,” her uncle said.

“Don’t any of you care that she broke my nose?” the whiner demanded.

“No, nobody cares, Jim,” Diego muttered, his eyes rolling at him. Buck snickered; he couldn’t help it, these men reminded him a little bit of his brothers—not the ones who carried his blood but the ones he rode with. Jim reminded him of Joker—although Joker was typically whining about pussy, not a minor injury.

“Let me get you some ice, you big baby. I didn’t even hit you that hard,” Tessa muttered. She took a single step towards the kitchen before Buck stopped her.

“Your feet are bare and there’s glass,” Buck complained, lifting her up and carrying her across the living room to the door of her kitchen and setting her down. “Don’t cross the room when you come back. I’ll carry you to the couch and your family can clean up the mess they caused.”

“Huh, maybe not such an idiot after all,” her uncle said when he came back to stand in front of the men who were her family. Buck wondered what the hell to do with them and who they hell they were alluding to Tessa being.

“You care to start explaining?” he asked them, waiting for a response with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the two older men and the whiner.

“If my girl wants you to know, she’ll tell you and we aren’t the ones on trial here. You are,” Diego said. His dark glare dark reminded Buck of his own father.

Shit. This was why he didn’t do relationships or chicks’ fathers but for Tessa he’d have to manage it because he was keeping her. It was already a done deal and even if she was from a family of crazy people he’d have to deal. Buck was saved from answering any awkward questions by Tessa returning to the doorway. He lifted her and carried her over to the couch, setting her down.

“Keep your feet up,” he cautioned before taking the ice she held. He moved to Jim and smacked him none too gently in the face with the ice. “Here.”  

  “Thanks, asshole. I think you just made my nose bleed again,” Jim muttered, holding the ice on his face. Grant grunted and snickered while still glaring at Buck. It was something Buck had never seen a man do. How did he manage that?

“You’re welcome,” Buck replied. He went to grab the broom and dust bin from the kitchen closet where Tessa kept it, walking over to the uncle and holding it out to him.

“Why you holding that out like that? You don’t think I’m going to clean that shit up, do you?” he asked, his two bushy brows rising to his thick white hairline looking amazed at Buck’s audacity.

“Buck, I’ll clean it up if you will go get me my—” Tessa started to say but he turned a dark glare on her, stopping her words.

“No, you won’t. They made the mess, they can damned well clean it up,” Buck growled. He held the broom out to her uncle again and this time he added a dark glower. Grant didn’t budge; he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a glower of his own trained on Buck.

“Really, it’s not a big deal and it’s my fault that the bottle fell anyway—” Tessa tried again, raising to her knees on the couch, reaching out to try and pull on his arm to get his attention. Buck took a step forward to avoid her, his eyes locked with her uncle’s.

“For fuck’s sake, give that here,” her father muttered, grabbing the broom. “I don’t want to spend all night watching the two of you stare deeply into each other’s eyes.” Buck didn’t respond to the gibe and handed over the dust pan without a fight. He watched her father clean up the mess before turning to Tessa.  

“I still need to know what the hell prompted them to fucking attack you and what the hell is the compound, duchess?” He silently watched her face scrunch up with distaste and wondered if that was caused by her family attacking her or her not wanting to tell him what was going on.