Rough Ride (Chaos #5)(23)

“I—”

He cut me off before I could say more.

“Before you get worked up any of that shit will happen, Tack has gotten word to Web that we know they got a beef, they can’t be under any impression other than the fact we feel after what they did to you that we got a beef, but how that’s gonna work out is however it works out between brothers. Women are off limits, you’ve been claimed by Chaos, and if dick happens to you, or your mom, it isn’t gonna make it a bigger beef. It’s gonna be Chaos declaring war and they’re vulnerable, so they got this shot bein’ incarcerated to get their shit together or we’ll dismantle their charter. Now you getting me?”

“Whoa,” I whispered.

“You’re getting me,” he muttered.

“How would you even do that?” I asked curiously.

“With surgical precision, considering Tack’s already reached out to other Bounty charters’ presidents sharing Chaos and its allies will not be best pleased another woman gets caught in the crosshairs and he’s gonna expect a definitive indication from the other charters they’re frowning on Bounty’s bullshit. To say Bounty, who have never been one percenters, aren’t real thrilled Web took their shit in its current direction is an understatement. Might not stop the locals but they’d have their patches stripped, and no biker who’s earned his patch doesn’t take that seriously. They’d have to start from fresh without a single ally, which is like a newborn baby taking on a full grown bear.”

“It, uh…seems you all have this in hand,” I mumbled, and that got me the fascinating show of his fabulous lips surrounded by his blond beard twitching.

“Yeah, and if you’d had coffee with me a coupla days ago, I coulda shared a few things and saved you this trip.”

Hmm.

“You gonna have coffee with me now?” he asked.

“Um…” I darted my eyes side to side, saying, “I probably should get home. Mom doesn’t know I’m here. She went to the grocery store for her weekly huge-ass shop and since this is lasting longer than I expected, she might be back before I get home and she’s a little…” I searched for a word, “troubled about all the stuff that’s swirling around me.”

“I bet she is,” he said quietly.

“So I should go home,” I reiterated.

“When you movin’ into my place?” he asked.

“I’m under the impression I’m already moved in.”

“I mean, bodily.”

There was something about Snapper saying the word “bodily” that also made parts of me tingle.

I refused to get caught up in the tingle.

“Didn’t all you just said mean I don’t really need the fullness of the protection you and Chaos are offering me?” I asked.

“You think me or any of the brothers are leavin’ dick to chance with our women, you’d be thinkin’ wrong.”

Of course.

“Snap—”

“I know you love spending time with your mom but it’d probably help her out to know you’re doin’ better in your head that you move back into your life.”

This was probably true.

I huffed out a big sigh.

He wrapped a hand around the side of my neck, thumb extended under my chin to push it up.

It was a sweet touch and a cool move.

More tingling.

Damn.

“I’ll move in tomorrow,” I said.

“Good,” he replied.

“Or the next day,” I went on.

The look in his eyes that had turned to snowy goodness shifted back to frosty annoyance.

“Rosie, tomorrow,” he ordered. “You get in, settle in, we’ll talk.”

I huffed out another big sigh.

“Face is lookin’ good,” he muttered, reading accurately from my sigh I was giving in. “How’re your ribs?”

“Healing,” I muttered back.

“Glad to hear it, Rosie.”

The snowy goodness was back in his eyes and a different kind of goodness was in his voice.

I needed to be careful.

“I can’t believe those cops just let you keep me pinned to this railing,” I remarked.

“Cops aren’t big fans of a woman beat to shit by eight motherfuckers,” he educated me.

“No one really is,” I educated him.

“They’re also not big fans of those women waltzing up to one of the assholes who did that shit to have a futile conversation,” he shared.

“I didn’t know it was futile,” I told him.

“I did and they did and fortunately now so do you.”

I decided to shut up again.

“Colombo’s bein’ cool with you?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Baby?” he called.

“Mm?” I answered.

His thumb swept along my jaw. “Go home to your mom before I lose the fight I got goin’ with the urge to take you home with me.”

Man, I wanted to go home with him.

No you don’t! my mind screamed. Get it together, Rosalie!

“Maybe we should have coffee, Snapper. There might be a few things you need to get straight too.”

He shook his head, his thumb now drawing circles on the hinge of my jaw that caused reciprocal circles to be felt around both my nipples, and I started kicking myself I didn’t sprint to my car the minute he told me to go home.