Page 10 of Devil's Haunting
I shouldn’t have made it a rule that I wouldn’t lie to my brothers. It’s part of the whole loyalty thing we have going on. Right now, I wish I could blow sunshine up his ass and deflect, but that would be even more suspicious.
“I’m staying with Laiken.”
I don’t sugarcoat my words. I don’t offer an explanation. I just lay out the truth and leave it there.
When I go to walk away from him, he grips my shoulder and turns me toward him again. “What do you mean, you’re staying with Laiken? You really didn’t think you could say that shit and then walk away, did you?”
“Fuck, Apostle,” I grunt. “I need to get back to my woman. I know you understand that shit since you live with your head up Sioux’s ass. She’s in that big ass mansion all by herself, one which should probably be condemned, but there is she is using a damn air mattress like the house is habitable.”
I want to wipe the smirk off his face, but it only grows with every word I say. “I knew it,” he crows. He turns toward Sioux and points in her direction. “I told you he met his woman. It was written all over his face.”
“I swear on my patch, I will kill you right here where you stand if you cause me to be away from her longer than I need to be. That place is not safe, and she insists on living there. The only thing that is going to keep me sane is moving myself in,” I mutter the words low enough for him to hear the threat, but to not broadcast the issue to everyone in the common room, the same people who are now way too interested in what is going on with me.
Apostle holds his hands up and takes a step away from me. “I’ll let you go, but you better bring your woman around soon. You know the girls will want to meet her and bring her into the fold.”
Unable to keep the reaction from my face, I cringe slightly. “Once she’s accepted that there’s something between us, I’ll bring her around,” I promise.
The look Apostle shoots me is filled with understanding. The brothers of the DSMC might fall hard, fast, and withoutquestion, but our women take a little more time to get on board sometimes. Even though I’ve seen it frustrate the fuck out of a patched brother, it does them good too.
All of us have spent far too long having women fall at our feet. It’s part of wearing the cut and having the status we do in our city. All we’ve done to earn that kind of attention, other than get through our year of prospecting, is straddle a bike, and enjoy the open road. But women love the patch, and some will do whatever they can to trap us because of what it means for them to wear our property patch.
Laiken isn’t like that. The blank look on her face when I told her about the DSMC was all the proof I needed. She had no idea about the club and there is not a single part of her angling for my patch because of what it could gain her.
It’s refreshing as fuck.
With a chin lift, I step away from Apostle. Noticing just how many people in the common room are watching me, I flip them off and stalk toward the door. The only people scowling are the few club angels we have who are in the room.
No fucking surprise there, considering those women are the ultimate patch chasers. Little do they know that the last woman we want to claim is one who has fucked all our brothers. Add in how possessive they can be when it comes to the brothers and it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Thankfully, I haven’t been with any of the angels in a while. If I needed to get laid, it wasn’t difficult to head out to the bar the club owns, The Sanctuary, and pick a woman up. It was good for me to work for it a little bit instead of having pussy fall into my lap, literally.
Instead of taking the truck this time, even though I probably should, I stride right to my bike and strap down my duffle bag. I need a moment with just me, the wind, and the road to get my head on straight. If I don’t, I’m liable to storm Laiken’s fucking house and have her pressed up against the nearest surface before either of us realize what is happening.
As hot as it would be, I don’t want to rush this. It’s not the way you build something that lasts. I should know about building something to stand the test of time and is strong enough to go up against the shit life tends to throw out there.
Riding my bike helps me to focus on the way to Laiken’s house. It clears my mind of everything that doesn’t really matter. The things that stick around is the job Laiken needs me to do and my woman. Not bad things to be consumed with if you ask me.
I’m sure Laiken will be able to hear the roar of my bike as I approach. She better not step out onto the rotted porch, or I might have to put her over my knee and turn her ass red.
Just as I park and turn off my bike, movement in a second story window catches my attention. When I look up, I find a woman standing there with the light of the sunset casting her in an odd, glowing light. She looks down at me with a curious expression on her face as if I don’t quite fit into her vision.
It’s as if I can’t look away.
There’s something off about the woman and it takes me a few minutes to put my finger on it. Her clothing is off. It looks old, like beyond vintage old. It’s almost as if I’m looking at someone who has taken a photo at one of those fair booths where you can dress up in Victorian era clothing and everything is sepiawashed. Her hair is pulled back in a severe style no one wears now.
The longer we stare at each other, the more out of place she looks and the harder my heart pounds in my chest.
Her gaze shifts over my head and then she glances back into the room before moving away from the window.
That’s when it feels as if I can move again. My feet carry me up the porch steps and into the mansion; I don’t even bother knocking or anything. Laiken appears from the solarium wielding a paint brush like a weapon and wide eyes filled with fear.
The moment she sees me, the fear disappears from her expression, and her shoulders drop along with the paintbrush she’s holding as if it’ll chop any intruder in half. If I weren’t freaking out about someone in the house who doesn’t belong, I would find the vision of Laiken on a rampage adorable.
But I can’t get lost in her cuteness right now.
“Someone is upstairs in one of the bedrooms,” I hiss the words.
Laiken freezes in place for a moment before her eyes narrow and she gasps, “What the fuck are you talking about? Why did you just barge into my home without knocking or anything?”
