Page 81 of Romeo

Then the anger had hit.

I’d felt it move through the room as brothers looked at one another and realized the same thing.

Kytten was family.

Someone had hurt our family.

I scrubbed both hands over my face and stood. I should’ve been downstairs with the others, figuring out what came next. Death Dogs in our backyard. King’s secrets. Syrena. Too many problems moving at the same time and too many ways for one of them to get someone killed.

Instead, I’d come upstairs because I needed five goddamn minutes where nobody expected an answer from me.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I reached for it automatically because I knew it was her, and I needed her.

Ma Belle: Bad day?

Two words, and the shit downstairs moved out of the center of my head.

Me: What makes you ask?

Her answer came almost immediately.

Ma Belle: You’ve sent three one-word answers.

I scrolled back through our earlier conversation.

Fuck.

She was right. I’d been answering her without really talking to her, my brain stuck on club business while my fingers sent whatever response required the least thought.

Me: Maybe I’m becoming mysterious.

Ma Belle: You’re terrible at mysterious

A smile pulled at my mouth before I could stop it. She was right; I’d stopped being mysterious with her, slowly letting her see what she meant to me.

Me: Wounded again.

I stood and walked toward the window. The clubhouse lot below was still full of bikes. Most of the brothers hadn’t left, even though the meeting had ended. Nobody wanted to go far tonight.

Ma Belle: What happened?

I stared at the question, wanting to tell her everything but knowing I couldn’t tell her anything.

Me: Club business.

Ma Belle: That means you can’t tell me.

Me: It means I don’t want it in your head.

I sent the message and immediately knew exactly how it sounded.

Still didn’t make it untrue.

I didn’t want Fiona thinking about territorial bullshit and men who used women as leverage. I didn’t want what Kytten had endured anywhere near her thoughts. I especially didn’t want her lying awake wondering what the Death Dogs being less than an hour away might mean for me.

Fiona had enough shit from her own past living in her head. She didn’t need mine taking up residence too.

Ma Belle: You don’t always get to decide what I can handle.