Page 106 of Moonshine Lullabies

“Hey, no.” I caught her by her upper arm and stopped her and she closed her eyes and her shoulders sagged.

“Right, sorry…”

My heart rate decelerated marginally when sense overtook my woman. She knew I wasn’t even supposed to be telling heranyof this, but there were no more secrets in our house.

Hell, Cypress would put my face out the back of my skull with one punch if he knewhalfof what his sister knew.

“It’s gonna be fine,” I said gently.

“Both sides are meetin’ under a banner of truce on neutral ground. It’s been carefully arranged.”

She shook her head. “They don’t honor the fuckin’ rules in the first place, what makes you think this is gonna be different?” she demanded in a harsh whisper.

I hooked a hand behind her head and kissed her soundly and she melted into me and sighed out.

“Cheater,” she murmured against my mouth and I chuckled.

“I can’t help it if it gets you every time, you know a fair few tricks yourself, you little minx.”

“Okay, you’re not wrong, but still – I don’t like this.”

“Duly noted,” I said. “But y’ can’t change it. Now you have your choice,” I said and she made an exasperated noise.

“I’m not Tate, and I know… either I can quit kickin’ up a fuss or you’re gonna stop tellin’ me things.”

“I don’t say it to be mean,” I said and cradled her face in my hands, pressing a kiss to her forehead knowing it dropped her blood pressure like thirty points any time I did when she had herself worked up like this.

“Oh, you’re pulling outallthe stops,” she said and she sighed.

She had her hands on her hips and she sighed out harshly, looking out behind Len’s daddy’s old place, staring into the swamp.

She turned back to me and poked me sharply in the chest and said, “You or my big dumb brother get yourselves killed, I’m fixin’ to come after you and make sure you’re takin’ your licks in hell.”

I threw back my head and laughed, hands on her hips and drawing her in to hug her tight.

“I mean it, now!” she declared in my ear and I nodded, pressing a kiss into the side of her neck.

“I believe you would,” I declared, and she nodded.

“Damn straight.”

The girls were cleaning up La Croix’s daddy’s place and working on turning it into something useful for themselves and the club.

The bottom floor they were turning into workspaces for their online sales stuff and makin’ their skulls and paints and shit.

Upstairs, they were workin’ on making bedrooms and shit useful again, in case some of the boys needed to stay out this way for the stills out there in the swamp.

“Everything alright over here?”

Jess and I both jumped slightly and turned to look at Saint who stood nearby with his arms crossed.

I nodded. “Yeah, all good.”

Jess nodded too when Saint looked her way.

“We’re fixin’ to leave,” Saint declared, jerking his head back the way that the bikes were parked.

“Where you headed?” Jess asked, without missing a beat nor without sounding one bit like she was shinin’ Saint on.

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