Page 5 of Claim Me

But Caveman is Aunt Fred’s brother, and he made sure I got where he thought I needed to go. Now, he sits his ass on the curb next to me.

Noble takes the spot on my other side. Elvis’s youngest brother and my club VP has been drinking. I smell Negroni on his breath andsuspect he was planning to crash locally after the booze stole his balance.

Noble lets himself get drunk once a week. On those nights, he remembers his pretty dead girlfriend. I used to believe we were the same. He still loved the girl he lost twenty years ago. I was always going to love Siobhan. We were both bound to die lonely.

Xana died, though. Siobhan is still alive and probably hates me right now. I’m not sure if I have it better or worse. I only know I feel bad enough without thinking of Noble’s ruined night.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble, staring at the spot where my mom died.

After running his hands through his salt-and-pepper hair, Noble wipes his sleepy brown eyes and asks, “What did you do to feel sorry over?”

“I messed up, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s fine,” Caveman says and pats my back. “We aren’t your therapists. Not sure telling us would help much. But whatever is bothering you can’t be as bad as you think.”

“No.”

“You already had the worst thing happen to you,” he says and stretches out his long legs. I feel him looking at where my mom died. “Life already shoved the coldest blade in deep and twisted it hard. You survived. You’re stronger now. Don’t get tangled up in bad thinking out of habit.”

“I can’t go back to the farm,” I mutter as I see Aunt Fred turning her back on me. “I messed up, and I can’t go back.”

I feel the men glancing at each other and sharing a silent conversation. All my life people have been talking about me in hushed tones. That’s what happens with pity cases.

“This thing you messed up,” Noble asks, and I feel him trying to sober up, “is it illegal? Did you cross a line we should know about?”

“Not illegal, but I crossed a line.”

“Just spit it out, lad,” Caveman insists. “No one here plans to kick your ass. Just fess up and we can move on.”

“No.”

The men lean back and whisper behind me. I hear Caveman saying I ought to stay in the hills until I get my head screwed on right again. Noble claims I need quiet, and Caveman’s world suffers from volume issues.

“Asshole,” Caveman grumbles. “There’s nothing wrong with a little noise.”

Choosing to ignore Caveman’s temper, Noble suggests to me, “How about you stay with Tack or Bear?”

My club brothers won the women they loved. Bear married mafia princess Natasha Kovak. They live in his big house and are having a baby soon. Tack was hung up on a redheaded socialite for years. He and Hunter finally made things work. They moved into a mansion fit for a Tim Burton movie and are also expecting a little girl.

I consider how Siobhan’s best friends will view me once they know what happened.Why would they want me in their homes?

“No.”

“You can’t say ‘no’ to everything,” Caveman mutters and tugs at my hair. “You’re trying my patience.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, at least, you’re not saying ‘no.’ So, how about you stay at my house until this thing gets settled?”

“It’s never going to be okay for me to go back to the farm.”

“So, you’ll stay gone for good?” Noble asks, sounding both amused and annoyed. “What about your dogs?”

A few years back, I adopted a yellow-and-brown German shepherd-labrador puppy. I named him Grumpy after the dwarf from Snow White. Tack took in another puppy from the litter and named him Sleepy. The two dogs grew up together. They can’t live apart, so Tack left Sleepy with me at the farm. We have a visitation schedule for when the dogs stay with Tack.

“Maybe the dogs should live with Tack instead of me.”

The men’s demeanors change. I don’t dare look at them. Soon, they’ll know what I did with Siobhan. Hell, everyone will probably know by tomorrow. Siobhan is a great woman, but she’s incapable of suffering in silence. Her big mouth will seal my fate.

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