CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tank
“Oh. Motherfucker!” I roared as I came to. There was a burning pain along my side and I wrapped my hand around the hot flesh. Under my fingers, I could feel stitches. Fuck. I’d been shot, I barely remembered it but I knew then it for sure wasn’t a dream.
“Easy there, Tank,” Diesel’s voice echoed in my ears.
“The fuck happened to me?” I grumbled low.
“Was kinda hopin’ you could tell me,” Loch said as I opened my eyes.
I was in a room with a standard hospital bed in the middle. It reminded me of the medical room back home, only it was a little different. I knew I wasn’t in a damn hospital, thank fuck. I had seen enough of the inside of one of those for a lifetime. If I had to guess, I would have said I was in one of the other chapter’s clubhouses. Gray Fort was the closest to the cabin, so I assumed I was there.
I looked around and took in the familiar faces that surrounded me. Diesel sat in a chair on the corner, dark circles under his eyes and worry lines etched deep into his forehead. Loch, Axe, and Bocca stood in the doorway like they’d just walked in.
“How long have I been out?” I asked as my mind tried to play catch up.
“About twelve hours,” Diesel said, his eyes flickering over to the other three.
Something was going on. I got that I’d been shot, but it felt like there was something more.
Dya. Her name hit me like an arrow through the heart.
“Where is she?!” I growled like a pissed off animal.
I remembered the cabin. I remembered Savage. I fucking remembered all the things he said he was going to do. Then, I was being dragged to my truck by Dya and someone I hadn’t had the first clue about, but she seemed familiar with the guy. She fucking got us out of there. She must have figured out where to take me, though I wasn’t sure how and I wasn’t really in the mood to care. There was only one thing that was going through my head, I had to know if she was okay.
And no, I didn’t forget all the things that Savage had said. I fucking remembered her confession after he told her truth. I couldn’t believe it at the time but the look in her eyes held so much emotion. I knew right then that she was never going to kill me. That even though she had taken the job with intentions to go through with it, that she never would have. She felt whatever the fuck was between us. And my guess, the day I walked into that bar she began to waver on what she would do. No, I knew everything and I still wanted—no needed—to see her.
I didn’t miss the unsure look that passed between Bocca, Loch, and Axe but I had no idea what it meant.
“Where is she?” I repeated and tried to sit up. My side screamed at me but I didn’t care, I had to get to her. What if she’d already left? What if I never saw her again? I couldn’t bear the thought of that. “Where is Dya?”
“If you mean Nadya, then she’s in the basement,” Loch said after he cleared his throat.
In the fucking basement. I knew what happened in the basement and it wasn’t ever good. My eyes snapped to Axe.
“Since when do we hurt women?” I barked, an angry fire raging through my blood. If he hurt her, I was contemplating killing him with my bare hands.
“Fuck you,” he said in a tone that might have been joking, or deadly, it was so hard to tell. “I’ve never laid a hand on a woman without her permission and I wouldn’t fucking start now.”
“I need to see her,” I said as I started to move off the bed. Damn my side hurt like a fucking bitch.
“Sit back, brother. Listen to what we have to say and then you can see her if you want,” Loch said, taking a step closer to me. I had a pretty good idea when he was going to tell me and I wondered how it was that he knew.
“She was—” He started but I was in no mood, so I cut him off.
“Hired by fuckin’ Savage. I know. I know it all.” I said with a heavy sigh as I tried to calm myself down.
I knew if I tried to get up and walk out of that room in search of her, I’d have to go through them. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem but considering I was having an issue even getting out of bed, I knew I wouldn’t get very far.
Then it hit me.
“You left her in one of those cells, didn’t you?” I asked, smirking slightly.
“Yeah, made her as comfortable as can be. Handcuffed her in front,” Lock said eyeing me.
“And she didn’t escape?” I wanted to laugh.
“No. Why?” Confusion lined each of their faces as Loch asked the question.
“Because I’m pretty sure she could’ve if she wanted. And I have no doubt that if she had wanted to be free, she would have made her way to the front door without any problem.” I raised a brow at all of them. If they had an idea about her story then they would have figured that out. “Now, I want to see her.”
With a nod, Loch and Bocca walked out of the room. I was left with Diesel and Axe. The last words I’d said to Diesel made their way into my mind and I felt like shit. I owed him an apology but I wasn’t sure if I was ready, or what I could even say to make it right.
What felt like an eternity later, the door swung wide and there she was, a little banged up but still as beautiful as ever. Her hands were still cuffed and I hated it. My eyes traveled up her body to meet hers.
She was standing tall, not that I would expect anything different from her. She wasn’t one to cower or back down, no matter how she may have been feeling on the inside. But as I looked into her liquid chocolate eyes I saw it. Yes, there was no denying what it meant. That weird as fuck gleam was shining brightly in her eyes and I remembered seeing it the night I’d first laid eyes on her. The stir of emotions she was feeling could be hidden from most, but not me. I had her fucking number and I could tell the ball was in my court.
I could have drawn it out, made her squirm on the inside a little longer, but as my heart started to race all I wanted to do was hold her. Sappy as fuck, yeah I know.
“Angel,” I said and that was all it took.
Her body relaxed and like a damn, well, angel, she flew to me with a speed I didn’t think was possible. A grunt escaped me as her body plowed into mine and she did her best to cling to me. All I wanted was to have her arms wrapped around me but those damn cuffs wouldn’t allow that. She clung to me as she buried her face in my neck, no doubt getting a nose full of beard. But it didn’t seem like she minded.
Everything faded away at that moment. I didn’t care that my side was throbbing or that four of my brothers surrounded me watching this shit play out like a damn movie. All that mattered was her. As I wrapped my arms around her and held her as close as I could, I realized that none of it mattered. Not the reason of how she’d come into my life. Not the mistakes that had been made. Not even the fact that I was sure my brothers didn’t trust her right then. I didn’t give a damn about any of it.
Because
I
Was
Fucking
In
Love
With
Her.
Yep, there ya have it, folks. This big guy, who thought his heart was so dark it wouldn’t even know light if it was submerged in it, had caught the fucking feels. And the thing was, she couldn’t hide it from me because as she pulled her head back to look into my eyes, I could see she felt it too.
“Tell me,” I said playfully. Her glossy eyes narrowed a bit and I knew she got what I was talking about. But would she admit it? I would have bet on never, but I could live with that because I could fucking see it.
“No,” she replied, a stern look on her face that could almost be considered playful for her.
“Tell me, Angel,” I whispered into her ear before placing a light kiss on the crook of her neck. Her body visibly shook and as I pulled back to look at her, I noticed her eyes had drifted shut briefly.
“No,” she said more defiantly after she pulled herself together. Her luscious lips pressed into a thin line like she was doing her best to hold back the words as her eyebrow arched in a challenging way.
I didn’t want to be the first to say it. Not because I was on some sort of ego boost or needed to beat my Neanderthal chest. I was afraid that if I said the words first it would scare her off, make her close up and shut me out. Because it was very obvious she didn’t handle feelings like this very well and given her profession and past, who could blame her. When it came to Dya, I knew certain things would require a softer touch.
But then I said ‘fuck it’ because I wanted her to know. I wasn’t one to play games and I wasn’t about to start now. I didn’t hide things and I didn’t shy away from what I felt was real.
And even if she wasn’t ready to say it aloud, in my heart I knew. It was all so obvious in everything she did. In the way her features would soften a bit every time she looked at me. The way her eyes would shine a tad bit more when she saw me. The way she didn’t tense when I was around her and the way she let me hold her all night long. And I could feel it in the way she would call out my name when she came for me.
“I love you,” I told her without any more hesitation, making sure to punctuate every word so there were no doubts in her mind what I’d said. Her eyes became misty and I knew she wouldn’t let the tears fall, but that was alright with me. “I do. I think I have been since you fed me those God-awful eggs. You don’t have to say it back. I just wanted you to know.” She let out a small, choked laugh when I mentioned the eggs and I thought it was the cutest thing.
“Now,” I said, shifting my focus to Loch, giving her an out to the whole thing, “can we get these damn cuffs off my girl?”
“Yep,” he answered shortly and turned to leave, I assumed to get the key.
“I got it,” Dya said, one hand already free and working on the other lock with whatever strange thing she had on her bracelet. I swear it had to have been not even a minute and she was free and tossing the cuffs onto the floor. Then she turned and snuggled back up to me like nothing had even happened. Like she fucking belonged there.
“Well, damn,” Axe said, his face looking the smallest bit surprised.
“You trust her?” Loch asked.
“One hundred fucking percent,” I replied meaning every word.
“Okay, then. We’ll, uh, give you a bit. At some point, we need to talk.” With that, he gave a short nod and all of them shuffled out of the room, closing the door behind them. I knew they wouldn’t be going far. Just because I trusted her, didn’t mean that they did quite yet. And that was completely understandable. I knew in time that they would.
“I don’t know how to move forward,” I admitted after a long stretch of silence. I may have been happy right then, with her in my arms and fucking thankful that we both were alive, but that didn’t mean I’d forgotten what it was that I didn’t have.
“One day at a time,” she whispered then kissed my chest.
One day at a time. I could do that.