She held the towel in her hands.Wasshe glued to the blasted thing?
“Okay, I’ll, erm, I’ll letyou know when it’s ready.”
“Why are you still in FortWills?”he asked, wanting to talk to her longer.Alex was willingto use any excuse to keep her talking.He’d paid for her, not thatshe knew it, and her parents had already told him everything heneeded to know about her.
“My family is here.I don’twant to be anywhere else.Besides all the bad problems the townseems to face, I like it here.”She looked at her hands beforelooking up at him.
He took another sip of his drink,staring at her.
“Why are you calledSunshine?”
Her smile had his gutclenching.
She’s too fuckingyoung.
“My mom and dad were told itwould be impossible for them to have children.They’d been tryingfor years but couldn’t afford to pay for the help of gettingpregnant.My mom got sick, and the doctors gave her the news she waspregnant.They told me I was called Sunshine because that is what Iwas to them.I was their little ray of sunshine.”She turned away,humming as finished drying up the dishes she washed.
Alex thought she was adorable.Therewas no room in his world for adorable.The women he fucked knew thescore.He didn’t do romance or anything else.When they got hisattention, they knew to live by his rules or get out of theway.
Sunshine wasn’t like any ofthose women.She was a small town woman with a normal family life.Not once had she been part of The Skulls or even looked ready totake on that world.Alex wanted her even with the large age gap between them.He was fifty years old and knew the way the world worked.Over theyears he’d made his fair share of enemies.Sunshine was young,starting out in the world at twenty-five.
The need coursing round him hadto be put to a stop.Sunshine was the last woman he shouldwant, yet she wasthe one woman who plagued his thoughts.He was screwed eitherway.
Chapter Five
Whizz sat in the chair besidethe bed.Lacey was still sleeping, and he couldn’t bring himself to wakeher.Last night after they’d fucked, she’d broken down in theshower.He couldn’t believe he had to break a lock in order to getto her.Resting his elbows on his knees with his chin on his palm,he stared at her.He tried to make her understand, but he didn’tknow if she even heard him when he talked about the SavageBrothers.It wasn’t her fault, none of it was.She’d been part of aclub who’d been intent on causing problems in order to get theirrevenge.
Her eyes no longer looked red and puffy.For once she looked at peace, which was something, considering thepain she’d been in the night before.It didn’t take a genius torealize that she was still hurting from the memory of the SavageBrothers.Even before she started talking he’d known exactly whatwas wrong with her.
Getting to his feet, Whizz left the room,closing the door behind him.Rose was coming out of the roomlooking sad.Her red hair hadn’t been brushed, but she looked readyto snap at a moment’s notice.She glanced at him.
“Please don’t wakehim.”
“Are you leaving?”Whizzasked, walking beside her.They both had a partner they didn’t wantwaking up.
She shrugged.“I don’t knowanymore.”
The rest of the clubhouse was stillasleep.They stepped into the kitchen.Whizz moved toward thecoffee machine as Rose took a seat at the counter.Out of thecorner of his eye, he saw her brushing her red hair.The lengthwent down to her back, long and luscious.“Have you and Lacey madeup?”Rose asked.
“I don’t know.We were doingokay, and then, I don’t know if you heard,” he said, pulling twocups down from the cupboard.
“I heard you makingup.”
“She broke down in the showerafterward.I feel close to her, and then something snaps insideher, and she withdraws from me.”He leaned against the counter,looking at her.
“It sounds to me like she’sstill hurting.”
“What about you?”heasked.
Rose looked up at him.He’d always thoughtRose was a beautiful woman when she was fully made up with makeup.The woman before him even vulnerable was totally breathtaking.Whydid she wear makeup when she didn’t need it?
“I don’t know about meanymore.”
“Ten years ago Hardy made amistake.”
Tears filled her eyes as she looked athim.“I know how long ago it was.For so long we’ve been happy.Ithink we’ve been happy, but I don’t know anymore.”She stared downat the brush in her hand.He was used to seeing Rose smile.Thisside to her was scary, depressing, and it tore at his heart to seeher so sad.Rose was part of the club.He wasn’t in love with her,but he did care about her.
“Is it because of the kidsbeing born?”Whizz asked.“Are they a reminder of what you can’thave and what you’ve lost?”