Nolan by Lane Hart, D.B. West

Chapter Twenty-One

Nolan

“Get out here, you pussy!”

“I think he’s talking to you,” Abel snickers as I flip him off right before I open the front door of the clubhouse.

Outside, there are eight men sitting on now silent Harleys parked in a semi-circle facing the door, all of their guns pointed right at me.

“Rita’s not here. She’s gone, and you’ll never see her again.” I hold my ground in the doorway of the clubhouse, ten men at my back, the two prospects and eight patches since Marcus is still on his way back. Any minute the rest of our reinforcements will be here, if I can just keep him talking a little longer.

The bald giant climbs off his bike to get a better shot. “Tell me where Rita is now, or we’ll blow your brains out.”

I glance around at the other men, their helmets still on their heads to protect them when the shooting starts.

“I honestly don’t know where she is. She didn’t tell me where she’s going. All she said was that she was going to get out of town because she didn’t want to touch your big, ugly ass!”

Behind me I don’t have to look to know it’s Roman who made the aggravated noise at the unnecessary insult as the giant man’s face turns ruby red. A cell phone dings behind me with a new message, then Roman says, “They’re here,” right before I hear the loud rumble of the bikes coming in from two different directions.

“You hear that, boys?” I ask the assholes sitting in the parking lot just before a swarm of bikes roll up all around them. I step out of the doorway as the rest of the crew files out, facing the other bikers down.

I hear some swearing, and then one of the Rebel Henchmen gets off his bike with both of his hands raised in the air to hurry over to Leroy, hopefully trying to talk some sense into him.

“This is the last warning we’re going to give you,” I shout at the crew so they can hear me over the still revving bikes around them. “If any member of the Savage Kings sees the big boy or a single Rebel Henchmen patch again in this city or even this fucking state, we’ll take you out. Now get your fat ass on your Fat Boy and leave before our friends hop off their bikes. There are hundreds of Savage Kings. You don’t want to fuck with us.” So what if I exaggerated a little? It’s not like they know the actual count or look smart enough to count higher than twenty. It is more than a hundred members, of that I’m certain. “How many Rebel Henchman are there? Just you eight sacks of shit?”

“We’re leaving,” the one who spoke to the big fucker says through his helmet as he goes back to climb on his bike. “Leroy won’t bother you again. Ain’t no bitch worth dying over, especially that one.” All eight bikes crank up as they leave one by one through the small hole the Emerald Isle Kings left at the entrance. Leroy leaves last and reluctantly behind them.

“Fuck,” someone mutters in relief.

“You can say that again,” I say with a sigh as everyone slowly makes their way back inside the clubhouse. The Kings on bikes pull into the lot and start backing them into a long row. “Sorry, brothers. I hope that’s really the last we’ll see of them.”

“She really left town?” Roman asks when he comes up to me, shoving his gun into the back of his pants.

“Yeah. She really left.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I gave her the choice. She didn’t want us to have to kill the sons of bitches.”

Roman glances out at street and then says, “Maybe we wouldn’t have to kill them all, just the big one.”

“Yeah, well, too late now.”

“Sorry man,” he says with a slap of his hand to my shoulder.

“It is what it is,” I mutter.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “And I think it goes without saying that you’re buying the rounds tonight.”

“No shit,” I reply. “It’s the least I can do for our friends from out of town.”

“The Emerald Isle Kings have a reputation,” Roman says before any of the men approach. “Everyone knows they’ve taken out the cartel and Russians, pretty much anyone who pisses them off. But what most probably don’t know is that they’re all wifed up now with kids and families. That doesn’t make them soft, though. It’s the opposite. Having someone worth losing is the one thing guaranteed to turn a man into an actual savage.”

* * *

I thinkabout what Roman said while having a round of beers with our guys and the other group of Kings.

He was right. All those men talk about are their women and kids with a fierce glint in their eye that I know means they would easily kill to keep them safe.

Maybe I shouldn’t have even given Rita a choice.

I could’ve just killed Leroy and then Rita wouldn’t have had to leave.

It hasn’t been but a few hours since I left her this morning, and I already miss her.

But it’s too fucking late now. I put my number in her phone, but I purposely didn’t get hers. I didn’t want the temptation to be there, able to call her with a thought and beg her to come back to me.

Fuck, the walls of the clubhouse feel like they’re closing in on me, making me more claustrophobic than the two years in prison.

“I’m gonna head out,” I go over and tell Hugo and Abel.

“Yeah?” Abel asks.

“You don’t think they’ll come back, do you?” I ask, referring to the Rebel Henchman.

“Nah, man,” Hugo says. “Those boys had to go home and change their pants after Torin and his guys scared the piss out of them.”

“Yeah, we won’t see them again,” Abel agrees.

And I won’t see Rita again either.

Goddammit.

“Call me if anything comes up,” I tell them.

“Sure thing, man,” they agree as they each get up to give me a one-armed, back slapping embrace.

When I climb on my bike to leave, I don’t ride home.

Instead, I circle around the city a few times before going back to the safehouse.

At first, I think the prospects must have left some lights on since it’s glowing. But then I see a car in the driveway, a familiar SUV.

“What the fuck?” I mutter aloud before I throw my leg over the bike to jog up the porch steps, my pulse racing, thinking something must be wrong. I turn the front doorknob, and it opens. Just inside, I find her.

Rita, who was sitting on the stairs, stands up when I come inside. Thankfully, she looks okay, unharmed, and as tall and sexy as ever in her thin, little, floral dress with buttons down the front. “Hi,” she says.

“Are you out of your mind?” I ask her, and she winces. “You shouldn’t be here alone! Alone with the goddamn door unlocked!”

She blinks her light blue eyes at me for several long seconds as I try and keep my heart from jumping out of my chest. “So, are you mad that I came back or that I came back here and left the door unlocked?”

“I’m not mad…” I start as I rub the back of my neck. “I thought something was wrong. What are you doing back here?”

“I drove for a few hours and stopped to eat dinner,” she explains. “But then, when I got back in the car, I don’t know, I just had to come back. I’m sorry!”

I start pacing the floor as she stands stock still, trying to figure out what to do now.

“What are you doing here?” Rita asks, making me pause momentarily in wearing out the carpet.

“I, ah, I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess I hoped you would still be here even though the guys said you left.”

“Nolan,” she starts. “I’m scared, and I don’t know what to do! I can make it out on my own with the new name and all. I know that, I do. But I don’t want to leave you! Last night…seeing you again, it’s been the only time I’ve been happy in years. Not being with you scares me more than anything else.”

“Then don’t leave!” I shout at her. “I gave you a choice, remember?”

“Well, I didn’t like them!” she yells back, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want you to kill anyone. I don’t want you to sacrifice anything else for me. Maybe…maybe I could kill Leroy.”

I snort at that.

“What? I could do it! I know how to shoot a gun.”

“I don’t doubt you could put a few holes in the big bastard,” I tell her. “There’s just not a chance in hell that I’m going to let you do it, though. It’s not pulling the trigger that’s hard, baby; it’s letting that shit settle into your soul, knowing it’ll fester there for the rest of your life.”

“And you think I’m going to let you take on that burden on top of everything else you’ve done for me?” she snaps. “No fucking way! Come up with another plan. Anything else.”

“Marry me,” I blurt out.

And while I’m not entirely sure where the words came from, Rita’s response is the last one any man wants to hear.

She laughs.

Loudly.

Until she realizes I don’t find it funny. “You are joking, right?”

“I know we haven’t seen each other in years,” I admit. “And that we didn’t know each other very long back then. But I’m guessing that if you had known I was in prison, you would’ve waited for me to get out. And if you had, I would’ve wanted to marry you as I walked out a free man again.”

“Nolan…” she starts, but I interrupt her to finish what I want to say.

“You’re beautiful and so fucking sweet. But best of all, you take on giants, literal and physical ones, to protect the people you care about. You lost your parents when you were barely grown, and somehow it made you stronger. You gave up your life to raise your shithead brother, sending him off to college even though you never got the same chance. And then, with Leroy, you were willing to be with the big son of a bitch just to keep him from tearing me apart one limb at a time.”

“It was my fault he even knew your name and wanted to hurt you!”

“Do you really think I gave a shit that you sicced him on me? Why do you think I showed up that day I followed you to the grocery store? I wasn’t angry. How could I be when I realized that I was still the first person you thought of when you needed help? No, I was pissed because I thought you knew I had taken the fall for your brother and wanted to use me again. But I still showed up! I couldn’t not show up to make sure you were okay. Don’t you get it? I will never stop worrying about you.”

“Never is a long time,” she replies softly.

“Yeah, it is,” I agree. “And it would be a lot easier on my troubled heart if I could see you with my own eyes every day to make sure you were okay.”

“Marrying me probably won’t stop Leroy.”

“Maybe not. But he respected the fact that you were married before. And it would make you mine. For better or worse.”

Rita throws her head back and laughs again. She tries to slap her palm over her mouth to stop the lovely sound to no effect. More giggles leak out. Fuck, if it’s not hell on my ego, but I love hearing it anyway. “I’m sorry,” she says. “It’s just, you’re crazy! You’re telling me that after all my brother put you through, you’re willing to risk your life for me on a daily basis. This feels like a cruel nightmare where I’m going to wake up and I’ll be back in my shitty apartment alone, getting ready for another fourteen-hour workday, Groundhog’s Day all over again.”

I’m not entirely sure, but that doesn’t sound like an adamant refusal.

“Do you want to be with me or not?” I ask in simpler terms.

“Nolan, why do you think I came back?”

“Answer the question,” I tell her since I want to hear her say it. “Do you want to be with me?”

“Yes,” she answers without hesitation. “I just don’t know why…”

I stop her from questioning my motives again when I grab the sides of her face, covering her mouth with mine, shoving my tongue past her lips. She kisses me back just as hard, giving as good as she’s getting.

“We’re going to stay here tonight,” I tell her against her lips before I pull back to see her face. “Then tomorrow, you’ll find a dress, and I’ll figure out the rest, okay?”

Rita’s blue eyes that were glazing over with lust before start to clear. “Are you sure? Leroy…”

“I don’t ever want to hear his name from your lips again,” I tell her. “You hear me? Forget him. He kept his hands off of you when you told him you were married, right?” She nods in agreement. “Then he’ll have to respect the fact that we are or face the consequences. I’ll gladly do anything to keep you safe, no matter what.”

“Okay,” she whispers. “If I wake up tomorrow and this wasn’t a dream, I’ll marry you.”

“Good,” I tell her, closing my eyes with a sigh of relief.

Rita’s lips brush mine softly, making my knees go weak because I want her so much, but mostly because she said yes. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to feel her mouth on mine every day for the rest of our lives.

Last night, I would like to think that I treated her like a gentleman for the most part instead of ravaging her the way I had thought about for years. But right now, I’m so raw and desperate for her that there won’t be anything left in me but the savage.

By the time I open my eyes again, the buttons on the front of her thin dress have been ripped apart so that Rita only has to give a roll of her shoulders for it to fall from her body. She wasn’t wearing a bra because the top of the dress was so tight, which means nothing but a lacy, white thong is all that covers her. I yank them down while forcing her backward. We finally hit something solid, the wall, so hard that Rita gasps.

Since her hands never falter in trying to get my cut off, I assume she’s not hurt too badly and get to work undoing my belt and jeans.