Revive (Storm MC #3) (2 page)

My face broke out in a grin.  “You wanna see it?  Happy to show you any part of my body that you’re interested in, sweet thing.”

Her eyes continued dancing.  Hell, she was flirting with me now, and it felt fucking good.  “Can we keep that invitation open?  I’m fairly busy at the moment but I think your ass might be worth seeing.”

“You’ve no idea, baby.  But I’ve got other body parts that are far more worthy of seeing, and anytime you’re up for that viewing, you just call.  Don’t care what time of the day either.”

She tilted her head to the side.  “Those body parts inked?”

I leant in so I could whisper in her ear, “That’s for me to know and for you to find out, darlin’.”

As I moved my face away from hers, I didn’t miss the glazed look in her eyes.  I’d affected her as much as she had me.  This sexy tango we’d been locked in for years always aroused me.  Flirting with Velvet was one of my preferred activities, but fuck, I’d much rather she take me up on my offers.

Harlow cut in on our conversation.  “You ready to go, Velvet?”

Velvet battled to drag her eyes from mine.  “Yes,” she murmured.  It was evident she would have happily stayed.  And that thought right there made me a happy asshole.  Perhaps we could move past what had been said two months ago; forget it and move on.

She gave me one last smile before leaving.  It confused the hell out of me.  It was the kind of smile that says ‘well, it was fun while it lasted’.  I’d obviously misread the flirting for something it wasn’t.  Shit, women and their fucking mixed signals.

They left, and Griff brought up the one thing I didn’t want to think about.  “What are you fuckers doing on Sunday?”

Mother’s Day.

It was ten years this year, and my mind was already overwhelmed by thoughts of it.  And that was without whatever Gabriella would fire at me.  The anger and hurt that was never far away, surfaced.  And along with it, came the suffocating pressure on my chest.  My heart thumped and my skin burnt with the rage that I desperately needed to get out of me; the rage, that as much as I tried, I could never escape from.

“I’m doing lunch with Harlow’s mum,” Scott said.

He was oblivious to the shit swirling in my head at the moment.  So was Griff.  I’d never told anyone; only my family knew.  And Kick, but I didn’t see him very often.

“You’re not seeing your mum?” Griff directed at Scott.

“Haven’t worked that out with her yet.  I think Madison’s trying to organise dinner with her so we’ll go to that I guess.”

“And you?” he asked me.

I pushed through the rage to answer him.  “Lunch with the family.”

“What are you doing, Griff?” Scott asked.

Shit, it came back to me in a rush.  Griff’s parents were both dead.  Maybe he needed somewhere to go; a distraction for the day.

He shrugged.  “I’ll find someone to spend the day with.  There’s always plenty of offers.”  He aimed for nonchalance, but I wasn’t so sure it was what he was feeling.  I left it alone though; Griff wasn’t big on talking about shit like this.  And besides, most days, he preferred his own company anyway.

My attention was diverted by a pair of sexy legs that walked by.  I followed the legs up until I hit big tits and knew I’d found my fun for the night.  I slapped Griff on the back, and grinned at him and Scott.  “Have a good night, boys.  I’ll be over there if you need me.  That is, until she agrees to ride me, and then you won’t see me for at least a day.”  If I could, I’d lock myself away with pussy for the whole fucking weekend.  It was always a welcome distraction from my thoughts. 

One Last Breath ~ Creed

––––––––

N
ash

Mother’s Day hit like a bitch.

First I had to deal with the chick I’d screwed last night.  Then, I received instructions off my sister, Erika, to pick up groceries on my way to lunch.  I’d had a run in with a dickhead at the store and arrived at Mum’s house in the worst mood.

I juggled the groceries in my arms and kicked the half open door all the way open so I could enter.  “Carla, a little help please, babe,” I hollered down the hallway.

Carla didn’t appear.  Of course she fucking didn’t.  My sister’s life revolved around herself and we only got the time of day when it suited her.

“Fuck,” I muttered as the bags of groceries threatened to fall out of my arms.  I continued to make my way to the kitchen, doing my best not to drop any of the bags.  As I passed the lounge room I caught a glimpse of Carla out of the corner of my eye.  And I didn't like what I saw.  The groceries all fell to the floor as I saw red. 

“What the fuck?” I yelled, as I stepped over the bags and stalked into the room.  Carla was on the lounge underneath a guy, and he had his mouth all over her and his hands on her ass.  It wasn’t so much his hands on her that pissed me off; more so, whose hands they were.  At the sound of my voice, he turned his head to look at me.  He  smirked and I lost my shit completely.

“Get the fuck off her,” I thundered.  Blood pumped through my body and rage filled my vision. 

Red, fucking rage. 

I wanted to knock the shit out of this motherfucker. 

And I tried.  I ripped him off her, spun him around and shoved him to the ground.  A moment later my fist connected with his face and I punched him so hard that blood flew onto the carpet.  I continued my assault, oblivious to the world around me.  All that mattered in that moment was my uncontrollable urge to make him hurt.  I pummelled him with punch after punch.  What Carla was doing with a dickhead like him was beyond me.  And for him to fucking smirk at me like that just proved to me that he wasn’t worthy of her.  I knew his type.  And hell would fucking freeze over before I allowed my sister to give herself to someone like him.

“Nash!”

My arm stopped mid-punch and I looked up to see my mother standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.  She was pissed off. 

Fuck
. 

Pissing my mother off was not a good move, and doing it on Mother’s Day was a really fucking bad move.

Begrudgingly, I straightened.  I divided my attention between my mother and the asshole on the floor.  My pleasure at seeing him almost unconscious was short-lived when both my mother and Carla started ranting at me.

“You can be a real asshole, Nash,” Carla fumed, her face clouding with anger.  She tried to shove past me to get to her boyfriend.

Jesse.

Who the fuck names their son, Jesse? 

I blocked her attempt, holding my arm out to keep her away.  At the same time, Jesse groaned and caught my attention.  His face was covered in blood; I’d probably broken his nose. 

He deserved it. 

Motherfucker.

I twisted my head to look at Carla.  “What the fuck are you doing with him again?”

“That is none of your bloody business.”  Quick tempers ran in our family and hers flared up instantly.

“Like hell it isn’t.”  I slashed my hand in front of me in a circular motion, pointing to my mother and other sister, Erika, who were glaring at me.  “It’s all of our business after what he did to you the last time.”

Carla sucked in a breath, but her anger didn't dissipate.  “I’ve forgiven him and you need to let it go.”

I shook my head.  “No fuckin’ way, babe.  And you need to have more self respect.”

Hurt flashed across her face, but she covered it quickly.  My sister was good at hiding her pain from the world.  Christ, my whole family was good at that shit.  She took a step back; it looked like she was getting ready to flee.  Another thing we were good at; running.  “Nash, I’m a twenty-two year old woman, for God’s sake.  I’m old enough to make my own decisions.  I don’t need you stepping in with your fists to sort out my life.  You should spend your time and energy sorting out your own shit rather than screwing your way into oblivion and getting in my face.”

“Enough!” my Mother finally stepped in.  “Nash,” she pointed towards the hallway, “Kitchen.  Now.”

I scowled at the room.  How the hell had this become my fault? 

At that moment, Jesse pushed up off the ground and turned on me.  “You’re a dickhead, Nash, and you’d better watch your fucking back.” 

His face was a wash of blood and that made me fucking ecstatic but he had to be hallucinating if he thought I needed to watch my back.  I shook my head at him and his naivety.  My rage hadn’t calmed though, and I decided it was best to walk away from him now.  For my Mother.  It was Mother’s Day after all.  But I stepped into his space one last time.  “You fuck with my sister again and a broken nose will be the least of your problems.”  We glared at each other for a moment, hostility churning between us, and then I stalked out of the room.

***

“W
hat’s up your ass today?”  Erika asked as she entered the kitchen.  Just over five feet of fierce female energy packaged in the softest and most feminine looking woman I’d ever seen.  Erika was one woman I didn’t mess with.  She’d retrieved the groceries I dropped and thrust the bags at me while hitting me with a dirty look.

“You can’t tell me you’re happy that Carla’s back with that dickhead,” I muttered.

“No, but it’s her life, Nash.  At some point you’ve got to stop being the overprotective older brother and give her the space to make her own choices.”  She raised her hand at me as I opened my mouth to reply.  “And you’ve got to let her fail.”

“Fuck that.  I don’t want her to fail.”  My eyes narrowed on her.  “Why would you want her to fail?”

She sighed.  “I don’t
want
her to, but it’s how we learn in life.  You know that.  Shit, with all the screw ups you’ve made in life and all the shit you’ve been through, you know that failing teaches us how to be better; how to do better.”

“Yeah, and with all the shit I’ve been through, I want to use what I’ve learnt and help her not make the same mistakes.”  I blew out a long, frustrated breath.

She started unpacking the groceries and putting them away.  Erika never could stay still for very long; she was always on the go.  “Tell me something; if someone had advised you not to do the things you did that ended up being mistakes, would you have listened to them?”

“Maybe.”

She stopped what she was doing and trained her eyes on me.  “Bullshit.”

Why did she always have to be right?  Begrudgingly, I admitted, “Okay, so maybe not.”

“How about, definitely not?  You were a handful; so determined to get into all kinds of shit.  And don’t even get me started on the stuff you did after Gabriella -”

I cut her off right there.  Fury circled the room.  It reached into my soul and forced its way into my mind.  As hard as I tried to control it, to stop it gaining any power over me, there was no way I could.  I was no match for it.  I towered over Erika and let the fury explode out of me and shatter around us.  “She does not exist to me so don’t fucking say her name.  Ever.  Again.”

I remained standing over her, panting heavy breaths and trying desperately to get my shit together.  My mind was a mess of thoughts; thoughts I didn’t fucking want in there.  Thoughts I’d spent years jamming into the dark recesses to avoid them.  My chest tightened into a painful knot of heaviness and the demons beckoned from hell, calling my name with a lustful resonance . 

I needed to get out of here. 

Now. 

But I couldn’t.

Fuck
.

I shoved my hand through my hair and attempted to calm my breathing.  This day started off bad and had quickly escalated to completely fucked.

“I’m sorry.”  Erika snapped me out of my inner turmoil and forced my attention back to reality.

My eyes darted to hers and I processed the distressed look on her face.

She laid her hand on my arm. 

Gentle. 

Soothing. 

Calming.

I focused on breathing. 

In.  Out.  In.  Out.

“Nash.”  She tried to reach me but I was still clawing my way out of the abyss.

Give me a minute.  I’m nearly there.

I sensed movement behind me; sensed another presence in the room.  Noise and talking.  But I couldn’t drag myself out yet. 

And then arms wrapped around me from behind.

Love. 

Tenderness.

Carla.

I forced out a long, harsh breath and gulped for air.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

Carla squeezed me, not wanting to let me go.  I placed my hands on her arms.  “It’s okay.  I’m okay.  You can let me go now.”

“You sure?”  She hesitated.

“Yeah.”

Her arms released me and I turned to face her.  She looked as distressed as Erika had.  Worry coloured her face and I hated that I’d put it there.  Me and my shit.  I pulled her into a rough embrace.  My hand cupped the back of her neck, and my lips brushed across her forehead. 

We held each other for a moment and then she looked up into my eyes.  “You need to deal with that once and for all.”

“I have.”

She shook her head.  “No, you haven’t, Nash.  And it’s time you started being honest with yourself about it.”  Her voice held no judgement; there was only love there.  And for that, I couldn’t be mad at her.

***

A
n hour later, I wandered back into the kitchen.  I’d just spent the last forty minutes working on Mum’s car. 

Erika was cooking dinner and gave me her attention for a moment.  “All fixed?”

“Yeah, but there will be something else next week.  That car is a piece of junk and she needs to get a new one.”

“She won’t spend the money, you know that.”  She told me something I already knew.

“One day it’ll disappear out of her garage and there will be a new one in it’s place.  I’m not a mechanic anymore and the only engine I want to work on is my own.”

“You can’t just replace her car, Nash.  She loves that -”

“Piece of shit,” I finished her sentence, and then continued, “You watch me.”

She fell silent for a moment before asking, “What time is Jamison arriving?” 

I watched her juggle stirring the casserole and scrolling on her phone.  “What the fuck are you doing?” I eventually asked.

She hit me with a dirty look.  “I’m trying to see what the next thing is to add to this casserole.  And you didn’t answer my question.”