I’m thankful when Sloane stays away from me after I walk over to talk to his mother. It doesn’t take long for the waiting room to fill up with society people, and I’m too exhausted to turn myself on.
Sitting in my holey jeans and a plain, navy blue t-shirt, with sandals on my feet, no makeup on my face, and my hair in a messy ponytail is how my parents find me.
“You look awful,” my mother gasps, walking straight up to me.
“I’ve been here for four hours,” I respond.
“A lady should always look her best. Look at Kalli. Her own husband is fighting for his life, and not a hair is out of place,” my mother hisses. Kalli squeezes my hand in a show of support.
“Mother, I’ve had an awful day. Please, no rules,” I mutter.
“Why is your face like that? Did that horrible husband of yours do that?” she gasps.
Kipling growls next to me, but I stand and wrap my hand around hers, tugging her away from Kalli and Kip.
“No, Graham did this to me, did father not tell you?” I whisper.
“Graham would never do that. He comes from proper stock, Imogen. Now hush, and don’t cover up for that thing you married,” she says, waving her hand around.
Thing.
She just called my husband a—thing.
This is exactly why I stay at my parents for as little time as possible. I disappointed them by marrying Sloane, and they don’t hide that disappointment or their disdain for him even slightly. They accepted the marriage in their own way, but they still staunchly disapprove and don’t hide that at all.
“Well, Graham did it,” I hiss.
“I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding,” she says flippantly. It pisses me off.
“Yeah, I broke up with him and wouldn’t marry him.”
“See, completely fixable. He’s here, too. Go and fix things,” she says, pushing me away from her and toward the middle of the room, where Graham is now staring at me.
The room suddenly feels as though all the air has been sucked out of it as I stare at Graham. I know that Sloane is somewhere amongst the people, and he’s got to see Graham, but my feet are frozen to the ground as Graham’s cool and calculated gaze pins me to my spot.
When he starts to walk toward me, my entire body stiffens. Before I can even say a word, he’s right in front of me. He lifts his hands, and I wince at the action. Instead of hurting me, he cups my cheeks as his eyes take me in, looking regretful. I don’t think he regrets anything, though, just the fact that he can’t force me to do what he wants.
“Imogen,” he whispers.
“Please step away from me,” I grind out.
“We had a fight, darling. Things got passionate and out of control.”
I open my mouth to speak when Sloane’s deep voice vibrates right beside us. “If you don’t take your hands off of my wife right now, I’m going to cut them off,” he growls.
Graham takes a step back, letting his hands fall to his sides before he turns to face Sloane. He snorts as he looks over Sloane and shrugs.
“She’s technically your wife, but not for long,” he chuckles before he turns and walks away, going directly to my father’s side.
“Why were you entertaining that asshole?” Sloane asks. I slowly turn to him. His angry gaze is focused on me, and my mouth gapes slightly.
“You can’t seriously be mad at me right now?” I hiss.
“I sure as fuck can, sunshine.”
“Stop calling me sunshine when you’re pissed,” I demand. A smile tips his lips as he lowers his head so that his lips graze my ear.
“You like it when I call you sunshine with my cock deep inside of that sweet pussy?” he whispers as his hand wraps around my waist and gives me a squeeze.
“Sloane, stop,” I exhale.
“Mmm, you do. I’ll remember that, my sweet sunshine,” he breathes. I hate that I love it, too. My entire body shivers as his other hand wraps around my hip and his lips touch the skin just below my ear. “There she is, my sunshine.”
“Sloane,” I sigh.
“Mr. Huntington’s family?” a doctor calls out, interrupting Sloane and me. I breathe out a sigh of relief as I turn and walk toward the doctor.
As soon as I reach Kip and Kalli, I wrap my hand around Kip’s. I can feel Sloane’s heat at my back, and I try to restrain my shiver as his hand slides around my waist while his warm front presses against my back.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Huntington, but Mr. Huntington didn’t make it. We tried, but the blockage was too great. The years of cocaine abuse and drinking, his heart was just too weak,” the doctor explains. At the same time Kip’s hand squeezes mine, Sloane’s fingers squeeze my waist.
“If you’d like to come in and say your goodbyes before he’s taken, you’re more than welcome,” he murmurs.
“I would,” Kalli announces and walks away from us without a word, following behind the doctor.
“You want to go in, Kip? I’ll go with you,” Sloane rumbles. Kip shakes his head.
“No, I don’t want to see him like that,” Kipling whispers. I watch as his eyes fill with tears.
“Take care of Kippy, I’ll get rid of these assholes,” Sloane whispers in my ear.
I turn to Kip and I wrap my arms around him. As soon as I do, he shoves his face in my neck and he cries. He’s eighteen-years-old, getting ready to leave for college in just a few weeks, and he’s just lost his father. A man he’s looked up to his entire life. My heart aches for him.
A few minutes later, Sloane returns. “We only have about ten minutes before the brothers start to show up,” he announces.
“What?” I ask, lifting my head to look over at him.
“I called them. They’ll be here for support, just like they would be for anyone,” he grinds out.
I run my hands up and down Kip’s back soothingly. A few minutes later, he breaks away from me, wiping his eyes.
“I feel like a pussy,” he mutters.
“You’re not,” Sloane announces before I can respond.
“You’re not crying,” Kip points out to his brother.
“Yeah, because I’m fucked up. Having feelings doesn’t make you a pussy, means you aren’t as fucked up as I am,” he shrugs.
He sighs, his eyes focused on the ground, “Sloane.”
“You think I’d be separated from my gorgeous wife if I wasn’t a fuck up? You think I would have ended up in prison if I was stable? Face it, baby brother, you’re the well-adjusted one. Nobody is gonna say shit to you because you cried the day your dad died,” he grins as he shoves at Kip’s shoulder lightly.
I look up at Sloane and he winks at me before he pulls his brother into his arms. There’s something about him right now. He’s always sexy, but I’ve never seen him like this before. Loving, supportive, and gentle. He can be all of those things when he chooses to be, but I’ve never seen them all at once.
It makes me think about what he would be like as a father. I bite my bottom lip and try to tamp down the butterflies in my stomach, but I can’t. They’re there, flying and alive until the room suddenly fills with people. I look around to see his club is here.
“Oh, Genny,” Mary-Anne calls out as she hurries to my side and wraps her arms around me.
Hesitantly, I hug her back. I’m surprised to see that she’s pregnant again. When we separate, I look around the room and see so many familiar faces that it makes me feel uncomfortable. As an Old Lady of the club, I was untouchable. I was also a complete bitch at the end, before I left.
“Hey there, honey,” Colleen says as she takes my hand and gives it a squeeze.
Colleen was one of the first women I met in the club. She’s in her late forties, and had been around the group a while. She taught me everything about the club life, even the hard lessons—like when I walked in on Sloane fucking a whore for the first time.
She was the one who informed me of my place. Though I never hated her for it, I always took my bitterness out on anyone who came crossing my path, and that means Colleen had been the brunt of it often.
“Hey,” I whisper back to her, squeezing her hand.
“How you doin?” she asks. My answer is to shrug. Right now, I don’t know how I’m doing. “Hang in there. I know it’s been a while, but I’m only a phone call away,” she murmurs before she turns and walks over to her husband Texas’ side.
MadDog, Mary-Anne, Bobbie, Roach, Ivy, Camo, Grease, Torch, Cleo, Teeny and Mammoth—they’re all here and all looking at me questioningly. Then their eyes move to Sloane and back to me.
Nobody says a word as Sloane updates them on his father and how he’s passed. I watch as he walks over to MadDog and whispers something to him. MadDog’s eyes flick up to me for a few seconds before they return back to Sloane’s and he nods.
“Kipling, do you wish to say anything?” Kalli asks, looking extremely put together for a woman who just went to talk to her dead husband’s body.
“No, mother,” Kip says, shaking his head.
“I’ve already called your father’s attorney and he’ll come to the house first thing in the morning. You’ll be there Sloane, darling?” she asks, turning to Sloane.
I don’t miss the looks of shock around the room at learning Sloane’s name. Then I realize that these people probably have no clue how well-bred and well off Sloane is. He’s always just been Soar to them.
“Yeah. Imogen and I will be there.”
“Imogen?” I hear Teeny whisper.
Sloane and I are frauds, complete and total frauds. Nobody knows who we are in Shasta, and that’s exactly the way Sloane wanted it.
Now there are going to be questions, and I know the women will turn to me to find out answers. Maybe it’s bitchy, but I don’t want to give anybody anything. I’m fucking tired.
I watch was Kalli and Kip walk through the throng of bikers and their Old Ladies like they don’t even exist. Well, Kalli does. Kip is looking around kind of in awe at all these huge men that take up the entire space.
MadDog walks up to me and his eyes narrow on my cheek. “The fuck happened to your face?” he barks roughly.
“Someone didn’t like the fact that I didn’t want to date him anymore,” I shrug.
His eyes flick up to Sloane and then back down to me. He cocks an eyebrow in question, and I shake my head.
“Not Soar,” I admit. He bends down and gives me a big bear hug. “You look good, sweetheart. A little thin, but good,” he murmurs against my ear before he kisses the side of my head.
I can do nothing but stand in shock at his actions. I’ve known MadDog since I was eighteen years old, and not once has he ever embraced me, let alone kissed me.
“We’re stayin’ at a hotel here in town for a few days to help out with funeral shit,” MadDog announces before he turns and walks away.
Sloane presses his hand against my lower back, pushing me forward. Together, along with the rest of his club, we make our way out of the hospital.
“I have several extra bedrooms if anybody wants to stay with me,” I offer.
MadDog’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but he shakes his head.
“We got the kids with us. They’re a little wild. Wouldn’t want to mess up your place,” he murmurs.
I get what he’s saying. I don’t have children, I’m a little bitchy, and obviously self-centered. He’s being kind, but I can tell he doesn’t want to ruffle my feathers, mainly because he’s seen how I can react to things.
Like the time I walked into a party and some whore had her naked body pressed against, Sloane’s. I started throwing beer bottles at them, hoping to hit Sloane but hitting her a few times as well. I gave not one fuck. She ended up having to go to the hospital, and two brothers had to restrain me before Sloane could drag me to his room to deal with me.
“Okay,” I murmur, looking up and giving him a fake smile.
I turn toward my car and try to hurry away from the group, feeling like I’m seconds away from bursting into tears. Today has been too much, too fucking much. Now Sloane’s father is gone, and I feel like I can’t breathe.
I watch her run off, and as much as I want to chase after her, I don’t. I have to talk to my brothers first. I turn to MadDog, who is also watching Imogen intently. He turns to me with a furrowed brow. “Not how I expected to see her again. You’re gonna need to explain some shit, brother,” he murmurs.
“She was dating some prick. She tried to break it off, he got physical. That’s the extent of the story,” I shrug.
“It’s not, but I’ll let that rest. She’s sickly thin,” he announces.
I don’t bother responding because it isn’t his business, and I can see it with my own eyes. Imogen is thin, but once I get her pregnant, that shit will surely change.
“You haven’t fixed your shit with her, either.”
“Anything else you want to point out that I already fuckin’ know?” I ask, getting irritated.
“You have to meet with your probation officer tomorrow,” he grins, being a smartass. “And you’re really fuckin’ rich, aren’t you?”
“I do have to meet with him; and yeah, Genny and I both are. I told you this.”
“No wonder she was a snotty, pissed off little thing when you brought her to Shasta. I woulda been, too,” he clucks. “But she looks like she’s about to shatter into a million pieces, brother. Worse off than the day she left the clubhouse three years ago. How you plannin’ on fixin’ that?”
I shrug. “Doesn’t matter. She’s pissed at me. I threw some shit in her face that wasn’t nice.”
“Bitches?” he guesses correctly. I nod.
“If I learned anything from my first marriage, I know that living with guilt and regret isn’t an easy thing. You need to make shit right. If you keep going the way you’re going with her, it’s going to ruin both of you,” he murmurs.
“Yeah,” I grunt.
“We’ll see you tomorrow. Give me a call when you’re up and moving. Go get your woman, and I’m sorry as fuck about your dad,” he rumbles.
“Wish I could be sorry about him, too, but thanks,” I state before I quickly walk toward my bike.
I put on my helmet and start my engine. There’s only one place I want to be right now, and that’s with Imogen. She may not want me, but she’s my home. After losing my father and not feeling sad like I probably should, I need to feel something, and Imogen always makes me feel.
I’m not more than ten miles down the road when I get pulled over by a highway patrol cop. With a curse, I pull my bike over to the side of the freeway and close my eyes, waiting for what will assuredly be a pain in the fucking ass.
I hear his boots crunching behind me on the dirt and I wait. “Notorious Devils, huh?” he asks as he draws closer to me. I don’t bother answering him, my cut says it all. He asks me to get off my bike and then requests my license and information.
“I’m on probation,” I offer. His eyebrow lifts.
He walks away from me for a few minutes and then comes back with a grin on his face. “Well, now I never expected to pull you over. We’re going to need to run some drug screens on you,” he laughs.
Unable to protest, because the state of California has me by the balls, I follow him. I spend the next few hours being poked, prodded, and eventually released. I’m not drunk or high, and I didn’t violate any fucking laws. He pulled me over claiming I didn’t signal as I merged onto the freeway. Which was complete bullshit.
“Watch yourself, Huntington,” he murmurs before he releases me. I don’t think anything into it, my only focus on getting to Genny.
Her house is dark when I pull into her driveway, and I hurry up her steps. I lift my hand to knock, but her door opens and she’s standing in front of me. Her face is bare, and she’s wearing a sexy little silk nightie with a robe.
Silently, she holds out her hand, offering it to me, and I slip mine inside, my fingers tangle with hers as I step over the threshold. I close the door behind me, flipping the locks before we silently head upstairs to her bedroom. All thoughts of me being pulled over, and all the bullshit I just went through are gone with one simple touch from her.
I strip off my clothes while she drops her robe to the floor. Still without speaking, she pulls her nightgown up and over her head, dropping it beside her robe before she crawls beneath her sheets. I watch her before I finish disrobing, and then I join her.
“Please, stop hurting me,” she whispers as I gather her in my arms.
“I don’t know how,” I admit as I close my eyes and hold onto her tightly.