Chapter 20

Briar

Banging on my door makes me jolt in my bed.

“Open the fucking door!” The banging continues.

A quick look at the door and I realize it isn’t locked.

My eyes are darting behind me on the bed, finding it empty when the heavy wood swings open and crashes against the wall behind it. I’m relieved when I look in the direction of the bathroom and see the door standing open, and the light turned off.

“You act like you’re confused you’re alone,” Lynch sneers at me. “Something you need to tell me, Brother?” He’s asked me that question more in the last couple of weeks than he has over the last ten damn years.

“Got wasted last night,” I confess running my hand over my face. “Don’t know how I got in here.”

I won’t mention the ache in my balls and saying anything about Molly will only end in bloodshed, so I keep my fucking mouth shut to that end. I’m a smart man when there isn’t a tempting little blonde in my bed.

“Get the fuck up. We were supposed to leave thirty minutes ago. You’re making us late.”

I know my time with her wasn’t a dream when I walk into my bathroom. The heaviness in my balls and the reluctance my cock gives me to piss are both sure signs of my orgasm.

“Fuck,” I grumble as I step into the shower.

If Lynch had opened that door while his little sister was still wrapped around me? I shake the thought away because I don’t think it's above him to murder me in front of her.

The shower takes longer than I initially anticipated because fuck if I can get on my bike with the memory of her hot cunt against me without jacking off. The release is less than satisfying.

My go-bag is packed, so after dressing, I grab it and head out.

“How’s the headache?” TJ intercepts me in the hallway, turning to keep stride with me as I walk past him.

“Manageable,” I mutter as we cross the living room and make our way out the front door.

“I figured Molly would’ve bitched you to the moon and back when you woke up.”

Just as the foolish words leave TJ’s mouth, my eyes meet Lynch’s. He’s standing just off the porch, glaring in my direction.

“Molly is inside?” My president’s eyes dart between TJ and me as he waits for one of us to answer him.

“Not that I know of,” I answer with a shrug.

His mouth opens, but before he can grill me his phone rings. His eyes stay on mine as he holds the phone to his ear, grunting out a “What?”

“Saved by the bell,” TJ hisses in my ear as he pushes past me to climb on his bike.

“No, baby. I didn’t realize it was you.” Lynch walks away to talk to Zoe in a more private location when a couple of the guys begin chuckling at his apologies.

I don’t bother to look anyone in the eye as I tie my duffle bag to my bike. I know it’s not the end of the conversation. Lynch doesn’t get distracted and forget things. We’re merely putting off the inevitable. I’m certain the topic will be revisited when we’re alone in Detroit.

I’m looking forward to having my ass on my bike for the rest of the day. The only thing I want in my face is the wind for the next several hours.

***

Nine and half hours on my bike isn’t long enough to clear my head. Lynch didn’t make eye contact with me once during the three stops we made for gas, but I feel his stare on the side of my face when we pull into the hotel.

“Careful,” TJ warns when Lynch disappears into the lounge to grab key cards for everyone. “He seems on edge.”

“You need to get off my dick,” I hiss in his direction.

TJ chuckles, the knife in his hand twisting against his skin. “Speaking of your dick—”

I walk away from the whole crew, leaving them to wait for our president. TJ knows. Well, he must suspect. It isn’t the first time he’s made off-handed comments about Molly and me, but even as jokingly as he brings the subject up, he never flat out asks me about her. As cool as he thinks he is with the idea of Molly dating someone from the club, I’m certain he wouldn’t be as blasé if he knew the truth.

No. He’d be just as murderous as Lynch if he was privy to the details of what happened in my room last night. If he had a window into my thoughts about what I’ve imagined doing to her, he’d kill me on the spot and smile when the cops arrived to arrest him. He’d do his prison time with a smile on his face.

Knowing that is why I refuse to engage with him. He hasn’t said anything to Lynch, but I know it’ll happen eventually. There’s no turning back after hearing her soft moans as she came apart under me last night. I thought about it the entire ride down here. I mulled over every reason to stay away.

“Am I not worth dying for?”

Her words bounced around in my head for the better part of the day, and the only answer I could admit to is, yeah you are, baby girl. The only thing that makes me pause to consider a different outcome is leaving her alone, dying and risking her feeling like it was her fault. The guilt should rest solely on my shoulders. She shouldn’t be tainted with it.

I regret not opening my eyes, not watching her mouth when she told me she loved me. I regret not saying it back, because I’m an idiot not to admit it to myself. Denial is something I’ve been clinging to for weeks, but it’s another thing I refuse to continue. Keeping her safe is my only concern, but doubt of my own restraint is a huge factor in doing anything further.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I walk a couple more blocks before pulling it out to check the message.

Lynch: You’re with me. Room 134.

“Fucking perfect,” I mutter.

My feet keep moving, carrying me further and further away. I opt to stay gone for hours instead of ending up in the room with him while he’s still awake. Before Zoe arrived, he’d be up at all hours of the night, never able to get a real night’s sleep, but since she showed up and rocked his world, he sleeps like a fucking baby. He’s admitted it to me more than once. I’m gambling on that when I don’t go back to the hotel for another couple of hours.

I’m exhausted. I can feel the wear and tear of the ride clear to my bone marrow, but it’s late by the time I get back to our hotel.

Noticing my bike is the only one on the north side, I crank it and park it on the other side of the hotel. When Smalls makes room reservations for us, he knows we always need the ground floor with outside entry. Grumbling to myself when I enter the hotel, I nearly lose my shit at the pimple-faced idiot at the desk who refuses to give me a key card. I can’t blame the asshole. If I didn’t know Lynch, I wouldn’t hand over a card on the off chance that my president wouldn’t be happy about it, either.

“I’m the VP,” I hiss, pointing to the patch on my damn cut.

“And you could be fighting with him.” He takes a step back when I growl. “How do I know you don’t want to go in there and hurt him?”

“You.” I point at him, but standing here arguing won’t make a damn difference. I just didn’t want to have to knock on the damn door. Waking Lynch up with the door opening isn’t as bad as making him get out of the damn bed. If I wasn’t on his shit list before tonight, I will be by morning. “You watch too much fucking TV.”

He’s grumbling something about Juice betraying Jax when I walk away. I just hold both of my middle fingers in the air as I walk away.

“He was the intelligence officer. Never the damn VP,” I mumble as I close the distance between my cautious feet and the door to room 134. “I don’t think Jax would’ve hurt the man his sister loved.”

“Jax didn’t have a sister.” I nearly shoot TJ for sneaking up on me. “Where have you been? You missed dinner.”

“Walking,” I say as I pull my hand from the steel in my waistband, still not one hundred percent sure that I won’t need to use it. “Why are you creeping around the hall?”

“Getting ice.” He holds up the bucket before slamming his knuckles on the door marked 134 and disappearing into the room across the hall.

“Motherfucker.” My head snaps up when Lynch pulls open the door with a scowl on his face.

“You don’t have to pound on the door like the fucking police.”

I catch the door just before it clicks closed again. Shifting the weight of my bag on my shoulder, I walk in behind him.

“I’m back, baby,” he says after picking up his phone off the bedside table. His eyes find mine as he walks toward the bathroom. “You showering tonight?”

“Naw, man. It’s all yours.” I undress quickly before falling into bed, praying that he doesn’t kill me in my sleep.