“He busted her arm, Dagger,” Wolfe grated out.
“And I’m sure he came off worse.”
My reward for that statement was a smile that made me feel like I’d just been bathed in goddamn sunlight—and a dirty bastard like me never got to feel sunlight that pure on his skin. This went soul fucking deep.
“You got that right. Stuck him right in the ribs.” She made a popping sound. “Slipped in like butter.”
“You carry a knife?” I asked, my cock hardening. She knew I loved knives—it was the reason for my road name, after all.
“Your knife. The one you gave me on my birthday.”
Now, my cock wasn’t the only thing twitching. My heart was flopping around in my chest like a dying fish.
Fuck.
This woman had me feeling shit that no other could ever dream about stirring in me. That was why I was arguing with Wolfe, and would argue the rest of the damn day about it.
I’d only realized what I’d fucking lost the minute she’d left, and neither of them had kept in touch with the clubhouse, so I hadn’t been able to check up on them. I wasn’t sure what Ry had done, but he’d hidden them.
I’d had no idea they were in Lubbock, and I had the smarts to find most anyone I wanted. The computer, after the knife, was my best friend. But Ryan had hid them so well that I knew they’d had to have bought new IDs somewhere along the line. Maybe several, even though I knew they cost a fucking fortune.
By the time they’d left, it had been too late, and I’d spent the last six years wishing to fuck Lucie had never gone. I wasn’t about to waste more time, no matter if Wolfe was Prez now or not.
“How did Ryan keep you hidden, Luce?” The question popped out, not from nowhere, but it didn’t exactly fit the conversational flow.
Still, I needed to know.
“We moved a lot,” she admitted. “Until the last few months when things changed for the worse because of Ryan’s health.”
“Why all the moving?”
Her lips curved. “I have a buy-in for the club.”
That had us all scowling. “The fuck are you talking about?” I demanded.
“I know you’re going to get some shit for my coming back, but I have a reason for being here. I mean, where we’re concerned, my reason is you guys.” She glowered at us. “You can argue about this shit as much as you want, but we have a daughter together, Wolfe. That changes things.”
“You’re damn right it does,” he groused, and though this woman needed no defending from anyone—she could fight her own battles—I heard the possessiveness in Wolfe’s voice and bristled at it.
“She’s ours, Wolfe. You can go fuck yourself if you think you’re going to claim her alone.”
“I’m the Prez. I can’t share my old lady with my council,” he repeated, folding his arms across his chest like his words were a law or something. Fuck that. “Not outside of bed anyway. You know that shit slides. What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. But permanently?”
Lucie pulled away so that she was standing on her own again. She grabbed her tee and tugged it overhead, using it to cover up those gorgeous tits of hers. She’d filled out since the last time I’d seen her—only natural considering she was more woman than teenager now, and had carried Amaryllis. Her waist was curvier, her hips rounding out into a beautiful hourglass shape. And those tits? They were bigger too. Handfuls I regretted backing away from moments ago.
Especially with the discussion at hand.
“I’m not just yours, Wolfe. I never wanted that.”
“Your dad, although he was a dumb motherfucker for doing it the way he did, knew how this shit worked—”
She released a growl that could beat Wolfe’s. “You think you can make decisions for me?”
“I think you took yourself out of the process when you drove across the state and brought your tight ass and my daughter with you.”
Her top lip curled. “The only one of you who got this shit is dead…” She shook her head then grabbed the purse she’d dumped on one of the ratty sideboards next to the door.
Before Wolfe could reply, she began to stalk out of the room, but I grabbed her and tugged her against my chest so that her back nestled into my torso. Could I help it that my cock ‘nestled’ between her ass cheeks too?
“You know that’s a lie, baby,” I ground out in her ear.
“I belong to no one,” she replied. “I’m here by choice.”
“Those marks on your body say otherwise,” Wolfe called out.
“Marks I had done on my own, without any of your input. They can be covered up as easily as I had them applied, but that isn’t what I want.” She stiffened for the first time in my hold, then peered around me to glare at Wolfe. “You know what I’ve always wanted, and none of you are getting a piece of this until you figure out that this princess never does shit unless it’s on her terms.”
I tensed, knowing that throw down would piss all of us off—not just Wolfe.
“You think you can hold out on us?” Wolfe sneered, then compounded his fucking idiocy by breaking out into a laugh.
“I know it. I’m not the girl I was, Wolfe.” She cut Axe a look and reached for her purse.
Tugging herself away from me, she opened said purse, and when I got a glimpse of what she was packing, I stiffened.
And not in a good way.
“What the—”
Her eyes were narrowed as she silently told me to shut the fuck up, and I shrugged, knowing she meant us no harm. Even Wolfe. The jackass.
She stepped back toward the desk and murmured, “Dagger asked me what Ryan was doing all this time.” She smirked. “He did what he did best. Made money.” Lucie slipped the gun out of her purse and rested it on his desk. Then, she pulled out another two. “No licenses, no purchasing orders, and no registrations.”
Wolfe’s eyes widened. “Ghost guns?”
She dipped her chin. “Exactly. I’m here on my own accord, Wolfe. As your equal. I wondered why this place was going to shit. You stopped dealing and took away the club’s largest source of profit. Well, I’m here as your partner.”
“Partner in what?”
She fingered the gun and I swear to fuck, my cock leaked pre-cum seeing her handle the weapon. “Ryan made these, and I helped him.”
“You fabricated ghost guns?” Axe snapped. “What the fuck was Ryan thinking?”
“He was thinking we needed a roof over our heads, and he was thinking we had a daughter we needed to raise all the while we were on the move,” she sneered at Axe. “Don’t you dare say a bad word against him. I won’t stand for it.” She shot Flame a look, but he was like me—turned on as fuck at the way she handled the gun.
We were both simple men him and me. No point in denying it.
“Question is, are you too fucking stubborn, too much of an idiot to see the open check I’m handing you?” She sniffed and turned on her heel, leaving the weapons behind her. I didn’t stop her as she headed out, knowing we’d need to discuss this, but for the second time in my life, I resented the MC.
Watching her head out of the office, a sudden surge of fear hit me. I grabbed her hand and bit off, “You won’t leave?”