Page 65 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

19.

Gage

That guy John is a straight-up lunatic. But when Duke put out feelers for a base camp, he answered the call right away. One of the few I’ve ever come across who think bikers are trustworthy before getting to know us. Bonded by guns and ammo and taking the law into our own hands when the situation calls for it. He also knew a guy who knew a guy who did great cleanup work for a price. One we were more than willing to pay.

He wanted to join the hunt, but with his blatant disregard for women, we weren’t sure how he’d handle taking out a man who’d hurt so many.

Boss left his phone out with the contact for Houdini, or at least the phone he sent the videos from. We had to hope Elise would take the bait. These women, too easy to read. She added the contact to her phone, and thinking she’s slick, made the agreement to meet with the fuckwad.

Like Boss wouldn’t have eyes on his wife at all times. Like when he brought Elise into the room they share to fuck her, it wasn’t so Blood could tap into the camera on her phone to have it record her and send the feed to his own. Or download an invisible app that sends all her texts to his phone. Well, it wasn’tonlyso Blood could tap into the camera and hijack her texts.

As anxious to end this as we were, the woman didn’t waste any time setting up a meet. We got everything. The date. The time. The location.

They’d pushed the meet back until they knew I had Liv and we were on our way back to the brothers. Solidarity among sisters or some shit.

Dr. Brennan took Liv to get checked out. Once I was able to shake John, I went to check on her and found her back in the kitchen with the women.

“Clean bill of health?”

All three women jumped in surprise from the sound of my voice, so deep in discussion were they. I laughed at the sight. They might’ve been scheming or they might’ve been discussing how ridiculous it was that they’d been sentenced to kitchen duty.

Her eyes hit mine and she smiled up at me bright and beautiful, showing her teeth. Even after all she’d been through. My dick twitched in my pants. Damn, I wanted her so bad. She had to heal though. Even if everything came back good physically, I knew her back had to clear before I touched her the way I wanted. Then there was her mental state. What if she was too fragile? Fuck if I could risk losing her again.

While Caitlin and Elise continued to stare between the two of us, Liv set the chef’s knife she’d been holding down on the cutting board, then walked over to where I stood, head held confident, but not rigid, as she slid her arms around my waist to press her body against mine. When she pushed back it was to stretch up on her tiptoes and whisper close to my ear.

“I’m fine, Gage.”

“Baby—”

She shut up what I’d been about to say by pressing her mouth to mine in a sweet, seductive kiss. Not because she meant to be seductive—the woman just couldn’t help herself. I’d devour her if not for her friends in the room.

“I promise, babe. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

I found it so fucking hard to believe her when she’d lied to me before. When she’d promised me that if any of the mess in her head became too much, she’d talk to me and we’d get her help. But she never talked to me and took off and we ended up here.

“Okay.” I nodded my head once. What choice did I have? Not that internally the thoughtplease make it true, please make it truedidn’t continue on a loop, because it did. So fucking did.

The women created a beautiful pot roast dinner with mashed potatoes, a squash dish with sautéed bacon, mushrooms and onions, biscuits and even a salad. Gravy for the potatoes, too. After sitting down to the meal as if he was owed it by the women, John sent them into the kitchen to eat.

Fuck that. I promised Liv a long time ago that if she was with me, she’d never have to face this second-class citizen bullshit ever again. I didn’t care that he’d volunteered his home to us. I picked up my plate and beer and walked my ass into the kitchen to sit with my woman.

The shock on her face sort of distorted her eyes and mouth, though she remained the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in my life. I set my plate next to hers and pulled out a stool, plunking myself down.

“What are you?” she asked.

“Not second-class, Liv.” I took a huge bite of the roast, which melted the moment it touched my tongue. “Mmm… God damn, baby. You ladies can cook.”

There were chuckles from Caity and Elise. Liv pressed her cheek against my shoulder before she straightened and began to eat. I’d only been in the kitchen maybe five minutes when Boss came in with plate and beer in hand. He shoved in next to his wife and set his plate down, then scrounged up an empty outdoor trashcan, which he flipped over to sit on so he could eat his dinner with us.

I was glad to see it.

Next Duke came grumbling in. Grumbling something like, “motherfucker make my wife leave the table… I’ll fucking end him.” He dropped his plate harder than necessary next to Caity’s, then looked down at her, biting her quivering lip to bite back a laugh. “Lips,” he ordered.

She immediately tipped her chin upward to meet his waiting lips and kissed him long and hard. Thankfully, no tongue. We didn’t need to see that shit.

After a few more moments, the other non-attached brothers walked into the kitchen carrying plates and beers.

Each man found a spot to set his beer down and leaned against a counter or wall to eat.

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