Page 15 of His Prize (Make You Mine)

ChapterNine

BRIAN

She’s amazing, I thought as we packed our bags into the SUV I’d rented, headed back to the airport. I didn’t want to leave this mountain retreat, but we had to go home. Johnny needed me to take back over the club, and she had a job to get back to. Life goes on, even when you want time to stop so you can spend eternity with the most incredible woman you’ve ever met.

“I’m sad to leave this place,” Mandy said as I started up the vehicle, putting her seatbelt on. “I’d like to come back here again, some day.”

“Me too,” I replied, checking there were no wild animals behind us before I put in reverse to get us out of the driveway. I wanted to look back in the rearview mirror as we pulled away from the cabin, but didn’t. I might just stop the car and drag us both back into the house if I did that.

The week we’d spent together there would be burned in my memory forever. Once we got over that initial hurdle, we’d spent the week exploring each other, exploring our boundaries, pushing them and each other until we’d fall asleep together, exhausted but happy.

But it hadn’t been all sex, we spent a lot of time talking in the living room, in front of the fire, or in bed, warm under the covers. I’d told her about my childhood with a biker for a father and a mother that walked away from that life a long time ago. She hadn’t wanted to be saddled with a kid, so she’d left me with my dad. I’d never heard from her again, couldn’t tell if you she was even still alive, but in my mind, I was an orphan since my dad was killed.

She hadn’t offered me pity or pithy words, she’d offered me comfort and more compassion than I could have hoped for, even when I explained how I’d taken over the club and kept up club business. Not that I went into too much detail about that, but she didn’t judge me for the life I lived. Maybe she even understood me a little better now?

Mandy was quiet on the drive to the airport, even quieter during the flight back to Chicago. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but suspected it was just disappointment that the trip was over.

“Well, I guess this is it. I have to catch a cab to get home.” She stood outside with me in the frigid air, her head wrapped in the giant, knitted, gray scarf she loved so much. She was adorable wrapped up in that thing with her nose pink from the cold blast of chilly air.

“I’ll give you a call later tonight, if you’d like? Maybe we can meet up sometime in the week?” I traced a lock of hair that was blowing against her now pink cheek, and wished I could take her home with me. We had our own lives to get back to, though, and I couldn’t bring her into my life just yet. Not out here in Chicago anyway. That was part of the reason I’d had such an urge to stay in the mountains, my real life didn’t exist out there. Here? Danger lurked around every corner.

“That would be great,” she bounced up on her feet to kiss me just as a cab pulled up to the curb. “I had a great time, thank you, Brian. Really.”

“I can’t wait to see you again,” I told her as she turned away to get into the cab while the driver put her bags in the trunk.

“Me either,” she said with a wave.

I wanted to pull her out of the car, hug her one more time, hold her close to me, but I could tell she was cold, so I let her go. I waved and before I knew it, the car drove away with her in it. Fuck, that hurt, watching her leave me like that.

Instead of standing there like an idiot I called my second in command. “I’m here, Johnny, you on the way?”

“Just coming up to you know, I can see you,” Johnny answered, and I looked up to see the black SUV he drove pulling up to the curb.

I threw my bags in the back and climbed into the passenger seat. “How’s things here?”

“Fine, running smoothly, as always,” Johnny told me, his eyes on the rearview mirror as he started to pull away from the curb. “No problems at all to report.”

“That’s good to hear. I knew I could trust you to hold down the fort for me. Thanks, Johnny.”

“My pleasure, Bri,” he said, using the nickname that only the closest members of our club could use. Anybody else using it would be disrespectful, and they all knew it. I ran a tight ship, kept control over everything, and didn’t bend the rules my father and his father before him put in place. The Wolves of Chaos was an old club, and I didn’t plan to see it disband anytime soon. Maintaining control and some kind of order was the way to do that.

Which is about the time I started to think about what kind of life Mandy would have in my real life. I had no plans of leaving the club, not until I breathed my last breath, so it wasn’t like I could run away with her and start a new life. There’d be no picket fences, or wide front porches with a sleeping dog on it for us.

Fuck.

“Heard anything out of those Crazy Buffalo bastards?” I broke the silence to ask.

“Not a peep, Bri,” Johnny was merging into traffic now, his concentration on the cars around him more than me. Still, he kept up the conversation with ease. “Like I said, it’s been quiet since you left, no problems at all. Not even out of Tommy.”

“Tommy’s behaved himself while I was gone?” I scoffed, unable to believe that the biggest troublemaker in our club had played nice while I was gone. “I thought he’d earn his last strike, at least.”

“Nope, he’s been in the warehouse all week, helping to distribute product to the runners.” Johnny glanced at me, before his eyes went back to the road. “He’s been really good. I guess he knows he’s on his last warning, so he’s changing his ways.”

“We can hope. That little shit has brought too much heat down on us already,” I replied, thinking of how much Tommy had fucked up over the years. He’d killed a guy because he looked at Tommy’s latest girlfriend too long. We’d managed to cover that one up so far. It was getting caught speeding, while high on our own product, that really pissed me off. That caught the attention of the cops, and cops start digging around when they find drugs on someone. Tommy was facing hard time in prison, and he’d brought our club back into the eyes of law enforcement.

I’d kept us out of that position since my father passed away, but now they were watching us again. Which is another reason I knew I couldn’t bring Mandy into my world. I could step into hers from time to time, but I couldn’t bring her into this.

I had to live like that wolf I saw last night, alone and on guard, protecting all I had left in the world. He’d stepped out of the darkness for a moment, glancing around warily. I’d held my breath, mesmerized by the animal that represent my club, an animal I’d never seen in real life before.

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