OWNED & UNTAMED (Back Down Devil MC #11) - London Casey Page 0,16
me. He had forever been taller than me, from the day I met him when he and Jim were in sixth grade. They used to get in trouble with firecrackers, always trying to blow something up.
Duke stared at me with his perfectly squared off jaw, full of dirty scruff. I couldn’t help but wonder what it felt like. His eyes were as dark as I always remembered them, even if they looked a little more lost than normal right then.
It had been years.
So we stood there, staring at each other.
Duke forever stubborn. Me forever hurt by his actions.
“Jim here?” he finally asked.
“Inside. Drinking whiskey.”
“Shit,” Duke said.
He stepped up to the next step, then he was on the porch. His shoulders were as wide as the house. Time had been good to his muscles, that was for damn sure. Duke had always been strong and lean, but once he entered the military he became thickly carved with muscle.
My eyes looked at the leather cut he wore.
So all of it was true.
I pointed to the leather cut. “Back Down Devil…”
“What about it?”
“You’re a criminal now?”
“You here to judge me?”
“This is my house, Duke. My father’s dead. You knew that, right?”
“Sweetie, listen to me…”
“No. I won’t.” I stepped out onto the porch and nodded to the door. “You want to go save him? Do it now. Do what you said you were going to do a long time ago.”
Duke walked to the open door and stopped. He turned and looked right at me. Down at me, actually.
Why the fuck did he always have to look so good?
A hand shot out and touched my arm. “I never let anyone down, sweetie. And if I did, then I guess I owe some apologies. I thought I was saving everyone.”
I didn’t expect that from him, considering the way our phone conversation went.
Then Duke leaned down and pressed his lips to my cheek. His scuff was like sandpaper. His lips were soft, just like I always remembered them to be.
And then he walked into my house.
Back into my life.
Back into my heart.
nine.
(duke)
What the fuck are you thinking?
I licked my lips and could taste Belle. Fuck, I never stopped tasting Belle, even after the years passed by. I wasn’t into the whole apologizing shit either. But if Jim was going to hurt himself, I wanted to be there to kick his ass before he did it.
Sometimes the demons won the fight, okay? That was just how it went. You came back from that other place but you never were allowed to leave it. That’s why I did what I did with my life. Keeping my freedom kept me a step ahead of those demons. Shit, it put me side by side with the reaper, but that was a risk I was willing to take.
The house was different from the last time I saw it. It was bigger, an addition put on. The idea made sense. Belle’s old man worshipped Jim. Fuck, I was jealous of Jim the way Big Jim looked at him. I wanted Big Jim to be my father. No shock that he built a ranch level addition for his injured son. Knowing Jim though, he fucking hated it. He hated any restriction. Being a hot head was what made me and Jim good friends for such a long time.
I turned the corner in the kitchen and looked toward the living room. Jim sat with the television off and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. I entered the room and walked to a chair and plopped down.
He looked at me, looked away, then looked again. “What the fuck?”
“Jim,” I said.
He held out the whiskey bottle and studied it. “What kind of whiskey is this? It makes ghosts come to life.”
I leaned forward and plucked the bottle from his hand. “I’m not a ghost, brother. I’m right here.”
“Brother,” Jim said and laughed. “You still think of yourself as that?”
“Cut the bullshit. What the fuck are you doing drinking this shit?”
“Tastes good,” Jim said. “Like the old days.”
“Sitting out behind the shed sipping Big Jim’s whiskey is different than this. You were choking on your puke, huh?”
“My sister fucking called you?”
“She might have.”
“You both can go fuck yourselves.”
Jim wrestled to get to his feet. That’s when I saw the prosthetic leg for the first time. His jean leg pulled up and I saw the skinny metal bar that used to be a functioning limb. It took my breath for a second as Jim stood there.