Have Gun, Will Travel (The Bare Bones MC #5)(63)

Once the door had been opened, sweetbutts poured in. Sax shared a knowing look with Bee when they migrated Slayer’s way. Russ Gollywow was the only single officer present, and he always shot Slayer an ungrateful look when this happened. Bee giggled.

“Ah, please, ladies,” said Slayer, holding his hands up in surrender. One club whore put her shelf of tits on his shoulder. She must have been over six feet tall. “There is plenty of Santiago Slayer to go around.”

Bee said, “It’s nice to know some things never change.”

Sax could feel her steering him toward the door, so he submitted. He assumed part of their ceremony would be a balls-to-the-wall f*ck, symbolic of course, but a colossal lay, all the same. This time, Harte was the only one who stood in their way, and he walked with them down the hall.

“Don’t hog the game room!” Wolf Glaser called out, harking back to the time he’d interrupted them in there.

“That was a beautiful ceremony,” said Harte, his hands buried deep in his jean pockets.

Was it Sax’s imagination, or did his son seem like he had other things on his mind? “Yes,” he agreed. “And Bee has never smelled lovelier.”

“It’s the cinnamon,” she said.

Sax put his arm around her. “I prefer the sage.”

They stopped outside the game room. A couple of guys playing pool caught view of them and abandoned their game, tossing their sticks on the table and slouching out the exit. “Ah…” Harte was looking everywhere but at Sax. “Just wanted to say. I’ll be in touch, of course, while I’m on the road. I’ll have, ah, a meeting with you when I get back to update you on everything.”

“All right,” said Sax, eager to get inside the room and lock the door. Why was Harte hemming and hawing over this? He clapped him on the shoulder, palsy-walsy. “Sounds solid, Harte. We’ll reach out soon.”

“I wonder what that was all about.” Sax mused aloud as he locked the game room door behind Beatrix.

“I think he may have been made aware that you’re his father,” Bee said coolly, sitting on her old favorite stool.

Sax felt for the coil of rope in his cut pocket. Bee’s words stunned him. Was that possible? “What the f*ck? You think…”

“Yes.” Bee’s smile was dazzling. She may have a patchwork of scars on her left breast, and a vivid one to match Slayer’s across her shoulder, but she was blissful, serene. And this made her more gorgeous than ever. Being newly pregnant agreed with her. “I think someone told him.”



BEATRIX

The collaring ceremony, with all the attention focused on me as it hadn’t been in years, combined to release a rush of endorphins into my system.

Since meeting Sax, my life had become a whirlwind of action and events, and now was no exception. I was learning trust in all its many facets. I had to trust that all would turn out okay. I sat on my customary stool and said, “I think someone told him.” I really did think that. I’d never seen Harte act so nervous, either. He had heavy things on his mind, and it wasn’t just where to sell mimetite and chrysocholla.

I looked at my husband. Yes, he was basically my husband. We just needed that one piece of paper to make it legal. Maybe we’d follow Slushy’s example. Except maybe we’d get a Sinatra impersonator, or a Rod Stewart lookalike, to marry us.

Sax was a bold, brawny hunk of man. What he said during the ceremony about feeling safe and secure? He knew that was my number one sore spot. The trauma with Tormenta had thankfully not lasted long, although I still had nightmarish flashbacks about it. I saw Maddy’s shrink who told me to focus on the positive and happy aspects of that nightmare—the part where Sax and his friends saved me. Dr. Petrie said this would reassure me that overall, the world was a friendly, safe place. That I was loved.

How did Petrie know Sax loved me? He didn’t. He said he just assumed by Sax’s actions that he loved me. Well, that was true of many of Sax’s actions. Right now he was stripping my damp, clinging shift from my torso, skimming the shred of my panties down my legs, unhooking my tiny bra. The second I saw the soft white polyester rope in his hand, I knew what I was in for. I sat up straighter, like a good schoolgirl.

He started working on my torso, placing a pattern of diamonds down my abdomen between my breasts. He worked with two ropes at a time, carefully placing each rope with precision. He manipulated, shook, and patted each section, leaving my nipples bared and jutting. But his concentration was drawn elsewhere. I noticed he didn’t even knot the rope and pass it under my *. That was probably by design.

“You think he knows?”

“Why would he have been acting so strange? Leo might not have told him. Maybe Lulu did, when Harte visited the Marshals office.”

Sax snorted. “Yeah. I imagine Lulu was pretty pissed. She hasn’t been close to Leo for a long-ass time, if ever.”

“Sax, were you…you and Lulu close?”

His answer was immediate. “No. It was strictly a medical matter. She’s not my type. Too brassy and ballsy. She’s the new sort of woman. I like the old fashioned sort.”

I sat up even taller. “You think I’m old fashioned?” I had to place my bare foot on a rung of the stool to lift my thigh. Sax passed the rope under my ass, but there wasn’t enough room for him to craft the design he had in mind, so he had me stand, leaning my hands on the side rail of the pool table.