Page 40 of Savage Fire

Fang grunted, knowing it was much easier said than done. But at least she’d be close, trapped with him where she couldn’t ignore him. He’d make her listen, make her see. He was willing to fight—fang and claw—to make things right between them. To make her his once more. For good.

As if to toss water on the fire on his intent, his cell buzzed with a text from Stella.

STELLA: YOU COMING HOME SOON? I MISS YOU, PAPI

Shit. He’d have to have finally have a sit down with his Bees. They deserved to know what was going on, why he’d been ghosting them for a week. They were good women; they’d treated him like a king for years. The least he could do was talk with them, spend some time with them. Calm their fears.

Like that one about you being more into Tessa than you let them believe.

Fuck. Another five women he had to explain shit to. Why did he ever think collecting women and bullshit no-strings contracts was a good idea?

Again, fuck!

Yeah, he needed to sit down with each of the Bees.

He wasn’t looking forward to that.

She couldfeelher heart pounding in her chest, but she couldn’t hear it over the mental screaming.

They wanted her towhat?!

Lockdown. With Javier Fucking Lopez.

Oh, hell no!

“No,” she barked. Glaring at the men gathered around her, giving varying looks of pity or concern. They’d called her into their man sanctuary, aka Church room, after they’d been in there for over an hour. By then, Liz had completed her exam, given Tessa some pain meds, and recommended she take it easy for a few weeks so her ribs could heal. Liz beat feet—no doubt trying to get out of the clubhouse before she saw Trouble—and soon after that Hawk came to the room to escort her into her current situation. “I would rather suffer a gut shot with a rusty bullet, and die a slow, agonizing death, than ever allow this piece of shit near me any longer than the time it takes to walk right on by.”

Gritting his teeth, Fang didn’t hesitate to respond. “It’s settled, then,” he drawled, anger singeing his words. He pointedly ignored her outburst, only driving the spike of rage all the deeper into her soul. “We’ll be in my room here in the clubhouse. It would take a fucking army to get past those walls and through our security. And you’d have all the comforts of home.”

“Except the ability to keep you the fuck out and never have to look at your lying, cheating face ever again.” God, it felt good to vent some of the anger and hurt she’d been wallowing in over the last seven days—right at the one who’d caused it. And if her ribs didn’t hurt like a bitch, she’d punch him right in the throat. Like primal screaming, but with knuckles. “I cannot trust this man.” She almost laughed at his pained wince. “I’ll find somewhere else to stay. I’m not the club’s responsibility.” She really wasn’t. She wasn’t an old lady, she wasn’t dating one of the brothers. She’d only fucked one—and if that automatically enrolled her in the Raiders’ protection program, they’d have a roster as long as the ship’s manifest for a cruise liner. Those boys got around. While their protectiveness over those they considered theirs was endearing, it was also frustrating as fuck. But it was also appreciated. Ish. After her kidnapping, the club paid all of her medical and physical therapy expenses, made sure her rent was paid, and dealt with her boss and the insurance company. They did everything she couldn’t do because her knee was blown to shit. And now they wanted to throw the blanket of protection over her because some random assholes had attacked her in her driveway. Certainly, they were taking this a little too far.

“Shit,” Odin grumbled, thrusting his big hands through his overlong, white-blond hair. “I don’t have the time nor the patience to deal with this shit. Tessa, you will stay here at the clubhouse in Fang’s room—ah, ah!” He cut off her refusal with a hand. “He will stay in the bunks so you can stew and bitch all you want without him there to bother you. In the meantime, Dragon, Slick, and Wolf will take a couple of the prospects and set up around the clock surveillance on your condo. If those assholes are brave enough to try and attack you in broad daylight, I’m confident those fuckers will shoot their next shot trying to get into your place and get at you while you’re sleeping.”

Fang ground his teeth, the tendon in his jaw jumping.

Oh, so the bastard was angry that his plan to trap her in seclusion in his clubhouse fuck pad had gone to shit. Well, too fucking bad. She might not have a choice in whether the Raiders forced her into protective custody, but she’d gnaw off her own foot before they forced her to spend any amount of time with the man who single-handedly shattered her heart to pieces.

“I still don’t understand how my getting my ass beat in my driveway requires the full Savage Raiders MC treatment. Can’t you just send a prospect to sit on my porch?”

“No!” Fang denied vehemently, his hard gaze softening when it caught hers. “Listen, I know this isn’t ideal, but there’s some shit going down and we need all the women close. You aren’t the only one on lockdown; Skathi and Fae are here, too. And we got eyes on Liz to make sure she’s good, too. I promise you,mi corazon, we wouldn’t do this if we didn’t think it was absolutely necessary.”

Tessa scoffed, rolling her eyes. “First of all, don’t call me that. I’m not your heart—you don’t have one. Second, I would ask what this ‘shit’ is that is making you guys so hyper vigilant, but I know all about how the ‘club business’ bullshit works, so I won’t. Third, if I am going to be stuck here, I need to call my boss and let him know…I don’t know…. How do I get him to let me keep my job? What do I tell him? Sorry, can’t come into work I’m being quarantined because I’m, what, a target?” Suddenly weary to her bones, Tessa flopped down into the chair and immediately regretted it when her ribs protested. Everything had gotten so complicated. The shit with Fang and his harem, his betrayal, reconnecting with her mother, and now the unknown threat hanging over her head.

A large body smelling of leather and cigars sat in the chair beside her and grasped her hands. “I know this is a lot to deal with right now, but we care about you, we want you safe, and if that means keeping you locked up in here, angry and hissing and spitting, we’ll do it. Because no matter how much of a pain I the ass you are, you’re still an important part of the Savage Raiders MC family.” Eyes burning with unshed tears, Tessa blinked at Grimm. When the hell had the big, ginger brute become such an eloquent softy?

“What he said, Tess,” Hawk added.

“Skathi would kick my ass if anything happened to you, Tessa.” Odin grinned at her, the whites of his perfect teeth showing brightly. Damn, the man was beautiful. And scary. But his old lady was scarier.

She offered Grimm, then Hawk, then Odin a small smile. Heaving a sigh, she closed her eyes to push back the flow of useless tears, and slowly pushed to her feet. Cursing the shooting pains in her ribs and the ache at the back of her head, she finally turned to face Fang.

If she was going to be stuck dealing with the asshole for however long it took to deal with “club business”, she wasn’t going to show him an ounce of weakness. He hurt her. So badly. But she was done with being the weepy idiot. Starting now, Fang would only know the ice-cold bitch he’d made her.

Ignoring the man devouring her with his milk chocolate eyes, Tessa turned and slowly made her way from the conference room and down to the common room. If she was stuck in the clubhouse, she was going to get fucking wasted. Top shelf until she hit bottom.

With her evening plans in place, Tessa set out to numb the pain. All of it.

Fang, his eyes like sandpaper glued to dragon scales, couldn’t pull his gaze from the woman sleeping in his bed. For the second time in eight days, the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about, wanting, needing…was in his bed. This time, however, she wasn’t naked, she wasn’t replete after a night of unutterable pleasure. She wasn’t wrapped in his arms where she belonged. She was snoring, snuffling, sleeping off the bottle of Mezcal she’d emptied the night before after stomping her way out the Church and down to the bar. Thankfully, the beautiful idiot, hadn’t paired her booze with her pain meds, but once she finally woke from her liquor-fueled slumber, she was going to have one hell of a hangover.

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