Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC Book 7) Read online

  “Jesus Christ!” I cried out, unable to help the shock that stole over me.

  Bram was not a small man. No way, no how. He’d never been one, actually.

  He’d always, always made sure I was ready first. But holy hell, not this time.

  And it was delicious.

  My head fell back, and I groaned as I stilled on top of him, unable to make myself move due to the intrusion, but loving every fucking second of it.

  Bram was never out of control with me.

  Never.

  But this time…

  “Oh, fuck me,” Bram growled. “You’re so goddamn tight like this.”

  He started to forcibly lift me up and slam me back down, over and over again until I was seconds away from bursting.

  Then he stilled. “Shit.”

  “What?” I gasped, my eyes closed.

  I started to slowly move on him when I’d realized he stopped, grinding and swiveling my hips.

  “Shit, shit,” Bram cursed. “My phone’s ringing.”

  That’s when I heard the dinging.

  I looked over my shoulder at the dash where the screen resided and saw Shine’s name flashing across the screen.

  “Ignore it,” he urged.

  I reached backward and pressed answer, then grinned wickedly at Bram when he cursed.

  “You little shit.” He laughed, squeezed my hip, and then surged back inside.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  “Dorc… Dory?” Shine corrected himself before he could say my whole name. “You there?”

  I licked my lips and twisted my hips again as I said, “Y-yes.”

  “Always whispering with you.” Shine laughed. “My brother there?”

  “Umm, he’s indisposed right now,” I lied.

  Well, maybe lying wasn’t really the word.

  He was kind of indisposed.

  Bram’s eyes were squeezed shut, and he was gripping the door’s armrest as if his life depended on it.

  “So he’s taking a shit.” Shine laughed again. “That’s normal for him. What kind of weirdo does that without their phone in this day and age?”

  I raised up, then dropped back down before saying, “Anything I can help you with, Shine?”

  Damn, I was super impressed with how even my words were.

  “No, I guess not.” He hesitated. “I was just going to see if Iris and I could come down there and see the sights. Check out where y’all are staying. We want to—”

  Bram caught my hip and stilled my descent.

  I nipped him on the chin for his efforts, then sank down all the way before saying, “You are always welcome, Shine.”

  That was a lie. But there was no way I was going to tell Shine no.

  “Is it okay if we come down next month? Iris and I have been talking and…” He trailed off.

  He might’ve said some words, but I got lost in the void when Bram started to slowly circle my clit with his finger.

  The feel of his cock as it filled me so deliciously. Right to the point of…

  “Oh my god! Y’all are so freakin’ gross!” Shine cried out, momentarily distracting me from the way his brother felt inside of me. “Oh my god!”

  I burst out laughing, unable to help myself.

  Bram groaned at the way I tightened around him.

  “So. Gross. I hope y’all get stuck together,” Shine grumbled, then, blissful silence.

  The way Bram stroked me caught me back up in the spell again, and I slowly ground down on him. Twisting and circling my hips until I was there.

  I leaned back and came on his cock.

  A long, slow, blissful release that shook me from head to toe.

  Bram followed just as the honking started.

  The curses that left his lips were filthy and hot.

  “Babe,” Bram gasped long seconds later. “You gotta stop leanin’ on the horn. People are starting to investigate.”

  Sure enough, when I opened my eyes and leaned forward, causing the horn to stop honking, it was to glance around and see people staring at the car as if it was possessed.

  “Whoops.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Do weights for muscle. Cardio for heart. Ice cream for mental health.

  -Secrets to life

  BRAM

  “Babe!” Dory called out from the bathroom. “I forgot to tell you. But since the day after tomorrow is a holiday, they’re going to be picking up the trash tomorrow morning. Can you take the trash out now?”

  I looked at my watch and grimaced.

  It was five until midnight, and I’d been on my way to bed.

  Tomorrow, I had to work at the ass crack of dawn, and I’d needed to stay up late like I needed a bullet to the head. Yet, I’d been having such a good time watching the movie with Dory curled up in my arms, our baby kicking away at my side, that I hadn’t wanted to pull away to go to bed.

  Now, the movie had ended, and I seriously needed to get to sleep.

  We’d had a long day, spending the majority of it shopping for baby paraphernalia before heading to the restaurant to eat.

  The drive home had been even longer and the thought of lying on the couch and doing nothing for hours with Dory beside me had been so appealing that I’d done it despite knowing I shouldn’t.

  And the thought of taking the trash out tomorrow morning sounded way more appealing than doing it now.

  But I knew if I didn’t do it now, I certainly wouldn’t be doing it tomorrow morning because I’d rather sleep the extra five minutes.

  So now it was.

  Picking up the trash out of the kitchen, I headed around the house and to the back where we kept the can.

  Once I had the new bag in the can, I hefted it up and started to walk it around the house.

  I’d just reached Dory’s car door when something on the side caught my eye.

  Ignoring it for the moment, I dropped the trash off at the curb, then went back to the car door and inspected it.

  I looked hard at the door before I realized that whatever the fuck it was—and it looked like jizz, so I sure the fuck wasn’t going to touch it—it was gross.

  And needed to come off now.

  Heading to the side of the house, I grabbed the water hose and proceeded to spray the car door off. Once it was clean, and I was satisfied that whatever it was wouldn’t fuck up the paint of the brand-new Beemer, I headed back inside, washed my hands, brushed my teeth, and all but fell into the bed.

  “You forgot to set the alarm,” Dory said from beside me.

  “Fuck,” I grumbled, not bothering to move. “I’ll set it tomorrow.”

  She snickered. “Good night, Bram.”

  I peeled open one eye and said, “Night, baby.”

  It was the soft click, the click of the door that had my eyes peeling open hours later.

  It was the dead of night, and not a single light glowed through the curtains, so I knew that I still had time to sleep.

  Yet, something had woken me.

  I got up on my elbows and turned in the bed, spying the soft round curve of Dory’s body on the bed beside me.

  The soft clack of something hitting against wood had me all but bolting up in bed.

  The quick movement caused Dory to wake up.

  Before she could speak, I placed my hand over her mouth and said, “Someone’s in the house. Get your gun and go to the bathroom.”

  She didn’t hesitate.

  She grabbed her gun out of the bedside drawer then moved on silent feet exactly where I’d directed.

  Grabbing my own gun from underneath the pillow where I slept, I grabbed the flashlight with my other and situated it on top of my gun hand, finger over the button to flip it on.

  I’d just stepped out into the hallway when I heard a commotion, then running feet.

  Seconds later, I heard the door crash open and hit the wall, followed by a curse.

  I flipped the light on just in time to see the door swing back closed with the momentum of whomever had just left it.

  Heart pounding, I walked through the house slowly, hoping that there weren’t any other men inside.

  Only after I was sure it was clear did I go outside and look around.

  Nothing.

  Not even a neighbor was up.

  Whomever had been here wasn’t any longer.

  And I was the dumbass that hadn’t set the alarm to make sure that nobody could do what they’d just done.

  I was a moron.

  “Baby!” I called as I closed and locked the door, followed by arming it. “You can come out.”

  I flipped on all the lights and started to have a look around just as Dory came out of the bedroom, looking worried.

  “Come here,” I urged, gesturing toward her with the hand that was holding the flashlight.

  She came running, burying her face into my neck and curling herself into my body.

  Her belly pressed against my lower abs, and I felt the refreshing kick to my stomach that let me know that both of my charges were all right.

  Despite my stupidity.

  “What happened?” she asked worriedly.

  “Someone was in the house,” I said quietly. “I let them in the house.”

  “You didn’t,” she disagreed. “I heard you lock the door. And I remembered that I could do it from the app. So, I was the one who armed it.”

  That terrified me.

  “You sure?” I asked. “We have a good system. I’m not quite sure that it would’ve been easy to get inside if it’d been armed.”

  “I’m mostly sure,” she admitted. “When I opened my app, I set it.”

  She showed me exactly what she’d done, and I winced. “You have to slide it down and wait for it to turn red for armed before it’s fully armed.”

&n
bsp; She sighed. “Shit. I’d seen you do it so many times from the app that I just assumed that was how you did it. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

  I snorted. “It’s no more your fault than mine. But we did have cameras running. We can see who it was if they weren’t smart enough to cover it up.”

  That’d been one thing that I always had running. The cameras that were on the front and the back of the house pointed at the doors.

  Thirteen minutes later, I watched some man masturbate, then jizz all over the car door. The entire time, his face was obscured by a low hat, shielding almost all of his face but his jaw, which was clean shaven.

  Five minutes after that, I come out with the trash, then washed it off with the hose.

  “Gross.” Dory grimaced. “What the hell?”

  “Same thoughts,” I grumbled as I looked around the house to make sure, again, that nothing had been taken or moved. “This guy I think knows you. You’ve probably seen him before for him to know where we live. For him to know where you lived before, too.”

  “You think it’s the same guy?” she asked warily.

  I looked down at her and said, “I think that you don’t make enemies. And it’s rare that you would have one, let alone two. So yes, I think that it’s the same guy.”

  She breathed out roughly. “Then if that’s the case, I have no clue who it might be. I don’t talk to anyone but patients and my coworkers and you. The last guy that I saw was a nineteen-year-old. He was mad at me because I wouldn’t give him a work release. But he was Asian. This guy is whiter than a vampire.”

  That was true.

  He was quite pale.

  His jaw seemed to glow in the moonlight as he’d violated our car.

  “Must not get out much,” I admitted. “Otherwise, he’d have some color to him.”

  I clenched my teeth and dropped my head, rubbing my forehead along the messy hairs escaping her bun.

  “I have to get up in an hour,” I grumbled. “And there’s no way that I’m leaving you here alone today after that. That lazy fuck of a sheriff will be hearing from me, but I seriously doubt he does anything.”

  She sighed. “How about you drop me off at work early. I have some patient notes I need to chart anyway. Dutch will be there within an hour because she sees patients early on Thursdays. And there’s no reason for you to go back to bed at this point. We’ll just have an early night.”

  I grumbled my agreement under my breath, and we both split off to get dressed for the day.

  After I was ready, I headed back to the kitchen and made myself a quick lunch, then started on breakfast.

  I stalled out when I started to lay the bacon in the frying pan.

  “Dory?” I called out. “If I make this, will you throw up?”

  She started to laugh from behind me.

  I turned to see her sitting at the bar, staring at me with her head in her upraised hands, elbows resting against the counter.

  How long she’d been there, I didn’t know.

  “I won’t throw up,” she informed me. “I’ve been doing really good since you started making it your life’s mission to fill me with sweets.”

  My lips quirked. “Just wanting to fatten you up nicely so that our baby will grow big and strong.”

  She smiled. “Bacon is fine right now. If that changes, I’ll head to work early.”

  I rolled my eyes. “We need to figure this out with that creep. I sent out a message to Wake. Hopefully he messages me when he wakes up. I think I need to get with a few of his buddies and get them to work on our security system. If my brothers were here, I’d have them trade off following you around. I hate that you can’t go anywhere.”

  She shrugged. “I think you’re confusing me with a normal woman. I’m introverted. Going out and doing things wasn’t ever something that I wanted to do. I only went half the time before because you wanted to go. I can’t say I ever really enjoyed hanging out. Being home here is more fun than anything for me.”

  It hadn’t been her intention to make me feel like shit, but she did anyway.

  “I’m sorry.” I winced, dropping the rest of the bacon into the frying pan. “I should’ve seen that you didn’t enjoy it.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and then leaned into the counter. “I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.”

  I walked over to the sink and washed my hands, then leaned my wet hands into the counter as I said, “Then what did you mean?”

  “I meant, I would much rather be home, doing nothing. But when I’m with you, I’ll do just about anything, as long as you’re near.”

  That made my heart fuckin’ soar.

  “Damn,” I said. “You sure do know how to make my heart ache.”

  She smirked at me. “You’ve gone out of your way to make these last couple of months great for me. Leaving your family so I would be comfortable here. Keeping them at bay when we both know they want to see you. Don’t think that I didn’t miss that call you had with Shine last night when you thought I was in the shower already. You told him not to come.”

  I had.

  Because I didn’t want him here when we were just starting to have good times.

  Shine was, by far, Dory’s least favorite fan.

  Or, at least, he had been before. Shine was a great brother, if overprotective.

  I knew that he was only watching out for what he thought I would want.

  Yet, he’d still had a hand in making Dory feel unwelcome all these years.

  And though I hadn’t done much better myself, I was trying to salvage my relationship. To make her realize that I was going to do better. Be better.

  Shine being here would put that in jeopardy. Maybe in a few months, when our baby was born, and I was one hundred percent sure that I’d won Dory over, then I’d start allowing them back into our lives.

  But until then… no.

  They’d all have to wait.

  Because Dory would always come first for me.

  “What do you think about the name Harker?” she asked softly.

  I frowned. “Harker’s kind of odd, isn’t it?”

  I’d never heard it before.

  She smiled. “I wanted to stay with the Crow/Raven/Dracula theme y’all inadvertently have going. Or you do anyway. Harker was a character off of the old Dracula movies. Jonathan Flynn Harker. I was thinking Harker Flynn Crow as a name.”

  The fact that she wanted to name our child after me in some form or fashion made a place inside my heart start to repair. Something I’d broken when I’d allowed her to think she didn’t matter to me.

  “I like it,” I admitted. “I like it a lot.”

  “I know it’s odd,” she agreed. “But Bram is odd, too. So I was thinking it would be a perfect fit. But don’t say yes just yet, all right? Wait until you feel the name out. We have time.”

  “Time,” I teased, “is becoming less and less with each week that passes. But I agree to your terms. I’ll sit on it for the next few days and get back to you.”

  She jerked her head toward the bacon. “Your bacon needs turned.”

  So it did.

  • • •

  Hours later, exhausted beyond belief, and fairly sure that if I didn’t catch a few ZZZs soon, I would be extremely short with everyone, even my boss who’d been super accommodating, I was sitting in the driveway on my bike staring at the front door.

  I was waiting for Dory to pull in, but she’d stopped to talk to our elderly neighbor down the road that was out walking her dog.

  They were talking about some man that she’d seen today, but each time she’d glance back at me nervously, as if she was scared of me.

  So I’d gone around them on my bike and parked in the driveway, only to stare at them like an even bigger creeper.

  Rationally, I knew that the old lady wouldn’t be doing anything to Dory. But that didn’t mean that whichever sick fuck had decided to get his rocks off on our new car wouldn’t come up.

  So there I sat, even though I’d rather collapse into the recliner with Dory plastered to my side.

  “Yo.”

  I glanced beyond where Dory and the old broad were talking to see Wake walking down the street with his dog, Tex, on a leash in front of him. Tex was straining to get to the old lady’s dog, but Wake wasn’t allowing him an inch.

  “Hey, Wake.” Dory waved.

  If I’d thought that the old lady’s reaction to me was comical, seeing her look at Wake, who was a known felon, was even better.

  She visibly recoiled at the sight of him and moved to where she was standing with the large brick mailbox between them.