Page 105 of Protector

He took the stairs two at a time until we stood at the same level. “Owner atHub City.” His hands went around my waist, leading me up against the wall.

“Look, I know you’re mad—”

Ignoring the fact that I was still covered in blood, he lowered his head and silenced my objections with his mouth before growling, “I ain’t mad. Your actions caught Hawk, and then you just casually stabbed Molly’s idiot son—fuck, princess. You’ll be runnin’ the entire club before long.”

His lips trailed down my neck, and I shuddered, gripping his vest in my fists. “That’d—”

He shredded the neckline of my t-shirt and looked up at me with a smirk before sucking one nipple into his mouth while rolling the other between his thumb and forefinger.

Pleasure flooded my body, making my thoughts hazy and hard to grasp, but I managed to fight through the fog to moan, “That’d make me a queen… not a princess.”

Jamie’s lips moved off my breast with a soft pop, his eyebrows drawn together. “Is that right? And who the fuck is in control right now?”

I lifted my chin with a confident grin. “Your motherfucking queen is.”

“That’s my girl.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Grey: 2013

“You remember the last time we were up here?” Slim asked as he blew the dust off an old cassette player.

I looked around the old apartment, struck by how little had changed over the years. Sure, Phantom had met the Reaper and Bear had taken over, but for the most part, the old body shop still looked exactly the same.

If Slim hadn’t come to town with Lou for her mother’s eightieth birthday party and to visit David, I doubted I would’ve had reason to ever come up here again.

“Shit, we had to have still been in high school.” I walked over to where a heavy wool blanket still hung on the paneled wall and lifted the corner with a low whistle. It was like opening a time capsule. “I’ll be damned.”

Slim hurried over. “Our porn stash is still here? Hell, I figured Bear would’ve thrown all this shit out.”

“Not just porn.” I held up a stack of my old comics. “These have gotta be worth some money.”

“Oh, I got somethin’ even better.” He went back over to the cassette player, and the soft strains from a synthesized guitar filled the room. Cranking it up, he dropped onto the worn-out bean bag chair with a contented sigh, and it was like we were kids again.

“Zeppelin? No shit. Don’t tell me, uh—” I wracked my brain and nodded along to the beat, trying to place the song. “Fuck, what was this one called? Album wasPhysical Graffiti—‘Custard Pie.’ Right?”

Slim lit up a joint and leaned back, exhaling a stream of smoke. “You fuckin’ cheated by waitin’ til the chorus to answer. God, why’d we ever leave this place?”

“Life happened. You had to run off and get married and have a baby. Not only that, but you set the bar so fuckin’ high that the rest of us have never been able to compete.” I pulled a cigar from my pocket and lit up just to keep my hands busy.

“The fuck you talkin’ about?” he asked as the next track began playing. “What do I have that you don’t?”

I puffed on the cigar and spun the skull ring on my finger before sinking down onto the chair next to his. “It’s just—you always seemed to know how to do it right, Slim. You married Lou and kept her safe. You had David and from what I’ve seen, kid’s fuckin’ perfect—”

“Perfect? Is that what you think my life is?”

He stood up and took another drag. “I pushed my son to work hard for the things he wants, only to find out this weekend that he’s a goddamn workaholic. Elizabeth looks like she’s ready to throw in the towel, and I’ve been scratchin’ my head, wonderin’ where it was I went wrong. I’ve loved his mother from the moment I laid eyes on her, but maybe I didn’t make her enough of a priority in his eyes.”

“Shit, if you didn’t make your Ol’ Lady a priority, then I guess we’re all fucked. So, David is tryin’ to find the balance between bein’ a husband and a business owner. Least he’s not out fuckin’ around.”

Slim shook his head with a chuckle. “Mike still ain’t got his shit together? I’m callin’ it right now. There’s gonna be a woman that does a fuckin’ number on that kid and settles his ass down. When that day finally comes, you’ll call me up to tell me I was right. No, wait… you’ll ride your ass down south and take me out for a steak dinner.”

“Fat chance of that, fucker. Kid’s liable to end up in the ground with the way he goes after married women. Between him and the fact that my daughters think I’m dead—shit. You ever wish everything would just fall into place at the same time?”

“That’s human nature, my friend. We set out with this perfect goal in mind, only to find out that the course to reach it is constantly changing.” He took another drag and exhaled. “Best you can hope for in the end is that your kids grow up to be decent people.”

I blew a smoke ring up toward the water stains on the ceiling tiles. “David will figure it out, trust me. You walked away from club shit when your family needed you. That part of you is in him.”

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