Page 30 of Blood of Vengeance

Cutter didn’t seem to like that idea. “Flinch, we need?—”

“We need to remember that it’s her father who’s gone. She gets to mourn, too.”

Cutter didn’t look happy—looked downright furious, to be honest—but he eventually nodded his agreement. “Fine…this time. Rooster, you’re with us. Let’s roll.”

The redhead nodded once, mouthing a “Sorry, kid” at me before heading for his bike. Rush gave Flinch a long look, some sort of communication happening in that moment, before retreating to his bike once more. The motorcycles began to rumble, all the men turning and riding back down the dirt road, Rooster taking the spot at the end as he followed them out to the highway. Flinch stood right by my side, never looking away from me. Never even glancing back at his brothers as they left. Standing his ground…with me.

“You didn’t have to stay,” I said once the motorcycles had made it far enough away to be nothing more than a buzzing in the distance.

“Of course I did.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind him, stopping at the top of the hill and moving me to stand in front of him. “Look at that sunset. Don’t see this view every day.”

“You could if you wanted to.” I shivered, the warmth of his hands on me raising my own internal temperature. Making the world seem too cold to be away from his touch. “I don’t have anything like this in Detroit.”

“True enough.” He stood behind me, hands running from my shoulders down to my wrists and back up. Slowly, so very slowly. Leaning over to speak into my ear. Body close but not close enough as he said, “The sunrise over Lake Erie is pretty good, though.”

That statement took me by surprise. “You’ve been to Michigan?”

“More than a few times. I rode with a club out there for a while.” His hands dropped to my hips, and he tugged me closer. Not harshly or demanding—more of a question. A slight pull that gave me the option to follow or ignore. A suggestion.

I settled back against him, unable not to. Needing to touch and feel in that moment. To connect. “What brought you out here?”

“I wanted to ride with the Hellions.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’d been with the Feral Breed for a few decades when I heard about the Hellions, so I started making my way west and south from club to club.”

“My dad talked about the Feral Breed occasionally,” I said, my heart breaking a little as I remembered his last few visits to Detroit. “When he would come to visit me, he would always stop to see the local guys.”

“I’m not surprised.” He slipped his thumbs over the waistband of my shorts, tucking them against my skin. Subtle and stealthy but unbearably hot. “We’re actually part of them—Feral Breed Desert Riders or some shit—but we keep to ourselves a bit more. We keep our Hellions branding and don’t go to the national meetings or Gathering shit.”

I refused to be distracted by his thumbs, the ones that moved back and forth against the skin of my stomach. Little digits of restraint destruction, those two. “What’s a gathering?”

“A fuckfest for shifters looking for their fated mates.”

I…well, that was something I hadn’t been prepared for. “You’ve been?”

He stayed silent for a long time—thumbs stilling against my skin—as my stomach fell all the way to my knees.

Voice calm and quiet, energy buzzing in a way that screamed he didn’t want to go down this path, he answered with just one word. “Once.”

“Not a big enough fuckfest for you?” I asked, my voice tight even to my own ears.

Thankfully, Flinch didn’t acknowledge the sound of—was that jealousy? Couldn’t have been, and yet it sure seemed like it. And the way my stomach clenched at the thought of him bouncing from woman to woman… He had been a single man, still was. He had the right.

But man, I hated the thought of it.

“No women worth spending time with there,” he finally said.

“I highly doubt that.”

He leaned over my shoulder again, keeping his lips close to my ear as he grumbled a low, “You weren’t there.”

I shivered, unable not to. The man had played that particular hazard well, reassuring me without actually acknowledging how unfair my jealousy would have been. I took a deep breath and fought to regain my senses, to recenter myself in the moment.

“So…what now? Do you have to go to the clubhouse tonight?”

“Nah. I’m sticking with you, short stack.” He pulled his hands from my body and hopped onto the hood of the truck, tugging me with him until I had a seat on his lap. My back to his front. My body wrapped up in his. “Let’s watch this sunset, then we can head home. Maybe grab some tacos on the way.”

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