Page 37 of Diesel
DIESEL
She’s in my arms,warm and soft—the opposite of everything I am. I can still taste her on my lips, and before she slips away my hand sifts into the hair at her nape, holding her to me.
I bury my face into the crook of her neck, breathing her in, fear and hope and a hundred other emotions colliding through me.
She’s here, in my arms, safe. She hasn’t walked away, even though I’ve given her every reason to, but still sticky fear clings to my veins.
They know she exists…
I wasn’t afraid when that gun was pointed at me, but the moment Makenna was in front of it my world tipped.
Every move I make now is loaded. Every action could lead to her getting hurt or worse, but there’s no hiding anymore.
Riot knows I’m married, and she’s now the most dangerous piece on my chessboard.
I wish I’d never put us in this position, but the club hadfelt like a sanctuary after jail. The years I was locked up I was scared for her every day. I hated knowing there was no one to look out for her, so when I met a guy inside who was club, I got swept into that world. Into the illusion we could have family that was built, not born.
Stoker was club, he was London through and through—still is—and he knew when he got out he’d have a life to go back to.
He talked about the Sons nonstop when we were caged in our cells like animals, about what it meant to wear the patch, and how the club needed people like me. When he was released, he kept in contact, and when I got out, he put me in touch with the right people.
A memory tickles my mind. The day I walked into the clubhouse. Nic was less hard around the edges then, but he’d still given me that smile that was caught between predator and beast.
“You’re Stoker’s boy.”
Not a question, and I didn’t pull him on the ‘boy’ comment. Boys hadn’t seen the shit I had by that time. Boys hadn’t spilled the blood I had either. “Zane,” I murmur.
Nic had looked me up and down like he was sizing me. Then said, “You fight?”
“When I have to.”
He nodded. “You follow orders?” I give him a tight smile which he returns. “When you have to?”
“Something like that.”
“Okay then. Let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to be a Son.”
The first year was hard when I was a prospect with no voice or say, but we got through it, even when I was gonefor days at a time. Even when my loyalty was stretched between Makenna and the future I was trying to build for us. We survived.
When I got my patch, I thought I’d made it. I was excited to bring Makenna into my world finally. Then everything went to shit. Brothers were dying. Old ladies and kids too. So I did the only thing I could—kept her hidden while I hoped it would turn around. Never expected it to take as long as it has, and I never expected it to almost cost me my marriage.
“Grab your stuff, firefly.” My voice is soft when I say it, still trapped in the past, in the thoughts of everything I did wrong.
I don’t know if she senses that change in me, but she places her hands on my chest. “I haven’t completely forgiven you, Zane,” she says, and I can’t even blame her for that. “But I’m in this. Okay?”
I nod before she kisses me, and I want to sink into her mouth until we’re fused together. I want her legs wrapped around me while I sink into her heat and fuck her until she remembers she’s mine and that leaving was never an option. I want to claim her in all the ways I can to prove to both of us I’ll die before I let her go.
When she pulls back it takes every ounce of strength I have not to pull her back into me. “I’ll only be a second.” She tells me this as if she can see my hesitance, and grudgingly, I let go and watch her disappear upstairs.
Once she’s out of sight, I fire off a message to Nic.
I’m coming in.
A moment later his reply comes through. He sends thelocation. Nothing else. Just the address. It could be a trap, but I don’t think so. Nic knows me. He was my sponsor when I was prospecting.
Within the hour me and Makenna are in the car heading back toward Birmingham. Neither of us speak, but I keep my hand curled around her thigh, just to remind my brain she’s still here. She’s still safe.
She’s still with me.
