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“What?” he asked, sitting up a little straighter.
“Someone is at the gate for you.”
“Someone?” he repeated, brow lifted.
“Your brother,” he specified. “And, ah, man... he's kinda pissed.”
At that, Cash let out a strange laugh-groan hybrid. “He would be. I haven't checked in in almost five days and the last anyone saw of me, I was charging in all badass to save the day,” he said with a grin. “Let me up, babe,” he said, patting my ass, and I moved a leg from over him and moved to sit off the edge of the bed. “Well, this is gonna be fun,” he said, stretching and leaning in to plant a quick kiss on my forehead before following Mike out.
And I was left there thinking the most insane two thoughts I had probably ever had cross my mind before: What would Reign, badass biker MC president, think of his kid brother dating the leader of Hailstorm? And also- would he be able to accept me into his weird little miss-matched family?
See? Insane.
Because no matter how sweet Cash had been to me, how caring, how silly when I needed it, how stalwart when I bitched at him, how strong to withstand all of my crazy moods... he wasn't that kind of guy.
I went and fell for the carefree manwhore that, in fiction, met and fell in love and came out the other side completely reformed.
But this wasn't a romance novel, this was real life.
And in real life, well, he wasn't leading man material.
And that was the saddest realization I had ever come to terms with.Twenty-fourCashI was fucked and I knew it. Fucked in a multitude of different ways. First, I was fucked because something was happening with Lo, something I wasn't stupid enough to not recognize, but something I was stupid enough to think I would never let happen.
Second, I was fucked because what I just pulled with Lo, Damian, and Hailstorm at large, well, it put me in hot fucking water with The Henchmen. You never, as in ever, pulled dangerous shit behind their backs. Mostly because they wanted to be in on it. But also because it was disloyal to keep that kinda stuff from them.
So I didn't even need to see Reign's face to know he was pissed.
But when I walked up the front path to see him standing outside the gates, arms crossed over his chest, his light green eyes piercing into me, one of his dark brows raised like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, yeah, I knew I was fucked.
“You fucking serious?” he asked when I got to the gate.
“Shit move, not to call,” I admitted on a shrug. There was nothing I could do about that. It was after the fact. But it was wrong.
“You didn't answer your cell so I went to your place.”
“Fuck,” I groaned, running a hand up the shaved side of my head.
“Yeah... fuck. I get there and it's torn the fuck up and there's blood on the wall and a gun tucked under the fucking couch and you're MIA.”
“Wasn't my blood,” I clarified, though the cut on my face was a spot his eyes kept finding. “It was Lo's. She was staying with me.”
Reign sucked in a breath, looking to the side for a long minute. “She was the chick who was screaming up the gates about a favor owed, wasn't she?”
Well, at least that probie hadn't given me up fully. I owed him a marker for that shit. No one lied to Reign, no one. “Yeah. Did they tell you about her face?” Reign winced and I had my answer. “Whatever they said it was, it was worse. And she could barely move her ribs were so bruised. I took her to my place because, for reasons I didn't know at the time, she didn't want to involve Hailstorm in her mess. And we did owe her.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “But that was my place to repay that debt.”
“You have more to lose than I do. And I was there. And she was in bad shape. I made a decision. Try to tell me you didn't do the same exact fucking thing with Summer.” I paused, taking in his tight jaw, knowing I was pushing it. “Tell me it wasn't just as against the code for you to do it.”
“It was different.”
“Yeah, given that I actually knew Lo, and Summer was just some random chick in the middle of the road in a hurricane.”
“Careful.”
“Know you love her and I love her for you, but at the time... she was no one to you. You went ahead and pulled some crazy shit, some action movie shit to get her out of her situation.”
“I'm assuming there's a point to this.”
“I didn't bring any possible trouble to the club. This was just me, Lo, her fuckhead of an ex and some of the Hailstorm guys.” There was a cough to Reign's side and I saw the person in the security booth was a young woman named Katie who was giving me a brow raise. “And girls,” I clarified.
“Her ex?” Reign asked and I felt a small stab of guilt. Lo would probably be pissed that I was sharing that shit.
“Yeah,” I agreed, needing to tell him despite the hell she was going to give me about it. “She married young. Wasn't long before he started beating her. He was especially fond of a belt.”
“Fuck,” Reign said, looking down at his feet.
“One day, she had enough, stabbed him, then got shot of him. Or at least, that was what she thought. Apparently, he was just hanging out around here, setting up the basement of the old carpet store to look like their old apartment, waiting for her to make a mistake so he could get her. Caught her alone at her old safe house, beat her. I took her. He found my place and took her back.”
“Kill 'em?”
I shook my head. “Chained him down in that basement like he did to her after going at him with his belt for a while. Figured once Lo is up and moving, she'd want a go at him.”
