Page 35 of Pound

“You mentioned selling the house earlier?” He pulled away with that crooked smile he was so stingy with. A smile that could melt hearts and panties.

Meri didn’t answer except with a smirk of her own.

“Good.” He nodded and stepped back to don his cut. “I’ll make arrangements to have your house packed up. Once I settle this, we’ll head back home to the kids.” With that, he was gone.

Meri plopped down on the bed. The man was confusing as fuck. He was up, then down. Hot, then cold. Angry, then soft. She got it though. She got him. Pound would even out, he was just new to not suppressing himself. But even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t change a thing. Life with Pound wasn’t going to be easy, it would never be boring, but it was going to be worth it.

But despite all of that, that sense of dread hadn’t lifted. The other shoe still dangled precariously by a frayed string. Meri just hoped she could handle the drop.

9

POUND

What the fuck was going on? He’d just embraced the future, and the past was clawing at his heels. What was Leone’s endgame? Since the bastard was dead, he couldn’t ask him, but he knew who he could ask, Anna.

Leanna hated being called Anna, and Leone was the only one who did so everyone else respected her wishes and called her Lea.

Pound knew why Leone would take a woman and pretend she was his sister. He was a sick fuck who was obsessed with his own goddamned blood. The question was, why would the woman keep up the ruse with Meri?

These questions pelted him as he made his way through the Travelers’ clubhouse.

The only thing that made sense was to fuck with him. But that would mean that Leone had known who he was and, by extension, who Meri was all along, and that wasn’t adding up. Leone was shrewd, but not shrewd enough when emotions were involved. He wouldn’t have been able to resist taunting Meri or him if he knew they were connected or that he was connected to the Phantoms in any way.

The smartest course of action would be for him to turn right around and return to his woman. Forget this Anna, and why Leone had her. Forget everything about Reno, head back to Vegas, and enjoy his family. Maybe think about adding to it, or better yet, getting Elvis to make Meri his legally. He liked the sound of that, but Pound had to know. Curiosity and a dead cat be damned.

There was some game afoot, and if there was a chance it could destroy the happiness he’d just found, that would not fucking do. This Anna person needed to give up the secrets, and he was going to make it happen. He spotted the man he was looking for the second he entered the common room.

“Where’s the woman you brought back from Leone’s place?” Trip was talking to Thunder. They turned at his question.

“She’s down with Mash getting looked at. She wasn’t in great shape. She’s wheelchair bound, and those fucks seemed to enjoy the fact that she could feel everything they did but couldn’t run away.” Trip shook his head and didn’t go into detail. He didn’t need to. Pound could imagine. Leone was twisted and if he had a surrogate for Lea, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Pound felt sympathy for this faceless woman for the first time. “She can’t walk?”

“She can a little with appliances or some shit. Old crush injury, that’s all I know. Heard her talking to Mash, plus saw her knee a guy in the balls.” Trip and Thunder dropped a hand to their own in mock protection. Pound had more sympathy for the woman. Leone had gone as far as to re-create Lea’s accident to make this woman into his dead sister. You don’t get much sicker than that shit.

He’d been so stunned when Meri mentioned her that he just wanted answers. If she reminded Leone of Lea, she would remind him too.

Would his guilt assault him when he looked at her? He didn’t want that. His plan when he left the room was to grab Thunder and question her. Thunder was good at getting at the truth, even without torture. It was just his way. People opened up to him. Pound did not possess the same skill.

Now he was unsure. If she’d suffered at Leone’s hands to the extent he now believed she had, she didn’t deserve him coming down on her too. He owed her his thanks, not his ire.

“I’m going to head down.” His voice was rough with a multitude of emotions. Pound indicated the medical area they’d taken Meri to earlier.

“She sacrificed herself to try to help Meri. Her first question when I got to her was if Meri was safe, so you’re not going to go in there and scowl at her.” Thunder spoke with authority.

“I want to thank her and get some answers about Leone, but I promise not to interrogate.” His sincerity was enough for the enforcer as he gave a slight nod. Trip clapped him on the shoulder but said nothing.

Pound turned and headed to the medical wing when both presidents emerged and blocked his way.

Pound acknowledged them and tried to pass but was halted. When he realized they weren’t accidentally blocking the way, he looked up into Granite’s face. Really looked and what he saw made his blood run cold.

“What?”

“Joe, I need you to have a seat.” They backed him back into the common room and to the bar.

Shit, if Granite was calling him Joe without it being a come-to-Jesus moment, whatever his prez had to say was going to hurt.

“Worse than having all that shrapnel removed?”

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