Page 24 of Deadly Secrets

Bulldog growls from behind Melissa. “You’re startin’ to piss me off, brother,” he snarls, directing the spew towards me.

I look him dead in the eyes as my muscles lock into place, ready for another battle. I smirk just enough to rile him up a little more. “Then take a fucking walk, brother.”

“Doesn’t it feel like we’ve been in this situation before?” Brass comments with a chuckle and looks between our Prez and Havoc.

“Everyone needs to calm the fuck down.” Stone steps up and elbows Brass in the gut, making him double over, pretending to be hurt.

“What your man needs to do is release our girl so that we can take care of her. This doesn’t concern any of you,” Hammer, the VP, says, making me throw my head back and laugh.

“Something tells me that you’re very wrong about that,” Brass mumbles, barely loud enough for us to hear.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I comment, then feel Remi shift in my arms.

“Mmm,” she moans and her eyes flutter again.

“Hey, Remi, can you hear me?” Melissa asks.

Remi takes several moments and I hold my breath waiting for her response. Her eyes focus again on me and I’m knocked on my ass at how gorgeous she truly is. She smiles up at me and it’s as if I’ve been sucker punched.

“Hey,” I say as she squints her eyes from the lights in the room.

“Remi, are you able to sit up for me?” Melissa asks.

Remi turns her head slowly towards Melissa’s voice and her eyes widen when she sees a room full of visitors as she lifts up, putting all her weight on my thighs.

“What’s going on?” she asks above a whisper.

“You hit your head then passed out,” I fill in the blanks for her.

She turns towards me, her eyes raking over my face as if she’s trying to decipher a puzzle.

“Rhett?”

“It’s me, pretty girl,” I say.

She exhales, bringing her hand up to touch my face as if she can’t believe what she’s seeing. The warmth of her fingers heats my skin as she trails a path down my stubbled jaw. She throws her arms around my neck and squeezes the shit outta me. My arms wrap fully around her and something settles in my chest.

“How is this real? Did you come for us?” she asks, pulling back to look into my eyes.

Her questions throw me off because I’m not sure who the us is. Before I can ask her about that Melissa launches in asking a million questions. She’s checking her eyes, neck and pressing around her knot on the back of her head. The entire time Remi keeps a hand or eyes on me as if I might be a mirage that’s not really here.

As Melissa finishes, Bulldog comes closer and steals her attention.

“You okay, babe?” he asks. An emotion I haven’t felt in over a decade climbs to the surface. The urge I have to snatch her up and out of here, away from people, is bubbling. No one from my club knows the full extent of what I’ve been through, or who this woman is to me. The possessiveness I have of her hasn’t seemed to diminish, even with all the years that have passed.

Back in high school, Remi always had people vying for her attention even though she hated the spotlight. Everyone knew her because of her family ties to the city and she was always being stopped and talked to. When we got our license, we made sure to hang out in the next town over or opted to hike on the trails by our homes to avoid people.

“Everything looks normal, but we’ll want to keep an eye on that bump to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion. I assume we aren’t going to the hospital?” Melissa asks.

“I’m fine,” Remi says, waving it off, then shifts off my thighs and sits on the edge of the couch. Our legs are still touching and I realize that she’s still only wearing a bra and G-string. Without thinking I shrug off my cut and drape it over her shoulders. Remi turns her head and gives me a shy appreciative look. Out of the corner of my eye I see Bulldog start to lunge forward towards my cut on her shoulders, but stops himself when Melissa shifts over and unintentionally blocks his way. Melissa is Crusher’s Ol’ Lady, who happens to be one of the founding members of Dead Road MC. One thing we don’t fuck with is a Founding Member or his Ol’ Lady.

“Okay. If you want, I can come by tomorrow and check you over once more to make sure,” Melissa offers.

“I don’t want to be a bother. I’m sure everything is good, I’ve had worse,” she placates. I don’t like knowing she’s had worse.

“Let me take you home,” Bulldog stands, then offers her his hand.

Over my dead fucking body. Did he not enjoy the ass whopping earlier because I’ve got enough in the tank to go another round to remind him.