Page 82 of Biker's Prisoner: Property of Bucky

Emotions flood through me and when he breaks away from me, I grab onto his cut and slowly lower myself back onto my heels. I don’t want to let go of that cut.BUCKY.I don’t know why they call him that, but I know the leather cut smells like him and reminds me that he’s different from every man I ever knew in all the right ways.

“You are the only man I will ever love again,” I whisper. “I know it. I feel it in my bones.”

“I killed for you,” he whispers. “Let this one die for me.”

We lookat each other and I know that I am completely fucked up for allowing this. Gideon pushes the cabin door open.

“He never stood a chance,” Gideon says bluntly. “Ruger. We gotta bury this guy so you don’t end up in prison.”

Tamiya and I glance at each other and then glance away. We both share that same mysterious attraction to their strange mixture of brutality and stoicism. I see then that they both have it and that Tamiya doesn’t judge me for a reason.

“Do you want to… do anything?”

I don’t knowhow anyone expects me to react. My ex wasn’t a part of my life for years. He popped up like a ghost – a ghost that I didn’t want to interact with. I never wanted him dead and now that he is… I don’t know if I can see him.

“What about his family?” Tamiya asks.

“Well we can’t fucking invite them to the funeral,” Ruger says. He kisses the top of my forehead when he sees how disturbed I look. “But we can do something respectful.”

“We should do it quickly,” Gideon says.

“He was innocent,”I whisper, sudden guilt and numbness overwhelming me. That idiot should have never come here. I begged him to leave.I begged.

Ruger wraps his arm around me like he wants to comfort me, but also like he wants to remind me that I belong to him. A shiver runs straight through me.

“I love you,” he whispers. “I’ll take care of this like everything else, baby. You and Tamiya… maybe you both ought to check on Eden.”

“I had no intentions of touching a shovel,” Tamiya says, walking over to me and offering me a sympathetic look. “I’ll talk to Zayna and we’ll handle the baby. You two go handle the club business. Because this wasn’t Zayna. This was the club.”

We openthe door to Eden’s room and this little girl is just… fast asleep. I don’t know how she managed to sleep through all the conflict outside, but she did. Opening the top drawer of her bureau is what manages to wake her.

“Oops,” Tamiya says. “I was just looking for the fresh nappies.”

“It’s fine she’s awake. Baby girl needs a change, anyways…”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ruger

Zayna waits for me in the bedroom after Gideon and Tamiya leave. I ordered her there, my face contorted with frustration, purely from the physical exertion of burying her ex-boyfriend. According to Gideon, the dude tried to grab his gun and accidentally set it off. Not even a clean shot, but enough that he suffered from a large amount of blood loss. Gideon doesn’t bother to address whether we could have saved him or not.

Doesn’t matter now that he’s dead and buried. Gideon thinks that Tamiya’s private investigation service can handle making the rest of this disappear. I don’t know if I care. After all of this… I don’t know if I want to stay in this house. I built this house planning for a long life alone waiting for Darlene to get out of prison. I spent most of my money onher.I didn’t think of a future that included a baby girl. Or Zayna.

I knock on our bedroom door, which isn’t my usual habit, so she doesn’t respond.She’s angry.I push the door open. Zayna sits on the bed with a full backpack next to her. She has her arms crossed over her chest, putting distance between us. The heat from burying that body fades into a deep, worrisome chill.

“What’s all this?”

“You’re a man of your word. I’m ready to leave.”

“Unpack.”

“Ruger…”

I exhale slowly. This is it, right? I have to get real with her if I want her to stay with me. If I want her to work.

“Fine,” I tell her. “I’ll pack my shit too and we’re both going to get out of here.”

She looks confused.

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