Page 9 of Summer's Edge

Maybe after we’ve eaten, I can even convince Ice to let me ride with them on whatever job they’re heading for after this.

Because spending time alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere will be hell all over again just like prison was. Only in a whole different way this time. I’ve never been any good at not going after the women I lusted for. And Summer’s at the top of that list. Always has been. Forbidden fruit and all that.

I’d rather get shot all over again than try to keep my hands off her once we’re alone here. Even my tiny cell back in prison suddenly doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

But that’s just my cock talking and making me freak out.

Nothing will happen between Summer and me.

I won’t betray Ice like that and besides, he’s right about wanting to keep us all away from her. She deserves a whole lot better than what I can give her.

THREE

Summer

After they dragged me out of Mexico, we stopped at my apartment in LA just long enough for me to pack up some of my stuff. The rest will be packed up by the guys and taken straight home to Pleasantville.

Then they brought me to this shabby cabin in the middle of nowhere and left me alone with my dad and the MCs intel specialist, Hawk. They spoke in hushed tones out on the porch all day, while I tried to get some sleep in the cabin’s one bed, which was new right about the time this sorry place was built.

How he expects me to share this tiny place with Edge, I swear I don’t know.

Though I have some ideas.

Ideas I wish I didn’t still have.

I had a huge crush on Edge back in the day. And the longer I look at him, the more I’m starting to think that maybe I still do. But every time I tried to let him know how I felt, he always snubbed me. By the end I grew to pretty much hate him. He doesn’t know that either. No one does.

I couldn’t sleep or eat much for days when he got shot and almost died. I must’ve called the hospital like twenty times, asking for updates which they never gave me until on the third day a nurse finally took pity on me and told me he’ll live a long life in prison.

She didn’t say it in a nice tone, but I remember thinking,Not if his brothers have anything to say about it.

And here we are.

They’re all outside now, about twenty of them, celebrating Edge’s newfound freedom, the smell of burgers they’re grilling thick in the air.

I could sulk in the cabin by myself, but what would be the point? This is no different than being back home and I’ll be there soon enough anyway.

I love and hate how fast Edge’s eyes find me the moment I step out on the porch. Even though I’m wearing a huge hoodie that comes down almost to my knees and hides my body completely. He has the most intense blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Like the deep ocean way up north somewhere where huge whales and sharks swim and where storms that few people ever get to see rage. Such power and passion in that cool gaze. I used to think a lot about his eyes. I was fifteen and just a dumb teenager when I fell for him, and he was eighteen. It’s all coming back to me now. I wish it wasn’t.

“Nice of you to join us, Summer,” he says. “I was beginning to think you didn’t like me anymore.”

Thank God for the very dim light in the clearing, provided only by a large bonfire they built, because I know I’m blushing real hard right now.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” I say and accept the cold bottle of beer he hands me from a cooler on the ground. Someone else brings me a burger.

For all the ways they hardly seem to notice me every one of my dad’s MC brothers has always been very attentive to me. My friends in LA weren’t that far off the mark with my nickname. I’ve never been less than a princess in their eyes. And that’s just one of the things I was trying to run away from when I took the job in LA.

We’re suddenly alone even though the clearing is full of men. My dad’s talking to Tank and Hawk by the fire. Ruin, Chance and Jax are watching something on Hunter’s phone and the rest are similarly grouped together. But Edge has eyes just for me. And the look in them makes me think I’m about to see one of those storms few ever do.

“So, is having freedom again all you hoped it would be?” I ask and take a swig of my beer.

He laughs like I’d said the funniest thing. “Anything’s better than prison. But I did hope for some more action.”

“Instead of babysitting me, you mean?”

The words just tumbled out, I didn’t mean to say them.

His face turns tight like maybe he didn’t think it through before he spoke either.

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