11

STEEL

Yeah, I was a fucking coward. I left Mia in her bed to wake up alone. She would probably wonder what the hell she had done wrong to make me leave before she woke up, and knowing Mia, she would think of a whole slew of things that she must have done wrong.

But she did everything right.

She managed to do something no other woman had managed to do in a great number of years, not even Callie.

She made me feel better than I had since I lost my leg that horrible day in the desert when everything went pear-shaped, and we lost men in the gunfight from hell—when Booth held his brother’s lifeless body in his arms, desperately trying to hold his torn apart body together. When my twin brother copped some shrapnel and lost sight in his eye. When Creed’s face had been scared from an exploding IED, and when my leg was blown away from the knee down. It was one of the worst days of my life and in the life of our commando team. It wasn’t long after that day that we all got out and followed Deck and Booth to build this life in the Wounded Souls. A band of brothers with all sorts of fucked-up problems, but we were together and doing our best to rebuild what we could of our lives, hearts, and minds.

And I was doing pretty good until I decided for some stupid reason to propose the Callie. What in God’s name had I been thinking? I never wanted to marry her. Fuck, she would have cheated on me during the fucking ceremony. I had no illusions that Callie Stone was anything else other than what she really was—a gold digger with a killer body and nothing but selfish blood running through her veins.

But her sister…

Mia was the very essence of good—sweet, kind, and always willing to give her time to any of the club’s businesses. She worked mostly for me and was my right-hand person, managing every aspect of the Bar and Grill. Fuck, she even managed me, making sure I had this or that and reminding me to rest my leg whenever she noticed I was struggling. Callie wouldn’t give two shits if I were struggling or not. My leg made her puke, which was her word, not mine. But Mia, she knew about it and cared about it. She cared about me.

Then last night happened.

I nearly killed those uni students for putting their hands on Beauty. I wanted to, anyway.

And then Mia took off on foot and fuck if that hadn’t sent a shiver of fear through me. That fucking idiot Rogue, who had a vendetta against the members of the club, was stalking all the women and was putting them in danger. And, by all accounts, the fucker was after Mia.

Like fuck. There was no way that cunt was getting his hands on her. So when I found her walking in the dark, alone and without a phone or a jacket on her, I wanted to paddle her arse. But what did I do instead? I made sweet fucking love to her and took her virginity, and I think, somewhere in that bed last night, she took my heart.

So I left her alone at three o’clock in the morning, rode straight back to the compound, and went straight to the club’s gym. I had been there ever since. This wasn’t uncommon for me to do. I spent most early mornings working my body to exhaustion until I couldn’t possibly do another rep or another pull-up, and all I could do was sleep. I loved the feeling I got when my muscles screamed at me to stop, the arm pump after a hundred or more alternating dumbbell curls, but my favourite and go-to exercise was arm pull-ups. I could go for a full ten minutes before my arms felt like the pump was too much.

With my leg, I was restricted. I could still run and even had a special blade I used, but my upper body and arms started to become my focus. I was fairly ripped after the effort I’d put in over the years.

“VP, Booth wants us in the war room.”

I turned to find Creed leaning against the doorframe leading into the gym.

“Okay, brother. I’ll be there in a minute,” I replied, giving him a chin lift and getting one back in response before he pushed himself off the frame and sauntered out. I grabbed the towel I brought with me to wipe some of the sweat from my body. I didn’t shower when I arrived back at the compound because I couldn’t bring myself to wash Mia’s scent from me. Even with all the sweat from my workout, I could still smell her, taste her. I very rarely did the oral sex thing, and since Callie wasn’t into it much, I sort of just lost it from my repertoire. But last night, I realised I really enjoyed it—with Mia.

Snatching up my T-shirt, I pulled it over my head, and then made my way out of the gym and down the hallway leading to the main room. The war room was on the other side, but I detoured by the bar to grabbed a cold drink.

Stella was manning the bar at the club for the day. She didn’t do the night shifts much anymore, and her cleaning duties had been halved. Booth was not keen on his wife working as the club’s cleaner, but she put up a fight and pulled a pout, or whatever shit she did to make my pres cave, and she got her way. She still cooked for us, but her other duties were a bit lighter these days. So they should be since the first lady of the Wounded Souls was carrying Booth’s baby, and we nearly lost her to Rogue not long ago. That was the night that would haunt me for the rest of my life—but not only because Stella and Mia were targeted and Stella was badly injured, but because Mia had begged me to love her that night. The sorrow and hurt in her voice played on a reel in my head.

“What can I get ya, pretty boy?”

I smirked at the name she and Shiloh insisted on calling me all the time. Just about all the women called me that now, except Mia—she called me stud, or in the case of last night, she called me babe. And fuck me, I liked it.

“Hey there, blondie. Just give me a beer. Whatever you got back there in a bottle will be fine.” Taking the offered beer, I gave Stella a wink and continued on my way to the war room. God only knew what was going on now. There seemed to be nothing but drama around here lately, and I couldn’t wait until we found and dealt with this prick Rogue so shit could finally start calming down—especially now that there were two babies on the way for two of my brothers.

————

 “What do you mean there has been a breach?” Booth asked Ford, who had just landed a big problem in our laps.

“I mean, Pres, that someone hacked into the personnel file of all the employees of the Bar and Grill. I think I got to it before they went in too far. The firewall I installed didn’t let them in for long before I could shut them out, but they got into a few files.”

The last bit of information had me gripping the table, my knuckles turning white. I didn’t want to ask whose information was hacked, but I did, anyway.

“Who?” I said, gritting my teeth. Deep down, I knew who the arsehole was going after next.

Ford looked right at me and said, “Mia.”

I felt the shudder rip through me. After Stella was taken for those few hours and stabbed then beaten, we knew Mia would be next. Rogue more or less told us she was, but to fucking hear that he was actively stalking her? I wanted to knock someone’s block off, then run and find her and hide her until this whole thing was over.

“And what was in that information?” Creed asked, his voice taking on a menacing tone. His friendship with Mia pissed me off. The prick had seen her in only her bra and panties on the night the girls got drunk. No one should see her like that except me, but it also calmed me, knowing that Creed had her back when there could be times I might not be around. It took the edge off my desire to plough my fist through his face.

“All her personal details, addresses, bank accounts, phone numbers. Everything.”

“Where is she?” Darth barked out as we all got to our feet.

Was this where I told them I left her sated and sleeping in her bed at Rainn’s place after taking her virginity, not before eating out her sweet pussy and sucking on her delectable tits? Probably not a good idea.

“Rainn’s,” Mannix answered. Not only was Mannix one of my former commando teammates and club brother, but he was my real brother, so no one knew me better than he did. With just a look, he knew things had shifted between Mia and me. Since we were little kids, we’d had this ability to know what the other was thinking. Being twins helped, but we weren’t identical, and to tell the truth, not many people knew we were twins. We looked absolutely nothing like each other. I had long blond hair and, like most people said, I’m a bit of a pretty boy.

Mannix was muscled like me, but that was where the similarity ended. Covered in tattoos from head to toe. His need and partialness to pain kept him going back for more. He had some sort of aversion to shaving because the bugger always sported a scruffy five o’clock shadow, which the girls seemed to like, and the small bit of salt and pepper colouring didn’t hinder his ability to grab any girl he wanted and show her heaven—as he put it.

In fact, I heard the girls talking the other night that they found scruffy with salt and pepper hair sexy. Yeah, thanks, but I would keep my blond hair. Mannix was blond in his teens, but it darkened as he got older, much like our father’s hair. I got most of my genes from our mum’s side of the family. The sexy side.

Focusing back on the reason we were all here, I looked at my pres and waited for him to say what I wanted him to, needed him to say.

“I want her moved here to the compound and kept close. If she is the next target, I want to limit his reach to her as much as possible,” Booth ordered.

Thank God. Booth was on edge with the danger stalking the club, and I couldn’t blame him. Stella’s pregnancy and her safety were paramount on his list, but he was also the president of the Wounded Souls MC, and Mia was an employee and a trusted friend. It was because of the club that she was in danger. We still didn’t know why it was the club’s fault, and the small bits of information Rogue had given us here and there made no fucking sense. The riddles he spoke in told us nothing except that he hated us, especially Booth.

“Pres, you sure that’s a good idea?” Ford asked.

The fuck?

“What is that supposed to mean, Ford?” I growled at him, the menace in my voice deliberate. If he thought we were leaving Mia unprotected out there, he was fucking crazy.

“VP, just think about it. Teach and Stella are pregnant, and both of them have been through hell and back, plus—” Ford stopped and really looked at all of the men gathered around the table. “If we bring Mia here, the trouble will follow her. What about Shiloh? Are we just going to put her in danger again and again? We are about protecting our family, not begging for it to happen.”

Getting up quickly, I all but threw my chair behind me. Brother or not, he was not going to vote to throw Mia under the bus. No fucking way. Wasn’t happening.

“And what do you suggest we do, arsehole? Tie her to the front gate as bait? Because we may as well if we leave her at Rainn’s place.”

“Steel, just wait—” Ford tried, but I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. To say I was fuming was an understatement.

“No, brother. I get that this is a fucking dangerous situation, but all the ladies of the club need to be protected, and we do that best here at the compound,” I said from between clenched teeth as I felt the blood roar between my ears. I would go toe to toe with Ford in a goddamn heartbeat. Fucking martial arts master or not, I would fuck him up. What he had in technical fighting knowledge, I had double that in pure brute strength.

“I love Shiloh more than anything in this fucking world, brother, so don’t even think about accusing me of putting her in danger. I would lay my life down for that kid.” I looked at Deck and Darth, and they both lifted their chins, knowing I meant every word.

I couldn’t allow us to leave Mia out. Our relationship wasn’t all that clear. In fact, it was all a bit murky, especially after last night and sex added to the mix. The Callie situation was definitely muddy and unclear for me now, but I did know that Mia meant a hell of a lot more than just some cherry I’d popped. Those words felt like acid on my tongue. They were wrong… like I was insulting Mia.

“Cooper, calm the fuck down. We know how you feel about Squirt. We all do, brother, and we are not going to let Mia go unprotected. But Ford does have a point,” Booth piped up. His death glare at Ford had the tech whiz sinking in his chair.

“My wife is the most important person in my life, and I would never put her in danger without thinking things through very carefully. Charlotte and Shiloh also, and it goes without saying my unborn child, too.” Booth paused as he looked down at the monitor in front of him. Without even looking, I knew he had found his wife on one of the screens and was taking in her sweet face. Being married had given Booth a sense of peace and reason. Stella did that for him. I was glad for my brother, but I would be fucked that Mia would be left out of the fold just because Mia wasn’t pregnant. As Booth studied what was in front of him, we all waited for him to pull out what was going on in his head. “Okay, here is what we are going to do.”

For the next hour, we listened as Booth laid out how we were going to protect all the women here on the compound property. Mia being its newest resident.