Between Embers (Lost Kings MC #5.5): A Companion to White Heat: Three Short Stories (2 page)

Her jaw drops and her cheeks redden.

“Shit. I’m sorry. That was rude to—”

“It’s fine, Teller.” She shrugs and tosses her hair back. “It’s not like I don’t know he was married before.”

She grabs her toast, smearing butter all over it, then tossing the knife in the sink. “You must have been young then.”

“Fifteen? Sixteen? I don’t really remember.” No, what I remember is that Blake and I had gotten used to going to Rock when things were shitty for us at home. Once Carla married him, she made it clear we were
not
welcome. She especially hated Heidi or basically any female who might be competition.

“Were you in the wedding?” she asks, dragging my head out of the past.

“Fuck no. She tried to discourage us from hanging around as much as possible.”

“I’m sorry.” She tilts her head, green eyes spearing me. Not in anger or pity. Disbelief maybe. “Well, you’re always welcome at our house.”

Yeah right.

“As soon as our kitchen’s sorted, Heidi’s supposed to come over to show me how to make applesauce. You’ll have to come too.”

The idea of my sister teaching Hope how to cook something so simple pushes some of my black mood away. Or maybe it’s that she’s still planning to do stuff with Heidi after the wedding. I guess I keep figuring at some point, Hope will drop the concerned mom bit she does with my sister. You know, when she doesn’t need to impress Rock any more.

“There you are,” Trinity yelps as she enters the kitchen. My heart thuds at the sight of her. Her messy blonde hair with different shades of blue at the ends, grazes her perfectly round ass. As ass I should absolutely
not
be staring at. She doesn’t even notice I’m in the room at first.

They laugh and Trinity hipchecks Hope out of her way. “Teller needs coffee,” Hope informs Trinity as she sits down across from me. “And we all know I suck at making coffee.”

Trinity whips her head around, a quick smile lighting up her face. “Morning. Why are
you
up so early?”

“Need to go grab Heidi in a bit,” I answer, focusing my attention on the window behind Hope.

“She could have joined our slumber party last night,” Hope says.

Trinity snorts, and no matter how much I don’t want to, I turn her way. “Nah, he doesn’t want us corrupting his sister. You should hear the potty mouth on that girl,” she says, pointing at Hope.

“Whatever.” Hope snickers.

Tearing my gaze away from Trinity, I catch Hope’s eye. “She said she had school work she wanted to get done last night so she didn’t have to worry about it over the weekend. But it was probably an excuse for Axel to sneak over.”

“I don’t know,” Hope says. “She’s a pretty good student.”

“I got your back, Teller,” Trinity assures me. “I kept Axel out at the wedding site late last night hanging lights. Even if he did stop by, he would’ve been too exhausted to fool around.”

Not the visual I needed. “Thanks, Trin.”

“So, basically, everyone’s seen the wedding site, but me?” Hope asks.

“Pretty much.” Trinity turns and eyes Hope’s toast. “You need to eat an egg or some other protein. I can’t have you passing out at the altar.”

“Okay,
Mom
. Geez.”

“Morning, ladies.”

I turn at the sound of my best friend’s voice, relief washing over me. “Thank fuck, bro. I can’t listen to any more of this girl shit or my nuts are going to shrivel up and fall off.”

“What nuts?” Murphy asks with a straight face.

“Asshole.”

Actually, I’d never admit it, but I was enjoying Trinity and Hope goofing around. Who am I kidding? I like being around Trinity no matter how I get her. “Where’s your other friend, Hope? She sneak off to visit Z?”

Trinity shakes her head. “She was sound asleep when I woke up.”

“Tell me there was at least one naked pillow fight last night?” Murphy laughs, so they know he’s only kidding.

“You wish,” Hope teases.

“That ain’t right,” he says, pulling out a chair and sitting next to me. He jabs his elbow against me.

“What?” He’s tense, his gaze darting between the girls and me. “Spit it out.”

“Nothing. We got church in twenty.”

“Fuck.”

Murphy raises an eyebrow. I never complain about club duties. But lately I’m feeling stretched thin.

“It’ll be quick.” Wrath’s rumbling voice reaches us before he’s even in the room. “There’s my girl.” He hooks an arm around Trinity’s waist, and I turn away.

“Where’s Heidi?” Murphy asks.
That’s
enough to make me forget about the make-out session going on by the stove. Blake and I have been tighter than brothers for most of our lives, and I love him. Would do just about anything for Blake, but god
damn
am I getting tired of him sniffing after my baby sister like an unneutered dog.

“I gotta pick her up.”

“When?”

“Right after church, apparently.”

“Trinity,” Hope calls out. “Should we bring Lilly breakfast?”

Trinity pulls away from Wrath a little dazed. “Sure.” She probably didn’t even hear the question.

“Uh-oh.” Murphy laughs as Rock walks into the kitchen. Hope shrieks and jumps out of her chair when she sees him.

“No, no, no. You can’t see me before the wedding.”

Rock doesn’t seem overly concerned with her outburst. His mouth slides into a smirk and he catches her around the waist. “You plannin’ to wear this to the wedding?” he asks, pointing at her short, shiny robe and thin shorts.

“No.”

“He can’t see you in your
dress
, Hope,” Trinity adds.

They’re standing close enough to me that I hear Rock murmur to her, “Why are you running around like this?”

“Like what?”

Rock takes that as an invitation to molest her in front of everyone.

“Uh, prez. Some of us are trying to eat,” Murphy jokes.

Hope backs away, nervously tugging at her robe, but Rock doesn’t let her go far.

“For fuck’s sake,” Wrath groans. “Can’t you save it for your wedding night?”

“You know, they say like sixty-five percent of couples end up not having sex on their wedding night,” Trinity offers.

Everyone stares at her and she tips her head back, laughing. “I’m serious. They’re too tired after all the wedding hoopla.”

“No alcohol for you to tonight.” Rock says it low, but we all hear it.

The kitchen lovefest is working my grouchiest nerve, so I make a few excuses and get the hell out of there. I’m moving so fast, I almost knock Mariella down outside the dining room.

“Sorry, hon.”

Her big brown eyes stare up at me. “What’s wrong?”

Something about Mariella always calms me down. The pressure in my chest eases, my shoulders drop.
Everything.
“A lot to do. Gonna be a busy day.”

Her hands twist together in front of her. “I’m happy to be invited.”

As if on cue, Hope’s voice echoes behind me. “Good morning, Mariella.”

“Happy wedding day,” Mariella answers softly. She’s always so damn nervous around Hope. I hate it, because no matter how many times I explain Hope doesn’t hate her, Mariella doesn’t believe me.

“Thank you.”

“I better go help Trinity,” Mariella says. Before she scurries away, I grab her hand.

“Come find me when you’re done.”

A brief smile flickers over her mouth. “I will.” She slips from my grasp and darts away.

Next to me, Hope sighs. “Is she all right? You seem to be the only one she talks to.”

“She’s still worried you hate her—”

“I—”

“I know you don’t.”

Hope looks so troubled. Shit, if Rock finds out I upset his bride on their wedding day, he’ll fuckin’ murder my ass. “Don’t worry. I’ll look out for her.”

“Okay.” Hope nudges my arm. “Tell Heidi to come see us when she gets here?”

“I will.” Before she leaves, I want to do something to erase all my dickishness this morning. “Thank you.” She raises an eyebrow. “For letting Heidi hang out with you and stuff.”

“Teller, you don’t have to keep thanking me. I really do enjoy spending time with her.”

Christ, hanging out with the girls must have altered my brain chemistry or some shit. I clear my throat, thank her again, and take off before I do anything else to embarrass myself.

“All right,” Rock shouts over the noise in the war room. “Simmer down. We don’t have a lot of time.”

We all find our seats or a place to stand. It’s a full room because we have a lot of brothers from other charters here for the wedding.

Someone, probably Sway, slams his fist on the table and everyone follows, shouting congratulations at Rock.

The corners of his mouth turn up as he sits back in his seat and looks over each one of us. “Thank you. Thanks for being here.” He nods at our guests. “I’m handing out assignments to my guys. And wanted to make our out-of-town brothers aware that we’ll have members from two other clubs here as well. They’re clubs we have solid business relationships with, so I don’t expect any trouble.” That’s Rock’s diplomatic way of warning some of the punks in the group not to shoot at the sight of another club’s colors on our property.

Murmurs of agreement go around the table.

Rock’s phone buzzes and he slips it out of his cut. Flipping it open, he stares at it. His mouth twists in disgust and he flicks his gaze up. “Loco wants to meet.”

“Now?” Wrath asks.

From the back, Sway laughs. “That fuck has the worst timing.”

Z raises his hand. “I’ll handle it, prez.”

“Thanks.”

“Now?”

“After we’re done here.” He points at Wrath and then Murphy. “Whisper and Merlin asked for a sit-down. I want you two to handle it.”

Wrath’s all seriousness this morning. “No problem, prez.”

Next, Rock points to Z and Wrath. “Need you to talk to Stump and Chaser.”

“Prez!” Sparky shouts even though he’s only halfway down the table. “I got a package together for Stump. Something to ease him through this weird transition phase.”

Rock’s the only one who seems to be able to interpret that. “Thank you, brother. Work it out with them,” he says, pointing to Wrath and Z again.

Even though Rock hasn’t mentioned me yet, I know what my assignment’s going to be. I asked him for it last night.

“Teller. I need you collecting any envelopes, keep the prospects in line, and watch out for Mariella, please.”

“No problem.” I’m sure some of our brothers think Rock’s punishing me by making me babysit a chick today. But since she’s taking over Trinity’s household stuff, Mariella’s one of our most important assets. Since I’m still the only one she’s comfortable around, it makes sense and I’m not insulted in the least.

“Hope’s got civilian friends in the wedding. I expect everyone to behave.” Rock says it like he’s telling us, but
that
announcement’s for our guests.

“She got any hot lawyer friends?” Shadow asks. He’s a member of Sway’s crew and hasn’t met a pair of tits yet he didn’t want to slip his dick between. His words, not mine. I’d describe him as a perverted fuckwad. Don’t want him anywhere near my sister or Mariella.

“They’re all married or involved,” Z growls.

“So?” Shadow asks and cracks up at his own non-joke.
Idiot
.

Z catches my eye and shakes his head.

With a slap of his palm against the table, Rock ends church. “Let’s do this.”

On my way out, I stop by Rock’s chair. “I need to pick Heidi up. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Rock stands and gives me a once over. “You look more stressed than I am. Simmer down, brother.”

Wrath steps up behind Rock. “I’ll be down here until you get back. Mariella will be fine,” he says as if he knew exactly what was bothering me.

“Thank fuck, I thought you were going to hover over me all morning,” Rock grumbles.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be up to babysit you later, prez.”

Rock glares at him, and I can’t help laughing.

Sway and Ghost, a president from one of our out-of-state charters, approach Rock. Wrath takes up a position behind our president, and I take the opportunity to hustle out of there.

“Heidi! You ready?”

Giggling drifts out of her bedroom. I know Axel’s at the property, so she’s not in there with him. Heidi finally pokes her head out of her room, and in the background, I spot her friend Penny. Great. Just what I need.