More Than Miles (A Lost Kings MC Novel) (26 page)

While Z jogs into the house to grab some stuff, Rock strolls over. “Something’s up his ass lately. Can’t sit still for more than a day.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“Keep an eye on him.”

I don’t have an answer for that. Never thought I’d see the day when Rock was asking me to look after Z.

Hope rushes in as we’re about to go and gives me a fierce hug. “Have fun. Be careful,” she whispers in my ear. I think she says it to Dex and Z, too, so I’m not insulted. Sparky takes her hand, squeezing it tight as we roll out. He must be nearing a meltdown watching us whisk his babies away.

Trinity doesn’t fuck around when it comes to wedding planning. Although the theme of the wedding seems to be
broke bride on a budget
, she manages to make everything beautiful instead of pitiful.

“Thank you so much, Trinity.”

“You’re welcome, honey.”

I’ve known Trinity for years. Hated her for years, too. But the more time I spend at the clubhouse, the more I see what a vital role she plays here. Maybe not as
vital
as she used to, but important.

“Has, uh, Murphy said anything?” I can’t look her in the eye while I ask. It’s all too weird, but I need to know how he is. We haven’t spoken in so long. He probably hates me.

She glances down at her hands. “No. He’s on a run.”

“Oh. Where?”

“Southwest.”

“Oh.”

I take a few deep breaths before asking my next question. “Was he upset?”

She finally meets my eyes. “Probably.”

“Trinity, I never—”

“There’s my girl,” Wrath’s low voice startles me, and I find him creeping up behind Trinity. She squeals and jumps out of her chair. I glance away while they greet each other with so much affection it makes me blush. If Wrath can get over the past, then I have no business being mad at Trinity. Especially when she’s always tried so hard to be nice to me. Not because she wanted something from me—she was already plenty close with my brother—but because I was part of the family.

They approach the table with their arms around each other, and it’s weird to see Uncle Wrath so…content. Weird, but nice.

“Hey, Heidi-girl.” He pats me on the head and musses my hair. “Whose wedding are you working on?”

Trinity’s mouth curls into a smirk. “Heidi’s.”

“Fucking bullshit, Heidi. Aren’t you like eight?”

“Eigh
teen
, Uncle Wrath.”

“Too young. Where’s Axel? I want to kick his ass for making me feel old.”

My hand flies up, covering my mouth while I laugh. Wrath never seems to age. At least not to me.

Trinity slips right back into wedding planning mode “I just remembered. We still have a lot of mason jars left over from Hope’s wedding. Although, it’s winter, we should do something like hot cocoa in pretty mugs or something.”

“Good idea, since the bride isn’t even old enough to drink,” Wrath says, throwing a smirk my way.

I roll my eyes.

Wrath listens to Trinity rattle off a bunch of wedding details with a smile on his face. Like every word out of her mouth matters, no matter how trivial. It’s a side of him I’ve never seen. When she finishes, he glances at me. “How many guests, Heidi?”

I know his job is security for the club, so he’s not asking because he wants to pull up a chair and write out wedding invitations with us.

“Uh, just the club. You know, whoever wants to come. They don’t have to, obviously. And four of our friends.”

His puzzled expression reminds me of how crappy this whole situation is. “What about Axel’s family?”

“They’re, uh, not coming.”

Puzzled morphs into pissed pretty quick. “What do you mean
not coming
?”

“They think it’s a mistake for us to get married. They’re uh, well, they’re not fond of me, so—”

“Fuck them. None of us are thrilled about it either, but we’ll sure as fuck be there.”

I’m not really sure what to do with that.

“You’re mad at me, too?” I ask, sounding unbelievably pitiful.

“No. Heidi-girl. Just worried about you. I don’t want to have to kill Axel if he does anything to upset you.”

“Ah, there’s the Wrath I know and love,” I tease to lighten things up.

“Murder’s always on his mind,” Trinity says and he laughs with her.

I love this crazy family. I’d rather spend a hundred years right here in this clubhouse than ten seconds with Axel’s stuck-up parents.

All of this has me so emotional, I tear up. Crap. Everything makes me want to cry lately. If I keep it up, someone’s going to figure out I’m pregnant.

“You okay, Heidi?” Trinity asks after Wrath leaves.

“I’m good.”

“Good, because we have a long night at the craft store ahead of us.”

I laugh so hard, I tip sideways in my chair, making Trinity laugh with me.

“Can’t wait.”

T
urns out, 2,500 miles isn’t enough to get Heidi out of my head. Fuck, instead of taking off to the other end of the country, should I have stayed and tried to talk her out of marrying him?

Normally, being on the road calms me and I can find some sort of inner peace. The road noise lulls me into a quiet state. But not this time.

She’s eight-fucking-teen. What the fuck is she thinking marrying that asshole?

Not even the low seventies weather cheers me up. The whole time I was home, I couldn’t wait to get away. Now, I’m in Arizona, visiting a club we’re on good terms with. Their clubhouse is loaded with hot, half-naked chicks, and I just want to go home. Girls aside, things are pretty calm tonight. Either I’m getting older or the Bulls have settled down. This clubhouse isn’t nearly as wild as I remember.

Just as I have that thought, the club’s president, Romeo, joins us. He waves a hand at the open room. “See anything you like?”

I couldn’t care less, but I don’t want to insult the guy in his own clubhouse, either. “Too many.”

He chuckles then gets down to the real reason he stopped by our table. “I gotta give you guys props. This grow-op shit ain’t easy. Or cheap.”

“Nope.” Sparky makes it look easy, but he also lives in the basement taking care of our plants twenty-four-seven. The bits of the process that I
do
help out with may not be as complicated as the growing part, but they’re still pretty detailed.

“Rebel’s been draining us dry setting up our grow house.”

“Lot of upfront costs. It should even out.”

“You guys must think it’s worth it though?”

My shoulders lift. “We do all right.”

He signals one of the girls, Sadie I think, over with a bottle of Jameson and a few glasses. Dex smirks at me when I take the bottle but send Sadie away.

Romeo claps me on the back. “I’ll catch you tomorrow.” He nods at Dex before taking off for the night.

Dex shrugs. “Luck says Romeo’s all wifed up now.”

Christ, even degenerate pricks like Romeo are settling down? I lower my head and bang it on the table a few times, making Dex laugh. I just want to go home.

That need intensifies when Teller sends me a text with the wedding date.

This is really happening?

Dex and I kill one bottle, and another one lands on our table. “You gotta tell her,” Dex says. We’re both pretty wasted, so I hope to hell he forgets this conversation tomorrow. Thank God Z’s nowhere to be found. Drunk or not, he’d remember every word and torture me later.

As if he knew my attention wandered, Dex slaps his hand down on the table. “Go home and tell her. Don’t let her marry that douche without telling her how you feel.”

“I have told her. She thinks I’m a filthy manwhore who can’t keep his dick in his pants.”

“Well, if the rubber fits—”

“Fuck you. Wait, you don’t like him? I mean I know why I don’t like him. What’s your issue?”

Dex shrugs and finishes his beer. “I dunno. Kid always had a bit of attitude. Seemed to think he was better than all us filthy bikers.”

“
You
think you’re better than all us filthy bikers.”

“No. I think you’re all whores flirting with dick rot, but I don’t think I’m any better than you.”

“Uh, it kind of sounds like you do, brother.”

He thinks that’s hysterical and sets his head down on the table, shaking with laughter. After a few minutes, he picks his head up. “It’s not just that. He had attitude down at CB, too.”

“Really? Maybe that had more to do with Heidi giving him shit about hanging out there.” Fuck, am I really defending the asshole marrying my girl? I must be drunk.

“Nah. Maybe. I don’t know. He’d stand around like he had a stick up his ass. Take Wrath, he hates hanging out there more than any of us, but he still walks the girls to their cars and makes sure no one bothers them.”

“Axel’s a kid.”

“I dunno. Manners are manners. If you don’t know by his age that you should walk a lady to her car at two in the morning, you’re already a failure in my book.”

Dex’s words burn a hole in my brain the whole four days it takes us to ride home. It makes me wonder if Axel treats Heidi right. I’ve had my suspicions but I’m not exactly a reliable judge of the kid’s character.

A
xel joined us once for wedding planning stuff, then opted out of any future meetings. That’s fine. Trinity doesn’t need any assistance.