Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Jennings holds me tighter, “she’s stable, but she took a bullet to the back. Gotta see how the damage plays out long term.”
Tears fall down my face.
“I’ve made a mess of so many lives.”
Jennings pulls back and I think for a moment, he must agree. Instead, he cups my chin to make me look at him. “Buttercup, we all make decisions. Some good, some bad. They change the course of our lives and those around us. Kitty knows what it means to be tied to the Kings. What happened isn’t on you, she knows what she’s part of. Benny, he knew his life, he brought you in it regardless. And don’t think for one second you made a mess of mine. Before you, I stopped living a long damn time ago. In these few days, you have given me a reason to inhale and exhale with meaning and not just existing.”
“I’m not worth the trouble, Jennings. Everything I touch goes up in ashes.”
He drops his head to mine. “I’ve been burned by life in the cruelest of ways. You, Michele Leigh Cramer or Leigh Michele Range whichever you choose to go by for the future are worth every risk for even a taste of your goodness.”
I can’t speak as the lump of emotions gets stuck in my throat.
“I’ve never felt more seen in my life than you have given me in two days, Jennings.”
He smiles, “wait until you see what I can give you in a month, then a year. Wait until you see what life is like on the calm side of things. I’m gonna give you that and so much more. You gonna give me that shot, buttercup?”
Am I?
I feel overwhelmed. I don’t answer him, and thankfully he doesn’t push. There is a flurry of things around us as other Kings are stepping up to clean up, others are getting Benny checked out, and well, Rogue has been told to take me home.
What is home?
What is it going to be like to not look over my shoulder anymore?
Right now, I don’t have any answers.
All I have is a headache and a heartache.
CHAPTER 14
Rogue
Her arms wrapped around my waist, her front pressed to my back, every bit of this feels like a gift. This is something I never shared with Ayla. I didn’t have a bike back then. In fact, this is the first time I can say I’ve had a woman I genuinely have feelings for on my bike. It’s a unique feeling knowing that for some motorcycles scare them. For me, to ride reminds me I’m alive. The sounds, the wind, everything feels so much more when on a Harley-Davidson. Sharing this with her, the fearless way she embraces it, gives me this pull deep inside.
We ride with Henley at our back until we pull up to her townhouse. She climbs off quietly. I follow suit and secure her helmet in my saddlebag before we enter her house.
Henley is behind us, I point to the couch, “crash there, brother.”
“You got it, Rogue.”
“I have a guest-room,” she tells me.
“Get that, but he needs to be downstairs.”
“Oh,” she studies me, “okay.”
In a daze, she makes her way to her bedroom. Taking her by the hand I pull her to me. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her close. “Gotta let it out, buttercup.”
She snuggles into me, but doesn’t speak. Her hair is matted with a mixture of Diaz and Benincio’s blood. I know she needs to get this off her to begin processing what she’s experienced today.
“Let me draw you a bath.”
Again she doesn’t answer. I move to the bathroom and I’m surprised to find her following me rather than staying in her room alone. In her bathroom, there isn’t much space. I get the bathtub filling with warm water and look around for Epsom salt or a bath bomb, something to relax her. Under the cabinet I find a pink bath bomb and toss it in. Once the water gets to a decent level, I move to Michele.
Gently, I lift my sweatshirt from her body. My t-shirt clings to her as the blood from Cartagena seeped through to her skin. I remove it tossing it in the trash can for me to dispose of later. She stands in front of me in my rolled boxers that have another man’s blood on them.
A growl escapes me.
“Jennings,” she softly says my name, “are you okay with all of this?”
I drop to my knees in front of her, slowly sliding my boxers down off her body. Her concern for me is sweet in a way I’ve never experienced before. “I’m okay with you and that’s all that matters.” I won’t lie, another man’s blood covers her body right now. No, that is not okay. Even if I understand how it happened, why it happened, it doesn’t feel good.