Oliver (Inked Menace MC 2) by Ryanne Hawk Read Free Book Online Page A

Amara didn’t need anymore demons haunting her nights.
    Decision made, she said, “I owe him nothing. After he found me he didn’t offer to hunt them down and kill them. He didn’t ask my brothers for aid. No, he sat there and tried to figure out how he could also use me. I’m done being used.”
    “You know you’re welcome here. We could put in for the transfer.”
    Amara was already shaking her head. “Luther would never sign off. He’d never let me go.”
    “Why not? It happens all the time.”
    “Because I’m the best he’s got, and he knows it. Plus, I’ve worked damn hard to bloody get where I am. I’ll not give it up willy-nilly and just sign on to be a patch holder here.”
    Maura dusted her hands together and stood. “Seeing as you already have this figured out, I guess there’s nothing else to say, then.” She started walking away.
    Frustration hit Amara hard and she reached up and fussed with her hair. “Now you’re mad at me?”
    Maura marched on and didn’t glance back. When she hit the back door, she shoved it open and kept going.
    “Fuck,” Amara said, pushing soup around with her spoon as her mind spun in a hundred different directions. Her feet pressed into the cement floor until her toes grew numb.
    The glowing watch face on her arm told her ten minutes had passed while she mulled all the strings people were pulling, almost as if she were surrounded by web-weaving spiders. But over-ruling them all was one strand of silver. The thread of fate.
    Now, she needed to decide whether that fiber was worth fighting for or running from, and the only person who could make that decision, was her. And, well, Oliver.

7 Chapter Seven
    “You’re a hard woman to track down,” Oliver said, plopping down next to Amara on a patch of grass under a large oak tree in the back of the park.
    “If I’d wanted to be found, I’d have stayed at the club.”
    Undeterred, Oliver shrugged. It had taken him about three hours to trail her from their warehouses to the main park. She’d positioned herself with her back to a tall tree with the woods behind her, children laughing while their parents watched.
    “What do you want, Oliver?”
    “To know why you’re out here, sulking.”
    “I do not sulk.”
    “What do you call it in your country, then? Wallowing? Self-pity? Oh, I know. You’re depressed. Now that’s just sad.”
    “You know nothing about me,” she said and transferred her weight from one butt cheek to the other. Her ass was getting sore from sitting on the root of the tree under the enormous weight holding her down and nearly suffocating her.
    “You’re right. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
    “Why do you care?”
    He reached out and clasped their hands together, tightening his grip when she went to pull away. “You know why I care. I know you feel the bond. It’s rather flimsy at the moment, but I’m hoping we can alleviate the stress of running from it.”
    “What if I don’t want a mate-bond?”
    Oliver’s stomach dropped, a hollow pit forming deep inside. It hurt and he wanted to lash out. “Fuck, you’re prickly. I understand though. Having gone through some of the horrific things you went through, you find it hard to trust.” He nodded, more to himself, trusting his instincts that he was on the right path. He continued. “We barely know each other, and it’s kind of a shock, the intensity between us. But I’m not going to give up without trying. It’s not in my nature, nor is it in my animal’s.”
    The squeal of children shifted his attention from his trembling mate to the human kids playing tag on the lawn. He appreciated their innocence, their unique ability to see the best in the world without the horror imposed by years of baggage and pain.
    “Do you want kids, Oliver?”
    Amara’s hand clenched in his, almost as if the words were ripped from her soul. A lump formed near his rib cage and for a long second, it was hard to breath. He measured his words before