Give Me Grace (52 page)

“So what, it’s okay for Casey to just up and move to Melbourne for you, but when I want to make the grand gesture, you tell me I can’t?”

Dad stood up, towering over Henry with the kind of scary intimidation that only a father could produce. “Son, don’t talk to your sister in that growly fashion,” he growled. “She’s fragile right now and—”

“Fragile?” I shrieked, the pitch of my voice high from disbelief and anger as I stood to avoid the intimidation tactic of my dad looming over me. “How dare you assume I’m not strong enough to handle what’s coming. You—”

“I don’t believe this!” Henry yelled at Dad, cutting me off. He stood up too, thus forming a huddle of three very angry Patersons. “Why is it okay for everyone else to do something and I’m told to just sit back and play my guitar like a good boy?”

The three of us began to argue in earnest when Casey’s bellow cut through the angry words. “Enough!”

Casey reached for the drink that was still in my hand. He tossed it down his throat, shook his head once, and dumped the glass on the coffee table.

We all shut up.

“Sit down,” he bit out, his voice a smidge calmer now that he had our attention.

We all sat down.

Coby shifted awkwardly beside me. I patted him reassuringly on the knee, a silent thank you for sticking out the drama. Coby grinned at me and I startled, realising how close his face was to mine. I wondered for a brief moment if I should be embarrassed about my earlier noise in the bedroom. I decided to just let it go and hope he didn’t mention it.

Casey snatched my hand from Coby’s knee and tucked it in his. Then he looked at both Henry and my dad, his expression steely. “Stop making this about you and what you both want. Nate.” Dad raised his brows at Casey but held his tongue. Wisely, I thought, because I had come to learn that particular expression on Casey’s face. I thought of it as his
don’t poke the sleeping dragon
face. “I can appreciate you wanting Grace home because a father should be there for his little girl.” Dad nodded his agreement and then paused because it seemed Casey wasn’t finished. “But Grace is going to heal best being where
she
wants to be, not where you want her to be. And, Henry …” My brother glanced up from staring at the floor as Casey’s voice took on a note of warning. “Have you forgotten everything I said to you at the hospital? Don’t make everything Grace did mean nothing.”

I looked between the both of them, knowing I was missing something important. I made a mental note to ask Casey what he’d said to Henry.

Dad turned to look at me, his voice quiet. “Is that what you want, Grace? To move to Sydney?”

I hesitated because I didn’t want to upset him any further, but I knew I needed to start being more upfront about my life and what I wanted. It wasn’t until I eventually replied with a yes that I realised how tense Casey was because I felt him relax beside me.

“It’s settled then,” Dad boomed at all of us after taking a hefty gulp from his glass.

“What’s settled?”

“I’m moving to Sydney too.”

“Dad, you can’t—”

He held up a hand, halting me. “You’re my daughter, Grace, not my mother. Don’t start trying to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“What about your job?”

Dad shrugged as though the decades of time spent working at the garage was just a blip on his radar of life. “I’ve got long service leave out the wazoo. I’ll give ’em a call. Arrange for six months, and then we can go from there.”

The intercom buzzer cut through the loft. We all paused while Casey stood to answer it. He flipped on the video monitor at the wall and Mac’s face came to life. “Oh good. You
are
here.”

“Of course we’re here,” he told her.

I saw her look left to someone off screen before smirking at Casey. “Is it safe to come up or are you busy rubbing one out like you were last time?”

Dad choked on his drink and Coby snorted with laughter from beside me. Henry had to get up and slap dad on the back pretty hard.

I wanted to jump instantly to Casey’s defence by saying he wasn’t in the habit of “rubbing one out” at all times of the day or night, but talking to your dad about your boyfriend’s jacking off habits was a topic best left alone. Besides, it was quite possible Casey
did
jack off all the time. Then I flushed hot and red because I was sitting in the living room next to Coby, my
dad
sitting opposite me, and all I could see was Casey naked and stroking his cock.

While I was burning up from embarrassment on the couch, Casey appeared unaffected. His dimples popped when he laughed at Mac. “Have you been talking to Travis?”

“No.” Quinn appeared on the screen waving, a grin on her face. “Me.”

“Thanks for throwing me under
the bus, Quinn,” Casey replied.

Quinn disappeared rapidly off screen, giving a little
“oomphf” as though she’d been pushed. Mac filled the screen again, booming, “Let us up, asshead.”

“Who’s ‘us’?” Casey asked, suddenly wary.

“Everyone.” Evie appeared from behind Mac. “And be quick. I brought Mr Chow’s and I’m hungry enough to eat a rhinoceros.”

“Who brought Mr Chow’s?” I heard Jared grumble.

“You did, baby,” came her loving reply.

“And I brought champagne,” Mac added.

“You told
me
to bring the champagne,” Travis complained from somewhere within the pile of people out the front of the loft.

“Yeah, but you forgot, didn’t you?”

There was a brief pause by the entire group while they waited for Travis to reply. He didn’t.

“Let us up, Casey,” Mac growled. “I have it on good authority that Grace made Morgan bleed. We need to celebrate. And then we need to discuss why I wasn’t called in on the
smackdown. I really think—”

Casey hit the buzzer, effectively cutting Mac off and letting everyone in the building at the same time. After flicking open the locks, he took my hand, muttered an, “excuse us for a minute,” at my dad, Henry and Coby, and hauled me to his room, shutting the door behind us.

“You can’t keep hauling me around, Casey,” I complained, even though I secretly liked his bossy side. It was nice letting someone else take the reins for a little while.

Casey pressed me up against the wall near the door. “Or what?” He grinned. “You’ll punch me so hard I’ll be spitting teeth for a week?”

“Yes,” I replied stubbornly. My next question threw him. “How often do you jack off?”

His brows flew up. “Really? You want to talk dirty right now with your father in the next room? Because if you start this conversation, I’ll be finishing it, and I don’t think you really have any idea of how loud you are when you come.” His arms came around me, his hands landing on my ass and shoving me against him. “It’s fucking hot.”

Loud voices, dog barks, and laughter began filtering in, indicating the loft was filling rapidly with visitors. I knew they were all here to see for themselves that I was okay and to find out about Kelly, the scary-ass biker dude brother of my boyfriend, yet my body was more interested in doing exactly what Casey wanted.

“You can tell me later. Or show me even,” I mumbled under my breath.

Casey must have heard me because he groaned and reached down to adjust himself in his pants. “Later,” he vowed. “Right now we need to talk about your move to Sydney.”

“What about it?” I asked, finding my way underneath his shirt. My happy hands encountered warm, hard abs and began their trek downwards. “I want you here in the loft. With me,” he clarified, the back of his head tipping back and hitting the wall when I took his growing erection in my palm.

“Really?” I asked, suddenly breathless and ready to leap on board with the idea. Then I remembered his roommate and I tamped down on the eagerness. “What about Coby? He might not like the idea of me moving in with you. You should ask him first.”

Casey paused, panting lightly as my hands
stroked over him. “You’re right.” He opened the bedroom door a fraction and shouted for Coby.

“Oh my God.” I whipped my hands out of Casey’s pants, flushing when Coby slipped inside, giving us both a knowing look. He shut the door behind him and looked at the both of us expectantly. “What’s up?”

“You cool with Grace moving in with us?”

Coby looked at me. “You got lots of hot friends?”

I knew quite a few girls from my modelling years that were based in Sydney. A handful of them were really nice. I shrugged. “Yes.”

Coby looked at Casey and nodded once. “Okay.”

Then he turned to leave until Casey said to his retreating back, “You’re next.”

Coby turned, confused for a moment before his eyes suddenly cleared and he paled, making me wonder what Casey meant. “Mate.” He shook his head, holding
up his hands as though telling Casey to back off. “Don’t even.”

Casey began to laugh as Coby left, shutting the door behind him.

“That seemed too easy. What did you mean by ‘you’re next?’”

A smile tugged at the corners of Casey’s lips and I sensed a private joke. “Nothing, Slim. I’m just looking forward to waking up every morning with you beside me. I never realised how much I wanted it until I almost lost you.”

“It’s not going to be easy for us,” I warned, knowing that a difficult road still lay ahead.

His lips brushed mine. “Nothing worthwhile ever is.”

Three months later…

I stood at the front door of my brother’s building, staring at the intercom. I wasn’t sure why the hell I was there. Well I knew, because Casey and Grace had invited me to some party for something. I couldn’t remember what.
Something about Jamieson returning from tour. I just didn’t know why I’d decided to show up. I must have been shitfaced to agree to this. And not only that, I brought a friend with me like I was some kind of whiny chick that needed support.

“Stop staring at it like it’s going to bite your fuckin’ face off and press the damn thing.”

I glared at my best mate of ten years and fellow Sentinel brother. “Shut up, Fox.”

“Pussy.” Fox shifted the six-pack of beer under his arm with impatience and went to press the buzzer.

“Don’t call me a pussy,” I snapped. Shoving his arm away, I jabbed hard on the button, almost breaking the damn thing in the process.

My mood could almost be described as joyful when no one answered. I must have got the day wrong or the party was over. Either way, I was outta there. I turned.

“Wait.” Fox grabbed my arm and pressed it again.

I shrugged out of his hold and started walking off.

“Hello?”

Goddammit. That was Grace’s voice. The sound of a party in progress in the background was unmistakeable. I turned and sighed, feeling the urge to kick something. Fox raised his brows at me
, making him the closest target.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t been here before. I had. Five times. Three of those were to see Grace. Not just because she was sexy and fun to teas
e, but because she was sick. I hated seeing her that way. It made me feel about as useful as tits on a bull. Two of those times, Casey had been there. And it had been tense. Ten years didn’t automatically make him my brother again. Anyone who said blood was thicker than water had never been a biker. The Sentinels were my family, my brothers, and I didn’t need Casey anymore.

Too bad Grace kept trying to rectify that. Somehow saying no to her was impossible and I couldn’t work out why.

I stalked back and held down the damn button. “Yeah, it’s us,” I growled.

“Kelly?” Grace sounded surprised.

It was weird hearing her use my real name. Most called me Shade. It was the name my biker brothers gave me because they said only a soulless bastard shot his own father. I didn’t have to like it but I couldn’t argue that it didn’t fit.

“You invited me
, didn’t you?”

“We did, but if you don’t check that asshole attitude at the door, you can just turn around and take a long walk off a short cli
ff. Preferably somewhere where there are crocodiles. And piranhas,” she added.

Fox snorted beside me. “I like her already.”

I really didn’t like hearing Fox say that for some reason. Annoyance oozed from my pores. “Grace is my brother’s old lady. Don’t you even fuckin’ look at her.”

Fox rolled his eyes. “Calm down,
Shade.”

I jabbed the button again, holding it down as I spoke. “Sorry, babe. Not much in the party mood.”

She sighed and I remembered I was supposed to be working on that whole
babe
thing. Typical chicks, always trying to fuckin’ change who you were.

“Showing up is a good start, Kelly,” she replied. “Come on in.”

The buzzer sounded along with a loud click indicating the doors had unlocked to let us through. I frowned as we stepped inside. There was an underlying exhaustion in Grace’s voice. I didn’t like hearing it. She told me she was starting a degree at uni in a couple of months. I had no clue how she was gonna manage it with being sick how she was but she said she was starting off part-time. Eventually she’d major in public relations and end up working for Jamieson when she graduated. I had no idea what public relations was, but I told her if she ever wanted to study private relations, I was her man. That statement had the added effect of pissing Casey off which was always fun.

Reaching the loft door, I knocked and some chick
I didn’t know opened it rather than Grace like I was expecting. Heavy rock music thumped out from behind her, filling the hall and vibrating off the walls.

“I’m Kelly,” I told her. “Casey’s brother.”

She paused, raking me over. I felt the urge to close my eyes for a minute because she was so beautiful it almost blinded me to stare straight at her. If these were Grace’s friends, I needed to start coming to more of these parties.

Her blond
hair hung in a long sheet, and her tight black jeans had zippers all over the front and from what I could see, they decorated her ass on the back too. I wondered briefly which of the zippers led to the Holy Grail. Who even cared? There would be a helluva lot of fun in finding the fuck out.

“Holy shit,” she declared when she was done with her quick inspection. “Grace was right.”

“About what?”

Her eyes dropped to my crotch for a split sec
ond. It was almost unnoticeable but I was watching her closely. My cock stirred happily at her interest. I grabbed it and smirked. “She tell you I was hung like a horse?”

Her brows rose coolly and damned if that didn’t make my dick harden even more. “Does that line work for you a lot?”

I grinned cockily. “With a face like this, babe, I don’t need lines.”

“Maybe not, but it sounds like your ego needs a kick in the ass.” I was suddenly dismissed, her eyes shifting to Fox on my right. They flared wide. “Luke?”

Fox grinned.

I looked at him. “You know this chick?”

“This
chick
,” she snapped, turning her fierce emerald eyes back on me, “has a name.”

I sighed heavily
. Grace and her friends were high fuckin’ maintenance and we hadn’t even stepped in the damn door yet. Parties weren’t supposed to be this much hard work.

“Mackenzie Valentine,” Fox supplied
and winked at the hot chick still barring us from coming inside. “We go way back, right, Mac?”

Her nostrils flared, indicating that
way back
part wasn’t sittin’ real well with her. “You’re a Sentinel now, Luke?”

Fox shrugged at her. “Have been for ten years.”

“Figures,” I heard her mumble.

After a pause, she swung the door wide, indicating for us to come in.

We stepped inside and I scanned the loft. The living area was full of standing or dancing bodies, the kitchen was littered with people getting drinks, the dining room with food, and even more people spilled onto the big deck out the back. “Where’s Grace?”

“She had to go do something,” Mac replied, shutting the door behind us. She pointed to the kitche
n. “You can put your beer there, or there’s a big ice bucket out on the back deck. There’s food on the dining table if you’re hungry.” She also indicated to a big glass bowl shot with cloudy streaks of blue sitting on a cabinet by the wall. “Keys go in there.”

“The keys to my Harley are not
goin’ in some fuckin’ bowl,” I told her, no matter how fancy it looked.

“We don’t tolerate drunk driving here,” she snapped. “Keys in the bowl now, biker dude. I decide who gets to drive at the end of the night, not you.”

Jesus.

I tossed my keys in, grabbed a beer from Fox’s six-pack
, and disappeared before she decided my balls had to go in the damned bowl too.

Fox
walked with me into the living area, beers in hand. I don’t know why I brought him. He’d been the paramedic on Casey’s car accident, but he hadn’t been real impressed when I told him it was our MC who was behind it.

“You were the
fuckhead who rammed their car?” he’d asked, looking at me with a pissed expression.

“No, it wasn’t me.” He
’d relaxed, until I added, “It was Cowboy.”

“Cowboy? What the fuck?”

I had to explain then because Cowboy was a peaceful brother and not much into violence, or ramming cars for that matter. “He wasn’t supposed to ram the fuckin’ car. He was supposed to warn Casey off from buttin’ into our business and got some dickwad to do it for him. The dickwad didn’t realise Grace was driving and it turned into a giant shit sandwich.”

Fox might’ve been pissed
, but he’d had my back swiping the pint of blood I needed to stage Grace’s hit. He’d nicked it from the clinic the morning of her check-up. Casey hadn’t appreciated it when I explained the details. And he really hadn’t liked hearing how I broke into this very loft either and swiped his gun while they were at some party. What could I say? I was fuckin’ good with locks and alarm systems.

“Would you just relax, mate?
” Fox bitched beside me. “You’re makin’ me itchy.”

“Fuck off then,” I replied
because I
was
itchy. I didn’t want to be here.

A space cleared on the couch so I sat down and f
inished my beer while the party went on around me. I was about to stand up and look for Grace when some little dude slid on to the couch beside me. I didn’t think he meant to sit so close, so I shifted a little to the right. He shifted with me. I looked at him and realised he was looking at me. The guy had dark girly shit smudged under his eyes and his lips looked suspiciously glossy.

“You a pansy?”

His eyes widened. And this was why I never liked uptight parties. You couldn’t say shit without someone getting offended. Then the little guy surprised me by shrugging. “Yeah, I’m a pansy. Of the badass variety,” he added.

“You’re a badass pansy?”

“That’s right.” He held out a hand. I shifted my beer from my right hand to my left and shook it. “My name’s Tim. I’m Casey’s personal assistant. We’re tight.”

My brows winged up.

“Not that tight,” he added hastily. “Unfortunately,” I thought I heard him mumble. “And you’re his brother Kelly.”

I let go of his hand. “I am,” I confirmed and downed the rest of my beer.

“I can tell because you look a lot like him.” Tim ran fingers through his tousled dark hair while he gave me a speculative look. “You ride a Harley?”

“I do,” I told him.

“Damn,” he muttered. “Hearing there were two of you gave my dick a stroke. But knowing you ride with some thousand pound vibrating machine between your legs, well that’s …” he trailed off, staring unfocused into the distance.

I eyed him warily. “You okay?”

Tim jolted and looked at me. “Never better. Can I get you another drink?”

My eyes fell to his glass of purple liquid with fruit in it and I winced. “Yeah, no.” I started edging off the couch. “Thanks. I’m just gonna go get a beer.” His face fell and for some reason I felt bad. “I’ll be back later, yeah? Just
gotta go find Grace.”

“Oh.” He smiled at me but it was a sad
kinda smile. “Maybe try her room? I don’t think she’s feeling the best tonight.”

I grabbed another beer from the kitchen and turned, bumping into a huge blond guy. “Shit.” I held up the bottle before it tipped liquid everywhere. The guy turned and I got a look at his face.
Double shit,
I thought. I gave him a chin lift. “Travis.”

He nodded once, his green eyes flat. “Kelly. Thought you’d be a no
-show.”

“Yeah? I guess you thought wrong.”

“Quinn,” he said to the sweet looking female he had hauled to his side. She was tiny, the top of her head only reaching his shoulder. She stared up at me with wide, chocolate-coloured eyes. “This is Kelly, Casey’s brother.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Quinn politely held out her hand and I took it, my huge palm swallowing her tiny one as I clasped my fingers around it. “Casey’s told me a lot about you.”

“He has?” I asked with surprise as I let her hand go. I guess Casey was a lot more open about shit than I was.

She leaned in while Travis stood talking to some other guy that was just as huge as he was. “He doesn’t share much with an
yone at all, it’s just that Casey and I have some things in common.”

My eyes whipped to hers, looking a little more closely, and that’s when I saw it. That slight lift of defiance in her chin and the wariness in her eyes.