Page 17 of Blood Revealed

“Got you,” Hero says as he turns to walk out of the room. I get he’s still pissed. Never seen the man so crazy about a woman until Brinley came along. It’s good. The kid needed to be reined in. And Brinley, she’ll never find a more loyal man to take care of her.

“Okay,” Duke continues. “Get Dutchy on patrol with you, Carver. Then find Boetcher—got somethin’ in mind for him. We’re sendin’ him out to shadow you, Sneak, see how he does through this and we’ll probably patch him in soon.”

“We haven’t moved him to gate yet,” Sneak says, exactly what I was thinking.

“Kept him inside on purpose. I wanted him hearin’ shit. Wanted him seein’, so he knows what he’s gettin’ himself into. Boy’s got good instincts so far. He’s like you. Can see without bein’ seen. Now, Boss.” Duke looks at his VP. “Go get that beer with Hero because I need Blood, Sneak, and Hero goin’ out on a mission and they’re leaving within the hour. Don’t need bad blood hangin’ over your heads.”

I get what he’s saying, but I hate why he has to say it. Where he’s sending us isn’t going to be pleasant.

“I’m out,” I tell Duke. “Going to Hannah if you need me.”

My back to the brothers, I raise my hand to wave two fingers as my goodbye. Hannah’s just on her way out of the kitchen when I reach the common behind the bar.

“Just the person I’m looking for,” I say, smiling because like a fool, I always smile around Hannah. She has that power over me. She has her hair in a messy knot on top of her head, an apron with the straps wrapped twice around her tiny waist and a dusting of flour on her cheek. The woman has no right to look so sexy wearing flour. Without thinking I reach over, holding her hand in my hand to swipe the white powder away slowly with my thumb. My gaze drops to her plump lip pulled between her teeth she’s biting down on. Fuck me.

“What’s up?” she whispers, as affected as me.

“Leaving within the hour. Gonna be gone a while. We need to talk.”

“Oh-kay…” She pivots her whole body to look at me. I need her to see this is a serious kind of talk. “Is everything all right?” she asks.

I drop my hand from her cheek to hold it out to her. “Come on. We’ll talk in my room.”

She reeks of fear but takes my hand. We walk through the back hallway to my room. I push the door open waiting for her to enter first, then shut it behind me.

Hannah’s not even to the bed when she turns on me. “Blood, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.” Her arms she folds protectively around her chest.

“Nothing to be scared of, baby.”

“Baby?” She drops her hands to her hips. “Now you really have some explaining to do. You never call mebabyanymore. We set those ground rules years ago.”

I step closer, getting in her space. “Yeah, and that’s what we’re talking about. Shit’s going down, Han. Bad shit. Shit you need to know, but I can’t tell you because you don’t have the right to know it.”

“Fuck,” she mumbles under her breath as she stumbles back a few more steps to plop down on the edge of my bed. She pushes her bangs back from her face and exhales. “Okay, sock it to me.”

“Right. I’m done dancing around with you.”

Her head turns sharply toward me. “Done?” Then it’s as if she catches herself and slides that mask on that I’ve become so familiar with over the years whenever I’ve brought up she and I making things official. “So… you’ve met someone,” she says quietly. “Thank you for the heads-up.”

“No, you blasted woman. I haven’t met someone else. I’m done dancing around this thing. I’m in love with you,” I say. Hannah gasps. “And you’re in love with me.” That doesn’t get a gasp, but exactly the opposite. She sucks in a sharp breath. “What? You haven’t exactly hidden it all these years. You just won’t let me have you the way I want you. That’s what’s stopping today. Got me?”

“Blood,” she says in her soft, ‘you’re being irrational’ voice.

“Don’tBloodme. Not this time, not today. I’m leaving and the shit I’m heading into is club shit, but it’s also your shit and I need you to know that I don’t mind risking my life, baby, because you’re worth it. But I’m done living in motherfucking limbo. I’m claiming you, Han. Get used to it however you need to do that, but get it done. You’re my old lady. Period.”

“And what? I don’t get a say in this?”

“You’ve had your say for seven years. You’ve exhausted your say. I get you had your reasons, the shit you were running from, but those reasons no longer factor.”

She shifts to slide farther away from me on the bed. “What do you mean they no longer factor? Watch outBlood, your inner Riot is showing.”

That’s a sucker punch to the gut. I’m nothing like the assholes she grew up around. “That’s bullshit and you know it. I got seven years of fucking only you, seven years of being your shoulder to cry on, seven years of celebrating the good times that proves you wrong.”

She sighs, sounding completely defeated, looking down at her lap when she says, “I—don’t know what to say.”

“Nothing to say, baby. But you can kiss me.”

“I’m not sure I want to kiss you right now.”

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