Cole: The Wounded Sons, Leah Sharelle [the reading list .TXT] 📗

table where a fierce game was playing out between Mannix and one of the new prospects. I didn’t know any of the new guys, didn’t have the time to sit and talk with them. It wasn’t my business who the Club recruited, but now that Oaklee and I were together, and she spent time here and would be when I deployed, maybe it was time I took more of a vested interest in the new members. Oaklee was mine, so I have every right to know who would be around her.

Getting closer to the small group, the hairs on the back of my neck pricked, my spidey senses coming to life. Walking at a faster pace, I approached just as my father reached out to shake Doc’s hand.

“Appreciate you taking her for me, Doc.”

“No worries, Creed, as long as Oaklee doesn’t mind being on a bike, that is?” Doc answered, looking down at my girl, waiting for her answer.

“Nope, I don’t mind at all,” Oaklee replied happily, her innocent reply making my blood boil.

“What’s going on?” I stepped forward, checking my tone for my father’s benefit, but there was no controlling my jaw from grinding.

Dad turned to look at me, his eyes zeroing in on my tightening jaw with more interest than I was comfortable with.

“Your mum needs some artwork from the tattoo shop Doc has been working on. Oaklee here is going with him to pick out the one that is to be sent to the formatter for Mum’s next book.”

“Doesn’t Mum already know what she wants? Why is it necessary for Oaklee to go with Doc?” My question was too much, but fuck it. Oaklee riding on the back of someone else’s bike was a bad fucking idea. Bad because she was mine.

My dick, my bike, my everything.

My fucking heart.

“Because it is,” Dad clipped, his black eyes narrowing at me, “why is this any of your business, Cole?”

Clenching my fists, I avoided looking at Oaklee for more than a second, but I didn’t miss the nervous lip biting or the way she was looking at everything around us but me.

Yeah, she knows what she did wrong.

Agreeing to get on the back of another man’s bike wasn’t just exclusive to patched members, and I was guessing she remembered what I said to her back when she got on my bike the first time.

Without causing a scene, there was no way for her to back out or for me to insist I take her or Doc take one of the Club’s vehicles. The man never drove a car as far as I knew, so asking him to drive rather than ride was going to cause more suspicion from my old man.

Lifting my chin, I stared at my father, holding his intense glare with one of my own.

“It’s not,” I clipped, hating the words, hating the meaning behind them. This fucking game of secrecy suddenly backfiring on me. This scenario never entered my mind when Oaklee and I agreed to lay low, and now I was getting burned. Badly.

“I see,” Dad smirked, practically dismissing me, to walk off with Doc, speaking to him in a low voice, leaving Oaklee and me alone.

“I didn’t think,” Oaklee whispered hurriedly, sounding contrite and worried.

“Obviously, Temptress.” My reply stern, forgetting who was around us for a brief second and using her nickname.

“Want me to back out?”

“Too late for that now, baby.”

“Cole, please, I am sorry,” Oaklee hissed, twisting her hands in front of her, keeping them from reaching out to me.

All I wanted to do was take her into my arms and assure myself she was mine, but doing that would only bring trouble for Oaklee. Taking off for the base tomorrow meant she would be here to fend off my parents on her own and I would never do that to her.

“I don’t like this anymore, Oaklee, it is getting too hard,” I growled, meaning the sneaking around behind my family’s back. Even Gabe and the guys didn’t like that they knew but couldn’t say anything, had to be careful around the rest of the Club.

“Cole,” Oaklee croaked, then tensed when Doc yelled out to her.

“You ready, sweetheart?”

I wanted to rip the man’s throat out for daring to call my girl the endearment, bleach my ears from hearing another man calling Oaklee something that was my right and my right only. She was mine, mine to touch, mine to call sweetheart, but for my stupidity to think it would be a great idea to keep our relationship hidden.

I could feel Oaklee looking at me, hear her silent begs to look at her and fuck did I want to, but the sounds of Doc’s heavy boots coming our way meant I would have to wait to have my girl in my arms.

“I will see you at your place later, Oaklee.” Turning away from her, I stood rooted to the floor, my feet feeling like the slabs of concrete delivered to the range today.

“Let’s get moving, sweet thing, I’m going to give you the best ride of your life,” Doc sprouted as he passed me, his smirk and wink pissing me off.

“Fucked if I can watch you get on that bike with him,” I groaned painfully between clenched teeth. “Fucking can’t.”

Forcing myself to move, I walked away before I beat the shit out of the Wounded Souls’ Road Captain and laid claim to my Temptress right there. Fucking shout it from the rooftop that Oaklee was my forever and defy my father to disagree.

Oaklee wasn’t ready for that yet.

Was she?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

OAKLEE

Pulling into my driveway, I nearly broke down and cried when I saw Cole’s Harley sitting in the same spot he’d parked every night for the last three weeks.

Over the past three hours, I had suffered every gut-wrenching emotion in the book, and I had to suffer through them with a smile pasted on my face while inside I was dying.

My heart crumbled when Cole said those horrible words, his voice