Page 105 of Nightingale

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Amber turned to Dreamer. “This is a beautiful house. You sure it’s available?”

“Yep. Freaky has been working on it for the past few days,” she said. “They just got it through escrow, but I thought it would be the perfect house for you and those two kids. Come on.”

Amber followed the other woman into the house. When they stepped into the living room, she saw Mountain and Freaky.

The color had returned to his cheeks, his beard looked a bit less tamed than the last time she saw him and although she could see he was a bit weak, the man still lived up to the name in her phone of Big Sexy. “Mountain,” the name fell from her lips in a harsh gasp.

“Nightingale, how are you?” Mountain stayed across the room, though his crystal eyes were showing the pain of not touching her.

“We’ll leave you two alone. I’m leaving Lil’ Bit’s truck for you. Amber, can you drive Mountain back to the clubhouse after you guys have had a chance to talk?” Freaky handed Amber a set of keys. “That way, you can bring it back to her at the garage when you go back to work.”

“I can.” Amber took the keys then watched Freaky and Dreamer walk out of the house. Then she turned back toward Mountain, slipping the keys in her coat pocket. “I’m not sure what to say?”

“Let me explain. I think what happened the other day freaked you the fuck out.”

“Ya think?” she snarked. “You came in without a pulse and half drained of blood.”

“I’ve had better days,” he said as if he’d just put a door in upside down, instead of rolling into her work dead.

Amber crossed her arms and glared at him. “What was I supposed to think? This is just a regular Tuesday?”

“Technically, I think it was Wednesday,” he said.

It took all she could do to not smack his smart ass.

“But then again,” he added. “This week has been a bit of blur.”

“You know what Björn Jensen, I did not appreciate it,” she said and realized how ridiculous she sounded, she was mad, angry even because he’d ripped her heart out and now was acting as if it had been nothing. All because he survived. Rage burned along her throat and threatened to burst forth like dragon’s breath. “Just because you survived doesn’t mean I forgive you.”

“I got shot and there was nothing I could do about it.”

“Really,” she said crossing to him and shoving his chest, surprised he wobbled a bit. “Nothing. How about not running guns? They told me someone got shot on a run. I thought it was a rescue. And never in a million years, did I think it was you because you didn’t tell me you were going anywhere. And as a mother of a six-year-old boy, I know why I never got that text.”

“Because I wasn’t supposed to do it.” His head was bent down and lips pulled in.

It made her want to hit him even more. “No, young man, you weren’t and you knew I wouldn’t want you to.”

“Is it wrong I really want to kiss the ever living shit out of you right now?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Yes and no. You can’t do that to me,” she said.

Mountain pulled her into his arms.

Hers were bent at the elbows, blocking him from feeling her flush against him. “I understand at times, an MC do things that sometimes is illegal and dangerous, but I’m not sure if there’s enough good to balance out the fear I’ll have every time you get on a bike.”

“Can I tell you why I went?”

“I know why you went,” she snarled. “I overheard how much you would have made and I get it, but was it worth a slug in your gut?”

“That’s not why I went,” he confessed.

Her brows knitted together. “Then why?”

“Freaky, Hack and Ax are my brothers,” he said. “Closer and more important to me than my actual siblings. The money would be nice, but I don’t need it. Freaky has a baby on the way, give Hack a few more months and I’m pretty sure he would too.”

“You went to protect them,” she said as her shoulders began to relax and her arms slipped around his waist.

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