“Hey, Rook. Just checking to see you’re still a part of Verona Falls Riders.”
“Yeah, just about. Jack’s delayed me being patched in, and I’m on toilet cleaning duty for the next ten years, but I’m still in. He didn’t do it for me, though. He did it for Cami.”
Ace shoots me a look to say, ‘I told you so,’ and I can’t help smiling.
“So, I’m over with Camile at her place right now. She’d like to see you.”
Rook sounds doubtful. “She would?”
“She really would.”
“And what about you?” Rook asks.
Ace lets out a low growl. “I’m willing to bury my urge to pummel your face if it makes her happy.”
“I’ll be right there.”
The line goes dead, and Ace tosses his cell onto the couch. “He’ll probably sprint over.”
Sure enough, within a matter of minutes, there’s a hammering on the door, and Ace goes to answer it. I get to my feet, my stomach fluttering with the wings of a thousand butterflies at the prospect of seeing Rook again. It’s crazy to be nervous after what we went through together. But what if it brings it all back and I spiral? I’m also worried about how he’s going to feel about me, now he’s had time to process what happened. What if he blames me for it? The only reason he was in that terrible position was because of me. The only way is through, though, and I’m done being a passive victim of life. I’ll do all I can to take my power back, and this is one way to do so.
Rook appears in the doorway, Ace close behind him.
“Cami,” Rook says, studying me with those bright blue eyes. “How are you?”
I allow a smile to touch my lips. “Better now you’re here. I was going to ask the same of you.”
“Better now I’m near you.”
“You don’t hate me because of what happened?” I check, still anxious.
“Never! None of it was your fault.” He glances at the floor. “I thought you’d be the one to never want to see me again. I mean I was the one who… you know.”
I shake my head. “I just keep thinking about how awful that must have been for you, how terrifying, and now Jack’s punished you for it, and none of it seems fair.” My eyes fill with tears again. I can’t seem to stop crying. “You were assaulted too, Rook. Yet they’re all angry with you. I feel as if you took the brunt of it all to protect me.”
Ace snarls from the doorway. “He was punished because he broke club rules. Jack was right to do that. I’d have punished him for a whole other reason.”
I snap my head toward him. “Stop it, Ace. I mean it. I don’t want to hear another word come out of your mouth if it’s to put Rook down.”
22
ROOK
She’s so fucking perfect.
So full of fire and determination when, instead, her light could have been extinguished. Even after everything she’s been through, she’s the one defending me and trying to make me feel better.
That understanding knocks something loose in my head. She shouldn’t be doing that. I should be the one holding space for her, not the other way around. I need to be stronger.
Ace is still shooting me glares. While Camile seems to have forgiven me, I’m not sure Ace will be so quickly won over. If it wasn’t for Camile, he’d have probably broken a few bones by now. I’d have let him, too, as it feels like the least I deserve.
She walks up to us and takes my hand, her fingers warm, and then reaches for Ace’s hand. He looks like he’s going to refuse for a moment, but then he surrounds her palm with his. She tugs us both closer, so we’re only a couple of feet apart, with her in the middle.
“The other night, when it was the three of us together, was so special to me. I don’t want that to be tarnished because of those other men. If we let them do that, then they’ll have won.”
Ace grinds his teeth. “Every time I look at him, it’s all I can see, how you must have been in pain, and how those fuckers were watching.”
“That’s not what I see when I look at Rook,” she says. “I see the man who protected me with his body, not the man who hurt me.”
