Curse's Claim

Mia’s heart was breaking. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I know, but I want to go just like you wanted to go to college, Mia.” Ashley wrapped her arms around her. Curse stepped back, giving them space.

“I love you,” Mia said.

“I love you. You’re my best friend, and I promise I’ll be fine. More than fine. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.”

“She will be allowed to communicate with you,” Frederick said, clearing his throat. Mia looked over her friend’s shoulder at the handsome man waiting to take her away.

“You’ll take good care of her?” Mia asked.

“I will. Regardless of what people think I don’t make a habit of killing women myself.” Frederick gripped Ashley’s arm. Mia noticed he didn’t say anything about employing men to kill women for him.

“Jerry organized it with me,” Ashley said, turning to look at Devil. “I know you didn’t want us to do this after we talked, but we did.”

The president of the Chaos Bleeds nodded at Ashley. Mia watched it all feeling helpless.

“I look forward to doing business with you. I advise that you get rid of that body and pick up where Jerry left off,” Frederick said, flicking his wrist at the dead body of Jerry, the pimp.

Mia couldn’t look at him. Jerry didn’t deserve to die, but she was glad it was none of the people Curse cared about.

He gripped her shoulders, tugging her back against him. “Don’t worry about her.”

“I won’t.” Mia would always worry about her friend.

Within twenty minutes Frederick was gone, yet the tension in the clubhouse remained. Vincent was trying to calm Phoebe down. Lexie was crying and snuggled in close to Devil. Not one brother made a sound. Her throat felt tight, and her vision blurred as the tears started to build.

“She did us all a favor,” Pussy said.

“Jerry knew something bad was going to happen,” Devil said. “He probably didn’t expect to be killed. I knew Ashley was going to go. She came to me with Jerry’s plan.”

Turning toward the older man, Mia stared at him waiting.

“What do you mean?” Curse asked.

“Ashley spent time with Jerry and found out more about Frederick. It seems the pimp talked a lot with drink in his system. She offered to go with Frederick in the hope of helping us. She even talked with him.”

“How is she going to help?” Mia asked. “She’s just Ashley. She’s stupid and impulsive.” She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have let her go.”

Curse pulled her close, turning her against his chest. She gripped his jacket sobbing.

“Your friend is a lot of things, Mia. Stupid isn’t one of them. We’ve now got a woman on the inside. Ashley showed us loyalty, and she will not betray us,” Devil said.

“What do you mean?” This came from Pussy.

“It means until further notice we’re Frederick Gonzalez’s lapdogs. We do what he says when he says it, and we keep our f**king heads down.” Devil held his woman close to him. “The visit with The Skulls is important. I want you all present in the house when the barbeque happens. They’re going to help us.”

“What was that shit with Tiny?” Death asked.

“He’s trying to separate us. Control us and in the end, rule over us,” Devil said. “This is not your backdoor drug dealer or your pimp. He knows his power and intends to use it. We’ve all got to be ready for what’s going to come our way. It could be a month, a couple of months, years, I don’t know. What I do know is that we all have to band together. No secrets, no shit.”

The room agreed with Devil on the future plans. Mia stared at Jerry’s body, feeling the weight of the words spoken on her shoulders.

“We need to clean this mess up,” Curse said. Everyone started moving at once. Curse took her hand and led her upstairs.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“You’ve cleaned away enough blood and dead bodies to last you a lifetime. I’m not going to let you do anymore.” He opened the door to a bedroom. “This is my room.”

“I need to help.”

“No, you need to rest. I’m not taking no for an answer. You can fight with me all you want. This is not going to change shit.”

Running fingers through her hair she stepped into his room. The scent was entirely of him. “This is where you live?”

“For now at least. I’m still looking at that apartment. In fact, I got a viewing next week.”

“Curse, are you ready for this?” she asked, sitting down on his bed.

“I think the question is, are you ready for this?”

“What do you mean?”

He knelt down in front of her. Curse ran his hands up and down her thighs. “For a long time you’ve pushed men away. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact no one knows how awesome you are in bed.” She hit out at him, smiling. “But you’re mine, Mia, and I’m laying my claim. Once we move in together, we’ll be getting married and you’ll be having my kids. I don’t care about anything else, just you.” He touched her cheek, running his fingers down to her lip. “Are you ready to be claimed?”

She nodded without hesitation. The only man she ever felt comfortable with was Curse. “Yes, I want to be caught and claimed.”

“Then consider yourself taken.” He pressed his lips to hers.

Opening her mouth, she met his tongue with her own.

“I love you,” she said when he withdrew.

“I better go and help the club before they get pissed at me. Have a shower and relax. The television is over there. I’ll be back.” Curse kissed her head and left the room.

Sitting on the bed for several minutes she looked around his space. The room was very personal to him yet bare at the same time. He was clean at least.

She stood up and went into the bathroom. Stripping down, she took a long shower, closing her eyes to face up to the spray of the jet. The warmth seeped into her bones, relaxing her.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Curse said.

Gasping, she turned to see him already naked.

“I thought you were going to take longer,” she said.

“It has been an hour, babe. What have you been doing?” He took the cloth from her and started to wash her body. She’d already washed but didn’t care. His touch awakened the fire inside her.

“Nothing, I’ve been thinking about us and our future.”