Page 45 of Vapor's Blaze

“They are. My mom invites us to dinner every other week. It’s a Sunday ritual.”

“Your mother sounds amazing. Maybe I’ll get to meet her sometime.”

“Maybe I’ll have to invite you for our next monopoly Monday.” Vapor offers with a smile.

“That sounds fun, I bet your folks are proud of how you turned out. I sometimes wonder what my mom would think of me, whether she’d be disappointed in my life choices.”

“I think she would be proud of the woman you’ve become, despite the hard start in life. Jamus would be proud of you as well if he knew everything you went through today to free him,” Vapor reaches out and takes my hand in his.

“We both know you weren’t very thrilled that I showed up here.”

“I admired your courage and your loyalty. Maybe I would have preferred it if you’d trusted me and been a bit more patient. But I love your fight.”

I look down at our joined hands. I remember how cherished I felt when he kissed my hands when we made love the first time.

“I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble with your club because you’re seeing someone so closely associated with the Hellfire Hounds MC.”

“No. My club brothers were just worried that King might target me because of it. How do you feel about that now that you’ve had a minute to think it over? From what Siege said, he’s near as given his blessing to us.”

I really do like this man and I’m developing serious feelings for him. I would have preferred it if we could have taken things slowly—and part of me is worried that now the situation has been forced, things will change. I sigh, “I know this is just a means to an end for both clubs, but that doesn’t mean I’m not falling for you.”

“Same here, sweetness. I don’t think I’ve ever been as taken with a woman as I am with you. I don’t care that King is your grandfather, because you’re so much more than an associate of the Hellfire Hounds MC.”

“I’m glad you see that. Some club brothers can be very narrow-minded at times.”

Chapter 16

Trix

I wake up in the morning and it only takes a minute for everything that happened yesterday to come flooding back. The whole situation is pretty damn surreal. I know the best of all possible solutions is an arranged marriage with someone I actually like, and I swear when that hot biker smiles at me I can’t think straight. Maybe if I could, then I’d be protesting against being used as bargaining chip, but the situation is what it is. And I think I might be okay with it all.

Vapor had to leave super early, apparently there was some mix up with an order for his shop, so he had to go to Heartsford and deal with it. Since Vapor brought my phone back, I reach over and check the messages, only Vapor and Hark have this number. I find a slew of messages and they’re all extremely alarming.

I quickly get dressed and I creep downstairs, tiptoeing over the brothers passed out on the floor, and somehow make it to the front door without being caught. It looks like there was a party last night. I hadn’t heard anything, then again, I’d been too busy enjoying Vapor’s company to notice.

Once I’m out of the clubhouse entrance I open the first message, it’s from Jamus who apparently made it back to the Hounds’ clubhouse after he was released.

Listen up, girl. If you manage to get away from the Legion, don’t you dare come back to the clubhouse. It’s not safe for you here. Go stay with one of your friends and keep your head down, I’ll explain later.

Panicking, I scroll through and listen to a voice message from my oldest brother, Tracker.

“I’ve got no time to explain. There’s been an incident at the clubhouse. Don’t come here under any circumstances. I’ll call you back when I can.”

As I walk toward where I parked my car, I listen to the last message, it’s from Hark.

His voice sounds panicked. “Trix, run. Get as far away from Las Salinas as possible. Decker was furious that Gramps reneged on the deal with his family in favor of the one offered by the Legion. He said you belong to his family. There was a fight and Decker ended up shooting Gramps in the chest. He’s in surgery but things aren’t looking good. Tracker, Jamus, and me are at the hospital and I don’t know what’s gonna happen to us when this is all over. I don’t think we’re gonna survive this, but you can. Just get out of town and don’t come back. It’s the only way, I love you.”

Well fuck that, I think to myself. Rummaging in my bag I realize I left my keys on the nightstand. Damn it. If I go back in, there is a good chance one of those bodies I tiptoed over will wake up. If that happens, they’re not going to allow me to go anywhere, much less to see my piece of shit grandfather. He’s the last person I want to see, but if Tracker, Hark, and Jamus are there then they can fill me in and maybe I can figure out how to get them to safety. I quickly call Uber and a car shows up fifteen minutes later. I climb into the back seat, still lost in my own thoughts. “Take me to the hospital, pronto.”

“Yes ma’am,” the driver replies crisply.

I sink back into the seat and pull my coat closer around my body as I think about the messages I got. Decker has always been all ‘yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir’ with my grandfather. Now, he’s suddenly got balls of solid brass. Shooting my grandfather should have bought him a bullet to the head by the Hellfire Hounds. Decker isn’t even a Hound, he’s a Grave Digger. So how the hell is he still alive, much less in a position to kill my brothers? For something like that to happen, Decker would have had to wrestle control of the club away from my grandfather. I can’t see how that could happen. Decker has always been subservient to my grandfather and most of the other brothers as well. Something’s going on and I don’t like the sound of it. The sooner I can get to my brothers and Jamus the better.

A horrible thought creeps into my mind. I can’t see Decker doing something like this unless his father or brother showed up. They might make him shoot the club president to prove loyalty to the Grave Diggers or something along those lines. In fact, they might have shown up in force. Holy shit, this could mean they’ve taken over my grandfather’s club by force. The Hounds might even be looking at being patched over the by the Grave Diggers.

If so, my grandfather would have fought tooth and nail to keep that from happening. It would have taken nothing short of a bullet to the chest to take him out of action.

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