Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Her next breath came slower, and the tension remained clear beneath her voice.
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Not a scratch.”
Tamsin huffed. “That wasn’t exactly what I asked.”
A rough smile pulled at my mouth because she knew me too well despite the short time we’d been together. I turned farther from the yard lights and rested one hand against the fence.
“No brothers were injured. Neither was I.”
She sighed softly, the relief evident. Then she asked, “Did you find out who is behind this?”
“Got everyone who was there. The bastard running the outside crew wasn’t on-site, and neither was the person feeding him information from Bellamy.”
“So they're still out there.”
“For now.” I didn’t like the defeat I heard in her tone, so I changed the subject. “Found one surprise in the storage building.”
“The damaged case?” she guessed.
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“You were right.”
“I’m going to need more information than that,” she groused, irritation edging through the relief already moving into her voice.
“Saving the rest for when I’m close enough to enjoy your reaction.”
She chuckled, but her voice was shaky enough to tell me exactly how tightly she had been holding herself together. “You’re impossible.”
“You keep saying that like it’s gonna change something.”
“Fair point.” Her voice softened before she added, “Come back.”
“Always, pretty girl.”
I ended the call, then returned to the warehouse while the club stripped the operation down. Bellamy material was secured for transport, phones and records went into our vehicles, and the surviving crew members were handled.
The raid had taken their primary storage site, most of their manpower, and enough records to expose the outside operation. What remained was the insider, the crew leader, and whatever they had staged at another Bellamy property. They would know before sunrise that this place was gone, and desperate men rarely stayed still.
19
TAMSIN
When I woke and realized Gavin was gone, I hadn’t been able to fall back asleep. So I went down to the kitchen to make some coffee. Which turned out to be a good thing because I was alert during our call. And I had something to drink while I paced afterward, waiting for him to return.
Unfortunately, he looked rough when he came through the clubhouse door. His knuckles were split, he was covered in dust, and some of it was streaked with blood.
At my horrified gasp, he explained. “Blood’s not mine.”
“It better not be.” I rushed over and hugged him. “The others?”
“All home.”
Some of my tension eased. “And the person after me?”
“Still out there. No confirmation Len is the inside man.”
Going by the state of his knuckles, I assumed it had taken some effort to get the answers he’d been given. I understood that club business included violence, but nothing I’d seen made me think the Black Crowns were careless or indiscriminate. And I could live with that.
“Can we go home now?”
“Yeah.”
We took his motorcycle through the quiet canyon roads, my arms around him tighter than the speed required. The house was still dark when we pulled in, but there were already Black Crowns on the perimeter.
When we got inside, I pointed him to a kitchen chair and got my first-aid kit. He sat and let me clean his split knuckle, watching my face instead of his hand.
“You don’t have to fuss.”
“I know.” But I didn’t stop because I loved him.
When I was finishing up, most of the tension had finally eased from his muscles. I set the kit aside and stepped between his knees. He looked up at me, and I put my hands on his face and kissed him like I had been waiting all night for this moment.
A deep groan rumbled up his chest, and he let me lead for a moment. Then his good hand fisted in the front of my shirt, and he pulled me in until I was pressed against the hard length in his jeans.
A helpless sound slipped out of me, and his tongue swept across my lower lip before pushing inside. I rocked into the thick ridge behind his zipper.
“Tamsin.”
“I want you.” Emboldened by the heat in his dark eyes, I added, “Now.”
The chair scraped back as he stood, sliding an arm under my butt to lift me. I twined my arms around his neck and held on, trying not to move too much so I didn’t risk him popping one of his stitches.
The bruise along his ribs had to pull, but he didn’t slow down. “Bed. Before I take you on the table.”
“Wouldn’t complain,” I teased, although I wasn’t really joking.
“Don’t tempt me when we have a perfectly good mattress twenty feet away.”
I loved that he used “we” when talking about the bed because I wanted the man I loved to feel at home in my house. And I enjoyed the heck out of how he kicked the bedroom door wider with his boot and sat down on the edge of the bed with me still in his lap.