Page 41 of Stag

She nodded slowly. “We have a joint bills account, and the mortgage is in both of our names.”

He sighed, glancing over his shoulder, before he looked at her again.

“We’ve got guys who can help with that stuff. Grease is just heading out, so I’m gonna call Ice for help. They won’t let you get screwed here, but…” he stepped closer, his tone lowering a little, even though she wouldn’t know the difference, “I strongly suggest you consider some form of action to keep her away. Something legal.”

Claudia choked back a sob and buried her face in my chest, again giving me that superhero feeling, while simultaneously crushing my heart under a fucking rock.

“I don’t know how long this was going on, Pres. She’s been through a lot.”

“And if this were anyone else, right now you’d say something like ‘and now she’s stuck with you’,” he said with a wry grin, before he sobered again, “she’s going to be okay, brother. Go do what needs to be done. You’ve got family with you to help get her out. Once she’s settled at Henley’s, just drop me a message to let me know, and if you need anything. Got it?” I nodded, feeling a lump in my throat at his tone, at the way he’d gone from being a guy who used to be as much of a prick as me, to the one who just fucking solved all our problems in one fell swoop. Most of them, anyway.

“Thanks, Pres. Give us five, yeah?” I caught Claudia’s attention, by lifting her chin to look at me.

“We’re gonna go back to my tent to take a breather, then we’re getting you out.”

She nodded, offering Micro a grateful smile.

“Thank you. Thank you all.”

I waited until we reached my tent, and then, without all the fucking eyes on us, I tipped her face up again.

“I’m so sorry you had to deal with all that, Claudia. I’m doing what I can to fix it, but I’ll try not to be as bad as her.”

Another tear trickled from her left eye and she drew in a ragged breath, her throat sounding even more raw than normal when she spoke.

“I don’t know what happened. She used to be fun, and sweet, and we were inseparable, and now I feel like she’s the monster hiding under the bed. That’s pathetic, isn’t it?”

I shook my head, catching the next tear with the back of my finger, lifting it away like it would do a damn thing to soothe her. I just wanted to stop her hurting like this.

“Maybe a break is all you both need. Maybe it was just too intense for you both being in close quarters like that. Maybe things can go back that way.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, the soft flesh pinched between her teeth, like she wanted to harm one of my favourite lips of all time.

“Micro’s a good guy,” I said, realising for the first time that it’d been the case for a long damn time, and it shouldn’t have taken me so long to voice that.

Whoa. I should really tell him at some point, instead of just being a prick.

“He’s got guys going with us, and keeping her from you. We have connections with the local police too, and other people you can’t even imagine. You’ll be safe, but she won’t be hurt either.”

I still kinda wanted to slap that bitch in the face, but again, it was a dumbass reaction to how she hurt Claudia, rather than something I’d actually do. I’d never struck a woman, and I never would. My aunt on my mum’s side ended up with a prick like that, and it took the whole family to get her out and away from him. If we all needed to help Claudia like that, clearly we had enough people to do it.

Unless I was underestimating that bitch’s willingness to fuck with her own twin, or the club.

Collecting Claudia’s shit didn’t take too long with four of us there to help her. Grease’s old lady was helping him keep Marissa in her car and out of our way, so we just went in as a group, grabbed what she pointed to, and then I helped her pack her clothes.

“You want these?” I held up a handful of lacy underwear with a cheeky grin, like I thought I could make her smile with that shit. She lunged for them, tutting at me for waving them at her to get her attention.

“Put them away!”

“My thoughts exactly,” I said, grinning as I tossed them over my shoulder. I don’t know why the fuck I was messing around like this when the aim was to get out fast, but she’d looked so sad packing her things up, that I wanted to make her smile. Hell, I also got to touch her underwear, even if she wasn’t wearing it at the time.

“You wanna speed this up, asshole? They’re not going to keep that bitch in her car much longer,” Rocket yelled from the doorway, scaring the crap out of me.

I spun to glare at him. “Why the fuck are you shouting?”

He froze, his cheeks flushing red. “I uh… so you guys could hear me.”

“She’s deaf, dickhead. She can’t hear a single thing, but you said asshole, so were you calling her an asshole too?” I was already advancing on him, because that’s what you do when someone calls your woman something like that.