“Not this time. You’re the storyteller.”
Eden smiled and blushed. “Okay. It’s your heart. I know you have a heart. I’ve sort of seen it. The way you look at me sometimes. The way you make me feel when you look at me. You could have killed me or tossed me aside, but from day one you believed me and asked me to trust you.”
“And all this shit around the heart?” Trev asked.
“That’s your life. The MC. The guys that want you dead. The people you’ve hurt and killed. It all squeezes on your heart. It all matters to you but you can hide it.”
“Christ,” Trev said. “You could have tattooed a set of lips on my chest or ass… that would have been good too.”
Eden touched Trev’s shoulder. “I only do stuff that matters, Trev.”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Well, I hope you know that you matter. What happened here was needed. I have to find out the truth, beautiful. Accept that.”
“I do. It just hurts like death right now that my mother is out there and I can’t talk to her.”
Trev pulled Eden close.
This is why I don’t get involved… too many feelings…
“I know,” Trev whispered. “I promise you though, you will be able to talk to her. We just have to do this the right way. I don’t know what Ripper actually knows. I don’t know how Miller wants to handle it. There’s more to this than meets the eye. I don’t think Giovanni died in some kind of ambush. If we were ever ambushed, the prize is the President of the MC. Why would someone kill Giovanni and not Ripper?”
“I don’t know, Trev. Is this something you should be asking me?”
“No, it’s not. But I want you to understand my actions.”
“I trust you. I’m not lying when I say that.”
“Good.”
Trev kissed Eden. He turned and pushed her against the table.
“Careful,” she whispered. “I can’t be on my back right now.”
Trev grinned. “That’s okay.” He turned Eden around. One hand slid up her shirt, cupping her breast. The other down between her legs. “I’ll just have to enjoy the view from behind.”
Eden turned her head. Her cheeks were flushed. “What is this? Between us?”
“It’s everything you feel, beautiful.” Trev started to unbutton Eden’s jeans for the second time that night. “Shit, it’s everything I feel too.”
Trev stripped Eden’s jeans down again and touched her hips. She thrust herself back at him, making him laugh and making him painfully hard.
She had his ink. She had his heart.
Trev opened his jeans and stroked himself as he prepared to devour Eden again.
In his mind, he wondered how many times he’d have to fuck Eden before she finally got pregnant.
__
nineteen.
The evidence was starting to add up, and fast.
Trev listened as Miller stood at the head of the table, hand on a map. “It doesn’t make sense to me either. I was letting it roll off my back, trying to focus on the Griffin situation. But then Jasper called me. He’s beat up over it. He said that Ripper wanted him to take a run and Jasper fought back. He thinks Ripper is in bed with a gun deal and the O’Nuall family.”
“Jesus Christ,” Blaine said. “That’s the mafia. That’s some dark shit.”
“They have legit business from Nevada to the coast, Miller. Lots of desert, lots of graves.”
“They expanded to the east coast too,” Nate said. “Heard they were scooping up real estate after the market crash. Even getting into hotels and shit.”
“They love their legit businesses,” Miller said. “They love their crime, too. We’re talking big stuff here. Not just towns and police. This is bigger. Judges. Politicians. I’m talking huge here. Something this MC needs to be far away from.”
“What’s the play?” Jace asked. “Ripper working for them?”
“Christ,” Blaine said. He leaned in. “Giovanni.”
“What about?” Trev asked.
“His name. He’s Italian. Came from rich blood, right? Old country shit. His family beefed with the Irish.”
“Fuck me,” Gaige said.
“You think the O’Nuall family hit Giovanni?” Miller asked.
“With Ripper’s help,” Trev said. He then thought about it and he stood up. “Fuck.”
“What?” Miller asked.
“Griffin.”
“Griffin?” Gaige asked.
“He was working with Ripper and guns years ago. I remember it when Griffin was outlaw. He’d come to The Lost Men for space and some time. He was never actually patched in with the Daurian charter but he was always there.”
“Yeah,” Blaine said, “fucking Ripper’s old lady and knocking her up.”
“I’m worried it was more,” Trev said. “Maybe that’s why the letter was written and given to Eden when it was. Griffin’s dead and he can’t protect her anymore. Shit. Then someone shows up and tries taking her out.”
“Wait a second,” Miller said. “We have nothing to connect any of this.”
“You said Jasper called you,” Trev said.