“Yeah.” There isn’t any point in denying the truth, and Leena admits it readily. “Anyway, he’s been softer. Kinder. Nicer. He actually cried when he held Ethan for the first time. He’s his first grandkid.”
“Jesus. I didn’t think the bastard was capable of crying.”
Leena looks at me like she knows I’m intentionally being crass, but she bites down hard on her bottom lip and doesn’t say anything. I almost feel guilty for the silence that wraps around us after. Finally, she clears her throat and looks at me strangely, like she’s apologizing silently for what she’s about to say before she even says it.
“Don’t blame Gage for his bad behavior. He hasn’t had any easy time of it this past year. It’s hard on a person to be accused of doing something and to take such a brutal punishment for it. Even though everyone knew it was Tracker who had actually laid his hands on you, not Gage, he’s still lived with the shame of it, I think. Or at least, you never came back. You never tried to make amends with him. I think that’s been hardest for him of all. He thinks you blame him for something he didn’t do. Or that you hate him. I don’t know. At any rate, Wraith says he’s been quiet. He was never quiet before. He works really hard and goes to The Riders gatherings and stuff, but he never goes out to The Canteen anymore or anything else that really isn’t compulsory.”
“Yet he was at Ethan’s party.”
“That’s different. Everyone likes to feel like they belong to something and The Riders love their families. It’s a brotherhood. He wants to be part of something bigger than himself, just like Wraith. Just like Adam. Just like Steel and Edge and the rest of the club.”
“He must hate me. I guess I get why he pissed on my papers. He wanted a show. He wanted me to get just how shitty I am. It must have been fun for him, but that’s over. I’m getting another set and I’m going to serve them to him and he’s going to sign them. End of story.”
Leena blinks hard. Her gaze strays away, back to the window, even though there isn’t anything out there. Her hands twist uselessly in her lap, plucking at her jeans before she realizes what she’s doing and jams them together.
“What if…” she still won’t look at me, and she can’t quite hide the tremor in her voice. “What if he won’t sign the papers?”
“He will.” I might not be certain about anything, but that at least, I know for a fact. “Why wouldn’t he? What would be the point in staying married, when we haven’t even spent so much as one night together? We were both forced into it. This would set us free and we could just go on with our lives like it never happened.”
Leena finally rips her eyes back to me and I don’t like the shadows I see in their depths. “And what if he won’t because not doing it, now that he knows you want it, is the best kind of revenge?”
What if?I never considered that Gage wouldn’t want to sign the papers. Or that he’d hold out, just to be an asshole. I thought that after all this time, he’d be as eager to be rid of me, to erase the stain of our marriage out of his past, as I was to be rid of him. That he’d want to move on.
Leena’s words fuck me into a strained silence.
Revenge. The one thing that I didn’t factor in. Correction. Revenge andpride.
A deadly combination that I just hope I can wear down or outsmart. Gage might think he’s tough, but I can promise him, I’m a thousand times tougher in my own right.
This is one battle that he is not going to win.
Chapter 4
Gage
Idon’t know much about Ami at all, but I know it’s only a matter of time before she shows up at my door with a fresh set of papers. I know that she’ll piss me off, because she seems to do that naturally, and that I’ll piss her off, because she’s always had a hate on for me, even before she met me.
It’s been two days since I watered her last set of papers like they were seeds needing a good dousing. I know she’s staying at Wraith and Leena’s. He was kind enough to text me to fill me in on the fact that she’d received a fax from her lawyer that afternoon.
Normally I’m done work by five or six. I’m a janitor, and while it’s not glamorous, it’s an important part of our club and I take pride in it.
I clean up our warehouses in Jacksonville on rotation as well. Help with inventory and accounting for product. It’s not just some boring ass janitor job where I have to scrub toilets all day. Steel and Edge gave me a purpose when I joined The Riders, and even if I did have to scrub toilets all day, every day, I would happily do it.
Even though I could have finished early, I linger for hours at the clubhouse, doing jobs that are overkill. I scrub the grout on the floor tiles, wash down walls, take my time inspecting furniture and tightening screws and getting to a chair that I’ve been putting off forever that was all wobbly.
It stands straight and proud when I’m done with it.
After I peel out of my coveralls and leave the clubhouse, it’s past seven.
The night is warm and sticky, like most evenings are in Florida. It’s the perfect night for a ride. I’ve never enjoyed the open road more. I take my time at that too, letting the rushing air clear my mind. I inhale it into my lungs, filling them full over and over again, just thankful to fucking be alive.
I haven’t always been. Thankful. Or really alive. But tonight I am.
I let the pleasure of the fresh air, the growling power of my bike between my legs, and the freedom that comes with riding. I enjoy it so much that when I pull up to the house and I find Ami perched on the steps again, like I knew she would be, I’m not even that pissed off.
I am ready to spar, though. She wants me to sign those papers? I’m not going down easy. I’m going to make her work for it. Pay for it. Suffer through this like I’ve suffered for the year since she’s been gone. And then? After it’s all said and done? I’m still not gonna sign those fucking things.
She stands when she sees me park the bike. She has the nerve to cross her arms, and it makes her look bossy as fuck. Her face looks pissed off as fuck too—her features all puckered and screwed up like she ate a truckload of lemons for dinner.
