Crash (Brazen Bulls MC #1)(76)

“I don’t want to get run over.”

“I don’t want to run you over.”

“I’m scared.”

She’d said that before. He thought they’d gotten past it, but Smithers had stirred a whole lot of shit back up. “I know. You gonna run from that?”

A deep breath before she answered. “No. I love you. I want what you want.”



oOo



Rad and Ollie had some making up to do. While Willa stitched Rad up, Ollie had sat in the bathroom doorway, perfectly still and alert. He hadn’t growled, his fur was settled and his ears pricked up, but that dog was paying close attention.

Poor guy must have been confused. He might even have felt the canine equivalent of betrayal. After all the strangeness of the past couple of days, his buddy Rad had gone and gotten violent around his mom.

Around your mom, buddy. Not at. Huge difference.

As Willa packed up her medical supplies, Rad stood and eased around her, headed toward the dog. Ollie stood and backed up, wary.

“It’s okay, Ollie,” Willa said from just behind Rad. She brushed his arm. “It’s just our Rad.”

Ollie looked up at her. Rad could read his thoughts: Yeah, you said he was okay before, too. And look what he did.

Rad crouched in the hallway and held out his hand. His flying drop to the hardwood floor, with Ollie on top of him, hadn’t done his forty-year-old back any favors, but he ignored the pinch between his shoulders and waited for Ollie to come back to him.

“Hey, buddy. We’re still pals, yeah?”

The tiniest flick of his tail, the subtlest drop of his head.

“Come on, boy. I’m sorry. I won’t hurt your mom. That promise still holds.”

Ollie took a step forward, then another. He sniffed Rad’s hand. He looked at Willa, who stood right at Rad’s side.

“Good boy, Olliegollie. Everything’s okay.”

He came close enough for Rad to scratch the spot just behind his jaw that he liked best of all, and then Rad was forgiven.

Or on probation, at least.



oOo



A couple of hours later, after a light dinner and some calm quiet watching television, they went to bed. Willa was still shaky from the lingering effects of the overdose, and Rad was starting to feel loopy for lack of sleep. They were both exhausted, both injured, so they slid under the covers without any thought of playing around.

Willa lay at his side, within the hook of his arm, her head on his chest. Both active sleepers, they always fell asleep this way and then tangled themselves into various configurations through the night.

“What happens now?” she yawned.

Rad kissed her head. “Tomorrow, you come to the clubhouse with me. We’re meetin’ on this. D probably won’t want you in church, but he’ll want to talk to us. You be straight with him, and you hear him out. The club’ll make a plan, one we all have to follow. How much time can you take?”

“I never take all my vacation time or any sick leave, and it accrues, so I technically have a lot, but I don’t have a lot of seniority. I told them I got mugged, but the longer I’m out, the less secure my job is. I won’t get fired as long as I’m within my owed leave, but I could lose my position and get stuck somewhere else.”

He knew how much she loved working where she did. “How much before it’s a problem?”

“A week? Maybe two?” She rose up, propping herself on his chest. “Why? Are we going somewhere?”

“Smithers knew where you live and work. We don’t know what the Rats know about you. We have to assume that they know the same things he did. It may be that you can’t be the places he knew you would be until we can make sure they’re not a threat. That’s somethin’ we have to decide.”

“But—”

He stopped her with a kiss. “Baby, don’t argue.”

She frowned. “I’m not. I just want to talk it out. You’re saying I have to hide. For how long? I can’t lose my job, Rad. Don’t ask that of me.”

“I won’t. We won’t let it go on that long. But it’s easier to work out a big picture when the little picture is safe. You understand?”

“If I’m in hiding, you don’t have to worry about me as much and you can put your resources to solving the problem that makes me have to hide.”

“Exactly.” He grinned. “That’s it exactly.”

“Okay. Okay.” She lay back on his chest. “I need to work, Rad. Not just for money. For me.”

“I get it. It’s not a problem. All the old ladies work, and only Maddie works in any part of our world. Mo teaches eight-year-olds, for f*ck’s sake. It all plays out fine in the long run. And remember—this ain’t the club bringin’ trouble to you. This is the other way around.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t think I…”

Her sentence died out. Rad waited, but she didn’t pick it up again. “Didn’t think you what?”

“I don’t know how to say it.” She was quiet again, and Rad closed his eyes as her fingers began to stroke his belly, tracing his scars. “It sounds self-pitying, and that’s not how I mean it at all.”

“Say it, baby.”