Page 24 of Echo

Blaze snickered until I turned my lethal gaze on him. “Think Courtney would let you be the one? I’ll go tell her you volunteered.”

That shut him up real fucking quick.

“Brodie, don’t be mean,” Violet chastised, her voice back to its normal sweet and sultry tone.

I held out my hand. “Let’s go,” I rasped, desperate to be alone with her.

“Is this Violet?” an excited female voice squealed. “I’ve been so excited to meet you!”

Knowing King would put a bullet in my head if I looked at Stella with anything less than a pleasant expression, I schooled my face and turned to greet her.

“Hey, Stella. This is my Violet.”

Some of the frenzy inside me began to settle when my girl looked up at me with a bright smile and pink cheeks, her dimples on full display. Damn, she was beautiful.

“Come on, we’re dying to get to know you,” Stella uttered as she grabbed Violet’s hand and dragged her from the room.

“I’m gonna give her a tour first,” I said loudly as I caught up to them. “We’ll meet you back in the lounge in an hour.”

Stella pouted, but King gave me a knowing look as he slipped his arm around his wife and guided her away. “I’m sure she’ll want to meet Cadell, baby. Let's see if he’s up from his nap.”

Before anything else could get in my way, I tossed Violet over my shoulder and practically ran to my room.

10

VIOLET

When Brodie brought me to the Hounds of Hellfire compound, I had expected everything I’d ever learned in romance books about motorcycle clubs to be proved wrong. But the clubhouse looked pretty close to what I’d pictured, and his president and VP seemed to be just as in love with their wives as my favorite book boyfriends were with their old ladies.

After I nixed their whole bait idea, Brodie gave me a full tour, although we spent most of it in his room where he repeatedly made me tell him who I belonged to before letting me come. Then we hung out in the lounge with some of his club brothers, Stella, and Courtney.

“How did you two meet?” Stella asked as she settled her baby boy against her chest to gently pat his back, soothing his little whimpers of complaint.

The pretty blonde wore a black leather vest over her outfit that proclaimed her as belonging to King, the Hounds of Hellfire prez. A property patch, just like the heroines in the fictional clubs I’d read about.

“I live next door to a guy Brodie is looking into,” I explained.

“Brodie, huh?” Courtney teased, quirking a brow.

He didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it as he slid his hand across my shoulder to wrap his palm around the back of my neck. I was seated on the end of a long couch, with him perched on the arm next to me. I leaned deeper into his side and curved my lips into a pleased smile. I knew what point the VP’s wife was making—Brodie would never have had me use anything but his road name if I wasn’t special to him.

“Yup,” he muttered. “Knew I had to find a way to bump into Violet just from her voice. If her neighbor wasn’t such an asshole, I’d owe him a debt of gratitude.”

My cheeks heated as I remembered the scene he’d heard me narrate and thanked my lucky stars that his friends had no idea what he was talking about.

“Stalker much?” Courtney asked with a giggle, making Blaze shake his head with a sigh.

Brodie shrugged. “A guy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do to get his woman’s attention.”

“Damn straight,” King agreed, cupping the back of his son’s head with a soft smile that had Stella blushing.

“I’m sure some light stalking wouldn’t scare Violet off after she narrated that book for Thea Drummond with the hero who took his masked stalker rep very seriously.”

The room went silent as we all turned to gawk at Wizard. I didn’t know much about Brodie’s club brother, but I never expected him to know the hook line for one of Thea’s books even though it was listed on the cover. Or to know the author’s real surname and not just the shortened version she used for her pen name.

My eyes were wide as I asked, “You’re familiar withThe Monster Behind the Mask?”

“Stumbled across it when I was looking into you.”

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