Loving Nicole (Savage Brothers MC #3)(19)

“Maybe Dani’s right and now that she’s left, he’ll give up. Maybe he’ll grow tired when he can’t find her.”

“No, he’ll find her and he’ll use any means to achieve that.”

“What do we do?’ I whisper, because I know I was stupidly convincing myself that Dani was right. Hearing Dragon and the certainty in his voice, I’m terrified.

“Call your girl and get her to come home.”

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t you…”

“She said it was safer if I didn’t know anything. She’s going to contact me once she gets settled, through a prepaid phone she purchased when we were in town for the fitting. There’s nothing I can do until then.”

Dragon sighs, turning his head away from me and stares back at the ceiling.

“Then we wait, Mama. It’s all we can do.” The words echo into the heavy silence that has filled the room. They do nothing to assuage the fear that has taken root inside of me and the dark truth that echoes in my mind. By trying to protect my relationship and loyalty to Dani, I may have only succeeded in hurting her, or worse, getting her killed….

“Dragon,” I break off in a cry of anguish as the tears over this whole thing finally break to the surface.

Sobs rack my body as Dragon pulls himself up into a sitting a position. He props himself up against the headboard for support, then drags me over into his lap and holds me close, petting my back, while adjusting the covers over our body. He soothes me, but the tears keep coming. Dragon kisses the top of my head and lets me cry.

“We’ll find her Mama, we’ll find her and figure all this out. I promise.”

I try to hold onto those words, through my tears.

I really try.





Chapter 11




Dragon


I hold Nicole until she cries it out. Eventually exhaustion takes her over and she sleeps. I will not be sleeping. Fuck, after my woman talking like she was leaving me, I may never sleep again. At thirty-six years old, I don’t think anything or anyone has ever gutted me like hearing Nicole tell me she needed time away from me.

I get her settled and she snuggles up against the pillow. I get dressed because I need a drink. Fuck, I need a drink. First, I called the church meeting. I’m running late, but what-the-f*ck-ever at this point. Today has been one shit-storm after another.

“Does your woman know where Dani is?”

I barely make it out the door when Crusher comes at me. I reach out my hand and push his shoulder back. What the f*ck?

“Nicole is sleeping f*cker, step back into the main room and we’ll talk.”

“Fuck, that. I need to find Dani. Does your woman f*cking know where she is or not?”

Crush’s face is red, his hair is rumpled and the brother looks torn up. How did Dani get her hooks in him that deep, before I realized it?

“You need to step the f*ck back, man. I told you Nicole is sleeping. She cried herself to sleep and by God she’s going to rest. You feel me?”

Crush rakes his hands through his hair.

“You don’t understand Drag, this bastard will hurt her.”

Somehow, I just know the her he’s talking about, is not Nicole. Probably, because I’m not stupid.

“You knew about this shit?” I growl walking through the hallway towards my office where we’re meeting.

“I knew she was running. Didn’t know what from, until all this shit went down. She left me a damn note, a f*cking note!”

“Something you want to tell me, brother?” I ask as we close the door to the office. The others are already there.

“She’s mine, Dragon. I’ve got to find her and you can either help me or get the f*ck out of my way,” Crush says and the room goes deathly quiet.

“You need to calm your ass and sit the f*ck down,” I say quietly. It’s taking all I have right now not to lay my brother out.

“Bullshit! If Nicole were involved, you’d be tearing the place apart trying to find this motherf*cker!” Crush argues.

I grab him by his cut and slam him back against the wall. His hands come up but he doesn’t fight me. Still, I can see the need to do so in his eyes.

“Nicole is involved, motherf*cker. Now you need to listen to me. Step. The. Fuck. Down. Do not cause me more shit, because all that will do is slow us down.”

He stares at me, his body is rigid.

“I will find her, Dragon.”

“No, Crush, we’ll find her. Last thing you need to do is go off half-cocked and take on this dude. He’s a bad motherf*cker and he has the money to back that shit up. We’ll handle this my way. You feel me?”

He shrugs away from my hold, I let him. I’d like to acquaint his teeth with my fist for mouthing off to me, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

“Freak, you got my info?” I growl turning back to the table where the rest of the men are sitting. For now, I’m letting Crusher slide. One thing is clear though, his head is not in the game. I’m going to have to be careful how I deal with him. Part of me understands it, hell I’ve been there with Nicole. Still, you got to keep your head at all times. If you don’t your woman ends up dead and maybe a lot more along with her.

“Yeah, man,” he replies sliding over a manila folder towards me. I pick it up off the table and look through the information he’s gathered on Michael Kavanagh. I thumb through the papers while sitting down.