Page 29 of Sparrow

Bringing his head close to hers, he whispered into her ear. “Get that thought right out of your god damn head right now. If you leave me, if you so much as mention leaving me again, I will hunt you the fuck down and kill you.”

** Romeo**

With Pipes sentto collect Sparrow, Bowie ordered everyone to get a drink or a cloud of smoke until he came back. Romeo vibrated with rage at the idea that someone would’ve hurt her. That grated against him more than the asshat attempting to claim her.

Though that didn’t sit well either.

He’d been smoke-free for almost a year and a half before going to Ohio, but there he was bopping from foot to foot out on the back patio of the clubhouse, puffing away on one of Dash’s cigarettes. Dash, Teller, Rooster, and Clark were huddled with him, but no one said anything.

The back door swung open and Monty, who had stayed behind to talk to Bowie with Tex, came outside with a filter hanging off his lip. “You mind telling me what the fuck that was all about?” He pointed at Dash.

Clenching his jaw, the Sergeant at Arms’ gaze flicked to Romeo before he shifted his body toward his president. “It ain’t about me, Prez,” he admitted.

“Something tells me this is all about my boy,” Tex drawled, leaning against the wall as he tapped a cigarette against his pack, eyeing his son.

“Romeo?” Monty turned his eye to the young biker. Nothing more needed to be said. The expectation in his tone, in his expression, was loud and clear. He needed to talk, come clean, and lay it all out for his brothers.

Swallowing, Romeo pulled the cigarette from his lip and dropped it to the ground, squishing it with the toe of his boot. Any expectation he had about coming to Ohio, claiming Sparrow, and riding off into the sunset without having to explain shit to his club was out the fucking window.

That only added to the fury already pulsing through him. It was all he could do not to unleash his fists onto the brick walls of the clubhouse. He’d learned his lesson last time he was in Ohio. Riding back with a severely sprained hand fucking hurt. It didn’t make the impulse any less, though.

“I met Sparrow at the rally when I was fifteen.” He scratched the back of his neck as he continued to shuffle with nervous energy. No way out of telling the full story now. His brothers needed to know it all. It’d be the only way to ask them to have his back. “We wrote letters to each other for years until her dad was sent to Valhalla.”

“She’s Ducky Oliviera’s kid,” Dash chimed in.

Romeo flicked his focus to his sponsor. That little tidbit would either help or hinder him. Unease rolled through him, adding to all the tension tightening his muscles. His feet shifted. He probably looked like a boxer prepping for a match with the way he fidgeted around with all this energy bottled inside him.

Monty tossed the butt of his cigarette into the drum they’d used for the fire the previous night as he eyed Romeo. “Ducky was a good man, a good brother. Bowie’s SAA before the club went to shit,” he commented before he ran his fingers through his beard, waiting for more information.

Clearing his throat, Romeo cracked his knuckles, trying to figure out how to word the rest. He hadn’t planned on being put on the spot about Sparrow. Hell, he didn’t even know she still had a boyfriend until Pipes tried to claim her.

Wasn’t that some fucking shit? He’d told her last time she deserved better. She didn’t fucking listen. She stayed with a piece of shit. She stayed with a goddamn junkie. A new wave of anger built inside and it didn’t seem to have a target. Did it belong to Sparrow for leaving that fact out? Did it belong to Pipes for existing? Should it be at himself for not asking?

None of this made any goddamn sense.

So, where the fuck did that leave him? She sure as shit wasn’t acting like she had a boyfriend when she got on his bike or in his bed.

He had to continue to tell them. He had to lay it all out for his brothers. They’d have his back if he told them.

“We got together about two years ago when Dash and I came through to check in with the club,” Romeo admitted. “And again last night.”

Monty stepped forward, getting into Romeo’s face, with narrowed eyes. “You sure she wanted it?”

Oh, now he had a target. Not a good target. Definitely not a wise target, but with this much ire building up, the slightest little thing would set him off. However, he needed to keep his head. This was his president. This was the national president.Be a better man.

Without backing down, but not outright challenging his president, Romeo took a deep breath and looked the man in his black eyes. “I don’t take what isn’t offered to me, and she got on my bike willingly.”

Running his gaze up and down Romeo, Monty took a step back before he nodded with a hum. “She got on your bike?” he questioned.

Romeo didn’t let anyone on his bike. It was a well-known fact in the club. So, when he let the club know that he put Sparrow on his bike, it was meant to let them know that she wasn’t just some pussy to him. What she was to him, well, that was still up for debate. He wasn’t even sure yet.

“Yes,” Romeo asserted, looking from one brother to the other before he continued. “Took her to the motel, spent the night. I woke up and she was gone.”

“Did you know she was another man’s property?” Clark piped up from behind Romeo and he fought the urge to pop him.

Be a better man. Be rational. Don’t be impulsive.

Clark had to. Pipes was his man now, so he had to be the voice for Pipes in all this. Romeo didn’t begrudge him that.

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