The stormy look that crossed his face told me that aim was dead in the water. “What the fuck?” he clipped.
I rolled my eyes, pulling out of his firm grasp and going to the fridge to get him a beer. He silently took it when I handed it to him, watching me expectantly. “I don’t know what else you expect me to say. Gwen asked. I said yes. That’s all, folks,” I told him. I frowned. “Do you not think it’s a good idea? Is Lexie not safe there or something?” I asked him quickly.
Zane stepped forward. “Safest fuckin’ place for her,” he bit out.
I relaxed. “Well then, what’s with the ‘tude, dude?” Not that he didn’t always have a stormy look on his attractive face.
He shook his head at my phrase, used to such things from me by now. He did one of his almost smile things and kissed me soundly.
“Um okay, teenage daughter approaching. Cool it with the tongue hockey, peeps,” we heard Lexie call.
Zane immediately released his lips from mine. His hands stayed at my waist.
Lexie was grinning at us both, not in the least traumatized by totally wrecking the mood. “Zane, will you please help us out by letting us know at least one biker appropriate song?” she pleaded with her doe eyes on. “The boys are like, freaking out,” she added.
Zane’s jaw ticked on this and I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing all over again.
He was happy. No other word for it. Bull was fucking happy. After Mia and Lexie had gotten over the trauma of losing two important people in their lives, their only family, they got back to themselves. Bull was fuckin’ shocked at his girls’ ability to carry on, to smile, joke, be fuckin’ nuts while they still grieved for people who were obviously their world.
He’d never forget Mia’s words that day in the car. The words she spoke to her daughter, trying to soothe her broken soul. What she had done was soothe Bull’s. Not completely; it would always be like a break that never healed right, but in that moment, she brought the sunshine in to the last dark corner of his soul. He loved her even more in that moment than he ever had. He loved her. Had for a while. He’d never admit it to himself. He couldn’t. He thought by doing that he’d be betraying her, dishonoring her memory somehow. Now he knew, he fuckin’ knew she’d want him to be happy. Have his family.
He’d never be happy like Cade was, like Brock was. Just wasn’t in him to show that easy affection his brothers did. Not anymore. He knew it got to Mia, hurt her. He struggled with that. No, battled with that. So he did his best to show her when it was just them, when he had a moment, how much she meant to him. How much she owned his soul.
But seeing her, seeing Lexie with his brothers at his club, taking to the life so well, he felt conflicted. He felt proud to give them something they had lacked, something Mia had lacked. A family. It ate him up inside every time he thought about the detached way she had told him about her lowlife parents. Killed him thinking someone like Mia hadn’t been given love. Then he almost burst with pride seeing what it had done to her. Hadn’t ruined her, broke her. It had made her determined to give her girl the best life she could, be the best mom he had ever seen.
Something had niggled at the back of his mind when she had told him about Lexie’s dad. He had been meaning to dig up where the fucker was hiding so he could put his mind at ease, but he hadn’t had time. Shit was busy with the club. Just because they turned legit didn’t mean they lost money. They fuckin’ gained it. They diversified, adapted. Which meant he was doing a lot of shit. Not all of it was always strictly legal, but it wasn’t exactly running guns either. With that came the other edge of the sword, having Mia and Lexie around the club. He loved his club, loved his brothers, but watching Mia with them sometimes made him feel like he was watching a ghost. Mia wasn’t like her. Nothing like her. Different in every way, apart from the golden hair on her head. But he felt the same as he did before. Happy, part of a family. Way he felt before his life got ruined forever. So he was waiting. Bracing. There was something that told him to be on guard. Something was coming. Brothers felt it too. May have had something to do with the whispers that the Lost Knights weren’t heeding their warning, that they were up to their old shit again. The plan was to check it out after the party, put their minds at ease.
Little did he know the party was going to be the thing to blow it all to shit. Take him back to darkness.