Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,67

my fingers in her hair, I stroked them along the short length of black silk, comforting us both as I murmured, “You forgot that, didn’t you? When he was spouting shit in your ear?”

“I never knew for certain that was what you did, though,” she reasoned dully. “No one ever said it out loud.”

“And I’m not now. But you know what I’m saying, don’t you?” In her ear, just in case David’s spying involved listening devices, I whispered, “I’ve cleaned up messier scenes for punier reasons.” I kissed the crown of her head. “Everything will be okay. I want you to go upstairs, get a shower, clean off—”

“He didn’t touch me,” she argued.

“No?” Something settled inside me. I mean, I wasn’t fucking happy about any of this, but at least the fucker hadn’t tried something on.

“No.”

“Well, good. Then take a bath. Just relax, okay? I’m going to sort this out. Nyx will as well.”

She peered up at me with terrified eyes, but her words weren’t scared, they were strong. God, this woman, my woman, was such a fucking fighter. “Look, you don’t have to get involved in this. I’ll go to the cops.”

“And be vilified like Giulia was?” I shook my head. “That’s not going to happen. I won’t allow it or anyone else to hurt you, do you hear me?”

“I-I hear you,” she whispered, a welter of emotion in her eyes that I wasn’t used to seeing.

Christ, I felt it too. Like a mirror image.

I patted her ass, not hard enough to hurt but a sharp tap that would stir her into moving.

It worked. Like I’d known it would.

We’d never had the usual negotiations where it came to a Dom/sub relationship, didn’t even have a safe word. For anyone else, that’d be a red warning sign that flashed, but I’d kill myself before I pushed Indy too far. She hadn’t cared enough about herself to think about a safe word, but now, with the trust between us, I knew it wasn’t necessary.

And getting rid of a body was only one way in which I could prove how much she meant to me…

With regret, she pulled back, the way she lingered telling me she didn’t want to be anywhere but my arms, then she bit her lip as she looked down at David. Seeing the play of emotions in her expression, knowing the sight of him had frozen her in place, I grabbed her shoulder and steered her out of the room, pushing her toward the door.

Only when I heard her Converse trudging up the stairs did I pull out my phone and call her brother: “Nyx? I need your help. Maybe Maverick’s too.”

Keira

“Honey? Do you want some popcorn?”

Silence.

Deadly. Silence.

I sighed, reached up and rubbed at my tired eyes before I twisted around and returned to the kitchen.

All those years ago, when I’d shacked up with Storm, I’d never have imagined that I’d be living on the compound of the MC I loathed, with an eleven-year-old daughter who hated my guts, or that I’d be bunking with a woman I was pretty sure was a criminal who’d kidnapped her foster daughter.

Shit, there was so much wrong with that sentence that I didn’t even know where to start.

To be fair, everyone on the compound was into something illegal. Except me, of course. I was too boring by half to be anything other than the goodie two shoes I was. Just call me goddamn Pollyanna.

As for Lodestar and Katina, if I had to bunk with anyone, they were really nice. Friendly. Gave us space, and we gave them room too. Although it was a little different for us.

Lodestar spent most of her time in the main clubhouse, tucked away with Maverick in his attic. Katina seemed to float around between this bunkhouse, the clubhouse kitchen, and the bunkhouse where her sister was living with two others—women, or girls really, who’d experienced things no woman wanted their daughter to ever go through.

Unlike Katina, Cyan, my little girl, rarely budged from the bunkhouse unless I took her to gymnastics or to her babysitter’s place, because even though her daddy was now the Prez of a Sinners’ chapter, we’d never really been brought around the clubhouse all that much so the brothers didn’t know her. They didn’t know me, either.

To them, I wasn’t Keira. I was just Storm’s Old Lady. Because even though I was his ex, to them, I’d still be his Old Lady until he got another one. Which I doubted would be