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“When did you become the voice of reason?” I questioned, curling my hand around his jaw and pushing up on my tiptoes to lightly kiss his lips. “You know Chicago is a long way away. What about us?—”
He leaned in, capturing my mouth and stealing the words from my lips. “There’s still plenty of time to cross that bridge before you leave.”
But there wasn’t.
I hadn’t told him that part.
There was a little over a week before the summer program I’d been invited to started, and after reading over the details of the program, I began to think about just how beneficial it would be to keep me ahead of the game.
If I were going to Chicago, I needed to take this opportunity.
But taking this opportunity meant leaving Jaxon even earlier.
Maybe even forever.
Because we both knew there was no way he was leaving Athens and the club to be with me.
“Baby, we have time to figure it out,” he said again, pressing his thumb between my eyes and rubbing away the worried creases I hadn’t realized I was making. “Now I’ve got my patch, Dad has Oli and me starting new duties, so I’m gonna be busy. I’ll come by practice tomorrow for a quick visit, but you’re gonna be at the club on Friday, right?”
Rolling my eyes, I let out a soft laugh. “Yes, I’m coming Friday.” He hooked his hand around my neck, pulling me in for a fleeting kiss before pulling back with a wide grin. I shook my head and started walking backward toward the front counter, where three customers waited impatiently.
“Good,” he said with a sharp nod and a wink before turning and rushing out the door, the club emblem so bright and blinding against the black leather. He was so damn proud of those colors, and I was proud of him.
But in the same breath, I felt ill.
I paused, pressing my finger to my lips that still tingled from his kiss.
The high was wearing off, leaving me aching for more—making me wonder whether, if I was feeling this way now, having just had him in my arms moments ago, how was I ever going to survive leaving him for what could be months at a time?
What the hell was I going to do?
CHAPTER 6
BULLET
“Stella coming to the party tomorrow night?” Oli—Bow questioned, both of us watching cautiously as a few guys tossed my girlfriend into the air.
“She said she’d be there,” I answered and held my breath, unable to release it until they caught her again and placed her feet firmly on the ground.
My brother had been my best friend since we were in the womb. We weren’t identical, but there was no mistaking we were born of the same genes. The two of us were the definition of opposites attract—or maybe brains versus brawn. I tended to run on adrenaline, always needing to be moving and at speed. Bow, on the other hand, was methodical. He was more of a runner, cross country, to be specific. He always took his time and saw the long game where I lived for the short.
He lifted his cap and flipped it the right way so it actually covered his face, trying to protect it from the relentless afternoon sun. “She’s not grounded after her guitar stunt at school the other day?”
“She didn’t mention whether her parents had grounded her, but it’s not like they would be there to enforce it anyway. They work a lot of long days and nights.”
I first met Stella at a party, one I knew the second I saw her that she shouldn’t have been at. Not because she was too young—she was already eighteen at that stage—but because it was a homecoming party for a patched brother who’d just been released from jail.
And it was in my parents’ house.
The moment she’d spotted me across the room, she’d made a beeline for me with what I thought at the time was the intention of using me as some kind of rebellious revenge.
And you know what? I was up for it.
I had no qualms about being a part of some hot, rich girl’s fuck you to her parents.
Then I spotted the guy following her and the look of fear in her eyes.
“Hey, baby, sorry I’m late,” I announced loudly so everyone could hear me over the music. Several people eyed me in confusion as I pushed past them, trying not to lose her in the crowd, while the rest just shrugged and continued their celebrations.
