Wild Like the Wind (Page 86)

Shit!

What did I do?

“Brother,” Hound grunted.

“Brother,” High growled.

Hound moved in and I held my breath.

“Millie,” he greeted.

“Hey, uh . . . Hound,” she said hesitantly, definitely not knowing what was going on but also definitely feeling the vibe.

Hound shrugged off his cut, and I now felt every inch of skin tingling with adrenaline-fueled panic as he made it to me, tossed his cut to rest along the back of my chair like he normally did every time he came home and took it off.

Then he bent down to touch his mouth briefly to mine.

The air in the room became stifling.

He lifted away but an inch.

“Hey, babe,” he murmured.

I stared into his eyes.

They were determined.

This was his home.

This was where me made me breakfast and I made him dinner. Where we went to bed together and woke up together. Where we fucked and where we cuddled and where we hung out with beers in front of the TV.

And I was his woman.

No, he was not going to lie.

He was staking his claim.

“Hey, cowboy,” I whispered.

He straightened and aimed his gaze right at his brother.

I also aimed my gaze at High.

High’s face was made of stone.

“We’re together,” Hound announced. “We been together for months. We’re stayin’ together. Buyin’ a house together. Gettin’ married. Makin’ a baby girl together.”

Holy shit!

He was going all in with the baby girl and everything!

My heart leapt right up into my throat, filling it so full I felt like I was choking.

“We took our time, dealt with our shit, made sure it was solid,” Hound went on. “Dutch and Jagger know. Bev’s Keely’s girl, so she knows. Tomorrow, I was gonna share it with the brothers.”

“Coincidence me sittin’ here while you walk in like you own Black’s house, touch Keely like she’s your property, and suddenly you’re gonna tell the brothers tomorrow, man,” High said tightly, this not doing anything to alleviate my strangled feeling.

“Yeah, coincidence or bad timing, whatever way you wanna look at it,” Hound replied.

“I look at it as bullshit,” High returned.

Oh no.

“Logan,” Millie whispered, and I knew by the tremor in her voice she was up to speed on the shit show that had just begun.

“It’s not Black’s house.”

That was me, and High’s angry eyes cut to me.

“His money that bought it,” he bit out.

Oh boy.

Now I was getting angry.

“That’s true but—” I began.

“His money that kept it,” he spoke over me.

“Perhaps mostly, however—” I tried again.

“His house,” High gritted in conclusion.

“You interrupt my woman again, High, we’ll be outside havin’ words,” Hound growled.

Okay.

Shit.

No.

High slowly got up from his chair.

Millie got up from hers as he did, and she didn’t do it slowly.

Fuck!

“Men—” I started.

“Logan—” Millie began.

“Those words’ll come at the Compound. We’re callin’ in the brothers,” High decreed.

Absolutely no.

I shot out of my chair and slammed my fist on the table.

“No!” I shrieked at High.

“Low, let’s go into the other room and have a quick chat,” Millie said urgently to her man.

Having made her way the short distance to High, she put her hand on his chest.

But High’s eyes never left Hound.

“You trailin’ me or am I trailin’ you?” he asked my man.

“You sayin’ you won’t ride at my side?” Hound asked back.

“I’m sayin’ we got shit to sort with the brothers,” High returned. “But I’m not on my bike, Hound. This goin’ down, even if I was, I still wouldn’t ride at your side.”

Right.

That did it.

I’d had enough.

“And I’m saying we knew this was going to happen and Hound is all in to pay whatever price you all have absolutely no right whatsoever to require of him,” I snapped. “But I am not.”

“Baby,” Hound whispered, his hand coming to the small of my back.

But my gaze never left High.

“If Black was standing in this room, Hound wouldn’t be standing in this room. But Black hasn’t stood anywhere in eighteen years and I can’t even in my wildest imaginings think that he wouldn’t have wanted me to move on a long, long time ago and find my way back to happy,” I told High.

“He would never want you to do that with a brother, Keely,” High bit out.

“He would have wanted me to be happy whatever way I was genuinely happy, including finding that by falling in love with one of his brothers,” I shot back.

“You think that then you didn’t know your man very well,” High retorted.

Oh my God.

He didn’t just say that right to my face.

“Logan!” Millie snapped.

“How dare you,” I whispered.

“We’re takin’ this to the Compound,” Hound announced.

I looked up at my man. “No you are not. We’re having dinner with our boys and telling them this shit has gone down, and tomorrow you can do what you planned to do.” I turned again to High. “You and your brothers are just gonna have to wait.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Keely,” High returned.

“Logan, you need to step into the other room with me,” Millie hissed.

High didn’t move.

I leaned into my hand on the table, fingers spread out, putting my weight into the pad of each, and I stared right into High’s eyes.

“You owe me this,” I said quietly.

“Keely, babe,” Hound murmured.

I kept direct contact with High’s gaze.

“Your shit took away one man, I’m claiming another. You owe me this, Logan Judd. And you fucking know it.”

“Low, take a second,” Millie urged, “and listen to Keely.”

“But more,” I went on, pushing up from the table and stabbing a finger in his direction, “you owe Hound this, and you know that too.”

A muscle ticked in High’s cheek.

He knew that.

Oh yeah he did.

“I love him and he loves me,” I said softly. “He makes me happy. I haven’t been happy, truly happy, since I lost Black. Now I am. And I make him happy too. I make your brother happy, High. When was the last time you knew down to your bones your brother was happy?”

I waited for a response to that question.

None came.

So I kept at him.

“He’ll withstand whatever you force him to do and he’ll do that because he loves me. He’ll do that because he loved Black. And he’ll do that because he loves you. Now how much love do you have for him, High? That’s the question. You’ve known the man standing at my side for decades and you know the loyalty he has. The depth of love in his heart. The lengths he’ll go to for his brothers. You know all of that. What he’s going to learn is how deep all that flows back to him. And when he learns, I’ll learn it too, and if you take that in the wrong direction, I’ll never forget, High. I’ll do my duty as an old lady and I’ll find a way to forgive. But I will not ever forget.”