Six Months Later
“What’s that?” I was sprawled out on the bed, wrapped up in orgasmic bliss with Pike standing in front of me looking like the most delicious, tattooed snack I’d ever laid eyes on.
He dangled an envelope between his fingers, a teasing grin on his beautiful face. “What’s it look like?”
“A bill,” I answered honestly. “Are you charging me now?” God, being with him was so easy that I still couldn’t believe it. Six months later and sometimes it still smacked me upside the head that this was my life. That this man was part of my life.
He knelt on the bedroom floor inside the clubhouse where we’d snuck off for a bit of adult time since Gemma was off on a girls’ day with Faith and crawled up until we were face to face. “If I said yes, what payment would you accept?”
“Just one currency accepted here. Orgasms.” I smiled so big my cheeks ached.
“I always keep one in my back pocket just for you.” His lips skated up my throat and to my chin before they landed on mine. “Possibly two.”
I laughed and arched into him. Momentarily distracting him while I snatched the envelope from his grasp. “So it’s not a bill.”
“No,” he groaned against my jaw. “Not a bill.”
I couldn’t think long enough to ask him what it was, not when his lips moved from my lips and across my cheek before his tongue dipped into the hollow of my throat. “Then what is it?”
“A letter,” he whispered against my skin, kissing the spot between my breasts and then lower. “From Ashley.” He looked up, the move made his scruff scrape against the sensitive skin of my belly. His lips parted in a mischievous smile.
“Wait, what?” I pushed up on my elbows and raised a brow.
“I know,” his tongue flickered against my belly button, but someone banged on the door before we got to the really good stuff. “Goddammit.”
I giggled and fell back against the mattress with a disappointed huff. “Yeah?”
“Need to see you both out here. In a hurry.” Diesel’s serious voice took some getting used to, but it was the same tone he always used, and I never knew if it was serious club business or an impromptu cookout.
“If he wasn’t my Prez, I’d kill him,” Pike whispered, kissing me right on the hipbone before he rolled off the bed with a grunt. “Don’t look at me or we’ll never get out of here.”
I laughed again. “Right back atcha.” I kept my back to him as I shimmied into my jeans and then the rest of my clothes. “Okay, I’m ready. What do you think this is about?”
“No idea,” he shrugged, turning to give me a long glimpse of his shirtless torso, which never got old. Ever.
“We’re going to talk about that envelope later,” I assured him. My smile slowly dimmed as I took in the sight of the two men looking my way. “Shit,” I whispered just low enough for only Pike to hear.
He looked up with a frown. “Sheriff Cross, this is a surprise. What’s up?” How he was able to maintain such cool, surprised me.
The sheriff, a friendly looking older man in a tan uniform, stood tall and broad. He looked capable and not at all uncomfortable around the MC. In fact, he and Diesel stood like they were friends. “Pike. Chloe. We need to talk.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat and nodded. The bar area was empty except for the four of us, which only made my mind spin in a dozen different directions. “Is something wrong?” My heart raced and my throat constricted, wondering what the hell could it be now.
Cross nodded and pushed out the seat beside me. “I wanted you to know that Sheriff Maynard has been arrested for, among other things, conspiracy to commit murder, bribery, witness tampering, crime scene tampering, and a bunch of other shit,” he sounded tired. And angry.
“Holy shit!” I whispered. I shook my head, unable to believe someone like him would finally be held accountable. “What happens next?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s not my case. There issomeconvincing evidence, but it’ll be hard to prove with most of the Ghost Riders vanished from town. Or worse. The FBI is looking into it.”
I nodded, absorbing his words. Fear snaked through me as another thought occurred. “What about me?” If they were looking into Maynard, they had to be looking into me too, for Victor and Marcus. Right?
The sheriff’s gaze flickered to Diesel and then Pike before settling on me with a gentle smile. “You’re in the clear, Chloe. The sheer number of DV calls over the years combined with the contaminated crime scene outlines a pretty clear-cut case of self-defense. That’s if there was anything to tie you to the scene, which there isn’t,” he sighed again and shook his head. “You’re free to live your life, unencumbered.”
“Thank you, Sheriff Cross.” My heart still raced, and it was only when Pike’s hand landed on my thigh did I begin to relax.
“All of Marcus’ assets passed to Gemma when you were assumed dead, so you’ll need a lawyer to sort through that mess.” He turned to Pike and Diesel. “Ashley’s case is still open, but the FBI assumes one or more of the Ghost Riders did it, so whenever they’re found…” the rest of the sentence faded on the breeze because he knew, the way I did, that they wouldn’t be returning to Red Rock or anywhere else.
“Thank you,” I whispered again. Six months had passed and even though things with Pike and I were great, my life had still been on hold, waiting for the Ghost Riders or the law to come after me for my crimes. And now it was all over.
