Our time apart had changed her. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not.
Frowning at her, I grabbed the shotgun, dumped out the used shell and pocketed the full one as I demanded, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
Her chin tipped up as she got in my face. "You think you’re the only one who can protect our family?"
"It’s my goddamn job, Keira," I rumbled, even though her heat slammed into me like a wall.
I’d never enjoyed butting up against fire before, but hell, even my dick didn’t taste the pain of the padlock, just appreciated her outrage.
"Well, you’re not alone anymore, are you?" Her nostrils flared. "You could have gotten yourselves killed. I couldn’t call the cops, not without making you look bad at the clubhouse, but I knew a neighbor would call in a shot.
"I saved your ass so I don’t have to tell my little girl that her daddy got his butt killed in the middle of the street."
Her words reverberated in my head, making me grab her chin with a gentleness that surprised her, made her jump, but I tipped it high, then slammed my lips against hers.
She groaned, her hands coming up, nails dragging through my hair as she shoved herself into me, tongues tangling as she thrust hers into my mouth, fucking me rather than me fucking her.
She was angry and hot and scared, and I felt each emotion bleed into me with the purity of the finest cocaine.
Having never experienced anything like it, I let the immobilized shotgun stay hooked in the crook of my elbow as, with my other, I hauled her closer, my hand on her ass, kneading the ripe curve as I ground my dick into her.
The pain was fucking delicious as I pulled back, nipping her bottom lip before I moved down, my mouth trailing over the curve of her throat as I sucked and licked and kissed.
"Fuck, I would have given my left ball to watch you fire that shotgun," I growled. My hand tightened on her ass. "My woman. My fucking Old Lady."
She moaned as I sucked down hard, nipping on her throat before making my way to her lips again.
I didn’t sup from her, treat her delicately like I usually did.
I didn’t make love to her, didn’t kiss and cherish, I fucking worshipped her.
I took.
She gave.
I tongue-fucked her.
She fought back.
I tasted her and reveled in her and savored her.
She groaned and tried to claw at my skin, pressing ever nearer to me, like she wanted to get inside me, and I understood. I fucking got it.
As her mouth tore at mine, I heard the sirens getting nearer, and felt the lights flickering behind me.
When the squad car braked to a halt with a squeak that told me the vehicle needed some work, I heard a wary, "Storm?"
Pulling back, I growled, "Mine." Nipping the thick pad of her chin before I tipped it back, I nuzzled my face in the nook between her throat and shoulder, and bit down there too.
A whimper escaped her, but it turned into a groan as I pulled away.
"Sheriff Myers," I rumbled, twisting around before I let myself forget I couldn’t fuck my woman until August. Before I forgot there was a Sheriff standing on my property.
One thing I wouldn’t forget?
The day my wife graduated as my Old Lady for real.
Twenty-Six
Storm
PAST
Bittersweet Sweet Symphony - The Verve
I stared up at the ceiling, wondering when the light show would stop overhead.
Hundreds of colors merged and flowed together, keeping my attention, holding it like nothing else could.
LSD wasn’t my favorite, usually it ended with me puking and suffering night terrors, but it was all I’d been able to score.
Now I was high, the inner peace it brought was like nothing else because my mind was splintered in so many different directions that one thought brought another.
Without Keira, what was the point in trying to stay focused?
Without Keira, I couldn’t function.
This way, my mind and body were in accord—chaos. Each thought acting like a game of word association.
My camera lens was having issues—I needed a new one for when the baby was born.
I was going to be a dad.
I needed to be better than my POS sperm donor.
Shit—
Scum.
Scum.
Scum.
That was me.
Mom said so.
Scarlet did too.
Trash.
Worthless.
Keira deserved better—
My kid deserved better.
Should I just end it?
Save them from me?
From my poison?
The colors twisted and morphed, bringing me peace again, bringing me some solace from my drifting thoughts, and that was when the bed jerked as someone climbed onto it.
"Keira?" Hope hit me like it always did when she was there, offering me a chance at a brighter future, at a cleaner world. "Is that you?" I rasped eagerly, blindly seeking her out amid the shadows.
She hummed.
"You came back?" I sighed. "Why you always gotta leave me, baby girl?"
She didn’t reply, just pressed her mouth to mine, settled against me and held me like she knew my broken pieces were in danger of shattering even more, before her hold on me changed, morphed...
I fell asleep like that, fell asleep with her close. Somehow right and wrong. Somehow different. My subconscious kept me wary, which turned my trip into a bad one.
The nightmares were extreme.
Memories of Scarlet and me eating ketchup sandwiches with green-spattered bread where the mold talked to us.
The joy of being with Rene and Bear broken when she made it out of jail and took us to the next squalid pit where the walls caved in whenever she locked the door behind her, leaving Scarlet and me alone.
Boyfriends I had to call ‘uncle’ beating me for stealing their chips, their fists ten times the size of regular hands—
My brain wouldn’t work.
Couldn’t work—
Reel after reel of each year of my life, the misery my mom had brought upon me.
And my father too.
I jerked awake.
Jolted by a soft snore that was definitely not Keira’s.
She didn’t snore.
Keira talked in her sleep.
The sight of the brassy red hair smoothed over my chest had anger ricocheting inside me, even as the need to puke hit me square in the gut.
"Kendra?" I barked, shoving her away, desperate for her to wake up before Keira came back. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
Her dazed eyes popped open and, sleepily, she smiled at me. "Good morning, baby."
"I’m not your baby," I snapped, shoving her away from me again.
Light splintered in through the shades, making my head ache, but that was nothing to my soul.
"What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?"
Where was Keira?
"You asked me up here."
I’d never liked her.
She wore her hair red right now, and it suited her. Scarlet Lady. Just like my sister.
Her cat eyes gleamed, her mouth curved into a pout, and everything about her should have gotten me hot, but it never had. Never would.
"I didn’t," I told her, my tone like concrete. I’d never wanted her. Before Keira, and certainly not after. "Did you sneak into my fucking room?"