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She stopped moving and visibly swallowed. “I guess that’s a good question,” she said in a voice so small it made him feel like shit.
“Cassie, I didn’t mean—”
She held up a hand as she stormed past him into the closet. “Here, I’ll make it easy for you so you don’t have to worry about me overstepping with your precious club.” When she emerged from the closet, a black duffle bag hung from her shoulder. “I’m out,” she said as she yanked open drawers and stuffed random items in the duffle.
His heart crashed through the floor. “What?”
“Goodbye, Viper.” She rushed from the room and ran down the stairs before he knew what was happening.
“Wait,” he said, once he got his ass in gear. “Cassie, stop!” He caught up to her outside, next to her car. “Don’t leave.”
“I’m not sticking around to be yelled at and ordered around in my own house. I’ve had enough of that shit in my life.”
With that, she slipped in the driver’s seat of her Camry and tore out the driveway.
“Fine!” he screamed. “Fucking go!” Then in a lower tone. “See if I give a shit.” A light switched on in the house next door.
Viper glanced down. Shit, he still wore nothing but boxers and his tats.
As he walked back into the quiet house a sense of loss so consuming threatened to swallow him whole. His chest tightened and he couldn’t draw in air. Just inside his door, he fell to his knees, gasping and gagging. He threw up the little bit of liquor he’d drunk with Sarge before sagging back against the door. All energy drained from his body along with the motivation to move.
Six hours later when the phone in the house rang, Viper still hadn’t moved a muscle. He sat slumped and exhausted with an aching back after spending the night staring at the darkness from his foyer floor. Even the crick in his neck and pins and needles in his foot weren’t enough to motivate him to move.
Cassie left him.
Nothing mattered anymore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
1987 - TENNESSEE
Fifty-six hours thirty-two minutes and eighteen seconds later, Cassie hadn’t heard so much as a peep from Viper. No phone call, no message, no impromptu visit. Granted, she hadn’t exactly told him where she was going when she fled the scene of the emotional massacre, but she’d been bunking at a friend’s house the past few days. An ol’ lady. With the way those men ran their mouths, Viper knew exactly where she was and probably had five minutes after she arrived.
“You sure you don’t mind me leaving you alone this morning?” Marilyn, her absolute best friend asked. They’d connected the instant they met and had grown extremely close over the last few years. Marilyn was quite a few years older, but that hadn’t mattered in terms of their bond.
“No, please, I’m fine. Go to work. One of us should try not to get fired.” They both worked at the local elementary school. Marilyn taught third grade and Cassie had been an aide in the special education classroom for the past three years. She loved her job to distraction, but called in sick today since her head just wasn’t in the game. First time she’d done so in the length of her employment.
“Girl, you know they won’t fire you for calling out one day. You could kidnap a kid and they’d keep you. You’re the heart of that place.” Marilyn grabbed a banana and her travel coffee mug. As she hustled by Cassie, she kissed her cheek. “It’ll work out, honey, I promise.”
Cassie blew out a breath. Work out. What did that even mean? “I don’t know, Mari. It’s been days since I’ve heard from him.”
A self-proclaimed relationship expert, Marilyn tilted her head. “You realize he’s probably at home saying the same exact thing right now, don’t you?” Then she blew Cassie another kiss and darted out of the kitchen. “Phone works both ways, babe,” she yelled right before the front door slammed.
“Phone works both ways, babe,” Cassie said in a mocking voice as she slumped back in her chair. She stared at the phone hanging on the wall. Yeah, she could call Viper but…
Well she felt stupid, and guilty, and mad, and embarrassed all at the same time. And that was on top of the heartbreak. Sure, they’d squabbled plenty of times over the past five years they’d been together, but this fight crossed a line into territory they hadn’t visited before. They didn’t yell at each other. They didn’t drive away in the middle of the night. They didn’t toss threats around. And they always had each other’s backs. Always. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t call each other on their bullshit. But it sure as hell wasn’t done the way Viper did it the other night.
Now that the dust had settled, at least in her mind, Cassie was insightful enough to realize and admit her part in the catastrophic fight. She’d completely overreacted to the news of Sarge’s potential club presidency. Then, in an epic display of childish behavior, she stormed out and drove away.
