His lips twisted, and his gaze drifted to the waves.
“Listen, Dusty. I know that you have to stay with the gang to protect your mother after what she did. So what you do with them is your business alone, and I’d never ask you to leave.”
“Mama doesn’t need protection anymore. Maybe in the beginning, yes, but that was months ago. Everything is settled now. Roar is long forgotten, and no one dares cross me or her.”
Forgotten to them but not to me. It didn’t matter that he was dead. Everything that piece of shit did to me and my family haunted me. “Can we just postpone this talk?”
“For how long? I’m tired of driving two hours back and forth only to see you for a few days every month.”
“It’s four hours not two.”
“Not on my bike, and don’t change the subject. I told you I’d leave and come here with you. I don’t understand why you keep saying no.”
“Well…”
“Well what, Cammie? Why don’t you want me here?”
“Because I’m scared.” The words fell out of my mouth, and I immediately regretted them.
He stared at me, surprised and concerned at the same time. “Of what, baby?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this.” I finally untangled my legs off him and rose to my feet.
He got up, too, and cupped my face with his hands. “You know I’m not my father, Cammie.”
“I know, and I’m sure you’d be better off here away from Rosewood and the gang and the dirty business you run. At least, I won’t worry about you the whole fucking time, wondering if you’re alive or not. But…”
“But what?”
I swallowed. “What are you going to do here, Dusty? Sit around and wait for me to finish class?” My shoulder lifted in resignation. “You’re going to miss your gang, and soon you will know I’m not enough for you, and you will hate me for everything.”
Here. I said it. I finally confessed to my biggest fear.
“Not enough for me? Hate you? Where’s this shit coming from?”
“This shitis the truth.”
He laughed. “Geez, baby.”
I took his hands off my face. “Why are you laughing?”
“’Cause I thought the reason behind this whole bull was that you liked some fancy-ass college boy, and you were having second thoughts about us. I didn’t know it was…” He laughed again.
I kicked at the sand. “It’s not funny.”
“Yes, it is.” He held me tightly, and I could feel his searing heat and the bulge in his pants on me. “I love you, Cammie, and I’ll never feel anything but love for you.”
“Dusty…”
His lips silenced me. Soothed me.
He rested his forehead on mine, tucking my ruffled hair behind my ears. “We’ll work something out. I’ll find something to do, not Night Skulls related, while you finish your school. Then we’ll take it from there. Just give me a couple of weeks to arrange for the whole thing.”
Again, I found myself under his spell. When I was listening to his heartbeat, wrapped in his embrace like this, and he looked at me with his caring eyes, the intensity of his unwavering attention dissolved every ounce of my distress.
Every move he made was a distraction. Every gesture stopped my racing brain in its tracks.
Relax, it said.
