Page 78 of Last Mile

“That’s what you think right now. But what about later on when it sinks it what we did? You’ll hate me for letting things go on.”

“There’s nothing to sink in. I wanted to have sex with you last night. I want to have sex with you again. But more than the sex, I like you, Bishop.”

Bishop’s forlorn expression lightened a little. “You do?”

“Yeah. I do.”

He appeared momentarily happy at my admission, but then his face clouded with worry again. “But Marley⁠—”

“Is gone, but we’re both here.”

Bishop shook his head. “He was my friend. I can’t do that to him . . . or to his memory.”

When he pulled himself up off the grass, I knew he was serious.

At the crux of his being, Bishop was honorable, and even though he would hate to do it, he would cut me out of his life. I couldn’t let him do that. I needed to stay a part of his world. While I had to admit that a part of it would be for the case, I knew more than anything I needed to stay for how I felt about Bishop. Which confused the hell out of me.

There was only one thing to do. It felt as dangerous as flinging myself off a cliff. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

As I glanced up at the sky, I could almost hear Gavin saying,

Ah, go on and out me, Vargas. I’m dead. What harm can it do?

Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I pulled the blanket around me and stood up. “Look, I need to tell you something about Marley— something that might change everything you think about him.”

“What do you mean?” Bishop asked as he jumped into his jeans.

“I was never Marley’s girlfriend.”

Bishop’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you saying?”

“Marley was my friend, and I would do anything in the world to help him when he needed me. When he started hanging around with you and wanting to be a part of the MC world, he needed me to be his girlfriend.”

An expression of disbelief came over Bishop’s face. “You weren’t his girlfriend?”

“No.”

“You guys were never a real couple?”

“No. Just the very best of friends.”

After bracing myself for Bishop’s wrath, he merely shook his head. “Just tell me one thing.”

“Okay.”

“Why the hell would he ask you to do something like that?”

“Because Marley was gay.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: BISHOP

There are moments in life when you have the rug unceremoniously jerked out from under you, sending you crashing down onto your fucking ass. This moment felt like that feeling except hyped up on steroids. Dumbfounded, I just stood there, frozen in disbelief like a fucking statue or something. I guess Samantha realized the level of shock I was in, because she once again said, “Marley was gay.”

I blinked as I tried processing what she had just repeated.

“You’re fucking with me, right?”

“No, Bishop. I’m not.”