Page 89 of Levee

Completely fucking oblivious until my gun cracked across his cheek, making him stagger back and curse.

I was on him then, rushing him back into his uncle’s apartment as my fists crashed into him again and again.

My knuckles hit his nose, making a crunching sound, and covering my fist in blood as it poured.

Somehow, though, that only made visions of Jade with her bloody nose flash through my mind, reigniting my rage as I kept pummeling the fucker.

Even as he fell to the ground.

My hand went to his throat, wanting him to know the fear and helplessness that Jade had felt when he’d been on her exactly like this. His head getting fuzzy. His chest getting tight. Knowing this was the end.

In the end, though, someone saved him just like someone saved her.

Two sets of hands grabbed me, pulling me off of Harvey, dragging me backward until I stopped struggling.

“Couldn’t let you kill him,” Seeley said as I tried to slow my frantic breathing. “Prez doesn’t even know what the fuck is going on,” he added.

“You made your point,” Cato added. “He’s not gonna go near Jade again.”

Seeley shoved me out of the apartment and kicked the door closed.

“I want him out of here,” I insisted, wiping his blood off on my shirt.

“Between this ass-kicking and T, I think he’s outta here. One way or another,” Cato assured me. “And you can be with Jade for the time being to make sure of that.”

That was true.

I could be at her place or she could come to the clubhouse. I didn’t care if I had to put up a fucking tank for her fish in my room.

As we walked back out of the lower level, my mind was suddenly on more permanent things than who was staying where to make sure she was safe.

Like browsing around the local listings for that bungalow she’d once mentioned.

An investment for all the money I had lying around. A place I could slowly over time move her into. Until it wasn’t just mine anymore, but ours.

“You can’t go get Jade looking like this,” Seeley said as we moved outside under a streetlamp. “And we have to talk to Huck now.”

As much as I wanted to run back to Jade, to pull her into my arms again, to tell her nothing was going to happen to her ever again, I knew Seeley was right.

First, because Jade was not the kind of woman who was going to enjoy the proof of my violence all over me.

Second, because we didn’t operate alone. Not anymore. We knew what it meant when we joined the club. We no longer had the complete freedom to do whatever the hell we wanted. We were supposed to get permission before we did shit. If shit got too crazy too fast for that, then we definitely needed to have a sit-down with the president to fill him in on all the details, so he could decide if there would be any blowback on the club.

“Besides,” Cato said as we all made our way toward the street where our bikes were waiting for us, “you gotta let the girl enjoy Teddy’s penthouse for a while.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Jade

The ride wasn’t long from my neck of the woods to the much nicer area that Teddy called home, an area full of high-rises with windows that were likely painful to look at when the sun was hitting them all.

Still, on the short drive, it seemed like each second made my throat hurt more and more, making me take constant sips of the slushee Rynn had gotten me to ease the burn.

“Here we are,” Rynn said. “Wait ‘till you see this place,” she added as the door opened at my side, and I started to slide out so Rynn could get out as well.

She grabbed my bag as we went, then walked confidently toward the doorman, telling him that Teddy was expecting us.

While, yes, I’d grown up in a comfortable suburb, I’d never been anywhere that dripped wealth like the lobby of this place did.

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