Page 7 of Property of Player

“Anything the club can do?” my father asks.

Taylor shakes her head. “Nope.”

The word comes out of her mouth with a pop. I get it. She wants nothing from the club.

“You working at the Rusty Pelican?” Beck asks. Her family owns it. Her mother has been running the place since her father passed years ago.

“Yes, until my mother gets back on her feet. Kayla can’t run the place alone, even with all the staff.”

Kayla’s her older sister. She’s never liked the club.

“Guess soon it’ll be your busy season, huh?” my brother Beck asks, but I cut him off.

“What’s wrong with your ma?”

Taylor’s gaze sweeps me from head to toe. I can’t help wondering what she’s thinking.

“She has cancer.” Her words come out softly as if she hates to say them, and they’re jarring. The word hangs in the air.

“Cancer?” I whisper the question. “Damn, Taylor. I’m so sorry.”

“She’s in treatment. The doctors are hopeful.”

I rest a hand on her shoulder, and the touch shakes me instantly, sending a flicker through my body. She’s still got that effect on me. “You need anything at all, you can call me. You know that, don’t you?”

She meets my eyes and holds them for the first time.

We were everything to each other once, and it all comes flooding back.

I’m so caught up in her I don’t notice Molly walk up until Taylor’s gaze shifts over my shoulder, and then Molly presses against my side, slipping her hand into mine.

“You almost finished here, sweetie?” she asks, like what we have is more than it is.

I glance at her face and see the dirty look she gives Taylor. Straightening, I drop her hand and focus on Taylor. “I mean it, Taylor. All you gotta do is call.”

Taylor stiffens, and I hate that. Her chin comes up, and her eyes ice over. “We’ll be fine, but thanks for the offer.”

With that, she turns toward the lane where I see a small red Mustang parked.

Watching her walk away fills me with sadness. With every step she takes, I feel an invisible cord between us stretching out, urging me to follow her, to stop her from walking away. There was a time that girl meant everything to me. Maybe she still does. The thought jars me. Even with the hatred I feel simmering under the surface, I think she still feels the connection between us, too.

But I ripped her heart out in the end.

It wasn’t my choice, but she doesn’t know that, and there’s no point in telling her the truth. It would only cause her more pain.

My eyes stray to Dozer’s headstone.

How can I hate a dead man? But I do.

You son of a bitch. I know you think you were protecting her, but you weren’t. You just screwed up all our lives.

A voice in my head whispers the truth.

You did this. Not Dozer. This is all on you.

Chapter four

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