Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
El sucked in his bottom lip and glanced at the club’s logo painted behind the bar. The picture, with the skeletal hand closing a coffin, was meant to inspire fear but the people who carried it on their backs had been true friends to Trig for the past five years, otherwise he wouldn’t have invited El to stay. And if the two gay men watching him now were happy living this lifestyle, then maybe he could adjust to it too, even if only for the sake of the man who’d misguidedly watched over El all those years despite having a better life in Detroit.
Trig was worth any risk. Because El still loved him.
It was a frightening thing to admit, even in his own mind.
El had been a feral cat for so long that kindness made him wary rather than grateful. He and Trig had become different people over the years, and he couldn’t help worrying what might happen if it turned out they’d grown apart. Trig might no longer be willing to take El’s shit, and El might prove too independent for this new environment, yet Trig had seen what a mess El’s life was and had still chosen him with the conviction of a true believer.
It took courage to radically change one’s life, and with Trig’s support, El might have enough of it to dismiss the fears eating him on the inside. Deep down, he knew Trig was the man for him and none other would ever feel right at El’s side.
He wanted to be there for Trig next time he was hurt, or help him out of trouble, lie to the cops, and even bury bodies if need be. Maybe not that much had changed after all, because he would have done all those things for Trig, and more, when they had still been two kids on the run.
It was time to stop being selfish and let Trig take the reins.
“I’ve got baggage,” El muttered, and his shoulders sagged.
Misha shrugged. “Don’t we all?”
“You have no idea. He used to be in adult movies, and I accidentally got involved with organ-snatchers. We’d both be dead if it wasn’t for our men,” Lucky muttered, shaking his head.
El’s eyes went wide, and he zeroed in on the unassuming Misha with his thick-rimmed glasses and demure attitude. “You were a porn star?”
Misha’s lip curled. “I’d hardly call it that.”
Lucky lifted his T-shirt, showing off a long scar on his chest and approached, as if wanting to take El’s attention off Misha. “They cut me right here.”
Those two guys were both odd, rude, gay, and involved with bikers.
Maybe El would fit in after all?
Before he could have asked his next question, the door of the meeting room opened, and El’s heart rose to his throat. It was time to find out what his future held.
Chapter 10 – El
El’s stomach shrunk to the size of a pebble, but as the gang of men in leather and denim emerged from a door at the end of the short corridor, the face from his happiest memories stood out to him like a tiger among lions. Sun and wind had burned it with a few shallow wrinkles, and it was more serious than that of the man El had first fallen in love with, but while both of them had transformed, they were still the same at the core. The feelings that made them such a force to be reckoned with were still there, and not even brewing under the surface anymore.
“What now?” Lucky asked Tooth, who just scooped him with his arm and led the way to the exit, wordlessly letting his boy know work was over, regardless of the compulsions he might have.
But as the other bikers followed their leader out of the clubhouse despite casting curious glances at El, Trig stopped in the middle of the messy room, a step away from him. His eyes were reddish from fatigue, but they both knew neither of them would be going to sleep anytime soon.
“We need to talk,” Trig said and turned to gesture toward the staircase tucked between the office and the kitchen.
El’s heart sank at the uncertainty of his position. The club had little reason to take on the cartel for a stray they didn’t know, but if they really treated Trig like family and were willing to help him, the conflict might escalate. Good people could end up hurt for no fault of their own. And if that happened, all the blame would be on El’s shoulders.
But this wasn’t the place to discuss this, so he made his legs move, and followed Trig. The corridor upstairs was nothing to write home about, with stains on the wooden floor and several doors on either side, but El’s attention was on the breadth of Trig’s shoulders. They were firm enough to carry the weight of the world, and if El asked for protection, this man would keep him safe. Like he used to before El decided to run out on him just because he didn’t like the idea of being tied down and sharing Trig’s attention.