Breaking It All: A Hellfire Riders MC Romance (The Motorcycle Clubs) (37 page)

Anna

My heart seizes up when Daisy suddenly starts barking, running back and forth across the floor of my studio. Since coming home, I’ve been keeping a gun nearby when I’m alone. I grab it now and head to the window overlooking the front drive.

Gunner’s truck is pulling in.

My heart gives a wild leap and I’m running, almost tripping down the stairs in my hurry. I burst through the front door and onto the porch just as Stone gets out of the driver’s side.

Laughing, I throw myself at him. God, and he catches me and hugs me so tight. Daisy’s barking wildly, rubbing up against his legs, and he pulls back to look at my face.

“Aw, pipsqueak,” he groans. “Don’t cry.”

I’m trying not to. Pulling my long sleeves down over my hands, I wipe my leaking eyes. “I was just so happy to have the house to myself. I’m sad I have to share it again.”

Stone smiles, but it’s not like the quick grin and laugh that such a response would have gotten before, and it fades so quickly. Jaw hard, he cups my cheek.

Looking at where the bruise used to be—because he saw the video of Chef hitting me.

I reach up, grab his wrist. “I’m all right.”

Nodding, he lets me go.

“Daisy is all right, too,” I say.

He barely looks down at the dog, who’s going wild with happiness over his being home, and my heart starts aching.

Gunner said that fighting and killing an innocent man would hurt him. That it would fuck him up bad.

And Stone is home. But he’s not the same Stone.

Gruffly now he tells me, “You might be by yourself a little longer. I’ve got some business out at the clubhouse that I’m going to be taking care of for a while.”

“Okay.” A lot of the Riders do that now and then. “Have you seen Mom and Dad yet?”

“Not yet.” Abruptly he walks past me, toward the side entrance—instead of using my door.

“I told them you were coming back.” I follow behind him, watching Daisy dancing around his feet and desperately trying to get his attention. “But maybe you should stop by.”

“I’ll get around to it.”

God. Stone never just
gets around to it
when it’s regarding our parents.

But he just needs time. He just needs time.

And his friends. “Was Gunner with you?”

“No. He said he had some shit to take care of.” He climbs the stairs to the mudroom, Daisy trotting behind him.

“Did Gunner say anything about…me and him?”

Stone shakes his head. “Not a thing.”

He heads inside—and the screen door slams shut in Daisy’s face. She barks at the door, tail wagging, before looking over at me, where I’m standing numb, rubbing my arms, feeling so damn cold.

Gunner didn’t say anything to him about me. But that doesn’t have to mean anything. It doesn’t mean Gunner and I are going back to how we were.

I don’t know how we could ever go back. I’m not just a friend’s sister. But my brother—his friend—is broken.

And nothing’s simple anymore.

Gunner

Inside Chef’s darkened living room, I wait until the big fucker closes his front door before putting two bullets into his knees. The silenced shots sound like an old woman’s hacking cough. He crashes to the linoleum floor in the entryway. My boot cracks across his jaw, quieting his agonized scream.

His eyes roll back.

By the time he comes to, I’ve got him taped to a chair and his mouth sealed shut. I don’t need him to tell me anything. I’m the only one who’ll be talking.

I press the end of the barrel against his forehead and show him the picture of Anna taped and crying. I sent it to myself before deleting it from Stone’s phone—and only kept the picture for this purpose alone. “I just want to make sure you know what this is for,” I tell him. “You remember her?”

It takes a moment before recognition sharpens his eyes—as if he’s taken so many of these pictures that he has to think it through. Finally he nods.

“Good,” I say and pull the trigger.

* * *

The house burns like the stables did. Blowback’s waiting outside.

I delete the picture from my phone, then mount my bike. Unscrewing the silencer from the gun’s barrel, I toss the weapon to Blowback. He’ll dispose of it better than I ever could.

“You heading home?” I ask him.

“I’m thinking about having a conversation with Paladin first,” he says like he’s just going to talk to the man instead of whatever he’s really got planned. “You going back now?”

“Not yet,” I say and fire up my engine.

I’ve got two more things to take care of first. One for me.

One for Anna.

Anna

Sunday night, I’m back at the Wolf Den. It’s not my usual shift—this is typically the night I have off and when Jenny, Lily, and I go out to dinner—but I need to keep busy, and Jenny’s still in a rough spot. Not ready to go out, not so soon after losing her dad. But we’ll slowly get her there again.

And we’ll get Stone where he needs to be, too.

“Hey.” Her pale blond hair a little longer than the last time I saw her—too long to be called a buzzcut anymore—Lily bellies up to the bar. “Good to see you back.”

“When did you miss seeing me here?” I raise my brows. “You were gone, too.”

With a narrowing of her gray eyes, her gorgeous face instantly turns dangerously mean. “Don’t fuck with me. I can’t take this kind of emotional shit. So tell me right now—are we okay, you and me? Because if not, we’re going to hash it out, right now.”

I blink in absolute confusion before it hits me.
Ohhhh.
Because I was so pissed at her the last time I saw her—because she hadn’t told me about Stone being missing, either.

But, holy crap. That was like two weeks ago. She thinks I’m still mad? And she’s freaking out because she thinks I am?

“We’re okay,” I say.

“Oh. Good.” The tension visibly leaves her body, and she grins at me. “Beer?”

I’ve got one better. Stepping up on a small footstool, I reach for her favorite bourbon on the top shelf.

“Aw, that’s a cute little footstool. You want me to get that for you?”

“Shut up.” It’s not my fault I’m not a giant like she is. Or that I’m so short I actually have to go up on tiptoe, even standing on the stool.

She snickers. A little mean, but I like that about her.

And not always mean. Not if she cares about you.

Watching me pour the bourbon, she says quietly, “So what are we going to do about Jenny?”

I’m pretty sure we just have to give it time. But Lily knows more about this than I do. “What did you do after your dad died?”

“Got drunk. Rode my bike. Fucked a bunch of girls and boys. Became a tough biker. Drank some more.”

I grin, trying to imagine Jenny doing any of that. I can’t. “She’ll be okay,” I say. “Nothing will be the same. But we’ll just ease her back into it.”

“Sounds good.”

Yeah, it does. I wait for a long second, then say as casually as I can, “Have you heard from Gunner?”

“Yeah. He’s in town, somewhere.” Her eyes narrow again, but not angrily this time. More like she’s wondering if I just turned stupid. “Ever heard of texting?”

“I don’t have his number.”

“You’re joking.”

Nope. “He had Stone’s phone. So we just used that.”

“You idiots.” She snorts and tugs her phone from her back pocket. “I’ll give it to you. Or, never mind. He can just give it to you himself.”

Because he’s coming through the door. Looking so damn beautiful, dragging off his helmet and sliding his hands over his thick hair. He’s already spotted me behind the bar, his crystalline gaze locking on me and never wavering, and he doesn’t slow his steady pace in my direction even when some of the other Riders come up to bump his fist and congratulate him. Because it seems now everyone knows that Stone was gone.

And they know who brought him back.

My heart’s overflowing when he stops at the bar, his hands braced flat on the countertop.

A grin curves his gorgeous lips. “Hello, sweetheart.”

“You brought my brother home,” I say and my throat is so thick.

“I told you I would,” he reminds me, but his grin falters a little, and I know why that pain flickers through his eyes. He glances over at Lily, who seems to read his silent message. She bumps his fist and heads off.

“He seems…not good,” I say quietly when he looks to me again—gently taking my hands, holding them clasped in his at the center of the bar.

“He’ll come through.” Gunner sounds sure of it. “It’ll just take time.”

I nod, my heart pounding so hard, my breath like a bellows in my chest. “So what now—for you and me?”

“Well.” Those pale eyes are so steady on mine. “I thought we could make it simple again.”

And my heart’s just…gone. My chest empty.

I wonder if this is what it’s like to die.

But it can’t be. Because death, you don’t start hurting again. Death, you don’t pull your hands from his and blindly turn away.

“Anna? Where you going, sweetheart?”

I don’t know. “The Philippines, maybe.” My voice is thin, broken, almost unintelligible. “It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s not here.”

In the mirror behind the liquor shelf, I catch a glimpse of Gunner’s white face. I see the powerful flex of his arms as he shoves against the countertop, vaulting over the bar and into the service area with me. And I haven’t run fast enough because his strong hands snag my waist, drag me back against him.

“All right, sweetheart,” he says hoarsely in my ear. “If you want to go, we both go. The Philippines it is. Although it sounds like a damn good place for a honeymoon, instead.”

Something stutters in the empty cavity of my chest. “A what?”

“I love you, Anna. You love me. So this is
really
simple. Not the kind of simple we had before. I said it all wrong. So I’m just going to let this speak for me.”

His fingers thread through mine. But not just to clasp our hands. He turns my palm over, presses his lips to the center before dropping a glittering ring onto the same spot.

A ring. My voice is high, thready. “Gunner?”

“I just need one word from you, Anna,” he says gruffly. “So tell me yes. Tell me you’ll belong to me.”

“I already do.”

I feel his huff of laughter. “One word.”

“Why are you complaining? I gave you three.” My heart so full, I turn in his arms. “And here’s three more: I love you.”

“I’ll take those,” he growls against my lips, then his strong hands capture my face and he claims my mouth in a deep kiss. Behind us, a few cheers echo through the bar, then grow louder, and along with them are Riders shouting suggestions about what Gunner can do to me next.

Laughing, he breaks the kiss, then says in my ear, “Now you’ve got two choices. I can either sit you up on that bar and lick your pussy in front of everyone, or I can take you into the back.”

“Back,” I say breathlessly and easily ignore the new shouts and cheers as Gunner swings me up and carries me toward the employee door, his mouth fastened to mine.

Down the hall, he kicks open the stockroom door. Saxon’s going to kill us but I don’t even care. Wildly I kiss him, pushing at the shoulders of his leather vest, then drop my hands to his belt when I realize there’s no reason for his top half to be naked.

But Gunner is stripping out of his kutte, carefully putting the folded leather aside before catching my hands.

I groan, looking down. He stopped me with his zipper half undone and the pressure of his thick erection against the fastening is slowly, slowly unzipping the rest.

“I love you looking at my dick, Anna. You always look so damn hungry and impressed.” He’s grinning as he turns his back to me. “But look at this first.”

Gathering the back of his collar in his fist, he drags his shirt off—and there’s ink on his skin now.

The Hellfire Riders’ emblem stretches from shoulder to shoulder.

Mouth parting in astonishment, I step forward and lift my fingers toward the tattoo before abruptly stopping. The skin around the edges of the emblem is still an angry red, the inked surface gleaming with ointment. He must have gotten this today. And it’s so big, he must have been sitting under the needle for most of the day.

Voice thick, I say, “I thought Cooper boys didn’t change what they were born with. That you all look like you do for a reason.”

“I’ll look how I want to look and for my own reasons. This reason says I’ll always be a Rider.” His voice deepens before he faces me again. “And the reason for this one is that I’ll always be yours.”

There’s new ink on his chest, too—right over his heart, a thick red script, as if written in lipstick across his steely pectoral.

Anna will always be here.

“Gunner,” I whisper, then he’s kissing me, turning and lifting me up against the stockroom door. My arms circle his neck as his big hands drag my jeans down—just far enough for him to spread me open and sink deep.

Filled completely, I cry out at the deliciously thick intrusion, my head falling back. His hot mouth fastens to my neck and he fucks me with powerful strokes that rattle the doorframe and shiver through the shelves.

Then abruptly he stops, holding me pinned against the door, his cock so deep. “Put on the ring, Anna. Let me see that you’re mine when I come inside you this time.”

The ring is still in my hand, clenched in my fist. Hands shaking, I slip my arms from around his neck.

“I swear to you, Anna,” he says and emotion roughens his voice. He takes the ring from me and slides it onto my finger before curling my hand into a fist—as if to keep the ring on tight. “I’ll give you any future you want.”

“Just one that’s long and happy.” But I’ll take whatever I get with him.

“Long and happy.” He grins. “At this moment, that describes my cock.”

Still buried inside me. His mouth captures mine when I start to laugh, until need begins to take over. Then, with a groan, he tears his lips from mine and swears solemnly,

“I’ll give that future to you, sweetheart. I’ll give you everything.”

With a shuddering breath, I touch his jaw, his lips, before cupping his face in my hands—and the pretty diamond sparkling in my ring can’t compete with the beauty of his pale eyes when he’s looking at me, so hot and fierce and in love.

“You’ve already given me everything,” I tell him with my heart overflowing. “Because now I have you.”

And in the end—it really is that simple.

* * *