Page 16 of Talon (Road Rebels MC 2)
I blinked the sleep from my eyes, thinking that I was simply seeing things. There was no way in the world that woman was back here. There was no way, after the last encounter we just had, that she’d risk everything coming back here.
Unless there was something seriously wrong.
I cursed myself as Calista started knocking on the door again. I looked around for a shirt before I ripped open the door, and the moment Calista saw my bare chest she licked her lips. I stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind me, leaving Gemma to sleep on the couch, and the look I shot her was nothing short of disgusting.
It disarmed her in a heartbeat, and she took a step back from me.
“What?” I asked.
“I take it you being shirtless is just a coincidence,” she said.
“The fuck do you want?” I asked.
She seemed stunned by the way I was talking to her, and I had to take a few deeps breaths in order to calm myself. If Gemma looked out here and saw me standing with a woman dressed the way Calista was, I knew she would leave. I knew she’d get pissed and think that last night was just a little fuck for me.
But it wasn’t. It was the culmination of years of dreams and regrets and infatuations. It was years of wishing she’d come home and hoping I’d see her during the summers. It was gallons of alcohol poured down my throat to try and drown her memory only for it to haunt me in my dreams.
Like the sweetest of candies that a child could not have.
“Let me go grab a shirt,” I said. “Then we can talk.”
“Not gonna let me in?” she asked.
“No, because this isn’t a pleasure visit. You got something to say?”
She nodded, obviously disappointed by my lack of hospitality.
“Then you’ll stay here. Were you followed?”
She shook her head, and I sighed with relief.
“Hold on.”
I went back into my apartment and strode over to the couch. I picked my shirt up off the floor before I pressed another kiss into Gemma’s forehead. This was the kind of shit I didn’t want her getting involved in. The kind of seedy shit I had to do in order to garner information because of the bullshit situation the crew had found themselves in. I wanted to shelter her from all of this. To give her the life she truly wanted. Now that I’d had all of her in some of the ways I’d dreamed about, I never wanted to go back.
No woman would ever be good enough anymore.
I pulled my shirt over my head before I headed back for the door. I stopped, making damn sure Gemma was still asleep before I opened the door again. Calista was standing there, her arms crossed over her trembling body, and I sighed with contempt.
Even though the sun was blazing outside, she was obviously cold.
I searched around the parking lot, making sure there was nothing out of place. I looked around for cameras or black sedans or the shadows of motorcycles. I needed to make damn sure this wasn’t just a baited trap. I had my most precious cargo in this apartment, and I’d slaughter anyone who threatened to hurt her without blinking a fucking eye.
And when I was satisfied that she hadn’t actually been followed, I reached into the apartment and grabbed her my cut.
“Put this on. You look cold,” I said.
“Happens when you don’t eat much.”
“Why aren’t you eating?” I asked.
“Reasons.”
We stood there for a while, simply staring out at the road. Cars and trucks were passing us by, racing down a road people should’ve only been going forty miles an hour on. Just because it was fucking five lanes didn’t mean people needed to zoom down it like they were driving around a racetrack, but that was life for you.
People feeling fucking entitled to do whatever the fuck it was they were going to do.
“Why aren’t you eating?” I asked again.
“I’m surprised you care,” she said.
“Just because I’m not fucking you doesn’t mean I don’t care,” I said. “Now, why are you here?”
She glanced at me before she sighed, then turned her body towards me as her eyes looked intensely into mine. That sparkle in her eyes was back. The one that wasn’t there at the diner. Except there was something else mixed with it. An urgency I’d never seen on her face until this very moment. I studied the way her bruises were growing, and the swelling on her eye was getting worse. I clocked the way she was still struggling to breathe and how the rings around her neck were getting worse.
“You can’t eat because you’re in too much pain,” I said.
The tears that rose to her eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“Why risk coming back here?” I asked.
“Because I needed to tell you what I found out,” she said.
My blood ran cold at the cracking of her voice, but before I could question her about it, I heard a sound from behind the door.
I whipped around and saw Gemma’s face in the window, her features set in stone while her eyes spoke of a silent anger I had yet to witness. She was kin to Snake, after all, and I could only imagine the temper she could brew whenever someone crossed her.
And even though this situation wasn’t what I knew she thought it was, it didn’t stop her from marching away.
“See you’ve already moved on,” Calista said.
“There was nothing to move on from,” I said as I opened the door.
“Don’t you wanna hear what I have to say?” Calista asked.
“In a minute!”
My only focus right now was Gemma. How she was throwing her clothes on with a blank face. How her tousled hair was blocking my view of her eyes. How her beautiful body was being covered up with clothes, she’d never wear if she lived with me, and while every single part of me wanted to stop her, I could tell by her posturing it was a bad idea.
Snake had a bombastic sort of anger, but I was learning that Gemma’s was silent.
Serene.
Controlled.
“Gemma, this isn’t what it looks like,” I said.
But instead of answering me, she simply pushed past Calista and made her way to her car.
“I like your hickies!” Calista called out after her.
I’d never felt the need to hit a woman before, but at that very moment, I debated it. Gemma was leaving my place with one thought in her mind, and I had no idea how to skew her away from the false pieces she was putting together. But right now, I had more important things to take care of.
Even as Calista pompously called out after Gemma, I could still see the fear behind her eyes.
Something had happened with The Devil Saints, and I needed to know what the fuck it was.
Chapter 14
Gemma
All night, I slept against Talon’s strong body. I fell asleep with his fingers running through my hair and his heart beating against my chest. I slinked my arms around him and pulled him close, not wanting to let him go and not wanting to focus on tomorrow. I knew I’d have to field Jace with something to keep him occupied when I got home, but for now, I simply wanted to fall asleep satiated and happy.
I’d given up and Talon and I after I left for college. I talked with him all throughout my high school years, even though I knew Jace was threatening him. Our lives were in such upheaval as children, though, that Jace’s threats did nothing to deter me from talking with Talon. He had always been a silent person, but even his silence spoke volumes. He’d stand in the corner and watch the people around him, but when I was sitting with him, all of his focus was on me. His gaze was unwavering, and he never fidgeted, and for the first time in my life, it felt like I was being heard.
