Inked (Going All the Way #1) - Jenika Snow Page 0,31

her.”

Scars stayed silent for a few seconds, but his expression was unreadable. “And what if some asshole comes sniffing around her, what then?”

Cadeon tightened his hands into fists. “Then I’ll make it known she is mine. And by making it known, I mean I’ll bust fucking skulls in and make sure there is a lot of blood spilled.”

Scars grunted and narrowed his eyes on Cadeon. “Fuck.” He scrubbed a hand over his head and looked away. “I should kill you for going against a club rule, you know that.” It wasn’t a question. Scars turned around again, and although there was still anger in his face, there was also part of that hard exterior he always wore that was now cracked slightly.

“I’m not going to hurt her, Scars.”

The other man stepped forward and growled low in his throat. That sound seemed suited to some kind of feral animal. “Yeah, you won’t, because if you make her cry one tear, you better believe me and my boys will be coming after your ass.” He eyed Cadeon up and down once. “And you don’t want to know what we will do. Trust me when I say the Vicious Bastards know how to hide a body in the Rocky Mountains.”

Cadeon had no doubts, and although he should have been scared over what Scars was implying, he wasn’t, because he knew he would try with his last breath to make sure Stella was happy, and he would protect her with his life. He didn’t respond to Scars’s threats, and after a few very tense seconds, the other man took a step back.

“Well, you’re serious about my girl, and she is an adult, so not much I can do.” Scars scratched his jaw and glanced over at his Harley. “I think this shit is moving way too fast. One minute, you’re tattooing my daughter, and the next professing you love her.” He didn’t phrase it like a question. “I trust my daughter.” He pointed at Cadeon. “It’s guys like you that I don’t trust. But I’ll be watching, boy, and just waiting for you to fuck up.”

“Yeah, it is fast, I won’t lie, but I’ve known her for three years. Should I have talked to you about how I felt for Stella? Yeah, out of respect, I should have come told you that I wanted her, but I thought I could stay away. I’m telling you, Scars, Stella means a lot to me, and it took me too damn long to realize that.” Cadeon didn’t say anything for a moment, but Scars didn’t either. “And I’m not a boy,” Cadeon gritted out. “I would never hurt Stella.”

This man might be the president of an outlaw MC, but Cadeon wasn’t about to be intimidated either. Scars watched him with a scowl on his face, but finally he nodded once and gave a harsh grunt. Maybe it hadn’t been an all-out brawl, but Cadeon and Scars had come to an understanding, and right now, that was good enough.

Maybe he wouldn’t ever accept Cadeon, but the fact of the matter was he didn’t have a choice. He wasn’t going anywhere, and Stella was his girl.

That realization wasn’t much of a shock to him, and he accepted it as if it were his next breath.

14

“Come for a ride with me.”

Stella looked over at Cadeon. Her father and Booshie had left twenty minutes ago, and she hadn’t realized there had been a lot of tension that had been coming from her dad until he left. Cadeon sported a forming bruise on his jaw, but he waved it off when she asked about it.

He was still alive, so her dad hadn’t shot him with the gun she knew he carried on him. She supposed that was a good thing. “It’s late, and dark.”

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug and pushed away from the counter to stand right before her. “You don’t need the sun to enjoy a ride on the open road.” He lifted a hand and brushed a stray piece of hair back from her face. “God, I had no idea what I was missing.” He said those words softly, but they weren’t a question, and they hadn’t been directed toward her.

It was like he had been speaking to himself, and her pulse increased after hearing him say it. He would never truly know how much those words meant to her, because she had been feeling that way for so long. “Come on, baby, come for a ride with