Patriot (Hades Abyss MC 6) - Harley Wylde Page 0,4

another. I leaned against Patriot as the world came into better focus and looked around. Riley was heading our way with Pretty Boy on his heels.

“I didn’t know where you were,” Riley said. “I went to the office and found Pretty Boy. The second she looked like she was going to pass out, I knew she needed to get out of here, but I didn’t dare reach for her.”

“And then I texted you because I knew you’d want to be here,” Pretty Boy said.

Patriot turned me to face him and tipped my chin up. “What happened, Little Bit?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not fucking fine. What did he say to you?”

Smoke started blustering but a quick glare from Patriot and Pretty Boy shut him up.

“He said staying meant being bent over a table and fucked.” Saying the words made my hands clench and my stomach drop. I’d thought I’d healed, but maybe I was still every bit as broken as when Patriot had brought me here.

Patriot moved so fast, he was a blur as he spun away and landed a punch right across Smoke’s jaw. Except he didn’t stop. He went after him like a rabid beast. Pretty Boy, Brick, and Cache all tried to pull him off. It was like someone had flipped a switch inside him, and he wasn’t going to stop until he’d made Smoke bleed all over the floors.

“Don’t fucking talk to her again,” Patriot said. “Don’t even look at her.”

Smoke worked his jaw back and forth, then spat blood on the floor. “Fine. But her ass has no business in the clubhouse on a night like this and you damn well know it. I was only trying to get her to fucking leave.”

“She was sitting at the bar, that’s it,” Riley said in a subdued tone.

“I thought you were here,” I said looking at Patriot. “I shouldn’t have come. I thought… I thought I’d healed enough that I could handle walking in here, having a drink and… I don’t know. But I was wrong. I’m not healed. I’m still broken.”

A tear slipped down my cheek, then another.

Patriot wrapped his arms around me again. “No, you’re not broken. You’ve come so far, MaryAnne. If you’d wanted to come to a party, even long enough to have a drink, you should have told me. I’d have brought you. We could have sat at a table or the bar together.”

My cheeks warmed and I looked away, finding a spot on the wall rather fascinating. “You don’t come here to babysit me.”

Pretty Boy snorted. “He doesn’t come here at all.”

My gaze shot to him. “What?”

I felt Patriot tense, his arms tightened even more. It was a little like being hugged by a boa constrictor, except I knew he wasn’t going to literally squeeze me to death. He didn’t come to the clubhouse anymore? I’d thought the nights he left he’d come here to party, to be with the women I knew hung out with the club. If he hadn’t been here all those times, then where had he gone?

Oh. My heart sank. It wasn’t that he’d been leaving to party. He’d wanted time to himself. I’d invaded his house, a constant unwanted presence. He couldn’t even be alone in his own home. I knew Sean didn’t want me staying with him, but maybe I could figure something else out. I didn’t have a job or money to rent a place in town, and I really didn’t want to leave the compound.

“Whatever thought crossed your mind right now is probably the wrong conclusion,” Pretty Boy said. “You look like someone killed your dog.”

“Come on, Little Bit. Let’s get you home,” Patriot said, carrying me out of the clubhouse. I glanced at the door that still stood open and winced when I realized he’d slammed it so hard into the wall it had cracked the drywall.

I’d walked to the clubhouse since I didn’t drive, and I’d planned to walk back. Patriot stopped at his bike, which I now realized hadn’t been in the line of motorcycles in front of the clubhouse earlier. He’d left it in the middle of the lot when he’d come in to save me.

Patriot eased me down his body and swung his leg over the seat. “Get on, Little Bit.”

I got onto the bike and placed my hands at his sides, gripping his leather cut. Patriot pried my fingers loose and pulled my arms around his waist until my hands settled over his belt buckle.