Page 16 of Shiner's Light

“I don’t understand why you would want him to meet me,” I utter, letting him see my confusion.

“Because, Olive,” he starts and sets the pizza box down on the bed, “he’s my kid and needs to know the woman who gave him love when he was no more than a newborn. He deserves to have the woman who loved him like her own when his own mother was a certifiable bitch and saw him only as a tool.”

Shiner’s words leave me speechless. I don’t know what to say because he’s right, I did love Milo like my own. Holding him in my arms meant everything to me back then. I’d do whatever it took for my sister to let me hold him.

“Now, we’re going to eat. We’re going to talk. And we’re going to get a few things straight once and for all,” Shiner declares, takes his seat on the bed facing me, and flips open the pizza box.

CHAPTER NINE

SHINER

Eating a slice of pizza, I focus on Olive. I take in the dark circles under her eyes, the narrowing of her cheeks, and the way she looks as if she’d lost weight she couldn’t afford to lose in the past two weeks.

It’s my own damn fault, and I know it. She ran from me because I fucked up and gave in to my frustration. The need for Olive, to be inside her, was building to a boiling point, and the pent-up sexual urges were getting to me. Never in my life have I had to use my hand as much as I had. I’ve always had pussy on hand when I wanted it. If I hadn’t caved to my needs, she wouldn’t look so exhausted now.

Finishing a bite, I take a sip from the beer I’d gotten out of my mini fridge while Olive nibbles on her own piece. Her Diet Sundrop still sits unopened on the nightstand, and I want to ask her why she’s not opened it yet, but I don’t. Instead, I clear my throat and start with what I need to fucking know. “You wanna tell me how the fuck you got away from the clubhouse?”

“A hole in the fence near the far back,” she answers, not looking up.

“A hole in the fence?” I repeat, wanting her to clarify this for me. We’d found the last one, the same one both Storm and Meadow used to run. There shouldn’t have been another hole. I checked the damn fence myself looking for any weaknesses to it.

“That’s what I said.” She shrugs. “It was near the tree line.”

“I’ll have to fix this,” I mutter more to myself than her. “How did you find out about it? Did one of the ol’ ladies tell you about it or someone else? I know you didn’t just stumble upon it.”

“It wasn’t one of the ol’ ladies.”

“So, it was someone,” I grind out. “Who?” There’s no way in hell it was one of my brothers or a prospect. She had to have heard of it from someone else here, and that only leaves the fallen harlots. “Which bitch told you about the hole in the fence?” I demand.

Olive slowly lifts her gaze from the pizza she’s picking at. Those eyes of hers bore into my own. “You figured out that much on your own, I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

“Olive,” I say warningly. I’m not able to let that shit slide, “start fuckin’ talking.”

“What do you want me to say?” Olive snaps, dropping the pizza in the box.

Watching her features closely, I take in the way her nostrils flare and her eyes narrow to little slits. “I want you to tell me who the fuck told you how to get away from me.”

“It doesn’t matter who told me.”

The woman is going to piss me off with her resistance to listen and talk to me.

“Look, Olive, I know I fucked up and hurt you, but I need to know who told you because this shit isn’t a damn game. It’s a security issue for the club, and that hole hadn’t been there. I know because I checked the damn perimeter every damn week and hadn’t seen a hole.” I’m going to have to go out there tomorrow to the location she’s talking about and see to the problem because it’s something I should have seen myself but haven’t.

“You didn’t hurt me,” Olive utters, casting her gaze to the side. “You want to know who told me. Why don’t you go find the two other people that were with you that night.”

Fucking hell.

“Tessa and Rubi said something to you?” Those bitches know better than to talk to an ol’ lady. Olive might not know it, but that’s exactly what she is. Though I hadn’t declared it outright except to tell my brothers I’m claiming her. Still, those two knew she was off limits to fuck around with. Even if she wasn’t mine, they know enough you don’t fuck with a friend or family member to someone in this club. Not only is she my son’s aunt, but she’s also a friend to Chelsea, Storm, and Meadow.

Hell, those three women will mutilate Tessa and Rubi if they find out about this shit.

“Does it matter what they’ve said to me? Those two have made it clear I’m not welcome here and simply told me to leave and never come back,” she scoffs and plucks a piece of pepperoni off the pizza and pops it in her mouth.

It takes a moment for those words to sink in, and when they do, it’s all I can do to keep from going in search of both women and throwing their asses out on the street for the bullshit they’ve caused.

“Olive, honey, look at me.”

“Why do you call me that?” she asks as she gives me her eyes.

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