Sweet Agony (Angels Halo MC Next Gen Book 2) Read online

  “How do you want to do this, Rave?” Flick asked the other woman. “I don’t want to cause her more pain than we have to.”

  Raven picked up a pillow and told me to hold it against my stomach. “You hold it there, and we’re going to pull you to the edge of the bed. Then you can shift your legs over the side, and we will help you stand. Got it?”

  I nodded and clenched the pillow to my stomach, my muscles already tensing to brace for the pain. It was over in a handful of seconds, with minimal discomfort, but if I was relieved that it hadn’t been so bad, I had given myself false hope for the rest of the trip to the bathroom.

  By the time I got back to the bed, I was exhausted and praying I didn’t have to use the toilet again for a good long while. I’d been able to clean up a little, though. Wash and brush my teeth, plus change my clothes. I was in a pair of pajamas that Raven said belonged to her daughter. They fit me pretty well, even if they were a bit long on me, but they were soft and comfortable.

  As I shifted back against the pillows of my freshly made bed, there was a knock on the door, quickly followed by the door opening. But the person on the other side only stuck her head in.

  Dark hair fell over one side of her face, but I could easily make out her features. I had never seen eyes so clear and blue. When her gaze landed on Raven, something in them softened, just as Raven’s green ones did when she looked at the young woman.

  “Hey, Mom. You need any help in here? Theo said you were helping the patient freshen up.”

  “We’re almost done in here, sweetheart.” Raven tucked the blankets around me before picking up the hairbrush she’d set on the bedside table moments before. “Come in and meet Tavia.”

  When she walked all the way into the room and approached the bed, I felt the full effect of her. She was tall, practically a giant compared to me, and even Raven. She had to be at least six feet tall, but she was slender and had the body of a supermodel. She was so beautiful that when she tossed her hair back from her face and I saw the scar on her cheek, I didn’t even react. Not even that scar could distract from her beauty.

  “Hello, Tavia,” she greeted, holding out her hand to me. Her left hand, which had a gorgeous engagement ring on it and a matching wedding ring to go with it. “I’m Lexa Davis.”

  I shook her hand, feeling oddly at ease with her. What was it about these women that I felt like I actually belonged there? It was so natural to relax and accept that they wouldn’t hurt, or let anything else hurt, me.

  “Is Ben working?” Raven asked as she sat beside me on the bed and started brushing my hair. The first stroke had me briefly closing my eyes in pleasure. No one had ever taken care of me like this before, not even when I was a little girl.

  “He actually had an errand to run for Dad,” she said. “But he’s going to meet me here.” Smiling down at me, Lexa shook her head a little exasperatedly. “My husband is the sheriff.”

  That had me blinking up at her in surprise, making her laugh. “Yeah, that’s the look I get every time I tell new people who I’m married to.”

  “But…” I glanced at the door, wondering if Theo was safe here. After seeing him kill not one but two men, I knew he was into some shady things. And as much as I hated him, I didn’t want him to get into trouble.

  “Don’t worry. Ben is well aware of the darker sides to my friends and family,” Lexa assured me. “Theo is perfectly fine. If anything, he should fear Mom more than Ben. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

  “Lexa,” Raven said with a slight warning in her tone. “Don’t freak the girl out, honey.”

  “Right, so is there anything you need? I can run to the store or to the shop if you need me to handle anything for Dad.”

  “We have everything handled, sweetheart. Thank you, though.” Raven finished brushing the tangles out of my hair and stood. “How is your pain level, Tavia?”

  “I don’t want any narcotics,” I told her.

  “That wasn’t my question,” she said with a sternness that had me mumbling that I was hurting pretty badly, especially after all the movement I’d done earlier. “Okay, then. I think you should have a dose of pain medication.”

  “I don’t want it,” I told her stubbornly.

  “You can’t rest properly if you’re in this much pain. At least for the next day or so, you should let me give you the medication. Then we can talk to Doc about something lighter.”

  “I remember you complaining about taking the pain meds after your hysterectomy last year,” Lexa commented.

  “Hush up, you,” Raven muttered. “This is different. She can’t even breathe deeply right now because of the pain. Look at how shallowly she’s breathing. I’m going to have to talk to Doc about some oxygen until she can breathe a little easier without so much pain.”

  She wasn’t wrong, and I wasn’t about to argue with her if it meant getting more oxygen with less effort.

  “You’re the expert,” Lexa told her mom.

  “Hang tight, sweetheart. I’ll get you taken care of.” Promising to return shortly, Raven left, and then it was just Lexa and me since Flick had gone out after she and Raven had helped me to bed.

  “You’re in great hands,” Lexa told me. “And I’m not saying that just because she’s my mom. She’s already got Theo pouting in a corner because he’s been forbidden to come in here until you give the okay. I’ve known Theo a long time, and only a few people on the planet can actually make him do what they tell him to.”

  My heart contracted painfully, thinking of Theo. Twisting my fingers in the blankets to give myself something to do besides sitting there looking helpless, I pretended like she hadn’t brought him up. “It’s pretty quiet around here, huh?”

  Lexa laughed. “Considering my brother, Garret, and Nova are at school, of course it is. This evening, when they’ve finished their homework and Garret is getting into trouble, you’ll rethink that. Then there is always the chance that one of the cousins will come over. If Aunt Willa stops by, then at least one of the triplets will tag along.” Her lips twisted with amusement and affection. “We have a big family. Something you will see firsthand all too soon, I’m sure.”

  I nodded like I understood, when the truth was, I had no clue what any of that really meant. A big family wasn’t something I understood. A family, period, was only a fantasy to me.

  “Theo has told me all about you, actually,” Lexa informed me, but if she expected a reaction from me, she was disappointed because I glanced at the window, pretending the sky outside was all the entertainment I needed. “Not just when he called last night to let me know he was coming for an indefinite visit. I mean over the years. He’s probably my best friend, so we confide in each other as often as we can. And you have been a topic we’ve texted about many, many times over the years.”

  I kept the surprise off my face, but just barely. Why would Theo tell this woman about me? I wasn’t anything more than one of the easiest lays he’d ever had. I was nothing to him.

  Less than nothing.

  Chapter 9

  Theo

  Creswell Springs was a small town in Northern California. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, especially in the part of town where Raven lived. It made it eerily quiet, which was like night and day compared to New York.

  The quietness could be either peaceful or too loud, just depended on the person and the situation.

  A beer in my hand, standing on the front porch overlooking the neighborhood, I decided that quiet was deafening, making me edgy and restless. Tilting the bottle back, I took a swallow even as my eyes took in everything around me, making sure nothing was coming from any direction that could put Tavia in danger.

  Hearing a motorcycle in the distance, I lowered my beer, watching and waiting. A minute later, Spider Masterson, the MC’s enforcer, rode by. As I stood there in the fading light of the day, he gave me a chin nod in greeting, letting me know he’d seen me but continued on his way home.

  From next door, I heard a feminine giggle. “Ma
tt, stop it!” Rory Reid squealed, and I looked up to find two shadows in one of the upstairs bedrooms. “You know I can’t stand it when you tickle me.”

  “Girl, I told you to stop cracking this window,” her husband growled.

  “I’m the mother of a teenage boy. Stop calling me ‘girl,’” she told him with sass. “And it was too hot in here earlier, but I didn’t want to turn on the AC.” Her voice faded as Matt lowered and no doubt locked the window.

  Silence descended on me again, but it was like there was white noise in my head, too much static. Draining my beer, I leaned my head back against the side of the house and watched the sun fade completely. One by one, the streetlights flickered on.

  Inside the house, it was surprisingly quiet, but it wasn’t eerie like it was outside. Raven had told the three kids that if they got out of hand and made too much noise, she was going to break every electronic in the house. Soon after, her son, Max, had left to go to his cousin Reid’s house—where he tended to stay more often than not, from what Lexa had told me over the years.

  As for Garret and Nova, Felicity’s children, I had no idea what either of them was doing. But when it came to the boy, I preferred him making noise to let me know where the hell he was. Because when he was quiet, he was getting into trouble, and that could mean just about anything.

  My phone going off had me straightening. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glanced down at my screen and bit back a curse when I saw it was my sister. Blowing out a long sigh, I hit connect.

  “Hey, Sof.”

  “Don’t you hey me, Theo Volkov!” she raged. “What the hell did you get Tavia into?”

  “I can’t talk about it right now, Sofia,” I bit out, already tired of her bitching at me, and it hadn’t even been thirty seconds yet. “We can speak about this when I get back to New York.”

  “And just when will that be?” she demanded. “Daddy said—”

  “I know Pops didn’t tell you shit, so stop fishing for information,” I cut her off. “You know the rules.”

  “Fuck the rules,” she cried. “Tavia is my friend. You never should have pulled her into your bullshit, Theo. Whatever is going on, no doubt it’s dangerous. And you can be a selfish bastard when you set your mind on some stupid task you think is more important than other people’s feelings or safety.”

  “Good talk, Sofia. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

  “Theo!” Her screaming my name had me pausing from hanging up on her. Lifting the phone back to my ear, I waited. “Stay safe,” she said softly, a small quiver in her voice. “I love you. Please be careful.”

  “I love you too, Sof,” I told her. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

  “Yeah,” she muttered, and then the line went silent.

  Releasing the breath I’d been holding, I dropped my hand to my side, clenching my fingers around the phone. I loved my sister, but she was more than a handful at times. She was full of fire and reckless when she got upset. Pops tried to rein her in, but not even he was entirely successful.

  Grabbing the empty beer bottle, I walked into the house. The television was on in the living room, but no one was in there watching it. The kitchen was empty too. Tossing the bottle into the recycling, I headed upstairs, but I stopped outside Tavia’s door.

  It was quiet in the hall, and I strained to hear anything from the other rooms. I could hear a tapping noise from Garret’s room. It was rhythmic and annoying, but not so loud that it was easily noticed unless someone was listening for it. From Nova’s room, I heard her talking softly, but I didn’t hear another voice and figured she was on the phone.

  I heard random movement from two other rooms, but Tavia’s was completely silent.

  She was alone in there and most likely asleep.

  Knowing this was the only chance I would get to see her, I quietly opened the door and stepped in. The bedroom was in darkness, but the bathroom door was cracked open with the light on, giving the room just enough illumination to let me see Tavia lying on her back, her eyes closed as she slept.

  There were oxygen tubes in her nose, helping her breathe. Raven told me earlier that she needed to speak to the doctor who made house calls for the MC and get the order placed for it since Tavia’s pain was making breathing hard for her. The doctor had come, checked her over, and left after setting up the new machine that sat quietly beside her bed.

  On the way out, he spoke to me, reassuring me Tavia was doing well, and with Raven looking after her, she would be in the best of hands.

  I stepped closer to the bed, my eyes eating up the sight of her. Even pale and fragile-looking, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever set eyes on. That long dark hair that was so thick it curtained her when it fell into her face. The doe eyes that were so dark when I looked into them while I was deep inside her, I felt like I was falling into an abyss I couldn’t climb out of until she whispered my name. Full, kissable lips, straight, cute nose, and the slightest dimple in her chin that combined made up a face I would never get tired of staring at for hours.

  Balling my hands into fists to keep from reaching for her, I turned to go, not wanting to disturb her sleep.

  Before I could take a step, I heard her shifting, and then a tiny moan escaped her. “No,” she breathed, and I turned back to her. “No. Don’t touch me. No. No. No!”

  Dropping down onto the edge of her bed, I cupped her jaw in my hand. “Tavia,” I murmured softly, and her eyes snapped open, her breathing labored despite the oxygen tubes in her nose. Fear marred her beautiful face as her gaze darted around, frantically trying to figure out where she was. “It’s okay, krasotka. You’re safe, baby.”

  “Y-Yerik,” she panted. “He… I couldn’t…get away. He tried…” Tears spilled over her lashes. “And I couldn’t…”

  The memory of her shirt torn, exposing her bra, Yerik touching her, and then me putting a bullet in his head flashed before my eyes. Renewed rage filled me, and I ached to kill him again. In that moment, I knew how easy it was to hate someone so much that you would want their entire line annihilated. I wanted to wipe out every member of Yerik’s family for what he’d done to Tavia.

  I rubbed my thumb over her bottom lip, still slightly swollen, the cut having already scabbed over. The bruise along her jaw had changed colors, but it would be a while before it completely faded.

  “It’s okay,” I told her again, but I knew they were empty words to her when she started to tremble so hard, she whimpered in pain. Taking her hands in both of mine, I lifted them to my lips, kissing each hand. “Yerik is dead. He can never touch you again.”

  “Y-you killed him,” she whispered, her brow pinching with confusion. “Y-you saved me. Why?”

  “Because I fucking love you more than life itself. Seeing Yerik’s hands on you drove me crazy with rage and possessiveness.” I wiped away her tears with the pad of my thumb. “You belong to me and only me. You are mine to love and protect.”

  And I was doing a shit job of both. The woman I cared about the most in the world was lying there, scared and in pain, not believing that I loved her, and it was all my fault.

  “Theo.” She swallowed with difficulty, but the fear was no longer on her face, and the trembling was slowly starting to fade. “Will you…hold me?”

  She didn’t have to ask me twice. That she wanted me to hold her, touch her at all, was more than I could have asked for. Standing, I kicked off my shoes and slid into the bed beside her.

  Tavia hesitantly pillowed her head on my chest, and I carefully wrapped my arms around her, afraid I would hurt her. Almost shyly, she placed her hand across my stomach as she tried to get comfortable. I just lay there, letting her shift until she found the right spot. A soft sigh left her, and a few minutes later, her breathing evened out and I knew she was asleep once again.

  Pressing my lips to her brow, I closed my eyes. But as soon as I did, I knew it was the wrong thing to do. I hadn’t slept in more than forty-eight hours, and the feel of her in my arms felt so damn good t
hat my muscles started to relax one by one and the exhaustion caught up with me.

  Chapter 10

  Theo

  The next thing I knew, Raven was touching my shoulder. “Theo,” she murmured.

  My eyes snapped open, and I quickly looked at Tavia, making sure she was okay. She was sound asleep beside me, her face relaxed as she cuddled into my side, her hand still lying across my lower stomach.

  “She’s fine,” Raven assured me. “I gave her another dose of pain medication about an hour ago, and she fell right back to sleep.”

  “What time is it?” I glanced at the window, but it was still dark out, so that didn’t tell me anything about the time.

  “Just after five. I didn’t want to wake you, but Bash is going to work and wants to talk to you before he leaves.” She walked to the end of the bed. “Go ahead. I’ve got Tavia covered.”

  Nodding, I carefully untangled myself from around Tavia. But before I stood, I kissed her brow. She sighed softly and turned her head away, her lashes not even flickering as she continued to sleep peacefully.

  “The more sleep she gets at this point, the better. Her body needs time to recover, and as long as she’s awake and constantly shifting around, the harder it is for that to happen.” Raven patted me on the arm as I walked past her. “You look like shit, by the way. I made coffee, and Flick is making breakfast.”

  Downstairs, the smell of coffee was too much to resist, and I grabbed a mug. When I turned around, Bash and Jet were both sitting at the kitchen table. Felicity stood at the stove, platters of bacon and pancakes already loaded up.

  “How do you like your eggs, Theo?” she asked as she placed another pancake on a plate.

  “Whatever is easiest for you, Mrs. Hannigan,” I told her.