Page 98 of Rio's Release

“I’m gonna kill those motherfuckers.”

“Hated to disturb you. We got it under control. But I knew you’d want to know. Go back to what you were doin’, and we’ll see you later. The boys are pretty exhausted.”

“I don’t give a damn how exhausted they are. You put somebody on guard duty. Rotate ‘em on shifts. Understand?”

“Yeah, boss. Got it covered.”

I hang up and toss my phone on the nightstand, then drop on the bedside, my elbows to my knees. I flex my fist, so angry I want to put a hole in the goddamn wall.

Shelby presses her body to my back, her arms going around my shoulders. “What happened?”

I instantly feel my blood pressure lower, and my fist relaxes. With just a touch, she does that to me. I take a breath, shaking off the anger. “Clubhouse got hit. Somebody started a fire. The boys got it put out, though.”

“Who would do that?”

“Zig thinks he saw two DKs roaring off.”

“DKs?”

“Devil Kings MC. They’ve been spotted around town a couple of times.” I twist to face her. “These guys are bad news, Shelby. You ever see another club besides us, you steer clear of them and call me immediately, understand?”

She nods. “Now you have me worried.”

I cup her cheek and kiss her, then press my forehead to hers. “Nothing for you to worry about. I’ll take care of it.”

“Come back to bed,” she whispers, pulling me down.

I surrender easily to her, like I always will. I can only hope she never realizes how completely she has me wrapped around her finger.

She cuddles against me, her foot stroking over my calf. “These Dks? You’ll tell me if there’s more to it, won’t you?”

My fingertips trail up and down her back. “I will if it’s something you need to know, but there are going to be times I can’t tell you everything. Club business is club business, Shelby. But that being said, I don’t want to keep secrets from you, not when it comes to you and me, and our relationship. That I won’t do. I don’t want there to be secrets between us. A couple starts down that road, and it never ends well. Saw that with my own parents. Lies tore their marriage apart.”

“I don’t want to keep any secrets from you, either. I felt such guilt not telling you about Bella sooner.”

I kiss the crown of her head. “Well, that’s behind us. Don’t worry about it.”

“Rio?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“In the spirit of not keeping anything from you, I need to tell you something.”

My hand stills on her skin. “What is it?”

“Last night at the wedding reception…”

“Yeah?” My breathing slows. I’m afraid she’s going to tell me some guy hit on her and then I’ll have to kill him. I search my brain, but the only time I can remember when she was out of my sight was when she went to the restroom. Now that I think about it, she seemed to be gone a while, but I was distracted by Eduardo and lost track of time. “Babe, if someone put their hands on you…”

“No, no. Nothing like that. It’s about Eduardo’s youngest daughter, the seventeen-year-old.”’

“What about her?”

“I saw her with Blue. They were walking in the pecan groves and then he kissed her.”

I don’t say anything at first, because in my world, that’s not a big deal. A kiss under the stars? Besides, I know the kind of man Blue is. On the other hand, Eduardo made it clear how he felt about his youngest girl not dating until she was older. As a father, he’d probably be livid, and I wouldn’t blame him. “Is there any more to it?”

“They turned and saw me. I reminded Blue she was the daughter of our host and she was just seventeen.”

---