Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
I nodded at him. “Your sister must be special to give up something like that. She must really care about you.”
“She does, and I care about her.” He nodded in agreement.
Moving out from under the comforter, I crawled to him until I was straddling his lap. My front plastered to his. It wasn’t sexual though. Not then.
Looking into his eyes, I framed his face with my hands before leaning in slowly and kissing him softly on the lips.
“Don’t shut me out again. Please,” I whispered against his mouth.
He shuddered. “I won’t. I love you.”
I smiled widely and hugged him a little harder. “I love you, too.”
“I need to tell you about your brother. It’s what I was doing after my father dropped off the letter.” He said hesitantly.
I sat back, putting some distance between us, but he didn’t like it and wrapped his arms around my lower back and pulled me back into his chest.
“Okay,” I said cautiously.
His huge hands rubbed my lower back soothingly as he started explaining. “It’s a major clusterfuck, but as far as we can figure...your brother’s right there in the middle of this whole fucking thing. The boys that were responsible for your apartment decided to play the blame game and tell the big boss that it was entirely your fault. He recognized your name immediately. Your brother owed him for some drug habit he couldn’t support fully, and his price was to be the go between with him and the makers. And you.”
“Me?” I reared back.
Kettle nodded. “Yeah. Gustavo Amadeus can’t let one of his employees get narked on and let it pass. He was set to make an example of you by putting every criminal in Northern Louisiana on your trail to bring you in, but then your brother’s debt fell in his lap, and he charged your brother with bringing you to him.”
“Jesus.”
Kettle nodded. “Your brother was supposed to meet Silas the next day but never showed. Silas is working magic on his end, but other than just starting to turn over rocks, we’re not real sure where to find him.”
My head collapsed on his chest, and I shivered in dread.
“You were right about the danger.” I rasped.
His arms went around my middle and pulled me in tight. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. They’ll have to get through me, and the entire Dixie Warden MC to accomplish that, and that sure as hell won’t be happening.”
***
“Will you come home and spend Christmas with me and my family?” Kettle rumbled against my ear.
I didn’t know why I was trying to get out of going home. Maybe I was afraid that if I did, things might change.
“I already paid for the week here.” I tried. “It’s nonrefundable.”
He laughed softly, making me bounce lightly against his chest.
“I already took care of it. They only charged you for two nights. If you get out within the hour it’ll only be one.” He explained.
“I didn’t buy anybody any presents.” I tried again.
His mouth widened from a lip tilt to a grin. “I know damn well you did that weeks ago. You’ve been shopping on the internet for a while now.”
I scrunched my nose up at him. “They’re probably really mad at me.”
My laugh was audible now. “They actually think I’m the dumbass. None of them has any negative opinions about you, I promise.”
“I drove my car.” I said weakly.
My lips went from his ear, down his jaw, and settled on his lips.
“I drove my bike, but I think we won’t have a problem getting your car back, honey.” He said as he stood up, walked to the window that overlooked the driveway and the beach beyond, then pulled the blinds backward.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
Every single one of the men that belonged to the Benton Chapter was on the beach.
The driveway was absolutely filled to the brim with bikes. Some even had to park in the sand. “How the hell are they going to get that bike out of the sand?” I asked worriedly as I saw one bike in particular buried midway up the wheels.
Kettle’s eyes flitted to that particular bike and shrugged. “It’ll happen... eventually. There’s enough manpower.”
Baylee was sitting on the tailgate of Sebastian’s pick-up feeding her daughter, and when she looked up and spotted me, she waved furiously.
I returned the wave and dropped the window treatment before turning back to Kettle. “Thank you, Kettle.”
He crowded me until my back was plastered up against the window and leaned forward. He was so close that I could see the striations in his beautiful blue eyes.
“So, will you come home with me?” He rasped.
At my nod, he smiled. “I love you, Addy.”
My eyes filled with tears. “I love you, too, Tiago.”
He leaned forward, closing the last bit of distance between the two of us and gave me a scorching kiss I felt to the tips of my toes before pulling back abruptly.
His heat left me, and I stumbled forward with the loss of his body.
Following my movements, I watched as he walked quickly across the room and stopped beside a large box, picked it up, and returned to the window that I was leaning against.
“I had these made for you. I knew it had to be something different, since you can’t be seen walking into school with a huge ass ‘Property of Kettle’ patch across your back like all the other old ladies wear. Minnie spent a ton of time on these, and I really hope you like them.” He said as he took the lid off the box.
Inside was a killer set of boots.
“Oh, God,” I breathed. “Oh, my God. They’re beautiful.”
Black leather, with chrome colored steel accents and pointy heals that were painted blood red; they were the most bad ass looking boots I’d ever seen.
The top half of the boots were fairly plain except for a wraith like woman stitched into the leather with ‘Kettle’s Property’ in bold white underneath.
Immediately, I started ripping at the sleep pants I was wearing, pushing them off my legs in a rush. Once off, I painstakingly undid buckles, unlaced the leather tie-ups on the inside and shoved my feet into each.