Wrench (The Club Girl Diaries Book 6) Read online

  I wanted it.

  Warmth settled at my back. He wasn’t touching me, but with his body so close I could feel him, his strength, his power, the silent support he offered as I contemplated whether I’d made a horrible mistake. The urge to run slowly began to settle.

  “You’re wrong,” he argued, his hot breath fanning my neck. I quivered. I wanted to turn and ask him why. Fight with him about how this wasn’t a place for Harlyn. How I couldn’t forget the look in her eyes or the sounds of her fearful screams when that explosion had gone off. But he didn’t let me, not even giving me a moment to voice my objections.

  “You and I both know that shit happens here. And there’s something going down right now that I can’t explain to you. What I can tell you is that you and Harlyn were compromised and that there’s no other place on this damn earth that’s safer than where you are right now.” His words drew the air from my lungs. “Nothing will hurt you. Nothing will hurt her. I fucking promise you that.”

  I stared straight ahead, unable to move as he used his hand to brush away the hair from my neck. My lips fell open as his mouth grazed the bare skin of my shoulder where my sweatshirt had left it exposed. It wasn’t a kiss, just a brush, almost like a feather skimming across it, both tickling and tempting me at the same time. I wanted to give in, allow his promises to take over my thoughts and make me feel as though we were safe here. Unfortunately, Wrench nor anyone else was aware of the other battles I was facing. There were other things, other monsters that I was hiding from, ones that weren’t so easy to escape, and ones even he couldn’t protect me from.

  The club weren’t the only ones fighting demons, and they weren’t the only ones who’d been fooled by someone they cared for. In that moment, I so desperately wanted to tell him, to ask for help and allow him to make good on his promise. But in doing that, I knew it would bring a whole new shitstorm down around the club, a whole new level of crazy and panic, at a time when they were already fighting to keep their heads on straight.

  “Mommy?” Harlyn’s soft voice forced Wrench back, he put space between us within a second. A respectful move.

  I scurried around the side of the bed as Harlyn sat up, her little body shaking and her eyes brimmed with tears. “Baby, it’s okay. It’s over,” I told her as I sat at the edge of the bed and pulled her into my chest.

  “Are there bad people trying to hurt us?”

  My heart ached as I squeezed her a little tighter, my own tears burning at my eyes as I looked over to where Wrench stood, watching us silently. I didn’t know what to say.

  Could I lie and tell her that no, it was all just some kind of mistake?

  Possibly. But what if it happened again? Then how would she trust me?

  “Hey Har,” Wrench finally said, causing Harlyn to look up in surprise.

  “Hi Wrench,” she answered with a soft smile. “What are you doing here?”

  He moved forward, sitting himself at the end of the bed. “Your dad asked me to come check on you and your mom. How you doing?”

  She cleared her throat before she answered. I could tell she didn’t want to admit that she was frightened, but just like Op and Blizzard, she’d formed some strange bond with Wrench over such a short time. She liked him and enjoyed hanging out with him, and in turn, he made time for her even if it was stopping by for a second to ask what she’d done that day.

  “I didn’t like that noise,” she answered, hanging her head. “Everyone was running around and going crazy. It was scary.”

  Wrench nodded. “You’re right, it was.”

  Harlyn tilted her head, looking up at him. “Were you scared?”

  “A little, but not for long. When you get a fright like that, you’re always a little scared, and your heart beats a little faster,” Wrench said with Harlyn listening intently as he used his hand to thump out a beat on his chest. “But I’m not scared anymore.”

  Harlyn leaned in a little closer to him. “Why not?”

  “Because I watch a lot of cartoons,” Wrench answered with a smirk.

  Harlyn giggled. “You’re silly.”

  He grinned. “Stay with me here, kid. You ever seen Batman lose? You ever seen one of those scary bad guys get the better of Superman?” Harlyn listened intently to his words, while I couldn’t help but smile. “Nope, ‘cause they’re the good guys, and the good guys always win. And do you know who the good guys are here?”

  She lit up then, a wide smile filling her cheeks. “Daddy is a good guy!”

  “Exactly!”

  “And you, and Uncle Blizzard,” she continued. “But you guys don’t have superpowers.”

  Wrench gasped dramatically. “Are you sure about that?”

  I couldn’t help but smile and laugh as Wrench, and Harlyn proceeded to discuss the entire club and who had what superpowers. She was soon out of my arms and made herself at home in his lap as they argued about whether Blizzard’s superpower had something to do with X-ray vision, given that no matter where she hid the ice cream, he always seemed to find it and eat it all.

  “Mommy, what do you think Wrench’s superpower is?” Harlyn asked happily as they both turned their attention back to me.

  When Wrench’s eyes caught mine and a smirk pulled at his lips, I couldn’t stop the blush that formed over my cheeks. I was grateful at that moment for the dim lighting within the room, hopeful that he couldn’t see just how much I was affected by one look.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s smart, and that’s why he has to keep his hat on all the time, to keep his big brain inside his head. Or maybe that’s his ego,” I muttered the last sentence quietly, but by the grin that swept over his face, I knew he’d heard me loud and clear.

  “Do you have a big brain?” Harlyn asked, her eyes narrowing as she leaned forward as though inspecting the size of his head.

  Wrench’s eyes didn’t leave mine as he answered, “Yeah! But every part of my body is pretty damn big, so it doesn’t look weird or out of proportion.” The cheeky grin plastered across his face said everything, and I couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that came from my gut.

  “I think you guys need superhero outfits,” Harlyn said excitedly as she jumped down off Wrench’s lap. “I’m gonna go get my coloring pens and my drawing book.”

  And with that, my baby girl wasn’t scared anymore. She ran from the room with a skip in her step and smiling from cheek to cheek. Harlyn was a smart kid. I knew that there was no way she actually thought these men had real powers or fought crime in their spare time, but somehow, just talking about how each of them were special, and imagining how they would protect her, had given her a sense of comfort. The fear may not have completely gone, but the knowledge that her family was the good guys, had given her what she needed to believe in them and know that they would keep her safe.

  “Thank you,” I told Wrench in absolute sincerity.

  He shrugged. “She just needed reassurance, something I’m sure Op would have done soon enough. He’s just a little preoccupied right now.”

  I stood up, nodding my head. “I wish he would just see how his actions are hurting both him and Chelsea. Why does he keep fighting against his emotions? If they’re real, he needs to follow them, and not let all this crazy bullshit get in the way.”

  Wrench pushed to his feet and rounded the edge of the bed, so he was standing in front of me again, the aura around him suddenly making it hard for me to breath. “Sometimes, it’s not that easy.”

  “I know, but sometimes, it really just is.”

  I wasn’t sure how the world turned around in that instant. The air in the room, the beat of my heart, the look in his eyes… that was the second where everything changed. A rough hand cradled my face, cupping my jaw gently, as though I was porcelain. By the time I’d gathered my wits enough to react, Wrench’s lips were pressed against mine feverously, a stark contrast to the way his hand touched my face.

  It was like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to be gentle or show his true colors and give me t
he man I knew he was. I melted against him. His body suddenly engulfing me as I stepped forward, my body moving of its own accord like there was some heavy magnet pulling us together.

  I found I didn’t mind the soft mixed with the hard, the way his mouth devoured mine, battling me, daring me to fight back. While his hands traced patterns over my body, his fingertips trailed over my neck, my arms, my waist, as though he couldn’t decide in which place he wanted them to settle. The burn that started within me began in my gut. I didn’t ignite in flames, it wasn’t instant and engulfing, but rather slow and torturous. It was an exploration of desire, the need to find out something new about the other.

  My hands settled on his chest, my fingernails scratching against the leather on his club cut as we fought breathlessly, our tongues swirling and tangling together. I felt lightheaded and dizzy, but when I swayed he caught me, and for a brief moment I really felt like this man would never let me fall.

  Fast footsteps hurried down the hallway, alerting us to company and forcing our bodies apart. Harlyn appeared in the doorway, holding her coloring supplies up in victory before rushing inside and dumping them on the bed.

  I turned away, struggling to breathe, my heart thumping erratically against my chest. My cheeks burned, no doubt flushed in a deep crimson red.

  “What was that?” I whispered, hoping that Harlyn was too distracted to hear as she flicked through her book, searching for a fresh page for the both of them to share.

  I peeked out of the corner of my eye, catching Wrench still watching me, his eyes blazing with something that told me he wasn’t done yet, that this wasn’t over.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe sometimes it really is just that easy,” he answered cryptically.

  “Wrench, draw with me.”

  With a wink, he turned away, the slight adjustment he made to the front of his pants as he did, not going unnoticed by my eyes.

  Jesus! What the hell just happened?

  “Optimus… Harlyn and I are going crazy. Being locked inside this damn place for days on end.” Sugar’s protests drew my attention as I finally managed to drag myself out of bed. I’d been on shift at X-Rated last night and some asshole had brought in a knife. After he’d gotten a little too drunk, and one of the girls at the bar decided to cut him off, he pulled it out and started waving that shit around.

  Unfortunately for us, someone called the damn cops before we had a chance to deal with it, which meant I had to keep the stupid motherfucker in one piece. With one of our girls being murdered there a little less than a week ago, they used the excuse to spend a little more time in the club than normal, taking statements from every fucking person inside.

  It was well after four in the morning before I managed to get to bed, and even after all that bullshit, the moment all the crazy disappeared, and I was left with my own thoughts, they were consumed with Sugar. She lived up to her name that was for sure.

  Goddamn, that woman tasted sweet.

  All I could think about was using her as my own personal lollipop, I wanted to strip her fucking naked and lick her from head to toe. I didn’t know what it was that had pushed me over the edge last week. Neither of us had mentioned it since, even though I made a point to spend time with both her and Harlyn every single damn day, no matter how much it killed me to keep my hands to myself.

  We were stretched thin right now, with Optimus having guys on Anthony DePalma, watching him twenty-four hours a day, as well as Chelsea now that she’d decided to step away from the club.

  I guess we’d all wondered how long it would take her to get sick of his bullshit and offer him a choice, all of her, or none. What not one of us anticipated, was the fact that the fucking idiot actually took none, and let her walk out the damn door and leave. Chelsea had been around for nearly four years, and three of those they had spent exclusively fucking each other.

  Fucking hell.

  It was a shit stain of epic proportions.

  Now the mopey bastard was wandering around the clubhouse in the foulest of moods, searching for any reason at all to go after this fucking mafia kingpin, just so he could kill someone and get us thrown further into the cesspool.

  “I need you girls here, it’s the safest place for you,” Op told Sugar, as I stepped into the kitchen with them.

  “Harlyn loves it here, but the kid is turning this place upside down. She’s got cabin fever, she needs to be out and about, stimulating her mind so she can actually be tired and sleep at night,” Sugar fought back, throwing her hands in the air. “Would you please pull your head out of your ass for one damn minute?”

  I choked on a laugh, but the sound was loud enough to disrupt the battle between them and draw their attention to me.

  “Don’t start with me,” Op snapped, pointing in my direction as he turned away and plucked his coffee cup from the coffeemaker.

  I smirked. “Awww, somebody’s got a frowny face. Do I need to call Chelsea in so she can fuck the grumpy out of you?”

  “Don’t push it, asshole,” he warned, gripping his coffee in his hands as though it was his lifeline. I was surprised it wasn’t a glass of whiskey, to be honest.

  “I’ll take them out to my place for the day,” I found myself offer as I leaned back against the benchtop of the industrial sized kitchen. “You know it’s safe as hell out there, and there’s so much shit for Harlyn to do that it will satisfy her for days.”

  Sugar’s eyes lit up, I’m not sure whether it was in surprise or excitement at the thought of getting out of this jail cell, but the way they brightened made me even more determined to make it happen.

  I owned a house just outside of town, and a bunch of land. It was vacant most of the time, with the fact that I loved to be here around my brothers and family, rather than out in the middle of nowhere alone. That was a house, but this was my home.

  The huge house overlooked a man-made lake where the club often camped and held cookouts over summer, along with the ruins of an old concrete factory. It was kinda creepy, but also pretty damn beautiful with the mixture of broken down slabs of building that had been overrun by nature, and was now covered in grass and vines.

  “I don’t know about that…” Optimus drawled, but I could tell in his head he was thinking it over.

  I rolled my eyes. “Man, you have enough shit on your hands right now. Like you really want your ex in your ear nagging you about shit, and your daughter constantly barging into your office asking you to play Monopoly with her.”

  Sugar’s bright eyes quickly narrowed, and I held back a laugh, it was cute how she thought that shit was intimidating. “Fuck! We’ll take Ham with us too just for good measure if that makes you feel better, princess.”

  “Walking a thin line, Wrench. A fucking thin line…” he growled, but it didn’t last long, and soon he threw his hands in the air. “Fine. But you’re back before dark, and I get one round with you if either of them comes back with even a fucking hair out of place.”

  I held my palms up in surrender. “You got it, boss man.”

  He glared at me as he stomped out of the kitchen and into the busy dining room where half the club was already having breakfast.

  “You don’t have to go out of your way to do this for us,” Sugar said sheepishly, but I could tell that she was itching to get out of this damn place. Hell, I didn’t blame her, even I hated being here too much, and I’d fucking lived there for as long as I could remember.

  “It’s not out of my way,” I said shaking my head and moving over to take Op’s empty spot next to the coffee maker. “I haven’t been home in a while to check on things, so it’ll be good to go back and make sure everything is still tickety-boo.”

  Her soft laughter had me looking out the corner of my eye at her. “Something funny?”

  She covered the laughter with a fake cough, bringing her hand to her mouth. “Uh… tickety-boo?”

  “What’s wrong with tickety-boo?”

  I could tell she was hiding a grin as she refused to move her h
and from over her mouth. “Nothing, nothing at all,” she murmured. “Unless you’re like… Cinderella’s fairy godmother.”

  “Pretty sure that was bippity-boppity-boo,” I joked, tapping her on the end of the nose with my finger, before turning away and heading for the door. I smiled, hearing her soft footsteps following behind me.

  “So now you’re a Disney princess expert, are you?”

  I clicked my tongue and grinned over my shoulder at her. “That’s one secret I’ll never tell.”

  Her mouth opened and closed, before a frown buried itself in her brow. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious.”

  I simply laughed before turning away and stepping out the patio doors. “Ham,” I called, getting the young kid’s attention from where he stood pushing Harlyn on the swings. “Bring Harlyn in, we’re going out to my place for a while.”

  He raised his hand to tell me he’d heard me, and I spun back around to find Sugar still staring at me curiously from the doorway. “Your mind is working overtime.”

  She shrugged but the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. “Just trying to figure out if you’re more of a Snow White fan, or if you prefer a blonde like Rapunzel. Come on, you can tell me.”

  My eyes scanned the area around us as I took two large steps forward until our bodies were separated by just a few inches of tumultuous air. I dipped my head, my lips grazing her earlobe. Her breathing instantly accelerated, and my cock twitched in response. “Rapunzel. All that hair to wind around my fist as I fucked her… mmm…” I lifted my hand, pulling at a few strands of her hair. As I pulled back, she licked her lips, and a visible shudder ran straight through her body.

  She cleared her throat, finally finding her voice after a few long seconds. “Way to turn Disney princesses into something dirty.”

  “Don’t ask questions that you don’t want to know the answers to, lollipop,” I said with a wink.