Page 28 of The Heir

My heart started to slam. I wasn’t sure how I felt about actually doing things inside the house with my aunt in the next room. It felt weird. About the time I was ready to tell him so, he planted his lips to my forehead and quieted every ounce of my anxiety with one little peck.

“Come on.” He heeled his way out of his boots and stretched out on the bed, making grabby hands at me.

When I followed him up, he snuggled into my back, wrapped his arms around me and was snoring in moments.

It felt like I belonged. I didn’t have to explain things, he just… knew. I smiled and closed my eyes, joining him effortlessly in dreamland.

Chapter Eleven

Blaze

It wasn’t often I stayed over with a girl, especially since I’d been back from university. I was half asleep and for a moment, I must have thought I was cuddled up with that dog Oak had when I was a kid. Jury was huge, and with everything going on, I always felt safe with him snuggled beside me.

“Are you… petting my belly?” Marchella slowly asked, ripping me to consciousness with an ill-formed denial on my lips.

“Wha–? Your… wha–? No!” I finally stammered.

“I swear to God that little weasel-dicked bastard had better not be laid up with my fuckin’ daughter,” Makaveli exploded from somewhere nearby.

“Mhm,” I mumbled, tossing a leg over her.

“No… No.” She attempted to latch onto me as I shifted across, but I’d already hurdled over her and was toeing into my boots again.

“Wait, Blaze, you can’t…” She scrambled after me.

“Oh, fuck yeah he can!” her father answered, charging toward us as soon as soon as he recognized her voice.

I heard him long before I saw him. He was only a half pint, but he stomped around like he was part buckin’ bull.

“I’m right here you puffed-up cocksucker.” I assured him, about the time he finally came into view.

My uncle was on his ass, moving with the same determined speed Makaveli was. The second those words left my mouth, Easy's eyes bugged so hard he probably strained one.

“Whoa, whoa—” he began, springing forward at twice the rate.

It was like he knew what Makaveli was going to do even before the shorter man reached to his waistband.

By the time my uncle got the third whoa out, Makaveli had a gun drawn and aimed at me. Easy snared him up without a second thought in what I assumed was some type of marine hold. He was half strangling Makaveli in the crook of one elbow with the barrel of his pistol lodged against the smaller man’s head.

Easy was taller than I was, and Mak was just a little bastard, so he was left with his boots whispering against the hallway floor. It happened so fast, I wasn’t even consciously aware that I’d shot my arms out, but there I was making myself as big a target as possible for a girl I’d just met. I felt pretty fucking stupid about it, until I felt Marchella’s hands trembling against my back. Her palms were flat, pleading in a silent way that made me feel like the world’s biggest asshole all over again.

Fuck!

“Aunt Trista!” Marchella panicked.

My gaze tore from Easy and her father. Mak was still clutching that fucking pistol and half ass waving at me and his own daughter. When my gaze landed on Trista, she was sitting at the table. Her hands were gingerly cupping a steaming coffee cup. She winked at me over the rim while she sipped. Her empty, prepacked shot was sitting sideways on the table, but her eyes were still sober as best I could tell. She smiled and motioned for Marchella to come to her.

“Leave the boys to sort things, sweetie. They always do.” She laughed. “Don’t forget to thank your grandfather, Mark, for bailing him out without warning, hmm?”

I couldn’t keep my jaw from growing slack. It was like I was in another world.

I was.

I was in their ‘biker world’ as my mother would call it.

“Come on,” I grunted, and reached behind me. Grabbing her wrist, I led her past her father.

He never steadied his arm, with any real aim as we drew close. Whether that was because he meant her no harm, or because of that odd color coming to his face, I couldn’t say. When we drew near enough, however, I finally realized Easy was flexing his arm, letting him breathe just enough to not lose consciousness every now and then.

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