Fire Inside (Page 82)

“I’ll make the calls,” Tack agreed.

“Obliged,” Hop replied.

“Lanie,” Tack called.

“What?” I snapped to the ceiling.

“Look at me, babe.”

I got up on my elbows and glared at Tack.

“You’re right. Your head isn’t messed up,” Tack stated, then his face got soft when he finished, “Glad to have you back, darlin’.”

Damn.

I was going to cry.

“Stop being nice when I’m ticked,” I demanded but my words were shaky.

Tack just grinned.

I deep breathed.

Hop moved to him, they did a fingers-wrapped-around-wrists biker, badass handshake and I heard Tack mutter, “She’s good. You did good, brother.”

To which Hop muttered back, “In more ways than one.”

They smiled at each other while I fought off tears.

Tack left.

I decided to focus on being angry in order not to let loose the tears, so I glared at Hop as he moved to the end of the bed.

“I’m ticked at you,” I declared.

He hit the bed with his hands then his knees and crawled up it toward me and he looked so hot doing that, suddenly I wasn’t ticked anymore.

He also ignored my declaration and asked, “You wanna go to Connecticut?”

“Heck no,” I answered as he made it up my body and lowered his weight on me.

“Babe, your mom’s in jail, your dad’s in the hospital.”

“Their tangled web,” I replied. “I have campaigns going live. I’ve got meetings with my counselor I’d rather not put off because they’re working. I’ve got a cop I need to explain some things to. And I’ve got to have a key cut so my man can come to my place whenever he wants. I don’t have time to fly to Connecticut to sort out the lives of two adults who should have sorted themselves out three decades ago.”

“Fair enough but you missed somethin’ in listing all your obligations,” Hop said.

“And what’s that?” I asked.

“Wrappin’ that mouth of yours around your man’s cock.”

I did a top-to-toe shiver.

Hop felt it and grinned.

Then he dropped his lips to mine and kissed me. It lasted awhile and I was holding on, fairly hot and very bothered when he lifted his head.

“You’re seein’ a counselor and it’s workin’?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Proud of you, lady.”

I smiled.

Hop’s eyes dropped to my mouth and he kissed me again.

About five minutes later, I got down to seeing to one of my obligations.

I worked hard at it, enjoying every second and, pleased to report, my endeavors were a success.

* * *

“You’re such a pain!”

This was shouted by Cutter one second after Rider shoved him in the shoulder. Half a second after he shouted, Cut took a step back then lunged forward and tackled Ride whereupon they both hit my rug and started wrestling.

Tack, who was enjoying a beer in my living room with Hop, and Tyra, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner with me, totally ignored them.

This was often their tactic.

“As long as they aren’t close to somethin’ that can hurt them or somethin’ breakable, we let ’em duke it out,” Tack had told me.

I wasn’t certain this was an optimal parental choice but I’d never seen bikers raised from womb to badass. It was probably good they knew their way around a slug fest from a young age.

Needless to say, Tack had told Tyra about Hop and me, and Tyra had wasted no time phoning me. We had a conversation that was uncomfortable for both of us, since she’d shared the BeeBee information and I hadn’t shared anything at all. I’d had to explain, without giving away too much of Hop’s business he didn’t want spread around, that she’d been mistaken. He didn’t cheat, he’d been on a break. Then I’d used Hop’s words to tell her what he and I had was “real”; figuring she’d lived in the biker world longer than me, she would understand.

She did but she was my best friend. I knew she’d want physical evidence.

So of course she told me she, Tack, and the boys were coming for dinner. “So I can see for myself that this is all good.”

Considering the fact that they’d walked up to my back door when Hop was laying a hot and heavy one on me in the kitchen—so hot and heavy we hadn’t heard their SUV parking in my back drive—Tyra got an eyeful of how good it was.

So did Tack, Ride, and Cut, with Rider not thinking much of what he’d seen, something which he shared upon entering by yelling at me, “That’s gross! Mister Hop had his tongue in your mouth!” After which he instantly turned to his father and kept yelling, “You do that to Mom too and it’s sick!”

Hop chuckled.

Ty-Ty gazed at her son with a smile twitching at her mouth.

Tack didn’t miss a beat and muttered, “I’ll remind you of those words when we have our first pregnancy scare.”

To this Hop chuckled more. I joined in but Tyra cut narrowed eyes to her man while Rider looked confused and Cut shouted, “La-La, I want blue Powerade! Now!”

I set the kids up with Powerade. The men got beers and firmly planted themselves in the living room, not in my family room, which was too close to the kitchen and thus might mean they’d be called on to do something like open jars or chop onions. Tyra and I got down to cooking.

“So, let me get this straight. The bondsman accepted an out-of-state cosigner. Your mom was released. She went home and tossed all your dad’s shit out on the lawn and called a locksmith. He got released from the hospital, came home and couldn’t get into the house but found his crap in the yard and a note on the door telling him she was going to clean him out during the divorce proceedings. The police were called again when he kept pounding on the door and shouting. He was told to find elsewhere to stay. Your mom asked your sister to find her an AA meeting. And you’re in love with Hopper Kincaid,” Tyra stated and I smiled at her.

“That about sums it up,” I confirmed.

“Holy crap,” she replied.

“I know,” I agreed then went on. “Wish I was there when she was tossing all dad’s stuff on the lawn. Lis was. My sister is all over this. She’s liking a jailbird mom with a backbone so she’s decided she’s talking to Mom again and dragging her husband Bart along with her. So they were there when Mom was doing an extreme clean of the house. Bart thought it was a scream and took all Dad’s pictures of him with senators and congressmen off the wall of his study and flung them out the window. Lis said she wanted to throw stuff too but she was laughing too hard, and by the time she got herself together, they’d already taken care of business.”