The bathrooms were a lot nicer since the club had remodeled them. Clean and new, the pipes all replaced with new so the water pressure, well, we actually had water pressure now. It’d been the big summer project around four years back.
Sage hung up our clean clothes on the hooks set on the walls, and our towels on the bar nearest the tub.
He then set to work stripping me down. I let him, still shaken, and winced when he hissed at my hip and in a few other spots where it was already coming up purple. I guess I had bounced around a little more than I had thought. I knew my hip had checked the center console in my car pretty good. That was the biggest and nastiest looking bruise, and truth be told, I didn’t think it was going to be too bad. I was just pale as a mothersmurfer, so everything showed.
He gently unclipped my hair last. I had a pewter barrette holding half of it back from my face, setting it aside on the sink counter.
“Get under the water, get it to where you like it. I’ll be right in behind you.”
“Okay.”
I turned up the heat and stood under it soaking it in, my feet going to pins and needles, my fingers doing the same as they warmed. Sage got in with me and it was still a little startling, you know, being naked and seeing him naked, too… but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He came to me, hands on my ribs, just above my hips, higher on the one side so as not to touch the blossoming bruise under my skin.
“Kiss me,” he ordered gently, and I turned my face up to his.
He kissed me as though he were a dying man and I were his last breath and I realized, as calm and together as he had sounded on the phone, he wasn’t. He had been well and truly freaking the fuck out on the inside. I never would have guessed in the moment, but now…
“Thank you,” I whispered, and he cradled me against him.
“For what?” he asked.
“For being strong for me,” I said and felt my lip tremble.
“Don’t mention it,” he said softly. “I could honestly say the same for you. How many times have you been the strong one for me?” he asked. “Even when I pushed you away, even when I didn’t think I needed it or wanted it?”
“A lot, I guess,” I murmured.
He tipped my chin with gentle fingers and I dragged my eyes from his chest to his eyes.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see you, babe. Not right away.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, and he shook his head.
“It’s not. It’s not, and I promise, I see you now and I’m never taking you for granted again.” I sniffed, both of our eyes misting.
I have never been so loved, or cared for by another person who was not my family in my life… but Sage? Sage took care of me that night. He washed me, he helped me to dress even though I protested. He made sure I ate and drank, and was never far from me with a comfort item. We watched a movie with some of the rest of the club and he cuddled me the entire time, tucking me beneath a warm blanket. When I grew sleepy, he took me to bed, holding me close, smoothing a hand over my hair over and over until I fell asleep.
It was all I had ever wanted, a dream come true. I just hated how scared we both had been to get us here tonight.
22
Sage…
“So, what’s your next move?” Dray asked, giving me a calculated look from where we sat in a circle in the taproom. This was a test, and it was kind of chapping my ass he was treating me like a prospect or a fuckin’ green patch. Still, I took it for granted that this might not be a teachable moment for me, but for Noah, who was graced with attendance on this one. He and Eedee had grown up together, basically the first-born son and daughter of the club.
Slice and I were the oldest, but Eedee and Noah were technically the first generation of core club kids.
“First, we gotta make sure the owner of the truck was the motherfucker driving it. We don’t do collateral damage.”
Dray smiled, pleased, and Noah sat up a little straighter in his seat. Yeah, this was for him, not me.
“Good, you got that, young grasshopper,” Reaver said, grinning at Noah.
“I didn’t think of that,” Noah said and blinked some of his long, dishwater blond hair out of his eyes. The more he’d grown up, the more he looked like his father, I guess. He knew he was Grinder’s kid, but Archer was his dad, through and through.
Archer, to his credit, just grunted and nodded.
“Say the driver and the owner are one and the same, then what?” I asked.
“Surveillance,” Noah said with a shrug. “Find out his patterns, then deliver a punishment that fits the transgression.”
“You’re learning, kid,” Trigger said with pride. Archer couldn’t sponsor Noah. It was in the bylaws, family couldn’t sponsor family, so Trigger was technically his sponsor and it was working out.
“That last bit is up to Sage,” Revelator said, meeting my eyes. “Seeing as it was his woman.”
I gave Rev a crooked grin and said, “I’m more than open for suggestions from you. You are her daddy after all.”
He gave me a malignant grin and said, “Be your daddy too, you ask nice.” He made kissing noises at me and the guys all fell out laughing.
“Better not be cheating on me, you two-bit ho,” Disney said with a grin.
“Aw, jealous? Don’t be, you’ll always be my Puddin’.”
“Alright! Alright!” Dray called, raising his hands up for order through his own laughter.
“Smoke, what say you.”
“I say, I’d love to drop that motherfucker and his truck off the Sandy River Bridge and let his ass die of exposure.”
Glances were traded around the table and a few of the guys looked impressed.
“Well,” Dray said looking to Data, “let’s see what we can’t do to make that happen, shall we?”
“Right, finding out all I can about the owner of that truck. See if we can figure out if it was him behind the wheel.”
“Good deal,” Dray said. “Any other order of business or whatever we have to attend to?”
The meeting wrapped up pretty quickly after that, and I followed Data to his fishbowl.
Christmas itself was right around the fuckin’ corner. Just the end of the week, and if there was a way to get this done before the holiday, I was all for it.
“What have you got?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“Looking through family, looks like this guy is older than dirt. I don’t think he was the driver. Maybe a son or grandson… nope, no kids. But he does have a nephew who has his own truck but that nephew’s son… doesn’t.”
“Winner, winner, chicken dinner?” I asked, as files swept across the computer monitor faster than I could track.
“Mmm, looks like the nephew wrote his kid off. I’m seeing a lot of shit like DUI, substance abuse arrest records. I think Grand Uncle couldn’t do it to him – strong family blood ties and all.”
“We need to find that truck and see who gets in it next,” Archer said from behind us both and I turned. Rush was standing next to him, arms crossed over his chest nodding to himself.
“Let me do that,” Rush said, and I nodded.
“Thanks, man.”