“Miah?”
“Yeah, babe?” he asks after getting in beside me and tucking me into his side.
“That was the best sex I’ve ever had. Thank you,” I whisper, smiling around a yawn when he groans and pulls me against his growing erection.
“That’s good because it’s the best I’ve had, too. Now go to sleep, Clari, I can’t touch you anymore without taking you, and we’re not ready for that yet.”
He may not be, but I’m sure that if he just so happened to go for more than a dry hump, I wouldn’t turn him away. Good thing he’s in charge right now, because my judgement seems to be skewed at the moment.
In the best of ways.
Chapter Nine
Miah
“What exactly are you saying here, Jerry?”
I know I’m being rude to the poor guy, and after the way he tried to save Ellie last year and almost died when his crazy-ass wife put a bullet in him, I should be nicer to the man we’ve all underestimated for years.
But the truth is that I still don’t like him since all of Ellie’s pain could have been avoided if he’d told us the truth about Lynn instead of trying to save his other family and himself by sacrificing my little sister.
I feel almost nothing for the fact that he tried to make things right in the end, because yeah, I’m not a forgiving type of guy.
“I’m saying that I heard your cousin Ronny and Al Conrad talking yesterday when I went to visit my sister Cleo, and they sounded thick as thieves, boy. They’re still harboring a grudge against you guys for Bolton and Lynn.”
So what the fuck is new about that? I’ve had at least one Conrad or Lane calling me on a weekly basis to call me a murderer for “taking Lynn out,” and the fact that they’re all still sore about Bolton is another gripe that I have to endure on a regular basis.
Lynn and her mentally insane son aren’t actually dead, thanks to some quick work from Jared and the ever reliable Jace. Lynn was revived after three minutes of being clinically dead and her son is still rotting away in a hole in the French countryside.
I managed to get Lynn into a sanatorium of questionable practice after the bitch finally woke up from her coma, and there she has been for the last year, suffering as best as I can make her without actually killing her and sending her to hell where she belongs.
“So? We already know that, Jerry, it’s not exactly a secret with the way they keep calling me and threatening to kill me and mine,” I snarl, rolling my eyes at Roman when he looks away from the road and raises a brow.
“Boy, I’m telling you that whatever your aunt put into their heads about getting rid of you all is still very much in play here, and these people will only bide their time till they get the opportunity to strike at you!”
His tone makes me want to laugh because Jerry has been nothing but polite and meek since he woke up in the hospital and realized that his bitch wife was gone and no longer able to threaten the woman he loved or his child.
And that we weren’t going to torture him for his part in Ellie’s suffering.
“Jerry—”
“They were talking about some new woman…Claire…something or other.”
“Clara.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Clara. Veronica was saying that you should know what it feels like to lose someone you love, and Al was agreeing with her. Now don’t take me seriously, boy. That’s just fine since I can’t blame you for not trusting any of us worth a damn, but at least take your Clara’s life seriously, Miah. These people are full of hate and capable of God, alone, knows what when they get a bug up their asses.”
That strikes a chord of fear in me like nothing else can because I’ve seen Al in action many times, and the man is an animal when it comes to women. One of the reasons I’ve considered swapping him and Jace out is that Al has a tendency to get grabby and abusive with women when he’s drunk, and the last time it happened I had to jump on Jared and choke his ass out to keep him from killing the shit.
Just thinking of that filth getting anywhere near my Clari makes my gut twist with anger and I close my eyes against the need to land my fist through the dashboard.
“Okay, Jerry, you’re right. I’ll keep an eye out for them.”
“Not just them, Miah, but anyone they’d hire. My family may have disowned me and refused me my inheritance, kid, but that doesn’t mean the Conrads aren’t flush with cash. They have the resources and connections to get her hurt. How do you think I found that guy to watch Ellie? Cleo got me in contact with some shady dealers and I paid him out the ass to keep her safe. My family is not that altruistic, kid. They’re not going to want to help your girl, but harm her to hurt you.”