Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(146)

“Yeah,” Dow said. “Not a shock there.”

“It’ll work out, brother,” Ford said to me. “Always does. Don’t stress it.”

“Not stressing it,” I said. “Whatever the club wants, it gets.”

The two of them heard the darkness in my voice, but neither of them said anything about it.

We’d all been pissed at the club for some reason or other over the years. We never agreed with everything that happened. But they knew and I knew that no matter what, we did what the club needed done, because it was the club over everything else.

“Clutch.” I looked up and saw Janine looking at me. “You busy?”

I shook my head.

“Hey, Janine,” Ford said.

“Hi, Ford, Dow.”

Dow nodded at her, smiling.

“Clutch, take me home?”

Normally that would make the boys laugh and make comments, but neither of them bothered.

I stood up. “That’s my job,” I said.

She didn’t respond to that, just left the clubhouse.

“Later, boys,” I said to Dow and Ford. They nodded as I left.

Janine was standing next to my bike when I got outside. “How’d it go?” I asked her.

“Fine,” she said. “You were gone for a while.”

“Went for a ride.”

She chewed her lip. “Look, Clutch—”

“It’s fine,” I said. “You made your choice. I’m just your bodyguard.”

She stared at me and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Where to?” I asked

I got onto the bike and she climbed on the back. “Take me home.”

I pulled out and rode off into traffic.

We headed back toward her place. It was still early in the day, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to have to be dealing with, but that was fine. The club wanted me to stick close to Janine, and I wanted to make sure she stayed safe.

I couldn’t help but think about her arms around my body as we headed back toward her apartment. I knew it was f*cking stupid to think about her body or to think about her hands on mine, but every time she was around me I felt my cock getting hard, my blood pounding through my veins.

We made it back to her apartment after a fast ride. We got off the bike and went up to her place in silence. I stopped her at the top of the landing.

“Let me,” I said, taking her key.

“I can open my own door, Clutch,” she said.

“You’re going to be in more danger now,” I said. “I need to start checking.”

She shook her head. “There’s no need. It hasn’t happened yet.”

“Janine,” I said, and she sighed, giving in. I unlocked her door, moving inside first.

The place was empty and normal.

“See,” she said, walking in. “No problem.”

“Better safe,” I said, and she just rolled her eyes.

She busied herself in the kitchen, making some lunch, as I sat down on the couch again. I was becoming intimately acquainted with this couch. Me and this couch were becoming bros.

“Tell me,” I said to her. “Why are you really marrying this guy?”

She paused what she was doing. “Seriously, just going to casually start this conversation?”

“I’m wondering, so I asked.”

“Not much subtlety.”

“You know me, princess,” I said. “I just take and do what I want.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you really care?”

“I know you think you owe the club. I want to know if it’s more than that.”

She paused, holding a knife. She was chopping vegetables or something for a salad, basically the sort of thing I’d never bother eating.

“If I can save lives, I’ll do whatever it takes,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re doing this for the war?”

“Yeah, I am. This club has given me so much. If I can save some of your lives by making this war go faster, I’ll do it.”

I nodded. I hadn’t thought about how winning the war faster would mean saving some lives. Frankly, death was just a part of life as a biker, and you took that risk every time you put on the cut.

But from her perspective, it made sense. She wanted to save lives.

“I get that,” I said.

“So you’re going to stop being a dick about this then?”

“I didn’t say that.” I smirked at her. “I’m not going to make this easy for you.”

“Great. Thanks.”

“Sorry, princess, but you’re making a mistake.”

She just shook her head and went back to chopping.

She was pissed, but that was fine. I was sure she was f*cking up, making a dumb move just out of obligation to Larkin. He shouldn’t have asked her, and she shouldn’t have said yes, but we were too far for all that.

I wasn’t going to actively stop her, but I wasn’t going to support this shit either.

I kicked my feet up and leaned back, ready to do this for the long haul.





13





Janine





Clutch wasn’t in the mood to talk, and neither was I. After he’d told me flat out that he thought I was making a mistake, I took my lunch into my room and spent the next few hours watching Netflix while he sat on my couch.