Page 24 of Trigger

“You should be resting,” he rumbled, his voice still thick with sleep. No doubt, he’d woken up, realized I was missing, and had come searching for me. When I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, I realized I was right. He wasonlywearing his boxer briefs—nothing else.Jesus. The bulge at the front leftnothingto the imagination.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I told him, looking back out over the lot again. Squeezing my fingers around the tip of the blunt, I put it out, then set it aside. “And I didn’t want to disturb you or Sophia,” I lied.

“Bullshit,” he said, always ready to call me out on my shit. I snorted. “It’s cold out here. You need to head back inside, at least, even if you don’t go back to bed.”

I blew out a soft breath and closed my eyes. Bracing my elbows on my knees, I leaned forward, scrubbing my hands over my face. “The cold numbs my head,” I muttered into my palms. I didn’t like confessing it, felt like it made me weak, but I knew if I could be vulnerable with anyone, it was Trigger. He’d never judge me.

Trigger’s hand slid from my shoulder to the back of my neck, where he clasped me tightly, his fingertips digging into my throat. I swallowed thickly, a shuddering breath leaving my lungs. His hand tightened just a little more, and suddenly, it felt like my lungs could actually expand. Something they hadn’t truly been able to do since Scorpion had announced Trigger wouldbe heading this bullshit retaliation plan and Trigger had just… accepted it.

Leaning back, I turned my head, looking at Trigger fully for the first time since he’d come out to check on me. With his free hand, he gripped my chin, tilted my head back, and pressed his lips to mine in a soft, slow kiss. A low, throaty groan crawled up my throat, and my cock hardened. Fuck, how did he turn me on soeffortlessly? While I’d definitely come to terms with the fact that I was attracted to Trigger and wanted to be with him as much as I wanted to be with Sophia, it still blew my mind that he turned me on as easily as she did.

“Well… this is a new development,” Lawson drawled as he walked up with Blayke and Dom. Pulling back, Trigger dropped his hand from my chin, allowing me to turn my head to look at them.

“Fuck off,” Trigger growled, narrowing his eyes at them.

Blayke clapped a hand to Trigger’s shoulder. “No one gives a fuck that you two are together,” Blayke told us. “Honest to fuck, I already saw it coming. I think most of us did.”

I rolled my eyes, wincing when it only made a headache start forming at my temples. Trigger slid his fingers through my hair, scraping his nails lightly over my scalp. “I’m going to go get them settled in. You going to be right here?”

I nodded. “Not going anywhere,” I promised him, my voice gruff.

He dropped his hand from the back of my neck and headed inside. Dom snorted when I stared after Trigger’s ass, admiring the way the globes flexed with every step he made. I cut my eyes to him. He just flashed me a grin. “It’s a nice ass, isn’t it?”

I glowered at him, jealousy spiking hot and fast in my veins. “I might be injured, but I can still kick your ass,” I warned him.

He snorted. “Trigger’s not my type, brother.” His smile softened a little. “Glad to see you alive. We were all worried.”

I grunted in response, not knowing what to do with that information. He headed inside, the door shutting softly behind him, leaving me in peaceful, blissful silence once again. I sighed and rubbed at my burning, tired eyes. A light breeze blew, sending a shiver down my spine that made every part of my body ache even more. I clenched my jaw, wincing at the burning in my chest.

My chest marked with the fucking Russian’s crest.

I could deal with anything else they did to me. Could cope and move on. But that crest made me fucking hate myself. It would forever be there, making me a marked man.

The door opened a moment later, and Trigger stepped back out, still only in his boxer briefs. I didn’t acknowledge him, but I knew I didn’t need to. Trigger understood my need for silence—always had. How had I not seen how compatible he and I really were on a soul-deep level? I had always been as clued into him as I was to Sophia.

He slid behind me on the picnic table, his thighs bracketing my hips. Wrapping his arms around me, he gently tugged me back until my back was flush to his chest. He rested his chin on my shoulder, his warmth seeping into me.

“Does anyone else know about my chest?” I asked quietly.

“No,” Trigger gruffly responded. “And until you decide otherwise, it’ll remain that way.”

I blew out a soft breath, my headache worsening. I was due for pain medicine probably.

“I’m a marked man, Trigger,” I bitterly reminded him. “They could vote me out to protect themselves… which could be a fucking death sentence for me.” And that was something Sophia wouldn’t survive. Because if I did get voted outwhenthey got wind of my chest—because it was inevitable they would—I wouldn’t let her come with me.

She’d just wind up dead with me, and I wouldn’t risk that.

“If they do, Chase,” Trigger growled, “I’ll fucking follow you, you hear me? They boot you out on your ass, they’re losing me, too.”

I shook my head. “Trigger?—”

“No,” he snapped, his voice hardening. My cock throbbed. God, why did he have to sound so hot when he got all hard-assed and growly with me? “I mean it, Chase. Where you go, I go. Sophia, too.”

I shook my head. “Sophia needs to behere. Protected by the club. And you need to be here with her.”

He pressed a kiss to my throat. “The three of us are all or nothing, babe,” he rumbled. “All or nothing.”

I grasped his forearms in my battered hands, blowing out a harsh breath. “If it comes to that, then I need you to promise me that you’ll choose her over me. You will let me die if it means saving her, Trigger.”

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