He tilts his head to the side as he lifts his hand and rubs his bearded chin. My knee starts to bounce as I wait for whatever the fuck he’s about to tell me. I hate it when he does this shit. It’s annoying as fuck. He acts like everything is some big dramatic fucking thing.
“Her father set up offshore accounts in her name,” he announces.
My body jerks, my knee stops its movement and I stare at him slack-jawed. Closing my mouth, I shake my head once. “What the fuck does that mean?” I demand.
He presses his lips together in a thin line and shrugs a shoulder. “It means she has more money than ten people could spend in a lifetime,” he says. “Means I told her about it too.”
My stomach sinks. Not that I wanted her to be dependent on me. But I kind of did. I can’t deny that I liked the fact that she thought she couldn’t leave me. That I somehow had this hold over her, one where she couldn’t just turn and walk away from me.
I’ve never had anything of my own, not really, never had a woman give much of a fuck about me and at my age, I liked the idea that I could keep her—maybe even have a life with her, one like my brothers have with their women.
“She doesn’t want it,” he explains.
My eyes flick up to meet his. “She doesn’t want it,” I repeat.
Dragon shakes his head slowly, his gaze never leaving my own. “Doesn’t want a fucking thing to do with it.”
“Why?”
Dragon shrugs a shoulder. “Says she can’t take it, knowing how it was collected.”
Pressing my lips together, I lean back in my seat and watch him for a moment, wondering what the fuck I’m going to do. Why the fuck he’s told me about this now, and what he expects from me and Leighton.
“So, what’s your reason behind telling me any of this?” I grind out.
Dragon watches me for a moment, but I know him, I know that he has a reason for every single fucking thing that he does, including this.
“I had Worm look into her past, look into her father. She is like a fucking ghost, the only thing that I could find were bits and pieces of her life on the run. Before that, it was like she didn’t exist. Her father was fucked, but I wanted to know how fucked she was too.”
“You think I’d bring her in here and let her hurt the club? The family?” I ask, keeping my voice low, but unable to hide the anger that’s simmering just beneath the surface.
Dragon doesn’t speak right away. Instead, he does what he must really fucking enjoy doing—he watches me. He waits, he dissects me. The motherfucker. Standing, I walk over to the front of his desk and ball my hands into fists before I slam them down against the scarred wood.
“This club is my life. I would rather die than let any of my brothers, any of their women, or children get hurt. I would kill to protect this family, fuck, I have killed to protect this family,” I grind out.
“Calm,” he growls.
“Fuck calm,” I snap, straightening my back as I look down my nose at him. “Fuck calm,” I repeat. “You want me to kill her right now, just say the word. She’s gone, but honest to fuck, after three goddamn decades, I didn’t realize I still had to prove my loyalty.”
“You don’t,” he says, his voice even, too fucking even.
Shaking my head a couple of times, I continue to watch him. “Then what the fuck is this?” I demand.
He clears his throat, his gaze never leaving mine and his expression never changing as he continues to just take me in, watch me, wait to see if I’m going to lose my shit or not. I’m close, really fucking close at this point. Not because it’s over a bitch, but because this is my brother and he’s acting as though I’m betraying my men, my fucking family.
“This is me giving her an out to see what kind of woman she is. You’re my brother, not just because of the club, but because you just plain fuckin’ are. I won’t have some manipulative bitch bringing you down, I won’t have another Savannah.”
Curling my lip, I grunt. “I ain’t Hawk. She ain’t Savannah. I don’t know much, but I can tell she’s suffered at the hands of that man, and if I could kill him again, I’d make it hurt.”
“She has, and she’s innocent as far as I can see. I needed to know though, you have a type, Wilder, and that type is rich, money-hungry, and stuck up their own ass.”
My lips twitch, because he’s fucking right. I can’t even argue with him. I do like stuck up the ass rich bitches, always have. I don’t know if it’s that, want what you can’t have thing or what, but I’ve always been attracted to them. Fuck, maybe I’m more of a masochist than I ever thought?
“Christ. What do I do with her now? I’m leaving in the morning.”
“It’s a good test, see what she can handle.”
Shaking my head, I lift my hand and run it through my hair as I close my eyes slowly, then open them again. Inhaling a deep breath, I lift my gaze to meet Dragon’s.
“I don’t do tests. I’m too old for that shit. She wants me, wants to stay, then she will. She wants to go, she’ll go. I’m not going to force a thing.”
“Seemed like you wanted to about a minute ago.”
I snort. “Yeah, maybe. Seems like the easy thing to do though, and I don’t want what’s easy when it comes to Leighton. I want what’s real.”
“Been about five minutes, brother. Have a feeling none of this shit is truly real yet.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Guess we’ll find out.”
“Like a test?”
Tilting my head to the side, I can’t help but let out a low laugh. “Like fucking reality.”
Without another word, I turn from him and walk out of the office. Rich. Not just rich, but rich as fuck rich. Most would say she deserves the money. She was raised in Hell by the Devil himself.
But what I know about Leighton so far, she isn’t the type to be able to live with herself if she used that money. She won’t take it, not even with as tempting as it assuredly is and me? I’d rather watch it burn.
Walking into the bar, I stick to the side of the wall, taking in the room and finding her exactly where I left her. I don’t know what it is, or why, but she’s special. I’m not in love, probably never will be, but I know a good thing when I have it, and Leighton is good.
She’s broken just like me, but in a different way and I like that she’s not perfect, no matter how fucking perfect she looks on the outside. She looks up as Pinkie slides into the seat next to her. She offers her hand and they introduce themselves to one another.
I haven’t told Leighton who Pinkie and the other women are here, what they are, but she probably already has it all figured out. Leighton senses someone watching her, she slowly turns her head, her eyes finding mine and her lips curve up into a grin.
Pushing off the wall, I make my way toward her. I need to be inside of her again. Fucking her against that wall, fighting with her afterward, it wasn’t enough. I need more. A whole fucking lot more.
LEIGHTON
Pinkie slips away from me. She seems nice, though I’m not sure how I feel about her being a whore. It shouldn’t bother me, wasn’t I the same damn thing? What does bother me is that she’s touched Mountain though, that’s what has me twisted up, and it’s stupid, because I just saw some bitch with her mouth wrapped around his dick.