Make It Right (18 page)

The mere thought made her squirm on the barstool, and Danny noticed. He always noticed. “If you'll all excuse us, I need to get Amelia upstairs.”  He grinned widely and grabbed her hand. Everyone within earshot began to either laugh or give him shit. Everyone that they passed on the way to the stairs seemed to be having a good time. It was nice to see everyone as happy and relaxed as she felt.

They were on the stairs when Amelia felt eyes on her. She looked backwards over her shoulder and her eyes locked with Missy's. The woman simply stared at her with no expression on her face. Immediately she was reminded of the day Harris had stormed the bar. Even if it was crazy, she believed that Missy had known about Fiona and Taylor, the insurance and all of it. A chill rolled down her spine and she looked away from Missy and focused on the top of the stairs.

Chapter Thirteen

Danny tightened his grip on Amelia as she stumbled over a stair or her own feet. It was impossible to tell. “Easy.” He knew that she was drunk. In fact, he'd made sure that she was drunk so she could get out of her own head for at least a little while. So far it was working; she'd been as at ease as he'd seen her back at the tables with his Brothers.

There weren't words for how pleased he was that she'd just fit right back in. Sure, she and Train would never be friends, but they were playing nicely for now. She'd smiled, joked and laughed. It had been a really great night and looked to just keep getting better and better. Danny pushed open the door to the room, glad that no one was there. He would have kicked them out, but then Amelia would have insisted on changing the sheets and spraying Lysol all over the place.

Danny locked the door behind them, took off his cut and hung it quickly. “Oh no, no falling asleep.,” he chided Amelia as he saw her face down on the bed.

“Just resting my eyes.” She said, her voice muffled slightly. “Trying to get the room to stop spinning.”

Danny took off his boots, dropped them down to the ground. He approached the bed, grabbed Amelia's foot and took off her boots. She squealed and squirmed away from him when he tickled the bottom of her foot. “Got to put one foot on the floor to make the room stop spinning, everyone knows that.”

She turned onto her back, her eyes only opened fully when he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. “Or maybe I just need to focus on something else besides the way that it's spinning.”

“I think that we can manage to find something to occupy you.” He took off his jeans and let out a laugh when she sat up and began to undress quickly. “Hey, maybe I wanted to take off your clothes.”

“You should have been a little faster, then.” Danny watched as she fiddled with the button of her jeans. “I've still got these on. I guess that I could use a hand with them.”

Danny didn't waste any time replacing her hands with his. She lifted her hips, kept her eyes on his as he peeled the denim down, revealing that she wore nothing beneath. “Let me guess, you need to do laundry.”

“Yes.” Amelia admitted on a laugh. “It was bare or a pair of your boxers.”

Either would have been sexy, but Danny was glad that she'd chosen bare. He loved the sight of her skin. Every inch of it was burned into his brain, every scar and every beauty mark. Every inch was beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

“You make me nervous when you stare at me like that.” She spoke and moved to shift her hands to cover herself but he wasn't having it.

“Don't do that. I want to see every lovely inch of you.” Danny felt his cock turn to stone as she blushed. Compliments had always embarrassed her. So much had changed, but at the core they were still the same. Danny skimmed his hands up the outside of her legs, watched the muscles twitch in response to his touch. “You are so beautiful.” But she was skinnier than she had been, nearly as skinny as when she'd arrived.

“Stop it,” she protested. “I don't need the pretty words. I just need you. Now.”  She reached her hands out, grabbed his arm and pulled him forward so that he was on the bed with her. Danny could feel the heat radiating off of her skin, he caught the scent of her arousal in the air and had to bite back a groan. He wanted her as much as she wanted him, maybe even more, and all night he'd been telling himself the same thing, he was going to take it slow.

She had other plans, her legs wrapped around his waist, her hips moved and he felt her warmth slide over him. “Fuck.”

“Yes, please.” She grinned up at him. “I do believe you promised me that I'm not going to be
able to walk when you're done with me.” Again her hips moved against him. “I'm ready.”

Danny couldn't deny that. She was already soaked and he hadn't even touched her. They needed to get drunk together more. “Turn over.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widened, her legs released, and she did as he asked.

Danny took a moment to appreciate the view. He reached out and ran his hands from her hips and down the outside of her legs. “Open up for me.” She spread her legs, revealed herself to him and any thought of slow and sweet flew out of his mind. All he could think about was being inside of her, feeling her wrapped around him, warm and soft and his. All his.

Danny felt her brace herself as he pressed himself against her heat. Her body resisted him at first. He gripped her hips, pressed through the resistance until he was completely inside of her. Amelia gasped, her body rigid beneath his. Fuck, he was hurting her. Just as he was about to pull back he felt her relax, felt her arch her back deeper. There was nothing like being inside of her, of feeling her body around him, knowing that there was no possible way they could be closer to one another.

With a growl he shifted them forward, Amelia on her elbows instead of her hands. She smiled as she looked over her shoulder at him. Her eyes were half open at best but not because of the liquor, it was the look that told him she loved and trusted him more than anything else. She let out a whimper when he completely covered her body with his.

The only sounds she seemed capable of were moans, deep throaty moans that made his cock twitch. Danny knew that he wouldn't last long like this. He didn't want to. They had all night. Hell, they had the rest of their lives. He began to thrust deep inside of her, never leaving her fully until her walls began to clench him tight. “That's it. Come on, Amelia. Come on.” It was a desperate plea as he felt his ability to control himself ebb away.

He was close. So close. Amelia went still beneath him, her mouth open, but she didn't make a sound. It was his own roar of release that filled the air. He pulsed deep inside of her and pressed his face against her back. “Don't fall asleep on me now.” Danny warned as he slid off of her and tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. “I'm not done with you yet.”

>#>#>#>#

Danny jolted awake at the sound of a gunshot. “What the fuck?” He was up and dressing in an instant. “Stay up here,” he told Amelia. She looked less than pleased by the barked order, but she didn't follow him out the door.

He had his gun in hand as he made his way down the stairs. This wasn't the cops; they'd have made more noise before firing shots. No, Danny had a sinking feeling that this was The Millers, and it was confirmed when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Put it down.” Mark Miller advised him. “I'm only here to talk.”

“The shot I just heard suggests otherwise.”

“Put it down, Danny.” Royal spoke and for the first time Danny realized that he and Missy were in the room. The woman was at the bar, and she looked more pleased than pissed. What the hell was going on?

Danny couldn't refuse the direct order, not in front of Mark Miller, at least, so he lowered the gun but kept it in his hand. “Someone want to tell me what's going on?”

“There was an attempt on Joseph's life last night. Someone set his home on fire with him inside. He barely survived. It seems to me that lately Nightshade has been plagued by fire. I'm not a huge fan of coincidence.”

“We didn't burn our places, and we certainly didn't torch Joseph's. That is what you're implying, isn't it?”

“Yes. It is,” Mark replied. “And forgive me, your words haven't convinced me of your innocence. Joseph could very well still die. If he does, I will deal out the punishment that I see fit.”

Danny didn't know what to say to that. He had a feeling Mark's punishment would be what he'd threatened at the last meeting, death to everyone that they loved. “You should concentrate more on figuring out who actually did this instead of running around on a wild goose chase and coming here.”

“What leads do you have on the person who set the fires? Anything?” Mark demanded.

“Our guy at the Fire Inspector's office says that both the houses were torched with acetone. It's a fairly common thing. Hell, it's in just about everything.” Royal volunteered the information. “As far as we can tell, the fire at the Mason house was set by someone who took offense to Danny's wife meeting with that bitch detective.”

“Your wife, consorting with Detroit's finest? Now, that seems like a really big problem to me.” Danny said nothing. Amelia's meeting with Harris was now known by all, but not all needed to know that everything she'd done had been signed off on by Nightshade. “Is she here now?”

“Why?” Danny looked over at Royal. He really didn't like where this was going.

“I don't like people who talk to the cops more than to ask them if they're under arrest or request a la
wyer. Seems like your old lady did much more than that. Much more. Got one of your Brothers arrested, had him languishing in a cell for nearly a month but still she's here, celebrating with you. That's just disrespectful at best.” Mark shook his head. “This is troubling. Exceptionally troubling. Even Joseph, who has an obvious soft spot for Nightshade, would be troubled. It is never wise to do business with a known rat in the house.”

It was the same term painted on the side walk outside of his house. Sure, it was a very common word when discussing an informant, but something about Mark saying it made it stand out. Also, he caught a glimpse of Missy out of the corner of his eye, and she was smiling.

Amelia's words ran through his mind; she'd said that it seemed Missy knew what Harris told before it was revealed. Right now, it seemed like Missy knew where this conversation was going to go; the bitch couldn't stop smiling.

“What can we do to ease your mind?” Royal asked Mark.

“Off the top of my head, get the rat out of your house. If it were me, I'd kill it just to be sure that it was gone, but I understand that I have less of an emotional attachment.” Mark looked directly at Danny as he spoke.

“Don't.” Buster spoke from behind Danny. “Don't give him what he wants.” Danny nodded sharply. “No way that Royal's going to let Miller dictate what to do with Nightshade. No way.” Buster sounded completely convinced, but Danny wasn't. Warning bells were going off inside of his head just from the smug smirk Missy shot his way.

“Emotions are running high, all around. If it will ease your mind Mark, Danny will take Amelia out of here right now. And we can sit down, try and come up with someone who would benefit by hurting Nightshade and Joseph.”

“It will ease my mind more if she's kept away. Right now, the cargo you've agreed to move is very valuable and highly illegal. I will not risk the police learning anything about it. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Yeah, it's going to be a fucking problem,” Danny replied even as Royal assured Mark it wouldn't be.

“Take Amelia home, Danny. You had to know that this was coming, you knew there would be consequences for her talking to Harris, even if she had the best intentions at the time.” The room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. “I said take her home or I'll have someone else do it.”

Danny never imagined he'd be so close to telling Royal to go fuck himself. He opened his mouth but then Buster's hand fell heavily on his shoulder. “Don't.” Buster spoke in a tone low enough for only him to hear. “We'll deal with this at the table.”

“You say something, Buster? I couldn't quite hear you.”

“Just telling Danny he can take my truck, roads are supposed to be shitty tonight.” Buster squeezed his shoulder.

“Appreciate it.” Danny exchanged the keys for the Oldsmobile for Buster's Bronco. The weather was supposed to go south, no huge shock for winter in Detroit. Without saying anything else, he turned and headed back up the stairs.

Amelia was sitting on the edge of the bed when he returned, fully dressed with her messenger bag over her lap. Her hands were clasped, a sure sign that she was nervous. At the sight of her, Danny knew that she'd ignored his request to stay put. She'd sneaked out into the hall and heard every word said downstairs. “Amelia...”

“You don't have to explain. Technically, I don't even think you can. This is the part where I trust you, right? So, this is me, trusting you.”

“We should go now.”

“I figured that you were going to say that. I grabbed all my stuff.” She rose to her feet slowly. “This is going to be like a really fucked up walk of shame, isn't it?”

“Don't pay attention to any of them or anything that anyone says. The people who matter know the truth of what happened.” It was little consolation but to him, it seemed that Buster wasn't the only one who thought Royal was out of line. “Okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” she replied. “Let's just get it over with.”

The walk out of the bar was the longest that Danny had ever experienced. He knew that Amelia felt the same way because she'd squeezed his hand hard enough that he was almost sure that she had bruised him. He'd expected that someone would have a comment or that Royal would tell him to come back quickly but instead, they walked out to silence.

“Maybe you should go back in and I'll head home myself. Handle the club stuff. I know that there's club stuff, I'm not stupid. That guy in the suit gave me a serious case of the willies.”

“I'm not leaving you alone.”

“I'll call James and Paco, if he's around. I'll be okay.” Amelia turned to him and stretched up to place a kiss on his lips. “Just stay safe and whole. Please.”

“I will. Are you sure?” Danny knew that he was lucky Amelia understood not only the strength of his commitment to Nightshade as well as they way that they worked.