***Ramrod***
When I step over the threshold, the first thing I do is scan the room. I notice her coming down the hall, making me step toward that direction. Lips is right behind her and I realize what those two might have been doing.
Fuck. There’s a piece of tape peeking out from underneath her shirt and I have the sudden urge to rip her clothes off and see how it looks. I can’t right now because of all the people and kids in here with us. Not to mention we have things to deal with and talk about.
Standing in front of her with my eyes locked on the spot, I hear Lips clear her throat. “Your turn, Ramrod…so come on, and don’t kiss your ol’lady.”
My eyes slowly slide to Lips, and when I see her smirk, my heart actually skips a beat. Fuck. She only looks like that when she’s done something…something that involves…holy hell, my woman has her lips curled around her teeth.
Slowly leaning forward I mutter, “Gimme your mouth, sugar.”
Her head rears back, shaking. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Wrapping my fingers around her throat, I plaster her back against the wall and press my body against her.
Bringing my lips close to her ear, I whisper, “Never deny me one of your heavenly kisses, my lovely.” I glance at her lips. “Even more now, because if you didn’t pierce your clit or nipples…”
Doll gasps and I take my shot. Crushing my mouth against hers, my tongue swirls around and then I fucking feel it. Pierced. She’s pierced and even with how much it pains me to know that she will need time to heal, I cannot fucking wait to feel it playing with my cock. Groaning, I rock against her. Fuck. I need to be inside her so fucking bad right now.
“Kids in the near perimeter. Step away, stud. And no damn oral shit for at least two weeks, gotta let it heal first.” Lips chuckles. “Besides, we need to get you inked.”
I growl into my ol’lady’s mouth before I feel her barbell one more time against my tongue. Pulling back, I place my forehead to hers in an effort to calm down. It’s not fucking helping one bit that she’s breathing just as hard as I am.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispers and it’s then that my damn heart flows over.
“I fucking missed you so much, baby.” I press my lips against hers real quick. “Do you think we could squeeze in a quickie in the bathroom?”
“Most definitely not,” Depay growls from behind me. “There’ll be no fucking in my bathroom unless it’s me and my woman.”
“I guess you have your answer.” Doll chuckles and laces her fingers with mine, pulling me in the direction of Lips.
We head for Depay’s office. Lips points at a chair. “Sit. Unless you want me to ink your ass, then you can bend over the desk.”
“Lips,” Doll snaps, making me chuckle before I fist her hair and plant a quick kiss on her mouth and step away before I lose my shit and deepen the kiss.
“I love it when you snap in my defense,” I tell her from a safe distance.
Doll’s head swings to me, her cheeks a nice shade of pink. Before I adjust my words and blurt out how much I actually love her, I grab the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head, breaking the moment. Because it’s not the time, nor the place, to tell her something she’s not ready to hear yet.
Plunking down in the chair, I point at my woman. “Same spot, double the size.”
That earns me a bright as hell smile from both women and yet the one that’s wearing my name on her skin is the visual that shoots straight to my soul.
I’m used to the needle entering my skin and yet this time it carries a different level of awareness. For me it’s the highest level of recognition. Some might feel the moment they ask a woman to marry them, or hell...their wedding day to be the epic moment of their life, but for me it’s this right here.
Getting the patch with her name while looking at my ol’lady. The woman I intend to spend my life with, and make life with, because I see us having kids in the near future...Hell...I’ll even give my life for her if needed.
So yeah, this right here is epic for me, us. I reach out and she wraps her delicate fingers around mine. I hold onto this moment, burning it in my head so the memory stays vivid. Because who the fuck knows what comes next. She doesn’t know what we discovered and I know Deeds is updating everyone in the next room. When Lips is done with shoving a needle in me, I’ll tell these women what went down.
Thinking I have minutes to enjoy this moment, it seems like mere seconds when Lips is covering up my brand-new ink before I put my shirt back on.
There’s no way to warm them up so I decide to just throw it out there. “We found Rembrandt.”
Doll just eyes me intently while Lips places her hands on her hips. “Please tell me the fucker isn’t using any more air, because I’ll gladly rip out his lungs if he keeps breathing.”
I see the corner of Doll’s mouth twitch and I give a nod while I keep my gaze locked with my ol’lady. “Neck snapped, body lying in front of the toilet, cock out of his fucking pants. Killed mid piss.”
“You’re kidding me,” Doll gasps.
“Nope. True story,” I tell her. “I couldn’t have made it up, even if I wanted to.”
Deeds knocks on the inside of the door, catching the women’s attention. “Are we all set in here?”
Lips goes to her ol’man and hugs him close. “Yeah, we’re done. Let’s grab some coffee and huddle around the fire. Diamond told me all the kids were sleeping, so that’s all good. We’ve got one prospect inside the room, one on the outside. The prospects changed shifts out front about two hours ago. I checked.”
“Thanks, love.” Deeds kisses the top of her head. “Now all we need is to track down Arlo and find my fucking brother.”
We all follow Deeds into the living room where it’s crowded. There are bikers surrounding the house, keeping watch, and it might seem like overload, but I’ve been told that if Arlo could have gotten one guy to work with him, there might be others.
“Any clue as to where Arlo might be? What his next move is?” Lochlan asks.
Deeds shakes his head. “None.”
“No offense, Doll…but how, and after that mostly why, did Arlo set his eyes on you?” Lochlan asks Doll.
I turn my head to look at her because I could smack my head against the wall in this moment. Why I didn’t ask her that question myself?
“I was stupid enough to go to the police, wanting them to file a missing person’s report. I left my phone number because the cop told me he needed to check it out first. Something about her being an adult and needing to wait hours before he could file, but he would check into it.” Doll sighs. “He called not ten minutes later. I had just walked out of the damn station and the guy told me her boyfriend told him she was there with him. Nothing wrong.”
“Fucker,” I growl. “That’s why you didn’t trust the cops, or no one else for that matter.”
“Yeah,” she swallows, “and I hate to think about what could have happened if I didn’t accept Xena’s invitation to skip town for a few days.”
“Xena? Fuck. Now I have a visual of a half-naked woman with long hair, swinging a sword. Please tell me she looks like that.” Lochlan groans.
“Focus, dammit,” Deeds growls. “My brother is still MIA and you’re thinking with your dick?”
“He did have a good point a moment ago, asking why she was Arlo’s target,” I quip, bringing the discussion back on track.
“I can think of about two million reasons,” Chopper states.
“Fuck,” I snap.
“What?” Doll looks at me, not knowing what we just realized.
I pull her close before I tell her, “The cash, Doll…two million was missing. So, either your sister has it and dropped off the face of the earth, or she hid it somewhere and got herself killed. Either way it makes sense that Arlo would be looking for it.”
“No.” Doll’s voice cracks. “I was wondering this whole time if she knew something…anything. Maybe she,”
“Don’t let your mind hunt down every option. It doesn’t help shit,” I tell her with a firm voice because that will only lead to a load of guilt.
Her eyes bounce from left to right until she gives me a fierce look. “You’re right, it doesn’t help shit…but now it does make sense.”
“How’s that?” I question.
“What if she freaked out when she found the money? Or even if she felt the heat of things…grabbed the money and ran. She called me,” Doll’s eyes widen as her voice trails off.
“That look.” Lochlan snaps his fingers. “We need that look, Doll, what thought popped into your head just now?”
Doll leans in close to me. “What if she hid the cash? Because someone was there where she asked me to meet up. What if Arlo, or someone else was following her?”
“We need to go check,” Deeds states as a car horn starts to honk in one steady, ongoing sound followed by shouting.
We all rush out and see Broke’s truck parked in front of the house, his head resting on the horn. I pull Doll against me and make sure her head is buried against my chest. This looks bad and I don’t fucking want that image branded in her brain.