Page 59 of Riding Bare

“Not just an impression. He will come after Chassis. He will come after the baby. It’s his son, and he will want him to be part of the Bratva. Make no goddamn mistake about it.”

Gauge slides his tongue across his teeth, keeping his lips closed as he does. He’s likely doing it in an effort to keep from saying anything that will piss me off. Maybe he doesn’t think that Samuil will come after us—after Chassis and the baby.

“And you’re just going to let that shit happen, then deal with it later?” he asks.

It’s my turn to choose my words carefully.

“My contact, their leader, assures me that if something were to happen, I will be given full permission without repercussion to deal with him myself.”

He nods his head a couple of times, his lips twitching into a smirk, his gaze searching mine before he speaks. “But you’re not going to wait, are you, Dare?”

Well, fuck.

CHAPTER

FORTY-SEVEN

CHASSIS

Lifting my hand to my mouth, I tap my teeth a couple of times with my fingernail. I don’t know how I’m going to shake my brother and get back to meet with Samuil. I need to tell him that the deal is off. There is just no damn way I’ll be able to do what he wants me to do, even though I don’t know what it is.

I’m not naive enough to think that what it is will be innocent. It’s going to involve betraying the club—my father’s club, my husband’s club—and I can’t do that. No, I won’t do that. The last thing I ever want to do is betray my family.

“You want to tell me something, so talk,” Gauge announces.

Turning my head, I look over to him, dropping my hand to my lap as I begin to twist my fingers together there. He’s staring at me, waiting for me to say something. He’s not the brother I open up to and have heartfelt conversations with. But as he watches me, waiting for me to say something, I feel like I could.

But I don’t.

“Nothing,” I exhale. “I just don’t want to sit around here all day waiting for something that isn’t going to happen.”

He arches a brow, his gaze searching mine. “You got anywhere you need to be?”

I press my lips together, rolling them a few times before I shift my gaze back to meet his. He’s watching me, unmoving, unblinking. He knows that whatever is rolling around inside my head, it’s got to be big.

And it is.

If I tell him, he could go to Amos, and then I’d be in some serious shit. I have no idea how he would react to what I’ve done. Releasing my fingers from being tangled together, I lift my hand and place my palm against my forehead—I feel hot… feverish.

I can feel my brother watching me in the silence. He, without a doubt, is going to start asking some more invasive questions soon. I don’t know how much I can hide from him. I can try to hide what I’m thinking and the way I’m feeling from Amos, but Gauge has known me since the day I was born. He can read me like a book. Maybe not Clutch so much, but Gauge and Piston can.

“You’re a fuckin’ liar,” he grunts. “Tell me what you did.”

“Nothing,” I lie.

He snorts, leaning forward, his face close to mine as his eyes search my own. “Tell me, Chassis. What the fuck did you do?”

“I can’t,” I whisper.

“Dare fuck with you? Hurt you at all?”

I gasp at the question. I can’t believe he would even ask me that. Shaking my head from side to side, almost violently, I press my lips together. I suck in a deep breath, hold it for a moment and let it out slowly.

“He would never. Amos is better than I deserve,” I murmur.

“Then what? And don’t jerk me around, Chassis. Don’t have me sitting here with a thumb up my ass when I could be doing something.”

I’d love to pretend that he isn’t spot on, but he is. “Okay,” I say. “Okay.”