You want to be out there with her, fucking prick.
The truth was he wanted to spend as much time with Callie as possible, but now she wanted to know about the past and he had no interest in sharing anything about that. He’d learned long ago nothing good came from looking back. People thought it did, but it didn’t.
His life hadn’t been a picnic. It had been hard and painful. His mother was an abusive bitch who sought out even more abusive bastards to hurt him.
He’d gotten away, but it had taken him a long time to fight for himself. One of the many reasons he hit first, asked questions later. So long as he got the first punch in, he always came out a winner.
Callie wasn’t like that. He got that her past wasn’t as clean sailing as he first thought. Her own mother kicking her out of the trailer she was raised in was the first indication, then of course was the way she acted around violence.
Thinking about her mother, he made a note to go and visit the bitch. He was determined to make Callie’s life the best it could be.
No one was going to get in the way of that.
“You’re just going to be there silent?” Lord asked.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me you’ve got a date.”
“Callie can wait.”
This made Lord chuckle. “Already fucking up.”
“Club business comes first,” Brick said.
Lord sighed. “Club business comes first, but you also need to learn to have a life, Brick. To balance it out.”
“Why? Because you’re a prime example of it.”
This made Lord chuckle. “You don’t see or hear my woman complaining.”
“You spoil her.”
“In case you didn’t notice, some women are worth spoiling. Don’t you want to do the same with your woman?”
“That’s beside the point. Callie knows the club will come first.” The lake wasn’t going to dry up straight away. They had time.
As he thought that, he recalled the memory of her being wrapped around him. The sweet promises he’d made when he left their bedroom. Even now, he didn’t think of it as his bed, but theirs.
What was his was now hers, and vice versa. He ran a hand down his face. Now he started to think like a married man. If he went on any longer, he was well and truly fucked.
“I don’t know if I feel sorry for you or not,” Lord said.
Brick looked at the Skull Nation, trying to figure out what was going on. Their compound was back up and running. There should be many bodies tonight. The destruction would have been easy.
“Do you think they know what happened to Jeff?” Brick asked.
“They know everything, and I bet they’re anticipating us to hit back. What I want to know is what they’ve got planned for retaliation.” Lord cracked his neck to the side.
Brick waited.
Lord did this from time to time. Where he spent moments of silence trying to get into his enemies’ heads, attempting to detect their next move.
“If you were him, what would you do?” he asked.
“I’d expect an attack tonight. My guess is the guys who are wearing the leather cuts are prospects or willing volunteers. You don’t put your best guys out to be slaughtered. They must be in a safe haven. Somewhere that would make them feel safe, anyway. That’s the only explanation for it, but why? If I expected an attack and didn’t take the chance to defend, then it’s because you have a bigger plan. What would that bigger plan be?” Lord ran a hand through his hair before pulling out his cell phone.
Brick looked over to see him dialing Righteous, the club’s chaplain. The one man who probably knew a whole host of sins.
“Anything happen?”
He didn’t hear what Righteous had to say.
Lord didn’t say anything and then hung up. “I don’t like this. We need all the guys to be in church.”
“Lord, that’s not a good idea. The rat.”
He still needed to deal with the lead Copper mentioned.
“Fucking piece of shit. I want to know what the fuck these bastards are up to. It’s time to go visit Jeff.”
“You want to go to the hospital?”
“It’s the only place we’re going to be able to go. He’ll know something. I just know it, and as for all of this shit, we’ll deal with it.” Lord looked ready to commit murder. His prez was crazier than him, which said a lot.
They straddled their bikes and took off, riding right to the hospital. They had left Jeff in a bad way. Dumping his ass at the hospital afterward, which was more than he deserved.
There was no chance in hell he was going to squeal.
Brick felt the wind across his face, but rather than embrace being on the open road, he was ready to explode with anger. He wanted to be back in Callie’s arms. The thought of any of the Skull Nation getting close to her filled him with dread. This should have been a done deal tonight. Instead, they were chasing themselves, trying to play catchup.