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— GRACY —
I can’t believe the asshole hung up on me. “Mothertrucker,” I grumble as I step into the lobby, making Travis’ head swing up.
“Well, good afternoon to you too.” Travis closes the book he was glancing through and strolls around the desk to stand in front of it. “Do I even dare ask why you’re growling?”
“Eddie,” I sigh in frustration.
“Ah, sculpted abs hottie. What did he do? Flash you the goods without letting you touch it?” Travis chuckles but it stops when he sees me narrow my eyes.
“Oh, he flashed, and I touched alright. Hell, they were even mine for a mere hour or two before I realized he just used me to flash my name and statement at others,” I seethe and realize I’m losing a grip on myself.
I take a steady breath and try to calm down.
“I’m sure it was all a mix up or something. Maggie’s son would never be disrespectful,” Travis says and I guess I’m out of my depths here.
“I only know what I heard and saw when I was pulled into his mess, Travis. But I swear it all made sense. You know what? I’m going to pack a bag and take a few days off. I’m going to talk to Maggie and tell her that I’m going to need a few days off starting now, okay?”
“Okay, sweetie. You take care of you and if there’s anything I can help with or if you want to talk or just sit and drink wine, call me, okay?”
I nod absently and stomp to Maggie’s bungalow. I heard the words Yates threw at Rush. I know what Eddie said to me, and how I felt, and how we connected so well together last night. And then we were together, and dammit, why is everything so freaking complicated?
Rush is an asshole taunting Eddie, and I can’t imagine going through all of the stuff Eddie is dealing with. Not to mention I heard Rush insinuate he killed Eddie’s father. And then the things he said about my father. No, Spencer isn’t even my father.
I haven’t seen Spencer in nine months. Time is ticking. Spencer will have it all. It’s almost been nine months since my mother’s death. Shit. My mother’s will. When I left right after her funeral, we had an appointment set to go through my mother’s will. What if it has to do with the inheritance? Great, now I have more to add to the long list of things going on in my life.
Then add Eddie’s crazy mess to it and it’s a full-blown roller coaster ride of insanity. One thing at a time. I need to clear my head and that’s exactly what I’m going to do; a few days of vacation time on my boat.
But I have to talk to Maggie about it first. I’m sure she’ll be fine with me taking a few days off, though. I use the key to open the door and my gut instantly knows something is wrong. I rush inside and glance around. I don’t see anyone but I hear faint barking coming from the patio.
Running outside, I notice Finn is jumping his front paw on Maggie’s shoulder who is lying on the ground. It seems as if she fell or, dammit. I grab my phone and call the emergency number while I drop down next to her.
Frantically I search for her pulse and at first I can’t find it, but when I check again I can feel a very faint heartbeat. When I’m sure help is on the way, I know I have to call Eddie. It doesn’t matter if I’m angry at him, he needs to be here.
I tap my phone and wait for him to pick up but the call goes straight to voicemail. Shit. With the way our call ended, maybe his phone died, or maybe he’s ignoring me. Either way he still needs to know about Maggie. The sirens draw my attention away from my phone and I stash it back into my jeans. When I’m sure Maggie has the help she needs, I will think of a way to reach Eddie.
Luckily the ambulance gets here quick, though Maggie still hasn’t regained consciousness and I’m worried if she’s going to make it. I make sure to ask what hospital they are taking her to so I can follow in my car.
But first I need to have someone take care of Finn for me because I don’t know how long this is going to take. I head for the lobby to ask Travis, though I know how allergic he is, but what other choice do I have? When I step inside, I see there is a couple checking in for a stay. All of their heads swing my way.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Travis...I know you’re allergic, but Maggie was just taken to the hospital. She was unconscious when I found her at the bungalow. I need to get to the hospital, except Finn needs someone to look after him. And I can’t reach Eddie to tell him about his mother. Please, Travis, can you?”
“Eddie’s mum? Eddie Barhamer’s mum?” the man checking in asks, an accent tainting his words and if I have to guess, it sounds Australian.
“Yes,” I tell him but swing my head toward Travis. “I need to go now.”
The man and the woman share a look and the man grabs his phone from his pocket as the woman holds her hands out to take Finn.
“We know Eddie. Well, Chance knows him better than I do because I’ve only met him once.” She gives me a sweet smile. “I’m Aubrey, by the way.”
“Chance and Aubrey. You called Eddie earlier about a reservation. I made the reservation,” I muse while automatically handing Finn over to Aubrey.
“Eddie’s phone goes straight to voicemail,” Chance says. “You do what you have to do. I’ll keep trying to reach Eddie and we’ll be here watching over Finn. You mentioned Travis here being allergic, come find us at our bungalow when everything is taken care of.”
I nod warily and get ready to leave but suddenly realize Finn needs his distraction. “Wait,” I gasp. “Finn needs his goat to hump.”
Chance and Aubrey’s eyes widen and they share a look again. “A goat?” they ask in sync.
“The three-legged dog here needs to pound away his energy so Gracy here gives him stuffed animals to blow off steam. Here,” Travis says and hands over the stuffed animal, furiously sneezing three times in a row right after.
“I need to go,” I croak.
“Wait, take this.” Chance hands me a note with a phone number written on it. “That’s my number in case you need it.”
I take the note and nod before I rush out and jump in my car. My mind is still pushing me to notify Eddie and with Chance calling him just now and also going straight to voicemail along with the fact our call ended the way it did the last time I talked to him, I’m now sure his phone died.
He needs to know about his mother. If it were me, I would want someone to get me. I decide to head for the clubhouse since it’s down the road anyway but when I get to the gate it’s all locked and it takes a while before a voice comes through the intercom.
“I need to speak with Eddie, it’s urgent,” I tell the guy over the intercom.
“Look, Lady, our Prez just came back, he has other things to do instead of getting his dick wet.”
If my skull could blow off from all the pumped-up steam due to my anger, it would be shooting through the roof of the car by now. Remembering the way Eddie talked to the woman launching herself at him the second he stepped foot inside the clubhouse, I gather there’s one way to deal with this.
I lean in close to the intercom and snap, “Open your fucking ears you little biker prick. You’re talking to the president’s old lady and you just disrespected me. Get my damn man here right now or I will drive through this fucking gate to come get you so I can rip your damn balls off, understood?”
Eddie is already rushing to me when I haven’t even finished my rant and the gate is also opening. I guess the mentioning of me being his old lady was enough. I do feel better letting out the anger, though. And yet the look of relief on Eddie’s face makes sadness burst through me because he thinks I came back to him while I’m only here to get him to the hospital because of his mother.
I decide to jump into action rather than dump the load of information on him. “I need for you to get in the car, Eddie,” I tell him.
Yates jogs up from behind him. “Can it wait? We’re in a meeting.”
I give the rude idiot a glare. “No, it can’t wait.” I direct my attention at Eddie, knowing I have no other choice but to do it here. “Something happened. Chance and Aubrey are taking care of Finn. I need for you to get in the car so I can drive the both of us to the hospital, I’ll explain later. Come on, get in.”
“I need to go,” Eddie tells Yates as he gets into my car. “I’ll call later.”
“Your phone is dead and charging inside, remember?” Yates states.
“Dude. I have a phone, he’ll call later,” I snap and already have the car in reverse.
I drive away and head for the hospital. A few minutes pass when Eddie suddenly whispers, “Is she okay? Is she still alive?”
Maggie is the only family he has left and with me mentioning the mere information, he knows very well this is about his mother.
I keep my eyes on the road but reach for his hand and give it a squeeze. “She still had a heartbeat when they put her in the ambulance. I don’t know anything else. We’ll be there soon, okay?”
He doesn’t say anything else but gives my hand a quick squeeze in return before I have to put my hand back on the wheel. Time seems to drag on while we drive over, park the car, and get inside to ask where Maggie was brought to.
We’re sitting in the waiting room in silence for about twenty minutes until a doctor strolls inside and holds his hand out to Eddie and introduces himself and asks, “You’re Mrs. Barhamer’s son I presume?”
“Yes,” Eddie says as he takes the doctor’s hand. “How is she doing? What happened?”
“We’re still waiting on some results to rule out certain conditions and we are monitoring her closely. The results we are waiting on can explain why your mother had a sudden drop of heart rate and blood pressure which caused her to pass out. At this point we are trying to rule out cardiac conditions. We will keep her here overnight and when all the results have come back we will fully brief you about her condition.”
“Can we see her?” I ask and bite my bottom lip right after. I’m intruding. I’m not even family and I shouldn’t be here.
The doctor keeps looking at Eddie when he says, “You can go in and see her for a few minutes but she needs to rest.”
He holds out his arm to lead the way and Eddie follows him. I have no clue what to do. My feet are rooted to the floor and somehow Eddie notices and steps back to snatch my hand and drag me with him.
When we get inside the room and see Maggie lying in a bed surrounded by equipment, wires, and beeping sounds, it’s Eddie who is rooted to the floor this time. I squeeze his hand and make him follow me to the bed. Maggie is sleeping and since the doctor mentioned she needed to rest we’re being as quiet as possible.
I place my other hand on Maggie’s and lean in to tell her, “You gave us a huge scare, Maggie. Don’t do it again. Get better soon, so we can have some tea on the patio. You hear me? We need you.” My voice cracks at the end and a sob slips past my lips.
Eddie wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close. He places a kiss on the top of my head and addresses his mother as he too lowers his voice. “Love you, Mom. Get some rest to get your strength back. The doc told us we need to leave but we’ll be back soon, okay?”
He reaches out and lets his knuckles brush over her cheek. Eddie lets me go and steps closer to his mother to place a kiss on her forehead. He murmurs some words in her ear and I watch how his throat bobs as he swallows hard.
“Come on, we need to leave,” he croaks and clears his throat.
I nod warily and follow him out of the room. When we get to the car Eddie takes the keys from my hands and slips into the driver’s seat. For a split second I remind myself I should be the one driving, but I guess what happened to Maggie hit us both hard and we just function on autopilot.
My mind suddenly does come to life when Eddie drives up to the gate of his MC and punches in a code. I’m not going inside; he doesn’t need to unlock the gate because I’m going home. I start to sputter and think of what to say but he’s already parking the car.
I dash out of the car and rush around to face him. “What are we doing here? I need to go home.”
“I need to handle a few things here, and I can’t go home now or I’ll just rip my mind out thinking about my mother. And I need to know you’re safe and I won’t know for sure unless you’re right here with me. Rush might have been arrested and not walking the streets, but his three buddies are out there. If they want to hurt me, they will take you, and I can’t let that happen.”
“I don’t need to tell you I have connections, right? Didn’t you hear Yates? He basically implied it’s the whole reason you gave me that stupid old lady title. So, just let those idiots know all it was is a title, there’s nothing between us. So, excuse me, I’m leaving. And besides, I have to go to pick up Finn because he’s staying with two complete strangers for me and for him.” Spinning around, I bump right into a hard chest. “Ouch, dammit,” I snap, and see it’s Yates. “You really need some social skills, peckerwood.”
Yates snorts a laugh. “Sorry, doll, that’s never going to work. But I’m hoping you’re going to stick around to point out the errors of my ways. You being the Pres’ old lady and all. And I’m going to start with offering you my apology because I’m a dick. A big one that didn’t think and wanted to lash out to Rush how we had the upper hand with you at our side. It came out wrong. When I met Eddie earlier today, he said he had an old lady. And when I asked who, and heard it was you...I was the one who told him he needed to ask your half-brother for help because he would because of you. So, you see, he already claimed you before everything was set into motion. He really does care about you. As a person. Not your contacts, name, whatever...you.”
“Right.” I roll my eyes. “Nice try. If he said he claimed me first, how the hell did you know who my half-brother was, huh? It’s all a load of crap. My life is a load of crap. This whole world is crap.” My voice is shaking and tears are streaming down my face.
Yates winces and says, “Eddie? I think you better hold her because I’m pretty sure I broke her, and I don’t know how to fix it because everything I say is coming out wrong.”
Eddie smacks Yates on the back of his head before he takes me in his arms. “She’s not broken you idiot; she’s consumed with emotions. All the stuff going on in her life and add what happened at the clubhouse, and now my mother in the hospital. She just needs to catch her breath so back the fuck off.”
“I need to get Finn. I’m okay,” I mutter through my sobs and try to push away from Eddie.
He feels so right but in the turmoil of everything I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore.
“No, you’re not okay, darlin’. Come on, let me get you some water and we will take a moment to catch our breath and decide what to do.” Eddie doesn’t give me a choice but guides me into the clubhouse.
“Rhett, give the lady some water,” Yates bellows. “Hudson, make some room.”
Bikers left and right move out of the way and act as if I’m in dire need of all the help they can give. A glass of water is being offered from my left and tissues from my right. And there’s a hand holding out a piece of chocolate.
I follow the arm that’s offering the piece of candy and see it belongs to a rough looking biker with reddish hair and a long beard. I can’t really tell how old he is, if I’d have to guess I would go with early thirties.
The chocolate doesn’t look chewed and his fingers look clean. Who cares, with the stuff going on in my life, who the hell cares about germs? I reach out and take the piece of chocolate and put it into my mouth. I swear the guy is now sporting the biggest grin on his face, as if I gave him the world by picking what he offered.
I have to close my eyes to savor the sweetness. “Damn, this is so good.”
“I know,” the redhead rumbles and pulls the rest of the chocolate bar from his back pocket and hands it over.
I greedily take it and ask, “Aren’t you scared it’ll melt if you have it stashed there?” I ungracefully shove another piece into my mouth.
Laughter rumbles from his throat. “Nah, I just grabbed it when you guys came into the clubhouse. I was going to eat it right away and once I start, I don’t stop until I’ve eaten it all. It’s like you blink and it’s gone.”
“Oh, I know about the blinking, gone instantly but then it will reappear because it will add a few pounds that will never go away. It mainly settles on my ass and thighs, but you don’t seem to have that problem.” I sigh and still eat another piece of chocolate knowing I will regret it later.
“I happen to like those curves on you,” Eddie whispers in my ear and it makes me shiver.
“All right, you guys, give her some room,” Eddie says and scoops me up.
“Pres, I’ve cleaned up the first room on the left for you,” a guy says from behind me.
Eddie mutters a thanks and stalks to a room someone from our left opens for us. Once inside he puts me down and locks the door behind us.
Eyeing the movement, I raise my eyebrow. “This was your brilliant plan? Get your brothers to help you distract me to calm me down so you can swoop me away and lock me in here?”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Nah, I could have thrown you over my shoulder and do just that at any time. My brothers going crazy to make sure you’re okay was all them. A little over the top if you ask me, but, yeah. They’re good guys,” he says and releases a deep sigh.
“You’ve missed them,” I state.
His head slowly bounces up and down. “Yates told me some of the things that went down when I was away. Guys going head to head and not having each other’s back. I was afraid Rush killed the spirit of this MC. But this little show of support made me aware he didn’t.”
“It would really suck if I would grow to like you more and more and then find out you in fact did use me in the end,” I grumble, getting tired of this whole situation, and I feel like I should address the head of the snake, so to say.
“I like you. I want you. It has nothing to do with your name or who you’re connected to. Yes, it was one hell of a convenience with the whole Rush situation, but you know damn well how fucking perfect you felt against me last night. That shit isn’t something you fake or happens when you want to get off. You burn my insides every time that lush body of yours rocks against me. The need to bury myself deep in you is overwhelming and if I didn’t give a fuck then my dick would have taken your tight pussy yesterday. But I didn’t.”
How on Earth did we get from questioning if it’s real between us to discussing last night’s non-screw moment? I should question if he thinks he deserves a medal due to the effort he put in there to restrain himself, but like I said...I’m getting tired of this whole situation.
“I want something real, Eddie, and I’m not afraid to say I’m not looking for just sex or a relationship because it’s convenient. I want something long-term and meaningful. There’s a lot of stuff going on in my life and a lot in yours too. Hell, you’re just taking your life back and I absolutely understand your body and mind are occupied and you’re trying to balance all of it. Believe me, I know how overwhelming things can be.” I rub a hand over my neck in an effort to release some tension.
Eddie turns me around and presses his fingers against my shoulders, working his way to my neck and shoulder blades. Damn, that feels good. I groan and tilt my head to allow him the room to massage my neck but instead his lips caress my skin.
“I walked out of that prison with only vengeance on my mind and then you stumbled into my life filling my head with endless possibilities to enjoy life to the fullest. Everything might have fallen into place with the people tied to you but that’s all it really was, things finally falling into place and moving forward the way it should. I claimed you. You’re mine. Not to clear up issues at hand or to benefit myself or others. I’m honest enough to admit I’m a selfish fuck when it comes to you because all I care about is having you next to me, under me, with me at all times. And my fucking chest tightens at the thought of something happening to you, I couldn’t bear it and this tells me the feelings you flared up inside me are meant to act on and let them grow because no other woman has awoken something inside me enough to claim as mine, only you.”
Okay, then.
The way he stares at me, allowing me to see the honesty in his gaze makes me shiver. I don’t have any words to give him in return. Leaning forward I gently brush my lips over his. He growls low in his throat and cups my face to crash his mouth against mine. Consuming. Rough, and yet so caring. He makes me forget why I was questioning our connection in the first place.
If he’s selfish, then I can be too, and I’ll share his statement... all I care about is having him next to me, under me—with me—at all times.
