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A tap on the window had me jumping with a start, and my eyes lifted to find Raven standing beside the driver’s door, her brows lifted in a silent question. Somehow, I found the energy to give her a tight smile as I climbed out of her car and handed over her key fob. “He won’t be bothering anyone again.”
That only had her brows lifting higher. “Do I need to get Bash and Spider to hide a body?”
“Not this time,” I said with a wink.
She didn’t look convinced. “Well, that’s about the only thing I can think of that could keep that dickhead from bothering us again. If he’s still breathing, then he’s still going to cause trouble.”
I pressed my lips together. For now, the only people who knew what was going on were my father, Gracie, and Mr. Jenkins. The fewer people who knew about what I had done—and what the mayor of their small town was doing—the better. I figured I could trust Raven with this, but ears were everywhere, and I didn’t want to chance any of it getting out.
Shrugging my shoulders, I turned for the back door that led into the kitchen. “You’ll just have to trust me on this. My father won’t be anyone’s problem from here on out. And if by some chance he is, then he would only be slitting his own throat.”
As I entered the empty kitchen, Raven hot on my heels, the smell of something delicious made my stomach grumble loud and painfully. It reminded me that I hadn’t eaten all day, and I was freaking starving.
“Matt came looking for you about two hours ago, but I told him you were running some errands for me. Bash called church, and they’ve been in there ever since,” the MC queen informed me as I crossed to the stove to lift the lid off one of the four huge pots of chili.
At the mention of Matt, my gut twisted, and I rubbed my hand over my stomach as the ache seemed to linger. “Thanks,” I muttered. “Is there anything that I can eat right now other than this chili? I forgot to eat earlier.”
“I’ll fix you a sandwich if you tell me what the hell happened today,” she offered.
“Or I could fix my own sandwich,” I countered, and she blew out a frustrated sigh as I pulled out meat and cheese from the fridge.
I didn’t even bother with bread. Just wrapped some deli meat around a few slices of cheese and started eating. Food didn’t help the gnawing ache in my stomach, but at least it shut the damn thing up. As I ate, Raven remained quiet, glowering at me. Having her look at me like that made me nervous. I had never seen it with my own eyes, but I’d heard plenty of rumors of how good of a fighter she was.
And how bloody she had made plenty of the sheep—and anyone else—who dared to step out of line.
“Your face looks drawn, and your eyes are red-rimmed,” she observed. “Tell me what happened? I can help you, Rory.”
I stuffed the last of the meat and cheese into my mouth and wiped my fingers on a dish towel. “All right, fine. I want to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
“I’m all ears.”
The deli meat was suddenly sitting heavily in my stomach, and I forced myself to ask the question I already knew the answer to. “You know Stephanie Campbell?” She nodded. “Did Matt sleep with her?”
Raven’s lips pressed together in a straight line, but I could see the truth before she even opened her mouth. “That isn’t any of my business.”
“Meaning you don’t know, or you’re not willing to tell me.” I nodded, not in the least bit stung at her refusal to speak against her cousin by marriage. “You’re loyal to Matt, so I understand. No hard feelings. I already know the truth anyway.”
“Rory…” she started, but then she closed her mouth and shook her head, as if thinking better of it. “That was years ago. You weren’t even here, so why does anything that happened with that bitch matter?”
/> I didn’t know how to answer that. She was right. I had been gone, but in my heart, we hadn’t been broken up. Matt had told me over and over again that it was the same for him. That no matter how long we were apart, to him, I was still his. I belonged to him.
But if that was how he saw it, then he hadn’t belonged to me.
And that was what was killing me.
I had always trusted him. When we had first gotten together three years ago, I hadn’t questioned his fidelity to me once. Since we’d been together again, I had still felt that loyalty. Had been so sure that he would never look at anyone else, let alone touch them. It was the in-between time, when we had been separated, that had jealousy clawing at the walls of my mind.
If Matt hadn’t told me he considered us still together while I had been away from him, maybe it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But he hadn’t. And he hadn’t remained loyal to me during our time apart.
Out of sight, out of mind.
“Look, Steph Campbell is a whiny little bitch. She has nothing on you. All she ever does is run her mouth and go crying to her precious father whenever anyone so much as looks at her wrong. After I beat the snot out of her and that idiot friend of hers a while back, she learned to stay clear of us. Don’t worry about her. She’s not worth your time.”
“You fought with Steph and Casandra?” I asked, but the puzzle of how Royce had pictures of the two girls beaten bloody now made sense.
She shrugged. “One of them called me a sheep in my own bar. It didn’t end well for them.”
“I can only imagine,” I said with a smirk. For some reason, knowing that Raven had shelled out a beating to Steph made me happy as hell. I grabbed a water out of the fridge. “I need a shower. Dealing with my corrupt and dirty father has left some grime on my skin.”
