Page 28 of Saving Her
“Always, Mama. Fucking always,” he answers, making me smile as he grasps my neck again and brings me down so he can kiss my eyelids. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart,” I whisper, before finally collapsing against him.
We lie in silence together and I slide down enough that I can lay my ear against his heart. I listen to the steady rhythm, letting it relax me.
“You go to sleep, Mama?” he asks a little while later.
“Mm …,” I respond and smile. “Just enjoying being with you again. Dragon?”
“Yeah?”
“Promise me you’ll be careful and come back to me?”
“I promise. Nothing will ever keep me away from you, woman. You know that.”
“Take care of our boys, too.”
“Stop worrying, Mama. Have faith in your man.”
I settle down once more with a grin. “You always say that to me.”
“And you always forget,” he grumps.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I always have faith in you. I just like to hear you order me to do so.”
“Always busting my balls,” he mumbles, and I giggle as he holds me tighter. Even after all these years, this man is everything I could want—hell, maybe more so.
Chapter 20
King
“King, I thought we decided it was better if we took a break from one another.”
“I didn’t decide that. You did. I miss you, Shelby.”
“Is that why you’re in North Carolina and making sure I don’t leave my grandmothers?” she huffs. I close my eyes to bite down on the anger that I feel. We used to get along so well. I don’t understand why, suddenly, it feels like we’re enemies.
“I told you, I’m here for work.”
“You don’t work, King. You do whatever it is for the club and if things don’t change, you’re going to be in jail.”
“Shelby, you knew what I did before we got together. You said you liked my brothers. We were happy. Hell, at least I was. I still don’t understand what’s going on. You changed like someone flipped a light switch. I’m not even sure I ever knew you at this point.”
“I don’t think you did either. I’m not sure I knew you either. The man I fell in love with was not a cold-blooded killer.”
There it is. That’s her favorite insult for me. It’s also when shit went bad. She overheard the girls in the club talking about me killing someone, and Shelby asked them who they were talking about. The girls didn’t think nothing of it. They told her I killed Gina. Shelby lost it. It didn’t matter that the bitch had a gun on me, nor that she had betrayed the club in a way that made us lose a member. All she could see is that I killed a woman. I guess in her mind, vengeance would only be doled out against other males. I swear I’m almost positive that Shelby would rather I have died by Gina’s hand than the way it ended.
To me, this is just another sign that happily ever after is not for me. I thought I could grasp it. I wanted the life T and Grunt had. I wanted the type of life I never saw growing up. Yet, just when I thought I was obtaining it—it all went to hell. Now, I’m reminded of who I am. The only person to ever love me was my mother. It was just me and her and even that went to hell. She had to travel a lot for work and said it wasn’t safe for me. She left me with her sister—Ramona. I can’t even call the woman my aunt, because she didn’t really like me. Ramona only kept me for the money that my mother gave her. Mom still did her best to come see me at least once a month and spend a few days with me. Growing up, those days were the only times that I can truly remember being happy. When my mother died in some kind of accident, I was only nineteen. Ramona never really explained what happened. Ramona just came by the club and handed me my mother’s urn, saying the state of Tennessee had sent my mom’s ashes to her. She gave me the urn before walking off and telling me she never wanted to see me again. I let her go and, as cold as it sounds, I didn’t push to find out more.
Mom had pretty much disappeared from my life a year or two before that. I didn’t blame her. Mom had already made it clear the year before that Dragon had ruined her life and refused to support us. She said because of that she’d managed to hitch her wagon to some biker who didn’t want another man’s bastard around. She still sent money back. I didn’t bother telling Mom that I was living on my own by then. Mom stayed wasted. I heard it in every call she made. The woman I loved and remembered ceased to exist a year or so before she died. I tried to ask her what happened, but all she would tell me was that Dragon ruined her life. I knew that. I’d heard that story my entire life. Any money she sent went to Ramona anyway, it always had. So, I just let her ramble and told her I loved her. I’ve lost count of how often I asked if she’d let me come and get her and take care of her. I told her I could provide for both of us, but she wouldn’t even tell me where she was at. I probably could have found out, but I got to where it just wasn’t worth it. In the end, my mother was like everyone else. I just wasn’t good enough to stick around for.
“Are you even listening to me, King?” Shelby asks.
“Yeah,” I lie. “I have to go. Just stay there where you’re safe. Don’t head back to our house. I’m still in North Carolina and most of the club is too. Those that aren’t are on lockdown. If you want to come home, I can call one of the guys to come and get you.”
“I can take care of myself,” she mutters. “Besides, it’s not like many people even know we were together except for your club.”
“Shelby, please listen to me. It’s not safe for you to be there without guards. We have to take care of this club and end the threat. I’ll be back in town soon,” I tell her, not missing how she mentioned that we were together.