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He had tried to keep club shit away from her for the longest time, but while there was a threat to the whole town, he couldn’t do it.
“It’s not just a threat to the club. It’s to the town. Last year, the dogfighting ring should never have happened. With us here, Carnage is a patched place. It belongs to the Chaos and Carnage MC. It’s my turf. My town. By those bastards doing what they did, it made me look weak.” He gritted his teeth.
“Bull, you’re not weak.”
“I’m not? You got attacked at the animal shelter. You were in the hospital. I was afraid you weren’t going to wake up because you took a beating so badly.”
“Don’t think about it.”
“I can’t stop thinking about it, not now.” He held her hand, locking their fingers together. In order to protect Maddie, he had no choice but to push her away, or pretend to push her away. To pretend he no longer cared about her. He’d hurt her in the worst way.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.” She stepped closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her. “I thought you killed them.” She whispered the word “killed” and he couldn’t help but laugh. Adapting to the life of being his woman had been quite hard on her. She tried, but it was always difficult for her. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I did.”
“So what’s the problem?” She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “I don’t get it.”
He stroked her cheek. He would do anything for this woman. Anything in the world.
“Not all bad people die, babe. Sometimes you kill someone, and it brings forward someone even worse.”
“Carnage is under threat?” she asked.
He nodded, not able to bring himself to say that out loud. It’s under threat because he didn’t have a clue who would attack them. Who the fuck would dream of taking them on?
****
“You do realize you being here is going to piss people off.”
Aria tried not to listen to the scary biker guy who’d gone to stand with Grant. It was so cold, but she didn’t care. Bull was there, as were a couple of club members, watching her with the two dogs. They were both male.
There was no distinctive breed, they were a mix of what appeared to be a boxer or possibly a Doberman, maybe even crossed with a German shepherd like Wanda. Speaking of Wanda, she sat perfectly next to Grant. Aria loved how devoted the dog was to Grant. Her heart broke a little as Bull had told her these dogs didn’t have names.
She wasn’t afraid of the dogs, not even after Bull told her some of their history of dogfighting—how they would be starved, teased, hurt, to do their owners’ bidding. She couldn’t believe anyone would be that cruel, but then, this was people they were talking about. Of course there was cruelty.
She crouched down and both dogs moved toward her. She stroked one, kissing him on the head, and when she looked into his eyes, it was the strangest thing.
“Ernie,” she said.
Maddie, Bull’s wife, chuckled and walked toward her.
Aria smiled. “I don’t … that is so strange. It’s like he told me his name.”
“It is like that. Some dogs just speak to us, I guess. I’ve seen it happen at the shelter a lot.”
Did this mean that Ernie wanted to be her dog? Kissing the top of his head again, she looked toward the other and kissed him, staring into his eyes. They were so beautiful, so brown, so full of hope.
“Bruno,” she said.
For this, she got a lick on the cheek.
“Come on, Bull, you can see the dogs like her.”
Bull held up his hand. He walked toward her. “Are you even ready to house two dogs?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m ready.” She and Grant had gone to the pet store during her lunch break. She had all the necessary items to take them home. Grant had also brought his big truck of a car with him. They hadn’t attacked Wanda either. They were good dogs. She just knew it.
