“I don’t have a lot of money, but I could sell something,” I offered even though it broke my heart to think of selling the ring Aaron had found for me.
It was hidden in the mattress beside my secret phone because I wasn’t sure Rooster wouldn’t take it for himself.
“No, you let me worry about that, okay?” He held up his hands when I opened my mouth to protest. “And if you think you’re getting special treatment because Aaron’s head over boots for you, you’re wrong. You’re getting special treatment because you’re a woman in trouble, and that’s just how we do things here. You understand?”
I felt jittery, like a child hopped up on sugar, only the substance that had me tweaking out was kindness. So much of it so unexpectedly after a lifetime without that it was overloading my system.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “But I will pay you back.”
“Honest to God, Faith, the best payback you’ll give me is getting safe and clear those criminals.”
The smile felt twisted on my face. “So you discriminate against certain criminals but not others? Your bio said you used to be a cop.”
Lion rubbed absently at a place on his chest, eyes distant. “Monsters wear all kinds of labels—cops, bikers, politicians. I’ve found it’s how a person acts and not what they associate with that determines their goodness. Met some of the best men I’ve ever known in The Fallen and that doesn’t discount meeting some of the worst through them either.”
“It’s complicated,” I agreed.
His grin was wry, but I matched it with one of my own, feeling the bloom of camaraderie unfurl between us.
“The best things often are,” he confirmed.
And I knew both of us were thinking about Aaron.
BONER
I’d spent years watchin’soulmates find each other, and I’d never once thought’a findin’ that for myself.
It just seemed too good for the likes’a my luck and my life.
Findin’ the club had been my once-in-a-lifetime miracle, so was it really fair to give a man more than that?
I hadn’t thought so.
But now, leanin’ against the first booth inside Eugene’s Bar watchin’ Blue serve her customers, I couldn’t help but think she was made for me. Maybe it had nothin’ to do with fairness, or maybe it did. Perhaps we’d both lived through our own trials and fuckin’ horrible tribulations as some kinda payment for the wealth’a happiness that was comin’ to us.
Would I change anythin’ if it meant I got the chance to meet Blue that night at Evergreen Gas? The chance to have someone for my own again after years of loneliness?
The ache’a missin’ Elsa would never cease, but she was safe, at least. Hidden from the triad, livin’ life on her terms. I had to find comfort in that, even if it meant we couldn’t have a normal siblin’ relationship. Even if it hurt like pressure on an old bruise to see King and Harleigh Rose fuckin’ around and laughin’, Dane and Lila spendin’ quiet moments together out in nature slowly reconnectin’ after years apart.
Curtains wasn’t blood, but he was my brother, my best friend, a different kinda soulmate.
And if Elsa hadn’t been taken by Seven Song, I’d never’a met Curtains or the club.
So even though it fucked with my head, I stood there watchin’ this girl I wanted down to my bones and found some kinda peace for all the chaos’a my life, believin’ it had led me to these people and this moment.
This girl with the ocean eyes and cornflower-blue hair and curves like some pagan fertility goddess. This girl whose spirit had weathered the worst kinda storms and emerged somehow still sweet with an edge of sass and independence that made my dick hard and my breath thin inside my lungs.
As if sensin’ my gaze, she turned from deliverin’ drinks to a table’a women and looked directly at me. The smile that claimed her full mouth was brighter than any’a the ones she’d been dolin’ out around the bar.
And it was all for me.
I waited for her to sauntered over to me on her high heels, hips swayin’ enough to hypnotize, just so I could relish the sight’a her comin’ toward me. When she stopped a foot away, head tipped back to maintain our gaze, I had to blink away the sun spots at the dazzle’a that sweet-lipped expression.
“Hey, Trouble,” she teased, pokin’ me in the chest over The Fallen patch on my cut.
“Hey, pretty Blue,” I returned, achin’ to pull her in for a kiss and resistin’ only ’cause it was a busy weekend night at the bar and more than just The Fallen found refuge at Eugene’s.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”
