OWNED & UNTAMED (Back Down Devil MC #11) - London Casey Page 0,64
in protest of being moved. It smacked the roof when I tossed it over its rusted hinge. I got on the roof and crouched down, offering my hand to Belle. Having her look up at me, the way her eyes still lit up in the darkness of the night, goddamn, it was all the proof I needed that an outlaw like me could find love. And not just crazy good love between the sheets either.
There were a few chairs up on the roof. A little table with an ashtray and plenty of empty beer and whiskey bottles. I walked Belle near the edge so she could see the ground. We weren’t miles up in the air or anything but it was high enough that I felt her clutching at my leather cut.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“It’s actually beautiful up here. Somber but beautiful.”
“We come up here a lot to think. A lot of bad shit down there so we try to find peace up here.”
“When was the last time you were up here?” she asked.
I thought about it. It had been a long while. A real long while.
“The MC has been going through some wild shit,” I said. “Our former President was not a good one. He had been working against the MC for a long time, benefiting himself. Trev came up from another charter to take the gavel. He’s a good man. A good President.”
“I like Eden.”
“She looks ready to pop.”
“She is,” Belle said. “I can’t imagine.”
“What? Being knocked up?”
“Well, besides that, just being in this world like this. How does it all work, Duke?”
“It just does. You either get it or you don’t.”
“What if someone dies? What if someone ends up jail?”
“Same thing could happen anywhere else,” I said. “I know, it’s hard to understand our life sometimes but you’ll get used to it.”
“Get used to it?”
“Sweetie, you’re not ditching me,” I said. “I’m not ditching you either. Whatever happened in the past I can’t control. I’ll apologize for it every day but I won’t let it happen again. I’m here for good. You’re here for good. You want to get married, sweetie? I’ll make that happen. You want to be like Eden? I’ll knock you up right here, right now. Shit, we’ve been going at it how long now without protection?”
Belle grinned and blushed. “I know, Duke. That doesn’t mean I did not protect myself.”
“I could end that in a heartbeat,” I said. “But that’s not why we’re up here.”
“Then why are we up here?” Belle asked.
“To catch our breaths for a second. Because it’s going to get crazier before it gets better. And I wanted to be alone with you, Belle. To look at you. To feel you. To give you a chance to think for a second.”
“I’ve got nothing at this point, Duke,” Belle said. “Honestly. I can’t believe what has happened since I called you. It’s like… like I started a fire.”
“Meaning what? You regret that call?”
Belle swallowed. “Duke…”
“Hey, it’s okay. You could regret anything you want.” I felt a little pain in my heart hearing that. “Anything, sweetie.”
“I just had no idea this was your life, Duke. I mean, are you happy?”
“I’m happy right now. That’s all I’m worried about.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I told you how it all happened. You go over there and you come back changed. We were warned about it. But me and Jim… we just wanted action. I never thought it would happen the way it did. I came back and just couldn’t shake it all off. What was I going to do? Go from shooting at people that wanted me dead to what? Fixing cars and arguing with the general public over the cost of labor? Going to an office to… fuck that, sweetie. I needed that sense of power and freedom. I needed to break away from all that had taken me down to hell. And the second I landed with these guys I just knew it was right. We take care of each other and that’s all that matters. There’s no judges or juries. No lawyers. We take our shit to the table, talk, vote, and when that gavel hits, you do what’s told to do.” I slipped my hand into Belle’s hand. “Now, you and I together, sweetie, that’s right to me. And if you hadn’t made that call and I hadn’t seen what the pricks from the Hell Five were going to do, not only would Jim have been killed, you would