Red (Black #2) (13 page)

I wake one night to a sound in the house, it’s loud. I check the clock and see it’s three a.m. I have a bat next to my bed. I’ve had one there for the last five years, never been able to get rid of it. The nightmares sometimes feel too real. It comforts me knowing I have something.

“Fuck!” I hear as I sneak out. Someone is definitely here, and it’s not Jake. He’s gone out of town. I hear them bang into the kitchen bench, a harrumph comes from that direction. I sneak around and see a dark figure, then I swing the bat and knock the person on the back of the head.

“Mom,” Hayden screams from behind me flicking on the light. I look down to see Liam on the floor, face down and blood coming from his head.

Fuck!

Why on earth did he sneak in?

To scare the living shit out of me?

I still haven’t dropped the bat, and I still haven’t stopped shaking. Hayden runs to the freezer and grabs and icepack and runs back to Liam, who’s asleep on the floor. He jumps when Hayden places the pack to his head.

He manages to sit up against the counter, his head hanging down.

“I didn’t know it was you,” I say to him. I look to Hayden and he walks back to his room.

“Sure, was this payback from the gun?” His hand still holding the pack when he asks the question. I want to say, yes it is, and that he deserves it, but I didn’t mean to. And I feel terrible that I physically hurt him, I’d be the last person that would want to hurt him.

“No.” He goes to stand, a bit shaky on his feet as he does. “Why are you here, Liam? Its early, we’re sleeping.”

I notice then, he winces, he’s hurt, and not from me and my stupid bat.

“What happened?” I ask stepping forward. Lifting his shirt, it takes me a moment to gather what I’m seeing. I stare too long, not having seen him this way in so long. His ribs look bruised, like someone has kicked him there multiple times, his lip is cut and blood drips down to his chin.

“Misunderstanding…” is all he says looking down at me while I still hold his shirt up, taking in his bruises, as well as his toned body. “Finished perving?” I drop it then and take a few steps back.

“You can’t sneak in this early, you scared me.” He did, it brought back too many memories. Ones I’m now trying to shake off.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go. Jake and his men are at mine, the hotel is closed, I could sleep in my car, but I figured you wouldn’t say no to sharing a bed with me?” Cocky son of a bitch. “After all, you are the mother of my son.” His head cocks to one side trying to make me argue with him, he’s proving a point, one I’m not sure I want to be a part of.

“You should have slept in your truck,” I say walking away. “The couch is yours.” I manage to make it to my room, and I hear him following, hoping he doesn’t come in. He goes to the bathroom, connected to my room. Then he walks into my room, the lights are off, I can see him from the light of the moon which is shining in through the bedroom window. He’s naked.

“What are you doing?” He walks to my bed, doesn’t bother moving the covers. He lies straight on top of them, then turns to his side. I can’t help it, my eyes search his body, his piercings are all there, his nipples, his cock. Which is standing, and I am staring.

“I’m going to sleep.”

“Fuck no,” I say jumping from the bed, flicking on the bedside light. “Get dressed, and get on the couch.” He doesn’t acknowledge me, just lies on his back and closes his eyes.
Bastard.

“Liam Black, I have kids here. Those kids come into my room in the morning. You need to cover your junk right this minute before I cut it off.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would. Don’t tempt me.” He grabs the sheet and covers his lower half. If the sheet moved mere inches, everything would be on display. I crawl back into bed, he is inches away from me. I can tell he’s awake, and I don’t think I will be getting any sleep what-so-ever with him inches away from me.

“Will you tell me? Tell me how your life’s been for the last five years?” I ask, hoping he can spread some light on what’s been happening around him.

“I woke in an empty room, I didn’t recognize anybody. There was a woman there, she was holding my hand and telling me everything would be okay. That was the first time I woke. Then she told me who she was, she said she was my girlfriend, and that she had missed me. I didn’t believe her, I didn’t even know my own name, let alone who she was.”

“The same woman?” I ask, referring to the crazy brunette.

He nods his head. “A few months in, I still didn’t believe. Savannah tried reassuring me every day, filling my head with lies, telling me how much she loved me, how much the club loved me. One day I had a job to do for the club. I was their hit man. I found it hard to believe as well until they put a gun in my hand, and I knew, like instantly it was mine, and that what they were saying was true. So I did this job, except this job had cracks, cracks where I was the hit. I knew it, I had my suspicions. They wanted to test my loyalty. Four members of a rival club had caught me before I realized it was a setup. I never get set up now, I am
that
good. I make so much money for that club that when they lose me, they will lose all the benefits that come with me.”

“They knew you then?” They had to have known. To know what he did, to get him to do what he used to do.

“They must have. Anyway… this club kept me in a bathroom for days, tied me to the shower rods and tortured me. I didn’t once say anything, and it annoyed them. On the last day, one guy came in with a small pocket knife, and he reopened my scar from the gunshot wound to my back. He then untied me, dropped me to the floor and walked out. He made a mistake.”

“Don’t tell me.”

“You wanted to know, this is part of it… he didn’t know me, didn’t know what I was capable of. He thought I was too tired, too worn out to move. I stood, my feet were just able to hold me up. One of the days of the torture, I had a careless man. He tucked his gun into his boots, boots that were inches from me, I grabbed it and had been hiding it in the cabinet ever since. So I retrieved the gun and opened the door. Five men stood there, they heard the door open, they didn’t get a chance to do anything. I shot every one of them, then I collapsed on the floor. That’s when she found me again, bleeding out.”

“She was your savior?”

“No, she was the queen in a game of chess. One who fucked with the wrong person.”

“What did you do next?”

“I healed. The club trusted me. I killed for them, but I never fully trusted them. Always there was something eating away at me. Then there was you. I didn’t know who you were, but there were times when I was out with her. I would see a blonde with a kid, and I would stare. She’d notice this and pull me from it. But I always looked, and I always looked for those eyes.” He looks at me for the first time, his green eyes staring into my blue ones.

“My eyes?”

“That’s the reason I fucked her, let her around me, and believed her. It was her eyes, the blue in them, the crystal blue.”

“She loved you?”

“She said she did.”

“She did.” He’s not someone you fuck once and not want again. You come back, again, again and again.

I wake with a body draped over me, it’s a small body, but the heat it produces is crazy hot. Liam is lying on my chest, the sheet still firmly over me thankfully. Rose is awake, and watching us.

“He sneaks into my bed early in the morning,” she explains, looking back to him, then to me. My ribs hurt, the pressure he puts on them makes the pain worse when I breathe.

“Tell me what happened last night,” she asks.

“Move him first.”

“No, after you tell me.”

“I met up with a friend, that friend wasn’t impressed about Savannah.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Grover still doesn’t know, and it will stay that way till I’m ready. Kane came to my house last night, the one Jake was at. I didn’t think Kane would be a threat, then he saw her body. He found it where I hid it, and I was a minute to slow for him. He kicked me to the ground, then kicked me in the face. Jake pulled him off, but Kane produced a gun. His jaw was clenched, his teeth bared. His eyes kept on falling on Savannah’s, then to me. I had to shoot him… had to kill him. He needed to die.

“You!” he basically spat at me. I didn't understand what he was talking about until I saw her body, it was locked away, hidden until I could rid it. He grabbed me when I wasn’t looking, his hand pulling my collar, kicking my knees out from under me. His boots started to assault me, I could feel the bruises straight away, knew it was going to leave a mark, then he was pulled off, his kicking still frantic. He swiveled in Jake’s grip, moved fast and produced a gun. It was aimed at me, his teeth were bared, he was furious, the woman he loved but never had, was dead, and he knew exactly who did it. Jake reached for his gun tucked away in his pants, he was too slow, though, because just as Kane turns, his eyes not trained on me, my gun is produced, shooting him dead between the eyes.

“Oh God,” she says, knowing exactly what I’m talking about. She stands and I notice the shirt she’s wearing. It isn’t hers, it’s a long and white-buttoned shirt. She looks sexy as fuck in it.

“Turn around,” I say. She’s just about to pick him up and gives me an odd look and turns. “Now bend over.”

Her head swivels back to me. “Not happening.” She turns and picks the kid up from my chest, and a weight is lifted, and it’s easier to breathe. I manage to stand after she leaves with Liam, the pain no worse than it was last night.

“I love your ass.” Rose’s voice comes from behind me. I turn to face her, her eyes now taking me in all.

“I think it’s unfair for one to look and not the other,” I say reaching for a button on her shirt, she shakes her head and steps back.

“Do you love me, Liam Black?”

“What’s love, Rose?”

“I’ve had this conversation with you before.” She smirks walking past me. Shutting the conversation off as she steps into the bathroom.

The kids are all at the table when I walk out, also with them is Jake. He looks at me and smirks and turns his head back to what Liam’s saying. Isabelle pulls a seat out for me to sit in and I watch this already made family talk and laugh around the table. I watch as Liam tells Jake about how he picked a bug up from outside and now it’s not moving in his container in his room. I watch as Hayden talks to Isabelle and they smile at some small talk about school.

It’s all too much, it’s like I’m an intruder. Too much of this is on my face right now. I have to extract myself. The chair almost falls backward and instantly heads all turn to me when I stand. I walk to the door and open it and stop automatically when a man stands there dressed in a police uniform. He paled, raising a hand to cover his mouth when he sees me. He looks behind me, then back to me.

“They couldn’t keep you down, could they?” I don’t like him. “Five years and you decide to come back now?” he asks with a smile.

“Robbie,” Rose says walking up behind me, my body is blocking her from getting to him. She places a soft hand on my hip, in an attempt to move me, but it doesn’t work. I stay where I am, his mouth curls up into a huge smile of happiness when he sees her. Then disappears into a sour frown when he sees her hand.

“I came by to drop the kids off on my way to work. You have that big meeting today,” he says, not looking at me.
Fake.

“Oh my God, you’re a life saver. I’m late as it is.” She pushes me out of the way, then leans forward and wraps her hands around his neck hugging him tight. He looks at me the whole time he does, then closes his eyes and hugs her tightly.

Death.

“Hey man,” Jake says when Rose lets go.
Friends are what they are.

I lied to her last night, I could have easily stayed at my house. I didn’t, I wanted her, I wanted to be around her. She pulls me in, without even knowing.