Out of the Ashes (Sons of Templar MC #3)(51)

To my surprise, he laughed. It was throaty and easy and great to listen to. It was nice to actually see an attractive man laugh with ease. I had spent weeks trying to make a particular man crack a smile, but nothing. A small part of me wanted to say yes to someone who laughed easy, smiled easy, who easily expressed interest in me.

“Babe, promise you, regardless of whether you go out with me or not, the offer’s still on the table,” he told me, still smiling.

“She’s not f*ckin’ going anywhere with you,” a voice growled from behind me. Right behind me. I knew without even having to turn who the owner of that voice was. I could feel his hard torso brushing my back. Any other time I would like to have been in a hot guy sandwich. But not under the watchful eyes of five teenagers.





He was f*cked off he even cared. He even felt the rage swirling in his belly at the prospect of Lexie playing in a club, a f*ckin’ club. In Hope, no less. Shit swirling with the Lost Knights meant Hope was not a safe place for anyone connected to the Sons. And without even f*cking realizing it, he had connected not only Mia, but Lexie to the club. Had he not learned his f*cking lesson? Putting someone innocent, someone who deserved a f*ck of a lot better, in the line of fire once more? Apparently not. Because if his life depended on it, he couldn’t cut them out of his world. It would have been easier to slice off a limb. His nights with Mia were what he lived for. Spent the whole f*ckin’ day actually looking forward to getting inside her tight little body, hearing her throaty voice moan his name. Joke, on the rare times they exchanged words.

Then there was Lexie. Didn’t see the kid often, but he saw her. She had wandered over to his garage, couple of times after school when her mom wasn’t home. She’d chat ‘bout stupid shit, sometimes just watch him. She didn’t press about the guitar shit, seemed to sense he needed time. The f*ckin’ sixteen-year-old seemed to understand. Bull found himself looking forward to those visits too. When Lexie would bathe his dim garage in sunshine. When her mom would do the same in his pitch black bedroom. To his pitch black soul. Bull knew what this meant. It meant shit. Big shit.

So that was why he had almost lost his shit when Mia had declared she was letting Lexie play at the club. He had almost taken her over his shoulder when she argued with him. Yanked herself out of his grasp and walked out without a backward glance. Cade had faced a similar argument with his wife. One he had also lost. Which meant Bull was not the only f*cker pissed off to be standing in a bar in the middle of enemy territory watching a teenage band play at a club. He was ramped up to furious when Mia had emerged from backstage looking like a f*ckin’ sex kitten. Her hair was pulled off her face, tendrils hanging down. She wore a skintight black dress with a low neck, showing off her amazing tits. It went down to past her knees, but hugged every inch of her tight body. The fact she wasn’t showing a ton of leg made her even sexier. As did the high knee-length boots that encased her legs.

Bull clenched his fists as she waded through the crowd, not noticing him as he skulked in the shadows. He nearly pushed off the wall to pummel every f*cker that checked out her ass as she walked by. Luckily no one stopped her; if they did, he would have been there in an instant.

“How the f*ck do you handle this shit?” he bit out to his brother, who was standing beside him.

Cade raised his eyebrows slightly, not expecting a question. “With great f*ckin’ difficulty, brother. Helps knowing that I’ve got a gun in my cut,” he said with full seriousness. “You claiming her?” He nodded to Mia, who was sipping a drink with her nose screwed up.

His girl didn’t drink. She couldn’t hold her alcohol worth a damn. Bull found this adorable as f*ck. Thirty-three and she couldn’t hold her drink.

“Yep,” he said without thinking. The sight of her amongst all of that, without knowing she was completely his was enough to drive him crazy. He knew it was the lesser of two evils, considering he was still battling the demons that screamed at him to let her go. To get on his bike and roar away to let her and Lexie live a normal life. A safe life. Marry some stockbroker who wouldn’t get them killed. But something stopped him. Maybe it was the fact the club was moving away from the shit that got her killed. The fact that the thought of not tasting Mia again made him want to claw his own face off. And there was also some part of him that had an inkling that those girls needed him. His girls.

He was jolted out of his thoughts by a hard clap on his back. Cade was grinning at him.

“Happy for you, brother. You deserve this,” he muttered.

Bull only nodded. He didn’t need to pour his f*cking heart out to his best friend. He only needed to figure out a way to live with himself after making this decision.





“Jesus, that kid can f*ckin’ sing,” Brock remarked after Lexie had belted out “Alive” by Pearl Jam.

Cade nodded in agreement. “Never heard a teenager with that much talent. They’re going places.”

Bull gritted his teeth. Fucker was right. Lexie was beyond good. She worked the stage like a natural. Like she’d been on a thousand times. Like the guitar was an extension of her hand. Like she wasn’t only sixteen years old. That band was going places. But Lexie was sixteen; she didn’t need to be going any f*cking where for two years.

“What I would do to that tight little body.” Bull’s entire form stiffened at the slurred words muttered from beside him.