Page 8 of Kaz
She gave him a pinched look.
“I can fight my own battles.”
“I know. Sometimes it’s just nice to have some support behind you.”
Emma pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Please don’t leave me.”
The last part was said in jest. Well,halfin jest, at least.
“I wouldn’t be leaving you if you’d just join the club with me.”
He would rather eat nails. Old, rusty nails.
He’d have to see Kaz every day. He’d have to see Kaz with his girlfriend every day. That was a fuck no from him.
He’d also have to take orders from him, and just the thought made him shudder. Not because he couldn’t take orders or because he thought Kaz was a bad leader, but because the kind of orders he remembered Kaz giving him…No. He wasn’t continuing that line of thought. Fuck no. Especially not because he’d just gotten out of yet another short-lived relationship and was a bit hard up at the moment, and sex with Kaz just so happened to be the best he’d ever had.
He cleared his throat and straightened.
“I thought you didn’t want me to go with you?”
She arched a brow at him. “I don’t want to be handed over like a kid at boarding school. You becoming a King with me isnotthat.”
He shook his head.
He knew what the Kings did, and he’d seen enough violence to last him a few lifetimes already. Joining in on it? He hadn’t had one of his sweat-soaked, wake-up-screaming nightmares in years, but he was pretty sure they would return with a vengeance if he did something as stupid as becoming an outlaw biker.
“If I promise not to treat you like a child, can I still hand you over?”
Emma snorted and pinned him with a serious look.
“Only if you consider prospecting. For real.”
Perhaps seeing Kaz all lovey-dovey with his girlfriend would smack him right back down to Earth. He knew they were still together because he’d heard from some of the others that Janewas still around. Why she’d stay with Kaz’s cheating ass for over a decade, he didn’t know.
“Let’s see what happens, yeah?” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to tug her against him. She rested her head against his shoulder, and he soaked up the moment, hating that she would be an hour away instead of a few minutes.
A sigh rocked through him because he knew his new reality would consist of a lot of travel between Baltimore and Emma’s club. He was ever the overprotective big brother, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to be checking in at least once or twice a week. Unfortunately, that meant a whole lot more of Kaz in his life, and he wasn’t sure what the hell to think about that.
It would hurt to see him. To know that he’d had him. That he’d been nothing but a plaything to Kaz. That he’d given everything to Kaz only to receive heartbreak in return.
CHAPTER FOUR
Miles
THE DRIVE to New Freedom wasn’t the worst. It was mostly freeway the whole way until they turned off at thirty-six and continued toward New Freedom. Emma was riding her motorcycle in front of them, leading the way, and for a moment, he thought she was lost until she turned down a gravel road, and a white house came into view.
Emma pulled up to a row of bikes parked along the open field across from the house. There was another car in front of a two-car garage, so he parked next to it.
Emmett was asleep in the back seat, and while Travis woke him up, Miles headed toward Emma, who was waiting for them a few feet away, her gaze on the house she would be calling home from now on.
He looked up at the house, noting the rotting siding, the gutters hanging half off the sides, and a big ass hole in the roof, which was sagging on one side.
“This place is falling apart,” he said, heart stuttering at the implications. She shouldn’t be living in that.No oneshould be living in that.
Emma nodded.
