Page 8 of Out for Blood

“No, this is my home. I’ll never leave. But it may be a good idea for the enforcers to go and look around.”

I nodded.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt.”

I’d noticed there was a quiet over this town, it didn’t feel as open as it once did. I’d put it down to my age and my weariness when it came to my club, but maybe Eagle was right. Maybe, we needed to stake a claim on this town again.

SHERIDAN

The bottle was gone when I returned from telling Orla that I was actually thinking of giving in and letting Cooper have me tonight, and now he was gone, nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t expect him to turn down one of these hot young bunnies if they came calling, could I?

“Hey there, hellcat,” I heard Casey say from beside me, taking Cooper’s seat. His blond hair was darker now than it had been, and his rough stubble told me he was still getting used to the look, given how many times he’d run his hand over it.

“Casey.”

“Ah,” he held up his hand. “No one calls me that here. It’s Hawk.”

“Sorry, I forgot you gave yourselves silly nicknames.”

“Silly?” he held a hand to his chest, feigning hurt. “Come on now, we’re big, burly hard men. You can’t insult us like that.”

“I’m sure I can,” she said. “I know what you looked like before all those muscles and tattoos, Casey.”

He chuckled, looking out at the clubhouse and the members all partying.

“He’s just with Eagle,” he told me. “He’ll be back.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hawk laughed. “Jesus, Sheridan, you really think you can hide how much you want him? Don’t worry, he wants you just as bad. The only reason he hasn’t settled down was because no one ever compared to you.”

“Oh shut it, will you,” I spat. My heart did a little dance at the sound of that. “He didn’t settle down because he was a damn nomad. He always wanted to be away from here.”

“He wanted to be away from his dad,” Hawk replied, his tone lowering. The mention of Cooper’s dad had my own memory sparking that I had long since buried.

“Oh yeah…him.”

Hawk turned to me, giving me his full attention as I called for another drink, the bad feelings from back then taking root and growing.

“Is he why you didn’t come back?”

“What?” I asked, trying to avoid the question.

“Sheridan, you girls were always here, every weekend, then all of a sudden, you stopped. It killed Ace. He never knew why.”

“You didn’t tell him?” I asked, surprised that his own best friend had failed to tell him something so crucial.

Hawk shook his head. “It wasn’t my secret to tell. I figured you would. Then again, I always wondered why he didn’t kill his dad back then.”

I chuckled darkly. “Cooper loved his dad. There’s no way he would have taken him on for my virtue.”

“Sher, that man would have left the club for you, if you’d told him to. He was a fucking lost puppy for you back then.”

I didn’t want to think of all the time I’d lost, all the happiness I never got because I hadn’t had the courage to tell him how I felt. One word. I just needed to tell him to stay and he would have, I knew that. Somehow, I had known that, and that was why my heart broke into a million pieces the day I watched him ride away.

“How did you get away with the black eye without telling him?” I enquired. “I remember seeing his fist land right in your face.”

Hawk nodded, rubbing the side of his face, as if the muscle memory had kicked in. “Yeah, he asked. I lied. Donald didn’t exactly want his only son to find out he tried to rape the only woman Ace had ever liked.”

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