That was, she made a decision if she lived to carry it through.
But mostly, she made the decision because she was realizing acutely in that moment that life was short.
Even so, that decision had conditions.
“You don’t interfere,” she stated.
“Say what?” Aryas asked.
“I’m coming home.”
“Brilliant,” he muttered, a lightness in his deep voice she hadn’t heard since before she left, and they didn’t talk all the time, but they talked frequently.
Or it was more like Aryas checked in frequently. Sixx wasn’t one to stay in contact or give much away.
Ever.
“And you don’t interfere,” she demanded. “It happens naturally with Stellan if it happens at all without you sticking your big nose in it.”
“I do not have a big nose,” he huffed. Though he was pretending to sound hurt, even in her state she couldn’t miss he was pleased.
“Now let me go so I don’t crash this vehicle and end up in a body cast, not on my way to finishing this job and heading to the Valley of the Sun.”
“The job going okay?”
Hell no.
“It’s almost done,” she answered.
And that was no lie.
“Then I’m letting you go,” he said.
“Right.”
“Sixx?”
“What?” she demanded impatiently, beginning to blink too much and knowing from past experience that wasn’t good.
Maybe she should keep him on the line.
“I love everything about you. I’d break my back, sell my soul, work my fingers to the bone for you. And if you want me not to interfere, I’ll do that too. But if you start fucking shit up, I’m in the game. Now finish this fucking job and come home. We miss you.”
The call dropped before she could say a word.
But it was good Aryas got his words in.
They kept her going until she was safe.
Then, dragging herself through the back door of a clinic that through the powers of Carlo had been opened specifically for her, it was lights out.
one
Let’s Go
SIXX
Present day …
Sixx wandered the halls of the Bee’s Honey for absolutely no purpose except to make the boys in the booth watching the cameras that monitored the action in the club think she was taking in the scene.
Instead, she was biding time to go into the Dom Lounge to get what she’d stashed in her locker.
She was over it.
Over the scene.
Over the wait.
Done.
The Honey had now become a place she could hang and have a drink, connect with some friends if she was in the mood, get some of her kink by watching, and torture herself being around Stellan.
It was also where she stashed something if she had it to stash. This was because the Honey had surveillance and security that rivaled that of the White House. If a person wasn’t supposed to be there, they didn’t get in there. The end.
She’d been back in Phoenix now for a while.
Months.
And although she’d put on a variety of shows, bided her time, put herself out there, made herself available, Stellan hadn’t thrown down the gauntlet.
She sure as hell wasn’t making the first move.
Thus that first move wasn’t going to be made.
So be it.
She hadn’t expected much and she sure got that.
And she had to admit, part of her was relieved (a large part).
Because if he took a shot, what then?
Could she protect him from all that was her?
Doubtful.
More like impossible.
She never had with anyone who mattered, not that she’d had many in her life who mattered.
And Stellan absolutely did not deserve to have to deal with all that could befall anyone who got close to Sixx.
Tonight was different, though.
Tonight, she wanted done with the extracurricular activity she was engaged in.
Also tonight she roamed the halls knowing Stellan was there, he’d taken a room, and he’d gone off his normal modus operandi.
He’d selected a female sub.
He’d also selected a male.
If in a mood, though that mood was always rare, he’d pick more than one sub.
But they were always females.
Sixx had a feeling she knew why he’d done this. She had Google alerts set up, and she’d seen it.
That it being that it was announced to the media that day that the two-and-a-half-month marriage of Andreas Lange and his pretty-much-child bride Priscilla was done. Although the press was asked to leave the couple alone in this trying time, it was nevertheless reported that Andreas might often think with his dick and had apparent self-esteem issues that drove him to having a pretty young thing dripping off his arm, but when it counted, he used his other head. The one with an actual brain in it.
In other words, he had a reported ironclad prenuptial agreement, and the soon-to-be-again Ms. Newton would walk away with the engagement ring he gave her, any gifts she’d acquired during their relationship and nothing else.
Nothing else.
Not even a settlement.
She was young, and Sixx knew that young didn’t make you stupid, it just made you young, na?ve, and perhaps with the beauty that girl had, overconfident. Thus she probably thought her golden looks mingled with a twenty-two-year-old pussy would buy her a lot more time to get a lot more gifts.
Sadly, she’d been wrong.
Sixx could not know how this news affected Stellan. Although they had exchanged a variety of words since she’d been home, they’d both been at a few get-togethers where he didn’t avoid her, but he didn’t pursue her, they’d caught each other’s eyes on a number of occasions; and she’d noted him watching her work with her submissives, as he’d noted her doing the same with his, they had not even resurrected the loose but friendly relationship they’d had before she’d left.
She put it down to him still smarting from Leigh’s falling in love with another man.
That said, even if Leigh had, it appeared that not much had changed between Stellan and Amélie. Although chilly between them when Sixx got back, that had thawed, and they were as sociable and close as they ever had been. And it was clear Stellan liked Olly, Amélie’s enormous, gorgeous stallion.
Then again, everyone liked Olly. It was impossible not to like the guy. He was just that guy who had it all and not simply the fact he was so easy to look at.
He adored Leigh, for one. Utterly. And he did not hide it in the slightest.
But he was outgoing, funny, solid. If you were moving house and you needed an extra pair of hands, he was there. If you had a nephew (or niece) who wanted to be a firefighter (which Olly was), he’d take the kid through his station and introduce him to all the guys. If you were at a cookout with him and running low on your drink, you found your glass slid out of your hand and another one put in it without even having to ask.
Even Stellan, wanting Amélie for as long as he did, couldn’t dislike the guy.
So they’d become friends.
And Sixx had watched.
That was one of the two things she’d done since being back.
In a halfhearted attempt to get his attention (and keep Aryas off her back), she played.
And she watched.
Which was what she was on a mission to do now before she hit the Dom Lounge to prepare to complete her other mission.
As she wandered, Sixx didn’t spend time watching Mira and Trey in their room.
It was tough watching Mira work now that she had a sub and they were together together. In other words, in love. Mira was good at what she did, and Trey liked what his Mistress gave him, but that look of adoration on her face while she was doing it …
Sixx just couldn’t deal with it.
This was also why she avoided Leigh and Olly when they were at play (and more recently, also when they weren’t because the connection they had between them just didn’t stop).