Black Dogs Motorcycle Club: Full Series Box Set (41 page)

~ NINETEEN ~

“So this is what it looks like on the other side,”
said Tommy as he propped up his boots on one of the bar stools and gave Will a
shit-eating grin.

Will handed him an open
beer and gave him a half-smile. “Don’t get used to it.”

“No way, I’m never going
back,” said Tommy with a laugh, clinking his beer against Will’s. They both
took a drink.

At that moment, Will
didn’t mind the idea of the simple duties of being a bartender. It seemed like
a fucking vacation, compared to the turmoil and trauma of the last two years.
Already in the few days since the meeting with the cartel, he felt ten times
lighter, a thousand years younger. Like someone had finally released the steam
building up inside of him so he could breathe and think. He didn’t feel half as
angry anymore, and while he wouldn’t go as far as to say he was happy, he was
basically a pig in shit compared to how he felt just a week before. He was glad
to toss off the heavy responsibility of being a spymaster for a few weeks. He’d
come back stronger; he always did.

And now that the clouds in
his head had fully cleared, he really only had one desire left: Eva.

He thought about the
sadness in her face when he left her at Swashbuckler’s days ago. He hadn’t been
back since—had been in no shape for it, really. After the cartel meeting, Will
went back to his house and slept for fifteen hours, a deeper sleep than any
he’d had in months. He woke up and met with a fresh disgust for the living
conditions to which he’d subjected himself, and immediately began cleaning up
the mess he’d been living in. It was like his brain was running at full
function for the first time in two years.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t
thought about her—far from it. Not ten minutes passed by, it seemed, without
something as simple as her name popping into his head. It was only that Will
was suddenly awake to his own sickness, and self-preservation had to come
first. The man he used to be, the one he wanted to be again, kept a tighter
ship than this. The man his grandmother raised was better. He had to dig that
man out from the ashes of the fire.

After that, his next
responsibility was showing up to pay his penance to the MC for his behavior,
taking over as clubhouse bartender and maintenance man for Tommy Castillo,
while the young recruit finally got his shot at some field work. Playing
bartender only made him think of Eva more and more. He replayed memories of
bending her over the counter, kneeling underneath her soft heat, making her
writhe on top of his face. He could practically see her, sitting there at the
bar, reading and smiling up at him, eyes heavy with attraction. The thought
made his chest ache.

Deep down, Will knew he
cared about Eva, but he wasn’t so sure she cared about him—not now. Thinking
about that day Jase and Ghost dragged him out of the bar filled him with shame.
After that, Eva probably thought he was some lunatic. Who could blame her? He
couldn’t have looked sane, pushing his best friend around for no reason,
readying to drag Charlie out into battle. He may have saved the Murdocks, in
the end, but looking back, he could recognize that he really just got lucky
things didn’t go a lot worse. He had no confidence that Eva saw him as anything
more than an opportunistic fuck, an exciting affair with a bad boy to get her
blood going.

You’ve never told a bigger
lie to yourself,
came the thought from Will’s own mind.
The last thing Eva would do is
use you.

“You are literally the
worst bartender that has ever existed.”

Will looked over and saw
Ghost, both hands spread wide, leaning on the bar.

“Did you say something?”
asked Will.

“ ‘Dear Yelp
friends: don’t go to the Black Dogs clubhouse. Bartender was lost in a sissy
romantic daydream and couldn’t even get me a fucking beer. The available pussy
was acceptable. Half a star,’ ” said Ghost, pounding his fist on the bar.

Will smiled and cracked
open a beer, handing it across the bar to him. “Everyone knows those reviews
are bought.”

“Fair enough,” said Ghost.
He took a drink and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “So, how you
feelin’, sport? Get that grumpiness dug out yet?”

“You’re such a poet,” said
Will. “And I’m feeling better, yes. Thanks.”

“You were a grade-A
jagweed there for a while, man. And that’s
my
thing,” said Ghost,
sticking a thumb in his own chest. “Glad to see you feeling like yourself
again.”

“Glad to be feeling like
myself again.”

“So, where’s your little
girlfriend?”

Will swallowed his beer
and gave a small shake of his head. “I’m not so sure about the future of that.”
He looked down at the hands wrapped around his beer bottle. “She didn’t exactly
meet me at a positive time in my life.”

“Yeah, but she knows that,
doesn’t she? And she liked you anyway. I think she helped this along.”

Will crooked an eyebrow at
him. “Are you trying to give me romantic advice, Ghost?”

Ghost’s face twisted into
an expression of mock outrage. “What the shit is that supposed to mean? I’m not
a man? I don’t have a heart just because I’m amazing at killing things?”

Will rolled his eyes with
a laugh and punched Ghost in the arm. He listened to Ghost ramble on in his
dramatic, pretend offense as more members of the MC started to trickle in for
the Friday night meeting and subsequent party in the den. So many people were
coming in and out that the sound of the door opening had faded into the
background, along with the music from the jukebox, and the competitive jostling
from Jase and Bones at the pool table.

Will started pulling up
beers as new arrivals came in. When he stood up, Eva stood in the big wide
doorway that connected the den with the main hallway. She looked like a vision
from some nostalgic painting of Americana. Her slender frame was draped by a
pastel pink dress, tied neatly around her waist with a matching belt. Her soft,
thin brown hair fell in gentle curls at the cut of her chin, freshly washed and
brushed. She wore a thin, white cardigan over her shoulders on this chilly
evening, and her hands fidgeted at her waist as she gazed into the big den full
of bikers, her eyes wide, but unafraid.

Will froze for a moment.
She didn’t look real, standing there in all her color and softness in the midst
of everything that wasn’t. Her beauty didn’t belong here, and yet Will couldn’t
have been happier to see it again. He felt bursts of emotion run through his
skin as he stared at her, soaking in every inch as she searched the room for
his face.

“Whoa…” said Ghost from
his seat suddenly, halting his annoying fake monologue. He was looking at Eva,
too. “I mean… whoa. She’s like a cupcake come to life.”

Will put his beer down and
gave Ghost a stern look. “Behave?”

“I wanna eat her right
up.”

“
Ghost.”

“I’m serious. You better
be able to get around that bar faster than I can get off this stool.” Ghost
started chugging his beer and held up his fingers in a slow, awkward countdown
as he drank. Will just shook his head and slapped the back of Ghost’s as he
came out from behind the bar and walked by.

Will felt his heart start
to race as he walked up Eva. When she spotted him, her face immediately lit up
in a smile that crinkled her eyes and sent a heated flush through her skin. He
saw her jaw drop a little when he stopped before her.

Eva stared deep into his
eyes, like she was searching for something. “Wow, I… I came here to check and
see if you were doing okay, but I can see already… you look like a different
man.”

Will flushed with a rare
feeling of self-consciousness, smiling downward. He took his big right hand and
grasped the middle of Eva’s fidgeting fingers, holding them there in a warm,
tight embrace. She wrapped her hands around his lovingly, her small fingers
curled and rubbing in little strokes.

“I hope not so different,”
said Will. “I’m sorry I haven’t reached out to you. What you saw in me…” He
shook his head. “I figured you’d never want to see me again.”

Eva smiled softly at him.
She put a palm up to his face and caressed his cheek, and Will felt his stomach
flutter. “I did see some darkness,” she agreed slowly. “But I think I also saw
a true glimpse of who you are, Will. And I think that’s the man who is standing
in front of me right now.”

“I wish you didn’t have to
see me like that,” said Will. “I know I was already deep in before you arrived,
but I still wish… I still wish I could take it back.” He squeezed her hands.
“It was old pain I was fighting, but a new danger that was real. I only wanted
to protect you. You believe that, right?”

Eva nodded. “I do. And you
did, Will. You protected us. You made the difference. I’m glad the wolf in you
was there when we needed it.” She smiled a little. “Coriolanus wasn’t
all
wrong…”

Will returned her grin.
She’s
really not afraid. She’s like a queen. My queen.

She looked down like she
was gathering her courage. “You’ve made a difference to me. A big difference. I
know I don’t really fit into your world here and… and I understand if your
interest isn’t the same… but I just wanted you to know that you made me feel
more alive than I’ve ever felt. And I’ve had enough of being alone, and enough
of being careful, for a fucking lifetime.”

Will raised his eyebrows
at her curse, and couldn’t help but smile. It made Eva blush.

“I just mean… I liked
spending time with you, and for more reasons than just your dick,” she said
with a mischievous smile that made Will ache with lust. “So if you wanted to
keep spending time together, maybe try and see what we’re like without a bounty
hanging over our heads, I think I would like that.”

Will smiled so big, his
face muscles hurt. He leaned down and rested his forehead on Eva’s, whispering,
“You really would?”

Eva nodded under his face,
and planted a tiny, heartbreaking kiss on his lips.

“My life isn’t always as
insane as last week, but it’s also not boring. Are you sure you want that kind
of trouble?”

Eva smiled. “Are you
kidding?” She reached a hand out and ran it across his abs, under his cut, and
around his back. Will groaned as even this touch made his lust start boiling
for her. “I’m done being jealous of my books. I want some adventures of my
own.”

Will wrapped his hand
around her waist and pulled her into him. “I think I can help with that.” He
cupped her jaw and ran a soft thumb across her pale skin before he leaned his
lips into hers, kissing her with slow, deliberate passion as she clung to him
tighter.

It was only a few seconds
before the men in the room erupted into ludicrous cat-calls, whistles, and
howling as they watched Will and Eva kiss. They tried to ignore it, but the
longer they did, the louder everyone became until he and Eva both broke down
into embarrassed laughter as the MC got riled up. Sometimes, Will forgot how
much of himself he kept hidden from the people in his life—this was the first
time the MC had ever seen him with a woman who wasn’t just a casual fuck.

“Well done, sir!” Jase
clapped from the pool table.

Will shook his head and
looked down at Eva with apologetic eyes. “Welcome to the jungle, I suppose.”

“If Will’s going
monogamous, tell the house ladies I’m taking his spot as the club’s sex-crazed
maniac,” said Ghost, raising his beer in the air. “To my dick, and all its
future successes!” Before he could take a drink, someone threw an empty beer
can at him, making him spill his beer with a curse.

Will shot Eva a glance,
worried about how she’d react to Ghost’s mention of his prior sex life, but Eva
surprised him again by laughing full and loud, with only a little embarrassment
on her flushed cheeks. She tucked her head against Will’s chest and he wrapped
an arm around her and pulled her closer, planting a kiss on top of her head as
he led her into the den to make introductions.