SURVIVING SAVANNAH: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK 16) Read online

“Rose wants you gone.”

  Derek shook his head, looking back and forth between the two of us.

  “You can have her,” he said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. He stood up, wobbling on the bottom stair, sneering. “She’s a fucking lousy lay anyway.”

  Blade’s fist cracked against his jaw a third time and this time he went flailing in the dirt, his white linen pants stained with dirt and drops of blood.

  “Say another word, mother fucker,” Blade growled. “This is getting fun.”

  Derek stood up again and with a look of utter disdain flung my way, he walked back to his car. When he was safely inside, he yelled out the window.

  “I’m going to fucking sue the fuck out of you!”

  Blade laughed, waving at him.

  “Have your lawyer call my lawyer!”

  Derek drove off, his tires squealing, as Blade turned back to me, his eyes full of laughter.

  Chapter 35

  BLADE

  I hated the look I saw on her face when I turned back to her.

  Fear. Uncertainty. Hesitation.

  “I am so sorry,” I said, ceasing my laughter. It might have been funny to me, even deeply satisfying, to draw a little bit of Derek’s blood, but that didn’t mean it would be funny to her.

  She shook her head, then a faint smile spread across her face. “I’ve wanted to punch him since the first day I met him.”

  I chuckled, the tension broken. “Yeah, me too,” I said. “It felt pretty fucking good, I’m not gonna lie.”

  She grew serious again, gazing at me.

  “He was really angry. Thank you for protecting me.”

  “Does he do that often?” I asked, anger rising in my chest. “Does he hit you?” I demanded, closing the distance between us. I was just waiting for the word and I would have gotten on my bike and found him again and finished what I’d started.

  “No, but he likes to threaten that he’s going to,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t think he has the balls.”

  “Weak men are the ones who hit women. They certainly don’t have any fucking balls to speak of.”

  “You’ve got a point,” she said, shaking her head. She sighed, smiling up at me and putting her hand on my arm. “Can we start over? Please? Or, at least do that last part over?”

  I smiled down at her, my heart swelling in my chest. She was the most beautiful fucking thing I’d ever seen and all I wanted to do was wrap her up in my arms and never let go.

  “Yeah, we can do that,” I said. She grabbed my hand and led me inside, and the sound of the screen door slamming was like a symbolic end to a long, dark chapter.

  Chapter 36

  ROSE

  I’d waited a lifetime to see Blade look at me like that again and I wasn’t going to screw it up this time.

  I didn’t care about Derek, in fact, if I’m being brutally honest, I liked watching Blade put him in his place. I would never say that out loud, and I knew I hadn’t heard the last of it, but I just didn’t care anymore.

  I knew the rumors would fly and Derek would put his own spin on it, making him into the victim. I also knew our girls would most likely hear about it, and that part I cared about, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I’d be honest with them and we’d deal with it.

  In the meantime, all I could do was try to repair things between Blade and I.

  We stood staring at each other in the living room and both began to speak at once.

  “Rose, I never meant —.”

  “I owe you an apology —.”

  We stopped, laughing. He shook his head, and walked towards me, pulling me into his arms quietly.

  “Shh,” he said. “Let’s not talk for a minute.”

  I leaned into his embrace, the heat of his body rolling over mine, his heart beat pounding in my ear as I pressed my head against his chest. His hands ran up and down my back, slowly sliding over my skin, sending waves of comfort through my tense muscles, relaxing me until I felt like I was melting into him.

  He sighed, a deep long sigh that seemed to release something deep inside of him. I pulled away, searching his eyes. I had a whole new set of questions now, but instead of finding the words to ask them, my lips found his as they crashed into mine in a kiss so sweet, so gentle, that it brought tears to my eyes.

  He reached up, caressing my cheek softly as he kissed me. He pulled away, holding my gaze.

  “I don’t remember the first time I saw you.”

  “What?” I asked, confused.

  “You’ve just always been there. A part of my heart. A part of my history. You were my life, Rose. And I owe you the truth. About why I left. Where I went. Why I never came back. You’ve deserved to hear the truth for a long time but I didn’t want to intrude on your life. I didn’t want to do any more damage than I’d already done.”

  I nodded. “I’ve needed to know the truth for a long time. But you’re back now. And I don’t know how long you’re going to stay. I don’t even know why you’re here. But all I do know, Blade, is that I have never been happier to see someone in my life.”

  He bent his head, kissing me gently again.

  “We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.

  “We do,” I replied, winking. “But I’m glad we got started the way we did.”

  “Me, too,” he said, his voice thick with lust as his eyes turned hungry again. His lips fell on mine, hot and searching. I opened my mouth, welcoming him in again as I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him close to me.

  To hell with Derek. To hell with the gossip.

  To hell with all the things Blade thought he needed to explain.

  All of that could wait. Right now, he was in front of me, right where I wanted him to be.

  Endlessly, he kissed me, his body melding to mine with such ease and gentleness. We drifted into the bedroom again, our clothes falling away effortlessly and as easily as he waltzed back into my house, he claimed my body, too.

  His mouth moved confidently over my skin, my trembling limbs stilled by his warmth and purposeful movements. He explored every inch of me like a long forgotten landscape, his lips and tongue sliding against me like a teasing ribbon of silk, licking and tasting, whipping deliciously into every quivering crevice as I shuddered under his spell.

  We explored each other for hours — until the late afternoon sun disappeared and the moon peeked over the top of the large magnolia tree outside my window. She hadn’t yet bloomed, but she would in a few weeks — and as Blade eventually sank into me again, our bodies connected as deeply as our hearts always had been, I stared up at her dancing limbs and knew I’d be perfectly content to stay in this bed with Blade until she did.

  Chapter 37

  BLADE

  I woke up starving, so I untangled myself from Rose and hopped on my bike, heading into town for donuts and coffee before rushing back to her place before she woke up.

  She opened her eyes as soon as I stepped back into the bedroom and she moaned when she saw me.

  “Why are you dressed already?”

  With the early morning sunshine pouring through the window over her disheveled hair and swollen lips, her bright eyes shining on me left me breathless. I kissed her lips again, now completely addicted to the softness of them.

  “Donuts and coffee?” I asked.

  “From Shirley’s?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

  “I was so happy to see the shop was still there,” I said.

  She pulled the sheet back, revealing her long naked limbs, her breasts that I’d thoroughly enjoyed tracing the curves of all night, and all the rest of her amazing body. I groaned at the sight, straining to control myself.

  She jumped up and padded into the kitchen, every single curve on full display as she headed straight for the donuts. She pulled open the box and squealed, pulling out a strawberry jelly powdered mess that she promptly stuffed in her mouth.

  It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen, and yet I’d seen it a million t
imes before.

  “How many of these do you think we’ve eaten?” she mumbled, her mouth still stuffed, a sprinkling of powdered sugar smeared on her cheek.

  “It’s been a while for me, but I think that I may still outnumber you.”

  “Probably,” she giggled, taking another bite. She looked in the box and shook her head. “This is all you got?”

  “I can go back?” I offered, chuckling.

  “Maybe later,” she shrugged, winking.

  “I was thinking we could go for a ride.”

  She stopped mid-bite. “On your bike?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I figure we need to talk, but if we stay here, alone, within such close proximity to your bed — well, I don’t know how much talking we’re going to get done…”

  She walked over to me, the sugar still on her face as she kissed me. “I think we said a lot last night.”

  “I agree,” I said, my hardness growing as she pressed her naked body into me. “But I have some other things to say that I can’t say with well, you know.”

  Daringly, she reached down and grabbed my cock through my jeans. “With this?”

  I reached down and pulled her hand away.

  “Exactly.”

  “Fine,” she said, laughing, as she pulled a chocolate donut out of the box. “I’ll get a shower and get dressed.”

  “I’ll wait here,” I said, watching her walk away, my eyes drinking in every curve and shimmy.

  “We’re gonna need to go by Shirley’s again on the way out,” she called over her shoulder.

  I laughed, knowing I’d do anything in the world that woman asked me to.

  Chapter 38

  ROSE

  Being on the back of Blade’s bike was exhilarating. Just putting on the helmet and sliding behind him, wrapping my arms around him, sent shocks of pleasure through my body before we even got on the road.

  We’d ridden together on this particular bike so many times, getting back on it was so familiar it was like, well — riding a bike.

  I’d felt so wild and carefree back then. After he left, I lost all of that in a sea of misery.

  I knew we had so much ground to cover, so much of the past to dig through and understand, and I was nervous about what I might find out, but for a moment I put all that aside. Blade started up the bike, his body rising and falling on the seat for a quick second, and then he was settled in front of me, the vibrations roaring through us. I wrapped my arms around him, put my head against his back, and held on tightly as he took off.

  After the quick promised to trip to Shirley’s, we headed out to our old stomping grounds. The Bonaventure Cemetery was a place I stayed far away from — those hallowed pathways full of resting places for the dead were also pathways to memories I wanted to keep dead.

  This is where we’d fallen in love.

  Our first kiss, those first desperate attempts at more, whispered confessional conversations and endless laughter. We’d walked every path of those hundreds of acres, usually only lit up by the moonlight while we made up outlandish stories for all the dead, climbed the trees and enjoyed every single moment alone we could steal as teenagers in love.

  It was only fitting we’d go back there now.

  I hated that Little Gracie’s grave had been desecrated. Now, it was a morbid place to visit for an entirely different reason and one a lot less innocent and wholesome. I was grateful when, once we arrived and hopped off the bike, Blade led me in the opposite direction from her gravesite.

  His hand in mine, he began talking as soon as we entered, and he didn’t stop for a while, as if he’d been holding all the words in for a very long time. He didn’t look at me, his eyes straight ahead, but I kept stealing glances at him.

  “I remember the last time we were here,” he began. “It was a week before I left. We were so happy. You didn’t know this, but I was saving up for an engagement ring. I had that stupid job at the gas station and I was planning it all out. I was going to propose to you under the tree where we first kissed.”

  I was speechless. We walked a bit before he continued.

  “A few days later, I was looking in the window of that little jewelry store downtown when I ran into your dad and his friends. They were having lunch at the diner next door. They took me into the alley and in no uncertain terms told me to leave town. I resisted, of course, I didn’t care what your family thought about us. I knew they never approved of me. Your dad told me if I knew what was good for me, I’d leave and never come back. I didn’t believe him, of course. And when they left me there in that alley, I thought that was the end of it.”

  He took a deep breath and shook his head.

  “But the next day, I was at home working on my bike when Seraphina came home. She was crying. And alone. Without Rudy, that little brown mutt that never left her side. She’d been playing with him in the park when a man she didn’t know walked up and shot her dog. He died in front of her right there. The man told her to tell her brother it was time to leave.”

  I gasped, horrified. I’d cut my family out of my life years ago, but Blade probably didn’t know that. I knew they were horrible, constantly trying to control my every move to keep up ‘appearances’, as my father was fond of saying. My mother went along with him, enabling him with complete obedience, but I tired of that very quickly. I wasn’t surprised in the least that they were the reason Blade left.

  “I was so in love with you. You were everything to me, you were perfect. But after that, I knew they wouldn’t stop until I was gone. Next, they’d hurt Sera. Or you. I figured at the time that I had no choice. I couldn’t go to the police, hell your dad was best friends with the Sheriff back then. I regret that choice deeply now. I should have been stronger. I should have fought back. I never should have left you, Rose.”

  “Blade,” I finally said, turning to him and shaking my head, my eyes searching his.

  “Shhh, just listen,” he said. “After I left, I was lost. I hadn’t planned for a life without you, hell I had never even dreamed of one. I always thought we’d stay in Savannah and have a bunch of kids and just live, you know? But then I had the whole world in front of me to think about. I went to Atlanta at first. But it was too close. I kept being tempted to sneak back into Savannah. For a while I had this crazy idea that I was going to come kidnap you in the middle of the night and whisk you away to a foreign country, far away from your family, somewhere they’d never find us. But that dream was complicated, because Sera was still here. And of course, all of that takes a hell of a lot of money to actually execute, and I was a poor bastard, as you know. Eventually, I just kept going west to get further and further away until I couldn’t go anymore.”

  “The west coast is an entirely different world. Everyone’s open and friendly, but not in a fake way, not like here. It’s a real live and let live attitude and it suited me just fine. I was always good with bikes, so I got a job working on Harleys. I met a bunch of guys in a club, and after a while, I figured out I could make a hell of a lot more money with them. Things were pretty crazy after that. For a few years, I rode with them, and it was hard, but it was nice to have a family, be a part of something, even if it was just doing a lot of illegal shit. But we looked out for each other, you know? It felt good. And I really needed something that felt good in my life again. I never stopped thinking about you. I never stopped missing you.”

  He squeezed my hand, smiling over at me.

  “I did my best to fit in with them. I got all this ink, let my hair grow…” His voice trailed off and I could see a distance in his eyes. “After a while, things went way south with the club. Everything we’d built was destroyed and we were all out of work, out of a place to live, out of a family. But they say when one door closes, another opens, and that’s how that worked out, too. A few of us were invited to join up with another club — one much different — and much better — than the last one.”

  He lifted his chin with pride.

  “We’re called the Gods of Chaos. The
y’re my family now. They’re really good people.”

  I looked at him with a twinge of alarm. He was still a part of a club?

  “I usually wear leathers, but we left our cuts at home.”

  “I don’t understand,” I finally said. “I thought you were visiting your sister.”

  “Yeah, this is a really long story,” he laughed.

  “Okay,” I laughed. “Keep going.”

  “The Gods aren’t like your usual outlaw motorcycle club. Not at all, in fact. Ryder’s the president and his old lady, Grace, they’re our leaders. But the other guys are just as important. Anyway, the difference is that they aren’t out running drugs or guns or whatever other nefarious shit most clubs do. Grace used to be an undercover cop, in fact. But she was on a bad case and Ryder rescued her and they fell in love, to make a long story short. Grace quit the force and she and Ryder started working together. They like to call themselves an underground railroad for people who need help but can’t get it in traditional places. They save girls from sex trafficking or high-profile women who can’t get away from their abusers and need help disappearing. We do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

  “That’s kind of amazing, Blade,” I said, thoroughly impressed. He’d made something of his life, after all the bullshit, and I was proud of him.

  “I love the Gods and Grace and all the other old ladies. You’ll meet them, Rose. You’ll love them, too. We all live together in a compound of log cabins, deep in the Tillamook Forest on the northern Oregon coast. It can get a little crazy at times, and even dangerous, but it’s absolutely thrilling and I love it so much.”

  He was beaming talking about his new family. I loved seeing that he was so happy.

  “So, I told you I came back to visit Sera, but that’s not entirely true. I’m here on a case. And this is where shit turns dark.”

  I looked at him with worry as his eyes turned as dark as his tone of voice.