Page 90 of Protector

“What are you doing?” I asked calmly.

He grabbed the bottle of bubble bath and flipped it upside down, squeezing until it was empty before tossing it onto the tile with a growl. “What’s it look like I’m doin’? I’m takin’ a bath.”

I mashed my lips together in an attempt not to laugh as I watched my biker run himself a bubble bath. “You don’t take baths. Like ever.”

“Maybe I do now.”

I nodded as if it made all the sense in the world before making my way over to him. “How is that going to help us exactly?”

He stripped off his leather vest and t-shirt before whipping them onto the vanity. “Won’t, but you’re slippin’ away on me. That, and it’ll stop me from goin’ over there and killin’ ‘em both with my bare hands.”

“Believe me, I wish you could. But the people she knows want nothing more than to take down the club—”

“Fuck the club,” he roared, and I shrank back against the doorway. “Fuck all of it! Jesus fuckin’ Christ, just when I think we’re close to bein’ together again, everything goes to shit. I’m so fuckin’ sick of not havin’ my family under the same roof, and that cunt—” The muscles strained against his skin as his chest heaved.

With a growl, he reached for the drawstring on my pants, letting them fall to the floor. I stepped out of them like an obedient child before he went for my shirt, carefully peeling it up over my head until I stood like an offering before the god of death.

“What are you doing?” I asked quietly.

“Bringin’ you back to me,” he panted. “You need to relax, and I need to not shed blood right now.”

Bubbles began to flow over the side of the tub, like the head on a beer poured way too fast. He’d added enough soap for twenty baths, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

I checked the temperature and shut the taps off before stepping in. “You coming?”

Jamie ran a hand over his face and nodded before stripping out of his jeans and joining me. I settled between his legs with a deep sigh and he gripped my shoulders, tugging my back up against his chest and sending another cascade of bubbles down onto the tile.

The fog lifted, freeing me from the endless loop of pain running through my head. “Do you feel any better?”

“Not one goddamn bit,” he replied icily, palming my breasts in his massive hands. His fingers dug into the flesh, kneading in a way that was somehow intimate without being sexual.

“I can’t lose them, Jamie.”

He inhaled deeply. “Believe me, princess, if I thought I could send ‘em both to the Reaper without anyone immediately lookin’ to you, I’d do it.”

“How can they just take them from me?” I choked. “I know I haven’t been the best mother, but—”

“The fuck you sayin’, Celia? You’re a goddamn saint. Ain’t no one could’ve done a better job with them.”

I sat up suddenly and held my breath, waiting for the answer to come to me, refusing to believe it had been that simple to rip away my entire world. I slumped forward, resting my forehead against the lip of the tub.

How could she have been that cruel?

“Lift your head, darlin’. It ain’t over yet,” Jamie gently reminded me.

“I wish it was,” I mumbled.

“I’ll fix this.”

* * *

He couldn’t.

At four o’clock sharp, after countless phone calls to every club ally in town, I dropped my girls off at my parent’s house.

With rage flowing through my veins and hate reflected in my eyes, I met them on the porch and handed over the two beings most precious to me in the entire world.

Kate was sullen, refusing to give me a hug goodbye as she went to stand at my father’s side. She hadn’t spoken a word since I told her the news. My apologies fell on deaf ears, and I died a little more inside with the realization that they would never be able to know the truth.

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