Chapter Twenty-Three

 

 

 

 

“Ow, what the hell did you just hit me for?” Buck asked while spitting blood out on the ground from where Tessa had just bloodied his mouth with her hard punch to his face.

“You son-of-a-bitch! How dare you walk in here and act like nothing happened and you didn’t make me cry every night for weeks! How dare you!” Tessa yelled, hitting him in the chest again before he grabbed her hands to stop her.

Well this was more the reaction he’d expected when he’d broken into the compound through the escape hatch Dice had found that was rigged with electricity and lasers. Dice hadn’t had much trouble shutting it down and looping the feed to their cameras once he’d hacked into the system. Buck was surprised they’d figured out that Dice was even in their system because Dice said they needed a serious upgrade to prevent hackers like him from getting inside without much trouble.

Holding Tessa against him, he waited for her to calm down a little but if she didn’t, he was going to grab her and throw her over his shoulder to drag her out of here. He wasn’t taking no for an answer even if he had to tie her to his bed for days. Hmm, that idea had merit. His cock, which pressed into her stomach insistently, agreed wholeheartedly.

“I can’t believe you broke in here. Wait, how did you—the hatch. I told pappy that they needed to upgrade that system. You had someone hack us, didn’t you? Then you waltzed in here—oh never mind. We have to go handle that alarm before someone shoots you again,” Tessa muttered, looking really put out as she turned and headed towards the building. 

Buck followed behind her for a moment internally debating the original plan to grab her and drag her out of here. He reached out and grabbed her around the waist and landed on his back in the grass with her little foot pressing down on his throat.

“Don’t even think about it. You are not carting me out the back doorway like a misbehaving child. Now, let’s go inside and calm everyone down before they start getting really worked up and end up filling your ass with holes. I would like to keep you in one piece even if you are a giant asshole.” Tessa stood over him glaring and she’d never looked more beautiful than she did right then.

His cock stirred because for some reason her tossing him down and placing her foot on his neck was kind of sexy and he wondered if they wrestled if he’d come out on top or if she would. She’d been allowing him to manhandle her, he realized. This whole time he’d thought he had the upper hand with her but she’d been benevolently allowing him to have his way with her. He really should have suspected the truth when he’d learned of the way they’d raised her but he hadn’t. Buck wondered what other secrets she’d kept hidden in plain sight because he’d bet her ability to take him out without much thought wasn’t the only skill she’d learned from her family.

“Well come on,” she said, shaking her hand down at him when he didn’t respond for several seconds after she’d removed her foot. He reached up and allowed her to jerk on his hand as he rose from the ground, not really needing the help but wanting to touch her. He followed her as she walked towards the opening that led to the underground entrance. She entered the compound and disarmed an idiot who turned a weapon on her.

“Terrence, you idiot, it’s me,” Tessa hissed at the man she’d snatched the gun from.

“I didn’t know that and with the alarm blaring I wasn’t sure if it might not be an intruder. What were you doing outside when there’s a breach?” he asked, looking confused. Terrence was a tall man in his early twenties with a lanky frame.

“I was outside, dumbass,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t know that, now did I? You’ve gotten really mouthy since you came back, cuz. You didn’t used to be such a mouthy bit—hey, let me go,” Terrence whined. “Ow, that hurt,” he cried out when Buck grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into the wall.

“Don’t disrespect my old lady,” Buck growled, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched after he released the boy. He wouldn’t allow him to say something like that to Tessa. Nobody talked to her that way.

“Buck, that was sweet but unnecessary.”

“What do you mean that was sweet? He just slammed my head into the wall!” Terrence moaned, looking at her like she’d lost her mind.

“Stop whining. You will be fine and that cut on your face isn’t that bad. I don’t even think it will need more than a stitch, maybe two,” Tessa muttered, rolling her eyes at the boy’s ridiculous protests. Buck moved, stepping around him when Tessa walked away without giving the kid the sympathy he so obviously wanted for the tiny little cut. Buck shoved him again on his way by, hearing a satisfying thump when Terrence hit the wall again.

Tessa took him down the hall to a room off to the left of the main hall and headed to a panel on the back wall that she opened by pressing a series of blocks, which opened another doorway. She entered that opening and began walking down a long tight hallway. He followed her in, closing the door behind them and wondering where the hell she was leading him. He found out a few minutes later when they came to another door. She punched in a code on the pad outside the door and pushed it open and stepped inside.

“Which one of you decided to set off the alarms?” she demanded as she stood with her hands on her hips and a glare on her face.

“I did,” Jim said, glaring right at Buck who’d entered the room and was looking at the huge monitors and equipment that they had to monitor the entire compound. There were four sets of the monitors with every part of the compound being watched. It was a sweet setup and he knew that Dice would likely have wet dreams about it if he was ever allowed in here.

“Why? It’s only one man and he isn’t here to cause anyone any trouble except me so a live fire alarm was a bit much, don’t you think, Jim-bo?” Tessa asked. Buck felt a smile tug at his lips when Jim glared at her mutinously before turning his grim look on Buck.

“No, he shouldn’t be here and how was I to know it was only one of them? They might have been here to try and rob us. They’re bikers, you know,” Jim muttered.

“You know damned good and well that they aren’t here to rob us. They operate by a code. As long as we don’t fuck with them, they’ll leave us alone. You’re just pissed that he upset me and so you tried to get him killed. I can’t believe you.”

Buck saw Tessa move and winced when she went for the dude’s balls. She kicked him good and hard making him scream and cry out as he slid from his chair to the floor, his hand covering the offended area. Ouch. He was glad she hadn’t done that to him in the meadow outside because that shit looked like it hurt, a lot.

“Send out an all clear before someone hurts someone by accident.” The other men in the room were watching Jim writhe in pain on the floor and didn’t do her bidding fast enough. “Now,” she snapped and the men all reacted, turning back to their stations and sending out another series of alarms but this time in another tone. Apparently, they had different tones for different situations. It was a smart idea, one that would have everyone on the same page but keep the enemy guessing.

Jim pulled himself up from the floor having finally recovered by the time the tones stopped, his glare hot as he tried not to move. Buck couldn’t blame him because he would bet Jim’s balls were going to be bruised for at least a week after that kick she’d given him. He didn’t think his setting off a live fire alarm had deserved that punishment but who was he to decide.

“He shouldn’t be here. I don’t like him but then I never did. I told Uncle Diego that we shouldn’t have left you with the no-good biker but he wouldn’t listen. Said he liked him and then a few months later you come back all teary-eyed and upset just like I thought you would. He’s not good enough for you,” Jim grunted, earning a little respect from Buck for his backbone.

“It’s not any of your business who I’m dating, Jim-bo.”

“Marrying,” Buck said, setting that little detail straight. She was going to marry him this time around because he wasn’t having her running off like that again. If she married him she’d have to stay because he’d never allow her to have a divorce. Just wasn’t fucking happening.

“What?” Tessa asked, looking bewildered.

“He doesn’t get a say in who you marry,” Buck said, talking to her slowly so she didn’t misunderstand again.

“I’m not marrying you. You haven’t even asked me to.”

“You’re marrying me and I just did ask you,” Buck growled, crossing his arms and glaring at her.

“See, he’s clearly insane. He thinks he can command that you do what he says,” Jim muttered, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong by adding his two cents into their conversation, earning a loud shut up from both of them as they glared at one another.

“You didn’t just tell me that I’m marrying you without asking after you ditched me for over a month while you pretended—and I’m still asking Cindy about that by the way—that you were sleeping with another woman, did you?” Tessa asked, her brows rising to her hairline.

“We’re already married, it’s just not official on paper. I’m telling you that there will be papers this time. You’re mine, duchess. Best thing for you to do is deal with it because that’s not going to change.” Buck didn’t know what freaked him out more, the way she glanced down at his balls or the way she fingered the gun she’d take from Terrence earlier. He gulped as he waited for her to speak, man enough to say he was really hoping she didn’t shoot him in the balls.

“We will discuss this later when we don’t have an avid audience that includes my father and uncles.” Tessa was looking over his shoulder when she said the last bit and Buck turned, realizing that somehow while he’d been focused on Tessa and his argument they’d snuck up behind him.

Fuck, he was getting soft.

“Boy, you really fucked up this time.”