Page 60 of Scorched King

“I know you’ve got to go handle him and it can’t wait. You can count on me to keep her safe. I swear to you nothing will happen to her again on my watch.”

I stared eye to eye with Bear, which said something because the man was fucking massive. We were equally tall, but he probably had forty or so pounds on me and it wasn’t fat. I didn’t doubt for a second that I could trust him with her. And that said something too all things considered.

“We need to get a clean up crew in the guest bedroom asap. I want the paramedic to stay here all night to be sure there is nothing to be concerned about. She can stay in there.”

Bear’s right eyebrow hiked to his hairline. “I take it the situation has changed between you and Sasha?”

“Yeah, it has. Is that going to be a problem?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “She already tried to let me down gentle earlier. But I saw the writing on the wall from the beginning. I didn’t want to be the impetus that finally got you going, but you did need a push.”

“Do not try and tell me that you only pretended. I’m not stupid. You care for her.”

“I did. Do. But she didn’t have to say the words for me to know. I’m smarter than I look.”

I bristled. “No one said you weren’t.”

He rolled his eyes. “Comes with the territory. Most people don’t look past my size. Think that’s all there is.”

“I know better, brother. We good?” I held out my arm. He only hesitated for a second before he grabbed my forearm and we came together with a hard chest thump and a clap on the back.

“Fuck yeah. I hate that it took all this to bring the two of you together, but it’s about goddamned time. It was exhaustingto tiptoe around the fact you wanted her more than you were willing to admit.”

A deep chuckled rumbled forward before I could stop it. Now was not the time for laughter, but it would be soon. We were all going to get past this. It’d be messy as shit, but we’d get it done.

“We’ll see how you handle yourself when the right woman comes along. If she’s good she’ll string you up and put your heart through a thousand paces before you realize what the hell has happened.”

Bear’s laughter boomed. “That’s quite a specific picture you paint. And a future I’m not sure I look forward to. Something gentler perhaps…” His eyes lost focus over my shoulder for a minute and I wondered if there was already someone he had in mind.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

I swung around to meet Jeanne’s gaze, anxious to hear if she had any news for me. “You’re not. We both want to know anything going on the moment we can.”

She sighed. “Good. And I’m happy to report that I don’t think there will be any long-term repercussions from what happened tonight. Some bruising likely, maybe a sore esophagus. Speaking of. Do you have any ice cream?”

“Yeah.” I started for the kitchen to retrieve it, but Bear stopped me.

“I got this. You go take care of business. The sooner you get that done, the sooner you can get back here.”

“Yeah,” I grunted in agreement. As reluctant as I was to leave, my departure couldn’t wait. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Ilooked at the woman waiting for the ice cream and back at Bear. “The room?”

“Yeah, I got that too. I’m sending a text as soon as I get Sasha what she needs.”

I nodded, giving one more glance at the door to my bedroom before turning my back. This was the price I’d agreed to pay when I’d become the president of the club. And I only hoped that Sasha truly understood what that meant. It had been a bitter pill for Malia and had caused a lot of issues, especially in the early days before we had a decent network built up and got busted for a lot of our shit.

These days we usually worked smarter, not harder.

But there were still too many moments of shit.

I shuddered at that and pushed what I could of Sasha out of my mind. I owed it to her to do this right and that meant all of my focus on this next task so I could get my ass back home and in bed with her where I belonged.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

JD

I opened the steel-reinforced cellar door and was immediately assaulted by the smell of blood, sweat, and piss. That this familiar smell didn't alarm me anymore said everything about who we were.

When you were hired to hunt the worst of the worst, it meant you had to become this too. Judge, jury and executioner. We lived and worked as far under the radar as possible, and as such, this was our brand of justice and we never wavered from it.

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