Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III (21 page)

That golden glow of promise erupted into full dawn, just like the sun bursting over the horizon, so too did this orgasm, rocking through me, burning away any doubt, fear, anger, or pain. Nothing was my anchor as I shuddered beneath him, clinging to him while my nervous system sparkled and flitted with little shots and jolts of pleasure.

The spots cleared from my vision to reveal his kind face, eyes alight with something warm and all-consuming as he smoothed my hair from my face. I panted and he shifted and I very nearly climbed his body with a yelp at the intensity of my over sensitivity.

I waited and nodded, and murmured, “Go ahead.”

“Hmm, ‘go ahead’ and what?” he asked, kissing my throat.

“Finish,” I murmured and he chuckled.

“I came with you, Baby.”

“What?”

“I came the same time you did.”

I blinked…
Oh…

He snuggled me in his arms and kissed me, and I kissed him back, my heart thundering with quicksilver energy against the inside of my ribs. He drew back and leaned down to place his lips between my breasts, centered over my heart. He kissed me there, and the look of such tenderness, of such care and just
reverence
on his face when he did it, sent me over a different kind of edge.

It was the look every woman ever dreamed of seeing on a man’s face as he handled her, and it brought a hot flood of tears to my eyes that welled and immediately spilled down my temples to see it. It was such an amazing
gift.
One that was unparalleled and it took my breath away. The hitch in my breathing snapped Nothing’s eyes to mine and he
knew.

He didn’t ask me what was wrong. He simply smiled the most contented smile I’d ever seen and turned his head to lay an ear where his lips had been. I found my fingers then, tangled in the sheets, and let the poor material go so that I could run them through Nothing’s dark hair instead. Combing it back from his face so I could marvel at the peace painted across his features as he listened, eyes closed, to my heart’s slightly unequal rhythm.

“You have a murmur,” he uttered and I felt myself nod.

“Non-life threatening, it’s just kind of there.”

“I like it; it makes your heartbeat something different, something uniquely you.”

I fell in love with him. Right then. Right there. I fell in love with this difficult, sad, angry man and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I lost myself to him right then and there and you can’t lose yourself to nothing… because he was most definitely
something.

“What should I call you?” I asked softly, and he glanced up at me. Whatever was on my face made him still and consider me seriously.

“Dominic, or Shep would work.”

“How about Galahad?” I asked and he considered me gravely.

“Who told you that name?”

“Does it matter?”

He considered me and raised his head slowly, shaking it gently back and forth, his eyes never leaving mine, “I don’t suppose it does, but names like that one are earned. I earned it once and then I threw it away. I kind of feel like I need to earn it back, now.”

I nodded carefully, “Maybe for them,” I agreed, “But not for me.”

He laid his head back down and closed his eyes listening to the blood flow through my body before he opened his eyes again, tongue flicking out to wet those sensual lips. He sighed and it took him a try or two, but finally he spoke.

“It was raining, the night… the night,” his voice cracked and he stopped, swallowing hard and clearing his throat, “The night my family died. The night I killed them by accident.”

I held very still, my fingers automatically and still gently, running through his silken soft hair. I nodded, afraid to speak and shatter his resolve.

“I’d worked, essentially, a double and I’d promised Katy and Corrine we would go see the alligators at the gator farm, and so we drove out there and spent the whole day. I was tired, I was
so
tired, but I pounded an energy drink and I said I was good to drive. It was dark and raining, a long drive and we weren’t too far outside Ft. Royal when this car, it crossed the center line. I swerved, but I was beat and my reaction time, it was too slow and I swerved
into
the guy instead of away and he hit Corrine and Katy’s side… I killed them. I…” he closed his eyes and he shuddered, his breath breaking on a brittle sob that he tried to force down. I soothed, I put my arms around him and I held him, and was his rock as he had been mine the night before as he spilled his bitter anger and pain in a hot wash of tears down my skin.

He’d promised, and he was making good on his promise, but what he told me next, made my heart break for this good and noble man. This man who had been giving so freely of himself as a paramedic before his world had shattered into a million shards of cutting agony.

“She was cheating on me, with a brother. I didn’t know until the Captain told me last night, and then you were gone and I thought I had screwed up everything and all of a sudden you were in front of my face as everything I should have seen you as in the first place. This beautiful, smart, intelligent, funny woman who was interested in
me.
This nothing and nobody. This beautiful, kind, and soft hearted woman who didn’t want to give up on me and you were gone and when that car flipped, I thought it was my fault, that God was punishing me for wasting the opportunity he was gifting me and I thought sure you were gone, and that it was my fault for driving you away. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…” he was babbling, his emotions running over the dam he’d spent so long building to stem the tide and so I did the only thing I could do.

I held him, and I opened my heart, and I took it all in and locked some of his burden away where I could carry it for him, so he didn’t have to carry it alone any more. He looked at me and I smiled, cradling his face in my hands, smoothing my thumbs through the tears and he stared at me with soft wonder until I stripped his fear that I would laugh or turn away from him by kissing him, his mouth warm and salty beneath mine.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore,” he said dully and I smiled and rested my forehead against his.

“You aren’t,” I said and it was as if that statement alone lifted a thousand pound boulder off of his shoulders. If one of his brothers hadn’t already held the name Atlas, I might have suggested it in that moment. Of course, Atlas could never set his burden down while Nothing? Nothing sighed with relief and held me close, while I held him.

I finally thought we might have a good start here. Time would tell.

Chapter 28

Nothing

We held each other and dozed and I didn’t think I could deny it. It’d been a long time since anything like love stirred in the center of my chest, but it was there now. It was like Charity had drawn the two fractured halves of me into alignment, like she had the touch and the skills, where no one had before and the real break that’d happened the night my family’d died, had finally been set. I felt like, with a little more time, and with hers and my brothers’ support, that I could start to mend. That was, if my brothers had it in them to be around me anymore.

The door to the room opened, and I looked over from Charity’s angelic face where it rested on the pillow across from mine. She’d fallen asleep again, and I had simply stared at the golden morning light through the blinds as it shimmered in her golden hair and wondered how on earth a man like me could be so lucky twice in one lifetime.

Cutter stood in the doorway and looked us over, he swallowed, and said “Club meeting, The Plank, twenty minutes.” I nodded and tried not to let my heart drop at how grave he sounded. I turned back to Charity’s ice blue eyes looking me over.

“Hey,” I intoned softly.

“Hi.”

“You heard?”

“Mm-hm.”

“You gonna be okay, here?”

She smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. It was cute, and made me smile, which I think was her goal.

“Should get dressed and get going, twenty minutes isn’t a lot of time to do both that and get down there.”

“True enough.”

“I’ll be here when you’re done, maybe on the beach,” she said.

“Promise?”

She smiled again, “Promise.”

It was enough to make the knot of anxiety in my chest ease some. I got up, got dressed and with a final, lingering kiss, got myself gone and down to The Plank.

***

The Captain had called us all together to debrief us on the whole Russian situation. Hope was invited to this little soiree being as she was as involved as the rest of us. They’d taken out the dipshit who’d kidnapped Charity and disposed of him accordingly, however, when it came to the hotel, they’d gotten there too late to be any good. His comrades had gotten out before they could catch up with them. It left us all a little bitter and more than on edge.

“Hypervigilance is our only option at this point. We’re as on the defensive as we can get,” Marlin grated. He didn’t sound at all happy about this turn of events and I could reliably say, I knew
exactly
how he felt. Our girls may have had a couple three years separating their birth dates, but they might as well be twins for how alike they looked. Hope shifted where she leaned against the archway leading back to the Captain’s chair. The rest of us all sat at our hodgepodge war table.

“Galahad,” Cutter drawled and I looked up sharply, shaking my head.

“I have to earn that name back, Captain, but what would you have of me?”

Some of the guys around the table groaned and rolled their eyes. I gritted my teeth. Cutter hung his head and smiled, shaking it some.

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that,” he said. “What I need is to know if you’re on board with the program. Think you can stay sober and out of self-destructionville long enough to see this through?”

“I do.”

“Look man,” Radar drawled, “We all know you’ve got way more food for thought than you should be able to handle right now… No man could handle the dose of reality you just got without going a little off the rails-“

“It’s fine, if I need to talk or deal, I’ll reach out, I promise. Just, what are we gonna do about this? We can’t have these assholes hanging over our heads forever. That’s no way for Faith and Charity to live, no matter how used to living on the edge or the fringe
we
are.”

“You ain’t lyin’,” Marlin stated, and I heard the ‘but’ coming. “But it comes with the territory when you get involved with an outlaw by citizen standards. If it ain’t this, something else’ll come along.”

“Yeah, but ‘something else’ usually involves just us, and not the women and children,” Atlas supplied.

“You aren’t wrong Atlas, and I’d like to see us get back to our regularly scheduled programming,” Cutter drawled.

“Never thought I’d miss the rum running and coyote days,” Pyro muttered.

“I’ll take illegal salvage and tomb raiding any day over this shit,” Atlas agreed.

“So what do we do about it?” Cutter asked and I could see the strategy behind it.

He was met by fierce stares from around the table, “We go on the offensive,” Radar said judiciously.

Cutter nodded, “Nothing, Marlin, you two are as invested in this as anybody, but seriously you need to stick with your women on this. Marlin, Faith is still too jittery and with good reason. Nothing, I think you and Charity have some things to work out and a little ways to go. Plus, if shit goes sideways I’d rather it
not
be our medically proficient brother who ends up shot, stabbed, blowed up, or worse; you feel me?”

“Like a virgin on her wedding night,” I said and didn’t bother to deny it. I kept up on my certs for a couple of reasons. One, because I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to paint houses for a living forever, and two, because a lot of the guys and their families couldn’t always afford health insurance. I filled the gap for them, and for some of the town. It just was what it was. It’d been a while since we’d done any covert immigration operations, but it was worth it to keep the certifications up for that, too.

At my core and in my bones, I helped people. No matter how bad I fucked up or how guilty I felt, no matter how bad my damage from that accident… I helped people. It was what I did.

“Operations like what the Russians are up to… they don’t die easy. They’re just going to keep comin’,” Lightning said grimly.

“Only way to kill it and kill it for good is to cut off the head of the snake,” Radar agreed.

“Well, the boys in New Orleans might just handle that for us. Ruth and the rest of the Voodoo Bastards are involved in the mightiest of turf wars over there, and by the looks of it, all things considered, they’re winning thanks to us.” Cutter said. “Now they’re doin’ it for themselves, so it ain’t like they’re going out of their way to do us no favors –“

“That doesn’t mean they won’t want somethin’ from us down the line,” Marlin said with all practicality. Cutter tapped his nose twice and pointed towards his second.

“What will we do if they want to collect on something they haven’t exactly earned?” Gator voiced, he’d been quiet up to this point, along with Beast and Stoker. I was curious myself about the Captain’s answer.

“Well fellas, I think it best we don’t borrow trouble afore it gets to our door, but it’s like anything else we take on. We vote on it. Of course, it’s hard to project what any of ‘em might want from a little outfit like ours and so far away. So it’s best we let sleeping dogs lie for now lest we get bit.”

“Captain’s right, deal with it when and if it comes to pass, and not before, but the Voodoo Bastards, like us, are an honorable lot as far as outlaws go.” Hope said from the wall.

“My Lady’s right. They may not be as honorable as the Sacred Hearts boys, but they did us some good turns-“

“Yeah, that aligned with their own self-interests,” Stoker muttered.

“Be that as it may, they helped us out plenty with that lawyer and getting Hope outta jail, scot free and all. I think we legit have a friend in Ruth and his crew. I project the most they’ll want is to come to our neck of the woods for some R and R once the dust has settled in their neighborhood.”