Page 14 of Savage Fire

“How have you been? Has Jacob been treating you…well?” How was she supposed to ask if her asshole stepfather was still treating his first and legal wife like a house slave?

“Nothing has changed, Condesa. The children have gotten older, Maureen, Mina, Carin have become quite the industrious trio with their fresh market goods, and Anna is happy teaching the kids.”

Jacob Mannerly didn’t like the possibility that his kids would go to public school and learn about things like “free will” “freedom of choice” “liberty” and “monogamy”. So, he kept them home and made the second oldest wife school them. Thankfully, in Tessa’s case, she’d had years of public school before she’d been forced to sit through home schooling videos.

Checking the time on the dash clock once more, Tessa knew her time was over. She had to get to work, grind her shift, then she could go home and scream and cry in her shower alone.

“Mama…I gotta go, but if this line is safe, I can call you again this week—”

“Yes, this line is clear. I rarely use it anymore. I only kept it in the off chance you’d…call. I’d been praying that you’d call,mi tesoro.”

“I’ll call later this week, I promise. We can catch up more then,” Tessa said, her wariness still battering her.

“Wait! Tell me where you are, Condesa. I need to know you’re somewhere safe.”

A funny feeling in her chest slunk into her gut and stayed there.

“I’m safe, Mama. Don’t worry about me.” Why couldn’t she tell her mother where she was? “I love you, Mama,” she said, her voice catching on the words.

“I love you, too, Condesa. Be safe.” Tessa furrowed her brow; her mother’s tone was stiff, almost robotic. But Tessa had no time to think about that before the line went dead.

Tessa dropped her cell in the passenger seat, her heart pounding in her ears as apprehension surged.

Hearing her mother’s voice again after so long did nothing to quell the sudden sense of wrong.

“Anyone have any other matters of business?” Odin asked the officers seated at the large, wooden table in the clubhouse conference room. It was a secure room, fitted with the best security measures the club’s security agency had to offer. Which meant that when Church was in session, it would take a tank to get through the door. What was said in Church, stayed in Church.

It was going on noon, and since the meeting started just after eight, Fang was more than ready to get off his ass, get some blood back in his legs, and prepare for the night ahead.

One by one the men shook their heads in answer to Odin, finally getting to Fang who also shook his head, having already discussed the dispensary issues with Odin earlier that morning when he’d come to the clubhouse bright and early. He hadn’t fucking slept a wink the night before, his mind and his cock both too excited to sleep. Tonight, was the motherfucking night. Finally. Fuckingfinally, Tessa would be his. The two-week-long wait for their night together had felt like a year, as every day his mind wound round and round the knowledge that she was within his grasp. Each night, he’d taken his cock in his hand, jacking his shit like he was punishing it, just to have a modicum of relief…only for the need for her to surge once more. Fuuuuck! Once he got inside her, he was going to pound the hell out of her pussy until his dick was sore and Tessa was too weak to even roll over. Maybe then he’d have a moment of peace without the desperate need for her.

Not likely,puto.

Shit. Even his inner asshole was calling bullshit on his belief that, once Tessa was under his control, he could leash all the wild, unfiltered,unwantedfeelings he had for the woman who’d become his obsession.

“Really, Fang, man?” Grimm, the massive club Enforcer drawled, snickering. “You really have nothin’ to share with the group?” The man’s eyebrows wiggled stupidly, like he was trying to shoo a fly with his face.

What was this fucker going on about?Dios, the brothers could be such gossipy bitches sometimes—but only with one another. Nothing that was ever said within clubhouse walls, especially within the conference room, was ever said outside of the clubhouse. Not even the new old ladies knew everything that went down, though Skathi knew more than some would, since she was a fucking badass and could handle herself in a sticky situation. Like during a hostage situation and a shootout.

Sharply clear images of a bleeding, terrified Tessa flashed through is mind, memories of the Cartel warehouse, the sound of gun fire, the scent of piss and shit and fear from the cages. Cages where that asshole Madrigal had intended to put Tessa once he was done beating the shit out of her. If Fang, Skathi, and his brothers hadn’t gotten to her in time….

Shaking off that thought and the blistering rage that came with it, Fang planted his elbows on the hardwood table and glared across it at his brother.

“You askin’ to see my dick again, Grimm? I told you last time was the only time, I can’t take all the weeping and whining about how mine is so much bigger than yours,” Fang said, shaking his head in feigned disappointment.

Hawk, Odin, and Trouble broke into loud laughter, Trouble slapping the table and pointing at Grimm.

Grimm’s face turned a red so bright, it almost matched his hair.

“Though, I might be convinced to bring out all nine inches, just so you can see what a real cock looks like,” Fang drawled, reaching for the button on his jeans.

Odin snorted, shaking his head with a cocky as hell smirk. Of course, the motherfucker would do that; everyone knew his dick was a monster. Fang was surprised Odin’s old lady didn’t walk around like she was perpetually riding a unicycle.

“Motherfucker,” Grimm grumbled. “I was talkin’ about your date with the lovely and luscious Tessa.”

The laughter stopped, tension in the room thickening.

Shit.

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