Page 32 of Equilibrium
My enforcer, one of my best friends, looked like he wanted to flee while I seethed, looking at where she placed her hands. She hugged him around the waist, leaning against him, completely ignoring the fact that I was five minutes from blowing a gasket.
“Storm.” Indigo interrupted me before I could saunter toward her, haul her ass up and place her on my bike. “We need to go.”
Fucking fuck.
I clenched and unclenched my hands, trying to calm my racing heart and the buzzing in my ears. I wanted to show her the freedom you could feel while riding on the bike, and I wanted her hands on me, not on Atlas.
The man in question looked between me and Indigo with an apologetic look on his face. While the sane part of me knew that nothing was going on between the two of them, the other part, the animalistic part that recognized her as mine, wanted to tear him off his bike and take her back to the house, just so I could show her who she truly belonged to.
But I wasn’t going to make a scene. Our lives were already filled with violence and adding more on top wasn’t going to solve the problem. She wanted to play this game? Fine, we could play the game.
“Meredith!” I called out to one of the girls that usually worked at the bar. She was already seated behind Carlos, one of our prospects, but if Ophelia wanted to fuck with my head in this way, I was going to fuck with hers.
Meredith was a friend, one of the first I made when I came to the club, and while nothing ever happened between us, my little spitfire who wanted to drive me crazy, didn’t know that.
Meredith looked at me over Carlos’s shoulder as if I grew two heads. Maybe I did. Maybe I was playing with fire, but two could play this childish game.
“You’re riding on my bike today,” I said louder than necessary, but enough for everyone to hear. The murmur of voices echoed around us, and I knew that each and every one of them knew who Ophelia was. There were rarely any secrets between us, and my crusade to find her all of these years was not exactly a quiet one.
My good friend got off of the bike and walked toward me, scowling the whole time. By the end of this day, I would have two women angry at me, but I didn’t give a fuck right now. It was either this or resorting to violent urges I had coursing through my veins, and I chose the lesser evil.
“Are you trying to get me killed, Storm?” Meredith gritted through her teeth as soon as she stepped in front of me. “I like my head just where it is. On my shoulders.”
I looked at her and then back to where Ophelia sat, and grinned like a fool at the disdain on her face. She didn’t like this? Well, neither did I, but there was nothing we could do about it right now.
“Just play along, Mer.” I smiled at her. “And trust me, your head will stay where it is.”
“Easy for you to say. I don’t have a dick Ophelia Aster is crazy about, and I don’t want to have her plotting my untimely demise just because you guys don’t know how to act like two rational adults.”
“Mer.” I inched closer to her. “Not now. I need you to get on my bike and smile while you’re at it.”
“Honey, listen.” She placed her hand on my arm, and Ophelia scowled harder, gripping the leather jacket Atlas wore. “I love you like a brother, but I don’t want to get between the two of you. She seems like a cool chick, and the last thing I want to have is her knife against my throat one of these mornings. I’ll ride with you but fix this shit.”
Easier fucking said than done.
I tried to ignore the burning heat at the back of my neck as I straddled my bike, waiting for Mer to climb on behind me. She hugged my middle, trying to keep as much distance as possible between her front and my back, but even if she did press herself against me, it wouldn’t matter when the only woman I wanted to have here decided to ride with somebody else.
I turned on the ignition, ignoring the burning in my gut, letting the vibrations of the bike calm my racing heart. It never got old, this feeling of freedom. Even after almost twenty years, I still felt like that fourteen-year-old kid that got to sit on a bike for the first time.
I could hear the rest of the bikes turning on, sending an angry growl into the air, announcing our presence. The Sons of Hades were a force to be reckoned with, and I felt proud, knowing that they were mine.
My family, my people, I just had to show Ophelia everything she could gain by staying here.
We took off down the street, heading for the main road, passing the houses that were quietly nestled close to our club. They all knew what went on there, but they steered clear from us, and we tried to protect them in the best way that we could. We were all aware that they feared us, but I wasn’t going to try and change who we were just to appease other people.
We were unapologetically the hell they never wanted to step into, and I was fine with keeping us separate from the rest of them.
Meredith gripped my waist tighter as we sped down the highway, heading toward the beach for the bonfire. For a moment, I allowed myself to forget about the dirty past and the shaky future. The wind hit me from all the sides, caressing my skin, playing with my hair, and I reveled in the feeling.
This wasn’t something you could buy or fake. You either loved this life or you detested it, there was no middle ground. Maybe it was because I didn’t know better—what with being brought up in an environment far harsher than the one I was living in now—but I wouldn’t change it.
I would rather have this freedom, than the lie coating my life. They were all going to pay for the shit they threw us into.
Every single one of them.
I madea lot of mistakes in the twenty-four years of my life. Major, fucked-up mistakes that I couldn’t get back from. But as soon as my butt touched the seat of Atlas’s bike, I knew this might be the biggest one.
Listen, I needed some distance between us. What happened in his room... the sex, the mini shouting match, the need to touch him and show him I wasn’t who they all thought I was, it was becoming too much. He was in everything–every single touch, every thought, every action. He was slowly consuming my soul, and I didn’t like it.
