Page 8 of Pope’s Purgatory

Birdie pulls one from her wrist and holds it up to me with a weak laugh. “Just a graze. Your dramatic temper tantrum with the bodies was for nothing.”

I take it from her with a pout, pulling my hair out of my face. “My dramatics were necessary. You got hurt.”

Her eyes soften. “And I’ll live. Now, help me up, you beast.”

“No. Not until Vortex gets here with the cage.”

“Then come sit with me while we wait.”

“Go ahead, Prez. We’ve got your back. I need to take a look at that shoulder of yours,” Tomcat tells me.

I glance down at the arm I’ve been unconsciously holding against me. “Huh. I forgot about that.”

“Adrenaline is weird like that,” Savior says, walking over and helping me to the ground behind Birdie. “You two just rest ‘til your ride gets here.” He peers over at my bike with a grimace. “Your bike is gonna need a ride too, Prez.”

“Fuckers,” I mutter. “Piss on the rest of them for me, would you?”

“Sure thing,” he answers, whipping his dick out to do just that.

“Thanks.” I sigh, resting my chin on Birdie’s head and closing my eyes, listening to the trickle of my brother pissing on the corpse of our enemy.

This was too fucking close. All it would have taken was another angle and I wouldn’t be feeling my little mama’s breaths rising and falling against my chest.

As long as it belongs to you, he’ll covet it.

Those words haunt me because every-fucking-body knows I’ll do what’s needed to ensure my woman keeps breathing.

Even if that means tearing away the very existence of our love.

Never really thought I’dbe the type of man to run from my problems, but here I am, kicked back at the clubhouse bar, getting high as a motherfucker with my brothers.

Joker rolled up a fat-ass blunt of that weed his little brother deals and started passing it around. I have no plans on going home tonight and need something to keep my mind off the fucked-up state my relationship with Birdie is heading toward. If I think about it too much, I’ll lose the bit of sanity I have left. The minuscule piece of thread holding it together unravels quicker than Tomcat gets off with his broads.

“My sister is gonna have you by the nuts if you keep running, Pope,” Cyanide says, climbing onto the barstool next to me and grabbing the beer Stinker, one of the club whores, sets in front of him.

“I like it when your sister has me by my nuts. It feels fucking good,” I mutter, taking another hit from the blunt before holding it out to him.

Cyanide brings it to his lips, sucking smoke deep into his lungs and holding it before pushing it out into a heavy cloud as heshakes his head. “We both know she ain’t gonna let you pull this shit for long before she’s storming in here raising hell and demanding answers.”

“Don’t have any to give her that she’s going to accept. You know that, brother.”

That attack on us last week was more than a warning. It was Clink’s fucking promise. As long as she belongs to me, he’s going to want her, and that bitch will do whatever he needs to get her. Her pretty sister too. If he ever gets his hands on her, I guaran-fucking-tee she’d never come back to me the same. Birdie and Valkyrie are tough broads, but the kind of man Clink is . . . they’d break at his hands.

I’ve been keeping my distance between us since then. Birdie doesn’t understand, and her voice conveys that each time she tries to get me to talk to her. Fucking kills me, but goddammit, I don’t know what else to fucking do right now.

Cyanide’s right. Birdie isn’t a woman to put up with someone disrespecting her for long. Her fire always makes my dick so hard, I could knock over the goddamn Eiffel Tower with it.

“Do you have a plan to protect them?” Cyanide asks.

I chuckle darkly and pull my hair down, shaking it out. “Oh, I do, but you won’t fucking like it.”

“Will it protect them?”

“Yeah, but Birdie’s going to get broken in the process.”

“Fuck,” he mutters, picking up his beer and draining it. “Tell me.”

I glance around, suddenly wary of prying eyes. Birdie has friends in here, and I can’t have this getting back to her, otherwise, it’s useless. To keep my Birdie breathing, I need to ensure she gets far away from me and this club.

---