Page 17 of Kaz
“Keeping those two away from power tools should suffice.” At least he hoped so. The twins were nineteen, and fuck if he didn’t remember just how stupid he’d been at that age. Stupid enough to fall for Kaz Tailler. The thought brought flashes of memories with it, and he lost his ability to breathe again as he recalled Kaz grinning at him, kissing him like he actually meant something to him, and worshipping his body over and over.
“You alright?”
He blinked, refocusing on Jane, who was frowning at him. She’d been talking, he could tell.
“Sorry,” he croaked out and cleared his throat, squaring his shoulders. “Just thinking about where it’s best to start.”
He already knew where to start. He had a very long and very detailed plan, and from the way her eyes narrowed, she knew as much. He opened his mouth, though he had no clue what to tell her. If she felt comfortable threatening to kill her own patched members, what would she do to him if she learned that he’d just been thinking about the time he fucked her boyfriend?
He was saved by the rumble of a pickup truck barreling down the driveway toward them.
“They better not spray gravel on the bikes,” Jane hissed under her breath, gaze hard as she glared toward the truck. “Once the house is done, we’re getting a concrete slab.”
Miles hummed his agreement. He knew just how peculiar bikers were about their motorcycles getting scratched.
The driver pulled the pickup to a stop right before it reached the row of parked bikes, clearly smarter than the twins. The driver and passenger exited the truck, walking around the back to open the hatch, and then they started throwing helmets and boots at the bikers. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when the twins started playing around with the helmets, wagering on whether they could stand on them without breaking them.
“This is a fucking madhouse,” Jane muttered as she walked off toward them.
Miles could only agree.
He took a deep breath, then reached for the helmet he’d placed on the top step of the front patio stairs. He put it on and straightened, then walked into the middle of his new crew, ready to give orders and get this house back in shape.
∞ ∞ ∞
Squaring up the house had been their first order of business, and surprisingly, the twins had seized their playing around and gone straight to work without a single complaint. He assessed the damage as they went along, glad to find that there was nothing structurally that needed fixing. The foundation was sound. The biggest problem seemed to be the roof, but once that was fixed, they could start on everything else. It wouldn’t be an easy renovation, but he had a solid plan, and with so many people working, they could be done in a few weeks.
Someone bought sandwiches for everyone, and he gratefully accepted one and walked to the back porch, where he sat down on the top step of the staircase. He looked out over the backyard. The mature trees surrounding the property grounded it beautifully. There was a serenity about this place.
Despite the disaster behind him, he understood why Kaz had bought the property. Kaz had a vision for this place, and he knew they could make it happen. It would be a lot of work, but once the house was sound, he could put Kaz’s plans into motion. They hadn’t talked about what Kaz wanted, but he knew from Emma that they would be dividing some of the bedrooms upstairs to accommodate more of the club members. At least a few of the rooms were definitely big enough for that. His biggest concern was the bathrooms. There were three. One downstairs, one in the hallway on the second floor, and one en-suite in Kaz’s room.
He didn’t know what to do about Kaz. The man confused him. His feelings for the man confused him. That innate hate he’d felt fourteen years ago was barely a simmer now. The only reason he was grasping onto it was because Kaz was proving that he was still a cheater. Even if Kaz and Jane weren’t together, even if Kaz was single, he could never trust him again. Not with his heart. Even if his stupid heart was trying to tell him otherwise.
His shoulders shot up when footsteps sounded behind him. There was a grunt and the rustle of clothes as someone sat down beside him.
“How are we doing so far?”
The man smiling warmly at him was both tall and wide, his brown hair flopping over his forehead and making Miles’s gaze follow it down to meet his green-flecked eyes.
“Not too shabby,” he said, offering the man a tight smile. “Sorry, I don’t know your name?”
“I’m Wilder,” the man said with a grin, eyes alight. “And you’re thé Miles, right?”
His throat tightened, and he had to swallow hard before he managed to croak out, “I guess.”
Wilder looked contemplative for a long moment, and then he turned his gaze straight ahead as he said, “Never seen him happier than he was those weeks you were together.”
Miles’s heart did a painful flip, and he rubbed the heel of his hand against his chest, words escaping him, because what the hell was he supposed to say to that? It was probably the happiest he’d been, too. Until Kaz destroyed everything.
“I know it didn’t end well,” Wilder said, turning his head toward Miles, an unreadable look in those startling green-brown eyes of his. “Just thought you might want to know that.”
Miles gave a short nod, then turned his attention to the half-eaten sandwich he mostly wanted to chug over the edge.
That was the exact opposite of what he wanted to know. He wasn’t sure what to think of Wilder or the man telling him this. Was Wilder condoning Kaz’s cheating? He wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to ask because knowing the answer meant deciding whether he would ever call this man a friend or not, and he needed these people to be as close to friends as possible because they all held his sister’s life in their hands.
“I know we haven’t made the best impression,” Wilder said, an almost boyish smile on his face. “But if you give us a chance, perhaps we can earn your trust?”
Miles’s heart staggered in his chest. Trust. The one thing he had none left of. It had been an endless issue in his relationships because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t seem to trust anyone with his heart. Not after Kaz.
