Page 77 of Healing Souls

She’s a strong-willed woman, and I respect the hell out of her. “How are things going?” Carly asks.

I shrug. “Not bad. I know Sugar filled you in on everything going on around here.” She nods. “Well, Harley told me tonight that she wants to stay here. She isn't going to go back to Virginia to live with Brielle.”

“How are you feeling about everything?” she asks.

“Fine. It’s a little stressful with so much going on. And a bunch of club stuff happening that I can’t tell you about.”

Like fucking Daniel. Someone I let in my club who could possibly be betraying us. I need to check in with my contacts at the other clubs and see if anyone has heard or seen anything. I’m losing my patience with not being able to track him down.

She waves her hand dismissively in the air. “That is not what I’m asking, and you know it. How areyouhandling this? Rage, I’ve known you for four years. I’ve seen you get stressed, I’ve seen you fight for your family here, but this? This is different. This hits you square in the chest. I may not have all the details, but I can put some dots together. So tell me for real how you’re doing or I’ll do what you did to me to get answers about my feelings all those years ago,” she says with a wide grin.

I chuckle and take a sip of the bourbon. “Fuck it out?” I raise a brow. “If I recall, that only actually worked once on you.”

Shortly after I met Carly and she became a club slut, she hit rock bottom in her life and was struggling but wouldn’t talk to anyone, so we fucked and didn’t stop until she was willing to open up to me. It ended up helping her a lot and gave us both the best sex of our lives.

“Alright, fine,” she says as she stands and sets her glass down. Rounding the desk, she takes my drink from my hand and then grabs my hand. “Let's go to your house.”

I chuckle and follow after her, having forgotten just how demanding Carly can be.

Chapter Twenty

Harley

Wakingupthismorning,I immediately feel like something is wrong. The bed is cold.Ifeel cold.

Which isn’t right because last night I fell asleep tucked up in between Ryker and Grayson with Cade making a bed on the floor to stay in the room with us. But now the bed only has me, and both sides are empty. I sit up and notice that Cade is gone too.

I get out of bed and head into the bathroom to shower and quickly get ready for the day. By the time I’m done and dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie with my hair braided down my back because I didn’t want to blow dry it today, I find my room still empty.

Gnawing on my bottom lip, I head out and down into the kitchen, seeing Presley, Raven, and another woman in there laughing and cooking.

Presley spots me first and gives me a small smile. “Good morning. We heard the news that you’re staying.”

My eyebrows rise. “News travels fast.”

“The best news usually does,” the woman I don’t know says with a wink. “I’m Carly.”

“Um, Harley. Are you one of the girls? The club—girls?” I hesitate to ask.

Carly chuckles. “Club slut? Not really. I used to be. But now I’m mostly just like a manager around here and I go to college during the week. Plus, the club sluts aren’t around right now. You probably won’t see them for a while.”

Huh, I guess I hadn’t noticed. “Why not?”

“Rage doesn’t want them around you, or for you to see anything you don’t need to see,” Raven says with a shrug.

Before any more can be said, Ryker comes into the kitchen heading straight for me while Grayson and Cayden stay back by the door. “Come with me,” he growls, gently taking my arm and guiding me out of the kitchen and through the back door.

We head down the steps and around the side of the building, out of sight.

Ryker pushes me up against the building and within the blink of an eye, his lips are on mine. His kiss is borderline punishing and filled with anger, but it doesn't scare me. The way his hands caress my sides, one of them working up to hold my neck, it’s… comforting and hot. With one kiss, he can turn me into a blubbering mess, unsure of what to do but left knowing that I want more.

Ryker pulls back, his gaze traveling over my face and searching my eyes. He takes a deep breath, and the hand on my neck moves further back until he’s gripping the nape of my neck. “I’m going to tell you some things. But before I do, you are going to make a deal with me.”

My brain must be malfunctioning after that kiss and the way my lips were still tingling because all I can get out was, “Okay.”

“You are going to dig deep inside yourself, inside your soul, and find that piece of you that trusts me. That trusts Grayson and Cayden. You are going to hook onto it and not let go because it is telling you something the same way my soul screams and aches for you. I know something inside of you feels the pull.”

“I don’t know if I can do that… trust so easily. It takes time,” I whisper, my mind taking in every word he’s saying.

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