Page 45 of Ruckus

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Wrath rips open the passenger seat door and drags her out. “I’ve been worried sick, do you have any idea?—”

Alicia quickly finishes chewing, then swallows so she can interrupt him.

“It’s my fault, she came with me to Griller’s mom’s place. I had to tell her about the baby and Saul was supposed to come with me. I was nervous and wanted to get it over with. If you wanna blame someone, blame me.” She takes another bite out of the pickle in her hand.

“Don’t fucking do that again.” Wrath shakes his head at Freya. “Don’t ya think I gotta enough to be worrying about?” He looks disappointed in her as he storms off through the arch, and Alicia takes the huge jar that Freya’s holding out of her hands and quickly follows after him.

Rocco shrugs and gets back to his post while me and Freya stand awkwardly staring at each other.

“I guess you’re mad at me too?” she asks once Rocco is out of earshot.

“Uh-huh.” I nod my head, trying not to unleash a lecture. I have to remember what this is. She ain’t my old lady, I can’t tell her what to do.

“I can tell.” She laughs as if this is all a fuckin’ game.

Checking around us, I grab her hand and drag her through the gate that leads to the beach, then I force her back against the wooden fence panel.

“People are dying, Freya, we wouldn’t have these rules in place if they weren’t necessary. What you did today was dumb, dangerous, and?—”

She shuts me up when she kisses me, holding my face between her hands and rolling her tongue around mine.

“I’m sorry,” she tells me as she pulls away. “Try not to stay mad at me for too long.” She takes advantage of my shock and slips under my arm, heading back through the gate.

I take out my cigarettes and light one up, sitting on the sand, and as I stare out into the ocean I wonder what the fuck I’ve got myself into.

I head into the clubhouse once I’m finished with my smoke and when I see her sitting with the girls in their usual spot, I look away and move to the bar. I shouldn’t have gotten angry with Rocco the way I did in front of Wrath. If his mind wasn’t somewhere else right now, he would have noticed and probably questioned me on it.

“The others not back yet?” I ask Raze as I join him and Finn at the bar. The Stetson he insists on keeping on his head is the only thing convincing me that he ain’t back here for good.

“Vike checked in about an hour ago, they should be home soon,” Raze assures me, and I light up another cigarette when I notice Freya making her way over to the other end of the bar.

It’s hard not to look at her, I wanna study her every move. I wanna touch her the way Raze and Wrath touch their girls, and I want every brother in this room to know she’s mine. Wrathmoves over to join us and my muscles instantly go rigid. Even being around him feels like a betrayal.

“I made as much space in the bunker as I could, but it’s gonna be tight,” he explains to Raze, before ordering himself a drink. The atmosphere between them has been a little frosty since they disagree on how the Reaper situation should be handled, and Finn must pick up on it too because he furrows his brow at me. “We’re also gonna need to look at these watch schedules, Rocco’s been out front all day,” Wrath explains.

“Grunts do grunts work.” Raze shrugs, and although it seems to ease a little tension between him and his VP, I can tell his comment don’t sit well with our visitor.

“Speaking of.” Wrath takes out his cell and shows us Rocco’s name as it flashes up the screen.

“What’s up, kid?” he asks. “What d’ya mean he’s here to see Freya?” He suddenly looks mad, and I instantly start paying closer attention.

“Who’s here to see me?” Freya must hear it too because she moves closer, and when Wrath holds his hand to silence her, she looks pissed at him.

“I’ll be right out.” He hangs up and starts marching for the door, naturally I begin to follow after him, but I notice that Freya is behind me and I spin around.

“Stay in here,” I warn her.

“I heard what he said, someone’s here to see me,” she argues back.

“That don’t mean they get to.” I put her straight, and see how badly she wants to bite.

“Stay where ya are, Freya,” her brother calls out before swinging the door open like he’s ready for a fight. I swear, if that prick has come here to try and take her back, this time I really will kill him. I follow Wrath out through the yard and under the arch and when I see the stunt bike parked on the other side ofthe gate, I realize that it ain’t her ex on the saddle. This guy’s much younger and looks as if he’s really been through it.

“What do you want with my sister?” Wrath calls out as we both march closer to the gate. I give Rocco the nod to open it as we get closer, and I see that the guy really is in a bad way.

“I need to speak to Freya.” He spits blood outta his mouth onto the asphalt.

“You ain’t speaking to no one until you tell us why you're here?” I tell him.

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