Page 114 of Slayin Villain
I’d seen that woman throw a beer bottle across a room because someone sat in Thorn’s chair.Hell, she’d nearly bit the ear off a girl once who looked at him too long.
Now Ember was carrying a baby, maybe my baby...
And Sweet Tea?
She’d been waiting for her moment.
I caught up with Thorn behind the clubhouse later that day, smoke curling from his cigarette as he leaned against the concrete wall.
“Didn’t think I’d be the one checkin’ on you,” I said, coming up slow.
He smirked.“Hell’s frozen over, huh?”
I shrugged.“Guess so.You good?”
He took a drag.“She needed a place to land.”
“That’s all this is?”
He gave me a sidelong glance.“You jealous?”
“Nah,” I said honestly.“Just don’t wanna see you end up in the crosshairs.Tea don’t like to lose.And she already lost me.Now you?”
He chuckled dry.“Ain’t worried about Tea.I got eyes in the back of my head.”
“Keep both wide open,” I muttered.“Especially around your dick.”
Rachel met me in the kitchen later, rubbing her back and grumbling about her feet swelling like two sausages.I kissed her forehead and bent to massage them without being asked.
“Don’t think this buys you anything,” she said, lips twitching.
“I was hopin’ it might.”
I pulled the ring out of my cut’s inside pocket and held it up between us.It wasn’t some big-ass rock.Wasn’t some fairytale diamond from a fancy shop.
It was a band of white gold shaped like a twisted nail, raw, imperfect, and strong.Just like us.
Her mouth dropped.“Villain…”
“I’m not good at speeches.Or beggin’.But I love you, Rachel.I’ve loved you since the day I kissed you in that bar and you told me to go to hell.I wanna spend every damn day provin’ I’m worth a second chance.You and me.And a baby.So...will you marry me?”
Tears welled up in her eyes and she nodded, smiling through it.
“Yes.But not until after the baby.”
I blinked.“What?”
She laughed, wiping her eyes.“I’m not waddling down an aisle in a moo-moo.I’ll marry you when I can fit into somethin’ white without elastic and swollen ankles.”
“Fair enough,” I grinned, slipping the ring on her finger.“But I’m still callin’ you my Ol’ Lady.”
“Okay, Ol’ Man,” she whispered, pressing her forehead to mine.
That night, we sat on the porch of one of the back houses.Rachel rested her head on my shoulder while I watched the storm rolling in, lightning flashing behind the tree line like warning shots from heaven.
The club was getting louder.Tensions thicker.
Rome still alive.
