Page 52 of Out for Blood

“Maree and Butch are on their way back, too,” he told Shona. “Might take them a couple of days though.”

Shona nodded. “I’ll make sure they receive a very warm welcome.”

He gave them a wave before he left the clubhouse. I turned to Shona, waiting for her to spill on who Maree and Butch were.

“Butch is the chaplain for the club. He used to be one of the enforcers, but he had a bad accident a while back and couldn’t ride for a while. He ended up taking over as the chaplain to keep active in the club. Maree is his wife and the baddest bitch you’ll ever meet.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to meet her.”

“She’s going to love you, especially when I tell her about what you just did to Amanda right now,” Shona laughed. “Think we’re rubbing off on you.”

“Oh, Shona, if only you saw our little Sheri in high school. She was the baddest bitch in the school,” Orla piped up. “Had chicks shaking in their boots.”

“No!”

Shona was surprised, but I didn’t like having that moniker back then. I had been cruel to some of the girls, making them feel like shit just because they wanted to hang out with Cooper. I’d not even been his girlfriend then, and no one was allowed to talk to him.

It’s not exactly something I had been proud of.

“That’s not the same, Orla.”

“Oh please,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Anyone came near Cooper and she had her claws in them even though she didn’t break up with her own boyfriend to date him, no matter how badly he wanted her.”

Shona gasped. “I thought you two hooked up back then.”

I shook my head. “No. Almost, but sadly, never quite worked out.”

“Because you didn’t break up with fuckface until after he left.”

“No…there was a moment…but it didn’t happen.”

Orla rolled her eyes. She knew I’d let him ride away, that I hadn’t told him how much I had loved him. It had taken her years before she had forgiven me for that. She’d lost her friends too, deciding instead of following them to stay here with me.

And I was thankful for it. She’d saved me on more than one occasion since then, especially when Neal had turned nasty.

“Well, it’s happening now and that’s all that matters,” she continued, reading how miserable I felt.

“What happens now? I just sit around and wait for them to return?”

Shona nodded. “You can, you can sleep, you can fix yourself something to eat, or there’s a big TV behind the wall over there. The guys watch it while they play pool.”

I knew the bunnies were all congregating over there, and they’d just seen me piss one of their own off. I didn’t exactly want to go hang out with them right now.

The door to church opened up and I saw Bear come out. We all frowned as we looked over at him.

“Jesus, did you just stumble out of hibernation?” Orla shot over at him. I rolled my eyes at her constant jibing of him. It had been non-stop since we were all kids. They’d had something serious back then, too serious for their age, but it had all blown to pieces when Orla fucked things up. She never forgave herself for that, and yet when they’d returned, she continued to play with him as if we didn’t all see what she was doing. She wanted him, but he was a different person now. Not the Alex she fell in love with. It hurt to see the way she was playing up to everyone else to make him jealous. I wanted her to just come out and say it. Tell him how she was feeling, maybe then we’d all have a happy ever after.

One day.

I knew one day, they’d end up realising how perfect they were for each other.

Bear winked at me as he passed by me and joined the boys outside. The rumble of the engines was loud, it would be deafening if I was down near where they kept them lined up in a row. I watched as Ace peeled out of the compound first, followed by Hawk and Bear, and then the others behind them. I wondered what they were doing, but part of me didn’t want to know. I just wanted them all to come home in one piece. There was something about watching him on the bike, riding with his crew, that got me hot and bothered. I remembered the first time I had been on the back of his bike, feeling the deep hum betweenmy thighs had been a sensation I’d never felt before, and even now I still loved it.

My phone rang and I saw that it was Shauna. I hit the green phone button and answered her. Her face appeared on the screen and made me feel ten times better than I had been in a while.

“How are you?”

“Good,” she said. “This place is epic, it’s like a castle.”

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