“You know your little fucking boyfriend isn’t so peaceful, either. You are this upset with me. You don’t know who he is.”
“I’m aware of exactly who he is. I can give you the list of ways that he’s better than you are. But I have a feeling that will just piss you off more, won’t it?”
He glares at me. “I can give you a better life, an easier life than you can ever have with him. You’re going to die doing this job if you stay with him.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself to help you sleep at night.” I push past him.
His hand grips hold of my throat as he backs me up against the fridge. I glare at him, not letting him know how much panic I’m having to fight through to keep a stoic expression.
“What the fuck?” His partner snaps as he rushes next to him. “Darren, what the fuck? Let go of her, man.” The grip on me loosens, and he lets Stu pull away from me.
I can’t help but laugh. “Fuck, you really have everyone fooled, don’t you?” I snap, glaring up at him.
“Tate, don’t antagonize him.” Stu pleads with me.
“Oh yeah, poor perfect Darren.” My eyes remain glaring at Darren as my voice makes a mockery of the rumors I’ve already heard circulating around the city. I couldn’t give a fuck less about them, but I know he thinks that I’m oblivious. “His wife must have gone crazy when she lost the baby. That’s the only explanation for why she left the hospital and immediately shacked up withthat biker. How could she feel safe with a criminal? Doesn’t she know he hurts people? How can she feel safe with him? I mean, there’s no way she could know that he wouldn’t purposefully get her pregnant to trap her into marrying him. There’s no way that she could know that he wouldn’t threaten people who she cares about to keep her from leaving. There’s no way that she could know he wouldn’t hurt her.” I can see my nostrils flare as I step closer to both men. Darren’s eyes are wide as he pleads with me not to say anything else. The turning tables makes me feel a sense of success that I know will most likely be short-lived. “That he wouldn’t beat her, beat her to the point she ends up in the hospital, to the point that would make her loseherbaby.” I emphasize ‘her’ just to reiterate it.
I watch Stu’s eyes widen as he looks at me.
“How,” my voice becomes normal again, “could she feel safe with a man who rather go to prison for the rest of his life because someone hurt her, then ever laying a goddamn hand on her?” I shake my head. “That must sound clinically insane, doesn’t it?” Turning my head, I stare at Stu this time.
Darren shoves Stu off of him and storms out of the house. Turning around, I look at the work that I still need to do at the scene when I hear Stu talk behind me. I can hear the shock in lining his voice. “I didn’t know.”
I shake my head, laughing, before I turn around and look at him. “Bull shit. You knew.”
“I swear, Tate.”
“I’ve heard you laugh at the things he’s said about me.”
“I thought they were just jokes…”
“And do you joke like that about Harding?” He doesn’t answer, just continues to stare at me. “I didn’t think so.”
“Tate, I… I — how can I make this up to you?”
“I don’t think there is anything.” I can feel my jaw clenching. “My blood has stained the flooring in the nursery. That’s where he killed my baby, and where he very well could have killed me. So no, you can’t make this up to me. The only thing you can do is the next girl, whether it be him or someone else, don’t make the same fucking mistakes.”
I sit in the BMW in front of the clubhouse, just trying to process how this day has been.
“Psycho?” I hear Zane call out for me through the window and as soon as I see his face, the anger quickly subsides. He walks over to the car and leans against the door as he looks at me through the glass. “You okay?” I look over at him, nodding my head. “What are you doing?”
“It was just a real fucked up day.” I say as he nods his head.
I’m confused when he stands up straight, opening the back door and getting in.
“What are you doing?”
“Drive back to the house.”
“Why?”
“I want to show you something.”
“Okay…” I trail as I shift the truck into drive and we roll across the grounds.
“Why was today fucked up?”
“Darren showed up.”
