Heartless (Steel Demons MC #6) - Crystal Ash Page 0,75

going to get your heart broken. And not just by one man.

“How long?”

“How long what, sugar?” Reaper once again reached for me from his spot on the couch. I relented this time, taking his hand.

“How long until you send a team to go find them? I want to go with, if it comes to that. They might need medical attention.”

My husband sighed, tilting his head back, but at this point he knew better than to argue with me. “One more day. Another full twenty-four hours before we investigate.” He pulled me over the couch’s arm, sending me tumbling across his lap. “And if you’re going, at least one of us will too. No excuses.”

“Fine.” I curled up against his chest, snuggling into the wall of hard muscle. “Fuck, I just want him to be okay.”

“Have faith in Shadow, sugar.” His hands braced around my hip and lower back. “He’s tougher than all of us.”

Gunner came to sit next to us. “I’ll send Horus out that direction tomorrow morning, if that’ll make you feel better.”

I turned in Reaper’s lap, leaning until I stretched between him and Gunner, and rested my head on Gunner’s shoulder. “You’re the best. Thank you.”

“Jandro!” Reaper looked around behind him. “Where’d he go? It’s not like him to miss a cuddle pile.”

“Probably in the garage,” I mused.

Like me, Jandro tried to smother his concern for Shadow by keeping busy. First, he assembled a brand-new luxurious chicken coop in our new backyard, then moved on to every tiny, minute motorcycle repair he could think of. It was getting late, and the birds were all tucked away in their insulated chicken-mansion, so I could only imagine Jandro would be off tinkering with something.

I was dozing off, cozy and warm from my men’s bodies and the fire crackling in the stone fireplace, when a slamming door startled me awake.

“Riders coming into town,” Jandro announced, heading to the sink to wash his hands. “Heard the engines and saw two headlights coming down over the hill.”

“Two?” I jumped up from the couch, Reap and Gun quickly following. “Not three?”

“Pretty sure, yeah.”

“You didn’t see who they were?”

“We’ll find out in a sec, Mariposita.” He dried his hands on a towel and bent to plant a kiss on my forehead. “Too dark and too far away to see shit.”

I went back to pacing, this time on the front porch. The air was chilly and I huddled my arms close as I listened for the approaching motorcycles. As the roars grew louder, I discerned that it was only one bike coming to this part of town. A single headlight hovering over the winding gravel road through the new development confirmed what I suspected. The rider could surely see me now, but it was too dark out and the headlight too blinding for me to see him.

Please be him, I silently begged. Please let it be my Shadow.

Freyja came out to join me on the porch, her eyes watching the road, but I didn’t dare hope until I saw him with my own eyes.

And when I did, I burst into tears.

Shadow only had time to park the bike, but left it running as he jumped off. I took one step down the porch, but he closed the distance swiftly, pulling me into his chest with a squeezing, urgent hug.

“I told you I would.” His lips moved over the crown of my head, planting kisses in my hair and wrapping my body in heat. “I’m here, see? I’m back.”

“You are,” I sniffled into his chest, my hands moving over him as if checking to make sure he was really there. “And you’re…” I lifted my head, taking in the state of his leathers for the first time. “…filthy.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, releasing me to turn off the ignition on his bike. Under the porch light, I could see how he was caked in sand and dirt from the road. “It was a rough couple of days coming back.”

“Who came with you?”

“Grudge,” he answered. “He went back to the Sons and I came straight here. We uh,” he sighed, clearly exhausted, “we lost Big G.”

“And Andrea?”

“She made it inside, but…” He shook his head with another sigh. “I should give a full report to Reaper.”

“Of course, but not yet.” I grabbed his hands, pulling him up the porch to the front door. “You should clean up, eat, and rest. We gave you one of the downstairs bedrooms, I hope that’s okay. I brought your stuff over from the B&B,