Page 5 of Archangel

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“I think I’d like to call my dad now.” Sonya lifted her chin and gave me a stubborn smirk. “I’m not sure what was supposed to go on here, but you are obviously not up to the task, Archangel. So I’d like to go home now.” The sweet smile was more saccharin than sugar. Little did she know she’d just waved a red flag in front of the bull.

“Challenge accepted,” I snarled. “Rycks, I’m gonna need a side-by-side.”

“I’ll tell Mechanic. Where you takin’ her?”

“To the pond. Is Lyric in the clubhouse?”

“Yep. I’ll have her meet you in the common room. She’ll get whatever you need.”

“Now wait just a Goddamned minute.” Sonya had an outraged look on her face, but something bothered me about her expression. She seemed too… calculating?

“You started it.” Lawdawg grinned, looking supremely satisfied. “Now you gotta see it through.”

Sonya rolled her eyes. “You really need to get that giant stick outta your ass, Lawdawg.”

Rycks barked out a laugh before schooling his expression. Or rather, he tried to. “Yeah. This should be fun.”

“I tell him that all the time.” Eden, Lawdawg’s spunky wife, wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him from behind. “If you figure out how that works, let me know, Sonya.”

“Hey, Eden! Is Bella here?” If Sonya thought Rycks and Lyric’s daughter would save her, she really needed to think again.

“Doesn’t matter if she is.” I was done with this shit. “This doesn’t involve Bella. This is between me and you.”

Up to this point, I’d done everything in my power to stay away from the woman. I’d been attracted to her since she’d come back from her second semester of college. She and Caroline had spent the entire summer with Bella because she’d been in a motorcycle wreck and had been broke all to shit and back. Though I knew Sonya and Caroline were closer, the two girls had pulled Bella into their circle and the three of them were fast friends. The only reason Bella hadn’t been in that mess today was because she was still recovering from the most recent surgery to her leg.

“Just because my dad doesn’t like my life choices doesn’t mean he can dictate to me. If my own father can’t, you most certainly can’t.”

That was it. I ducked and put my shoulder against Sonya’s abdomen and lifted her so she was draped over my shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down, you bastard!”

I swatted her ass. “Mouth shut, missy. You’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“I will totally carve out your balls for this, Archangel.”

I ignored her. “Rycks. Is Mechanic on the way?”

“Yep. He is.” The man looked too amused for my peace of mind.

“If you, Thorn, and Doc had spanked those girls when they were little, I wouldn’t be in this fuckin’ situation.”

“Hello?” Sonya beat a fist on my back and squirmed, trying to get down. “I’m right here! I can hear you talking about me!”

I swatted her ass again. “Told you to shut it, woman. I meant it.”

“Leave me outta this, Angel.” Rycks put his hands up in surrender. “I personally think Thorn needs to be shook up from time to time, but I suspect he gets more of a kick outta her antics than he wants to admit. And Bella is a contained, well-behaved young woman.”

“Uh-huh. Seem to remember going to get her out of more than a couple scrapes when she started college.”

Rycks waved me off. “You can’t count Freshmen Orientation. Those parties are supposed to be wild.”

“Seem to remember Bella’s roommate got her head shaved after passing out drunk, and Bella didn’t even attempt to deny it. As I remember, she told the girl she was going to do it if Bella had to help her back to the room.”

“Look. To be fair, I told Bella not to let people walk all over her. She tends to lean toward the side of caution.”

“Not that time.”

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