“Okay, get her in the truck. Get her warm,” Rev ordered, and I nodded.
“Daddy!” she cried, and Rev turned.
“It’s okay, baby. Sage has got you now. You go with him. I’m going to get your stuff.” Eedee nodded, and I made eye contact with Rev and gave a nod. Something passed between us – an understanding. A responsibility, and I was the only man for the job he’d just given me. Eden John was mine now. There was no doubt about that. I wouldn’t have it any other fucking way.
21
Eden…
I shook, leaning heavily on Sage, breathing in the crisp cold that was heavy with dense, wet snow but most importantly, breathing in him. Warm with the breath of life, his masculine scent and the soap or cologne or whatever he used a comfort as he walked me, stumbling on the uneven snow and ice, to the waiting club truck. He helped me up into the middle of the bench seat and climbed into the driver’s seat, slamming the door with a metal clang.
“Come here,” he demanded and wrapped me in his embrace, holding fast, holding tight, and kissing the top of my head, breathless with his own emotions.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said shakily, and he massaged the back of my neck through my curls.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “It just matters you’re safe. That you called, and that I got here and that you’re okay,” he said. We both shuddered at the thought of what could have been.
I stared out the windshield at all my uncles and my dad swarming my car on its side in all their black leather. I blinked at the taillights and realized I’d been pushed all the way around, that I had been facing back the way I’d been coming.
“Do you remember anything about the truck?” he asked me, and I nodded.
“It was a big Chevy Silverado, an old one. Really old, gray with peeling paint.”
“Shit,” he said impressed. “You get a license plate with that?”
“Not the whole thing,” I said. “Just the first letter, an ‘A’ and the last number, an ‘eight,’ I think.”
“Damn, baby. That’s good. That’s real good.” He sent a text and then tossed his phone back up on the dashboard to hold me tight again.
Archer came our direction with my backpack over his shoulder and my gym bag in his opposite hand. He opened up the passenger-side door of the club truck and asked, “You alright?”
“I’m okay, I think I’m okay,” I stammered out, and he nodded.
“Taking these things with us, you ain’t got room. Your dad and the rest of the boys are gathering up your spilled presents. Okay?”
“Okay,” I murmured.
“Thanks, man,” Sage said, and Archer shook his head.
“You don’t thank me for shit like this,” he said tersely. “Ever.” Then he shut the door on us.
That was Archer, though. Some things, when it came to the club, were a given. This, I guess, was one of those things.
I sniffed, my eyes starting to leak again when the guys all turned, shut the doors on my car, and my dad with my purse across his chest and Trigger holding the gift bag with all its small boxes in it around it’s middle, headed this way.
“Come on,” my dad grunted, hoisting himself up next to me. “Let’s go.” He put his arm around me and I cuddled into his side while Sage put the old truck in gear and slowly and carefully turned us around on the road.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, baby. Nothing to be sorry about.”
“I can’t believe they just left me,” I said. “They didn’t even get out of their truck. They just left…”
My dad’s arm tightened around me and his mouth set in a grim line. I glanced at Sage and the set of his mouth was equally grim, a muscle in his jaw tightening.
“Don’t you worry none about that, baby. Let’s just get you to your mother.”
My mother was absolutely freaking out when we walked into the club’s general room. She practically leaped out of her chair where Dante, Evy, and a bevy of the other ol’ ladies were trying to comfort her.
“Mom!” I cried, and we latched onto each other desperately, hugging and crying it out.
The rest of the guys came in with my stuff a minute later and Rush called out to Sage, “Where you want this stuff?”
Sage looked at me and I looked at him, giving him a nod, and he jerked his head. “My room.” They followed him, disappearing into the dimly lit hub and turning down his hallway.
“Enough, woman. Jesus, God, Almighty. Let our girl go. She needs to get warm.” My dad took my mom into his arms and she cried into his cut. Dante hugged me next and walked me toward the hub while everyone either watched me or went to my mom.
“You okay?” he asked, and I nodded just a little too fast.
“I’m okay,” I murmured, and he nodded and let me go.
“I got Mom, you know how she gets.”
I nodded.
“Love you, Sis,” he said, and I smiled.
“I love you too, Bro.”
Telling the people you loved that you loved them was important.
I went down Sage’s hall and paused outside his room. The door was cracked and I heard Rush say, “Data’s looking now. With the power out, a lot of computers he would normally go looking in are down.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Dray said. “If I have to, I’ll give Marcy’s boy a call.”
“You think he’d help us out?” Trigger asked.
Archer harrumphed. “Hell yeah. On something like this? No doubt.”
“Archer taking up for a pig?” Rush said with a grin. “You all sure I’m not dead or dreaming.”
I could hear the scowl in Archer’s voice when he said, “That’s not funny.”
I knocked, as much to curb any argument as well as to keep myself out of club business and any trouble.
Sage opened the door and said, “Eedee, baby, you don’t ever have to knock on this door.”
“Glad you did,” Dray said with a half-frown that was ruined by his raised eyebrow. One look at me and he knew I’d heard. I played it cool.
“I didn’t want to interrupt anything,” I said gently. “I just need some dry clothes.”
“Shit, yeah, let’s get you into a hot shower,” Sage said and he came to me, wrapping me in a hug.
The other guys filed out with random looks for both me and Sage, mostly of the variety that they were glad I was okay.
I looked up at Sage once they were gone and said gently, “No matter what happens now, just don’t get caught.”
I had absolutely no love or pity for whoever had been in that truck. The fucking asshole.
He gave me a half-smile, leaned down, and kissed me.
I didn’t need the heat of a shower to warm me up, but considering Sage was joining me? I didn’t want to put any kind of kibosh on the idea.
We gathered fresh clothes, comfortable things like flannel pajamas and stole down the hallway with towels and shower stuff to the bathrooms off the hub. Sage shut and locked the door behind us and turned, edging past me carefully to turn the spigot on the tub to get things going.