Page 20 of Hendrix

Back then, I was going through some gnarly emotional turmoil and wasn’t in the right shape to make promises to anyone, especially not a woman I’d already wounded so badly. The day she stood in a church and committed her life to another man, I was self-destructing. Things with the club were dangerous at worst and sketchy at best, and I wasn’t in a place where I’d worked through my emotional turmoil. I’d believed down to my bones that the best and most unselfish thing I could do for her was to let her go.

I was wrong.

At that moment, I swore to myself that if the rumors were true and Anna was in trouble, I’d get her out of there and never let her leave my side again, and if her fuckhead of a husband had laid so much as a finger on her, I’d see his throat slit.

Sensing movement from behind, I twisted my neck to see Blade coming down the stairs.

Not for the first time, I marveled at how a man who’d lost his leg just below the knee could move so goddamned smoothly and stealthily, though I also knew the amount of blood, sweat, and tears he put into his rehabilitation, so Blade’s graceful movements maybe shouldn’t have been so unexpected.

“Morning,” he called on his approach. “Just heard about last night’s fuckery. What the hell was Fletcher thinking?”

“Good news travels fast,” I replied.

“Carina caught a few of the men turning in as she was getting up to get breakfast going. They were full of it.”

My mouth thinned. “These assholes are the biggest gossips in existence. We gotta start coming down on them harder. I went into the bar last night and was confronted by Ciara who knew all about the whole Larry plan. Club business is becoming club gossip, and I, for one, am gettin’ sick of these fucknuts getting chatty about shit they shouldn’t be repeating in public places. One day somebody will repeat somethin’, and the wrong person will hear, then we’ll be fucked.”

“Agreed,” he declared, reaching the last step and drawing level with me. “We’ll start dishing out fines; hit ‘em where it hurts. Maybe do a three-strike rule and make it clear if they repeat offend, they’re out.”

“We don’t got a choice,” I agreed. “We’re fully recovered from Ace’s betrayal as a club, and things are goin’ well, but I know he’s still got his little spies dotted around all over town. It takes one drunk Speed Demon to shoot his mouth off in a bar, and we could be in trouble.”

“I’ve had the same concerns for a while,” he admitted, turning for the bar. “I’ll brief Diablo, and then we’ll call Church.”

I fell into step beside him and we walked through the deserted room toward the kitchen. “We need to call Church anyway. Breaker’s on his way here.”

Blades’s face swiveled toward mine. “He’s already filled me in. Break was trying to contact Colt, but he wasn’t answering. You were talking to Cash, so he called me.” He paused, his stare boring into mine. “You okay?”

My chest squeezed.

The answer was no; I felt sick, but I had no choice but to try and keep my shit together. “I will be when I know more. You know I don’t do well bein’ kept in the dark. I’d rather have bad news than none at all ‘cause at least I’d know what I’m dealin’ with.”

His face took on a determined look. “We’ll get Anna out.”

“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath. “Or die trying.”

We walked into the kitchen and were greeted with little girl laughter. My lips tipped up automatically because who in the world wasn’t affected by the sound of kid giggles?

When I first started the club, Breaker called and asked me to take Carina on as a housekeeper. Agreeing was the best decision I ever made.

She was engaged to Breaker’s military brother, Benny, who was killed in an IED explosion just outside Kabul. Years later, Break went looking for her and discovered she was struggling as a single mom while working as a waitress with no support and hardly any money.

Within a week, Carina and her daughter, Gigi, were ensconced in my hotel along with Nate Hollister, now known as Blade, who was Benny and Breaker’s lieutenant. Blade was with Breaker when half of their military team—including Benny—got wiped out.

Since coming here, Blade had taken responsibility for Carina and Gigi. He insisted he felt an obligation to look after them, seeing as he was Benny’s superior. Personally, I knew he felt a lot more than just responsibility. He looked at Carina as if she were a mythical goddess who hung the goddamned moon, and if he didn’t protect her at all costs, that big ol’ shining rock might fall out of the sky and leave the world in perpetual darkness without her magical moon goddess powers.

“Morning, pretty ladies,” Blade greeted, walking past the table where he bent to give Gigi a fleeting kiss on her hair before sauntering over to the coffee pot.

“Morning,” Gigi sang, sketching in her art book with all the concentration of a world-renowned watercolor artist.

Carina handed him his oversized personalized mug. It was big and grey and probably held enough coffee to fill three normal-sized cups. It had ‘Best VP in the World’ emblazoned across it, and Nate never drank from anything else. Gigi had given it to him for Christmas on their first year here, and he treated it like it was his most prized possession, though going by how much he loved that kid, it probably was.

“You okay, Peanut,” he asked her, taking the mug from Carina with an appreciative nod.

“Yeah,” she replied, her big, brown eyes finally sweeping up to look at him. “Mommy said we can go to the stores today so I can spend the gift card you gave me forMiss-tique.”

Blade grinned indulgently. “You gonna give me a fashion show later?”

Gigi nodded eagerly, her eyes lighting up.

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