Ice had wondered why her father and brother hadn’t called to threaten him bodily injury to stay away from Grace.
“She called you a bunch of names.”
“Like what?” Ice asked.
“Brother, you don’t want to know.”
Ice suspected he didn’t as he glowered at Fade and Griffin.
“She made you a birthday cake?” Colton asked.
“Yeah.”
“How was it?”
“I don’t know. The brothers ate it all before I could get back.” Ice had definitely had some shitty birthdays in his life, but that one had been the worst. He hadn’t even been able to drown his sorrow in the chocolate cake. He had knocked Max across the room when he found out he had eaten the last piece.
Colton’s shoulders shook. “You could make Rita make you one as punishment.”
“It wouldn’t taste the same.” Ice felt like a fucking pussy complaining over a fucking chocolate cake, and from Colton’s laughter, he made no attempt to hide that he thought so, too.
“Now that you know where your old lady ran off to, I’ll tell you why I stopped by. I was going to give you a present for your birthday but didn’t know what you wanted. How about another tattoo? I left my kit in the car.”
“No, thanks. I don’t have too many places left. The only place left is my neck and Grace told me she doesn’t like tats on the neck.”
“How does she like the piercing?”
“That, she loves.”
“I could give you another one,” Colton suggested.
“Fuck, no.”
“You sure?” Colton said, getting up from the barstool. “If she likes what one barbell does for her, imagine what two will do.”
“Crush, hand me that bottle of tequila.”
He threw a threatening glare at Colton. “When I wake up in the morning, I better have just two.”
Griffin sat down on the barstool next to Ice while Fade stood to his side.
“Sorry, Ice. I tried to stop Rita, but I should have tried harder,” Fade admitted. “It’s… just… Brother, she’s going to cause you a lot of grief. She’s not the kind of old lady we expected you to find. You have to admit, she’s too classy to hang out with a bunch of outlaws like us.”
Ice turned on his stool to face Fade and saw the whole club was watching and listening.
“Not only that, but her entire family keeps a media circus around them. What if a nosy reporter decides to investigate her love interest?” Fade’s face grimaced at his own words. “Brother, women like that pussy-whip you before you know it. Shit, she probably wouldn’t marry you if you begged her. Women like her use men like us to fuck with then settle down with a loser who doesn’t even know how to find her pussy in the dark.”
Ice surveyed the brothers all nodding their heads in agreement.
“If and when I ever become pussy-whipped, you have my permission to beat the shit out of me. Fade, you and Jackal were in the solitary cells across from mine when Jackson and his men worked me over. Did I seem weak to you?”
“Hell, no, Ice. I would have been crying like a baby when they used that stick on my head, much less my… No, Ice, you weren’t weak. It drove them crazy that you didn’t beg for them to stop.” Fade and the rest of his brothers stared at him with pride.
Ice nodded. “I’m aware Grace isn’t like the usual women who hang out here, begging for dick, and I’m not blind to the fact that her family connections could cause us some trouble. We’ve always been smart enough to hide what we’re involved in, and now, we’ll be even smarter.”
Ice stared down all the brothers. “If someone does try to cause me or the club grief, I’ll let them dig their own grave before I bury them in it.” Ice opened the tequila bottle Crush had set down in front of him and took a long drink.
The bikers backed away from their lethal leader.
“Colton, you going to go get your needles?”
Colton gave a grin. “I’ll be right back.”
“Good, I’m thinking a few of these fuckers need to get a new piercing, too.”
Chapter 24
“Whose car is that?” CeCe asked, parking beside the shiny white Lexus sitting in her driveway.
“I don’t know.”
CeCe had picked her up at the airport after she had stayed two weeks with her parents in Florida. She had spent that time at the beach and Miami nightclubs, trying to forget Ice. It hadn’t worked, although she had gained a stunning tan and lost ten pounds. For a woman with a broken heart, she looked fantastic.
Grace got out of the car and saw a note on the windshield, addressed to her. Opening it, she read it and then crumpled it in her hand.
Opening CeCe’s car door, she leaned inside. “I hate to bother you, but could I ask another favor?”