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“Billy went into bat for you. I would’ve thought you’d have let him try harder.”
“I’m not dumb, Nitro, I could see a problem ahead for you if I hadn’t chosen to stay. Billy would never have let it go.”
“Since when do you care about my problems?”
Her eyes searched mine as silence hung between us. She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t exactly say I care about your problems. I just didn’t want any part of Billy losing his shit with you.”
I turned that over in my mind. Something still didn’t gel for me. “I’d imagine you see Billy lose his shit often.”
“I do.”
I leaned forward. “So why did you care about that happening between us?”
“Why do you care why I care?”
“My job is to keep you safe. I don’t need any surprises catching me off guard, so I want to know the shit running through your mind.”
“Bullshit. What’s running through my mind has nothing do with your ability to keep me safe.”
I slid my chair closer to her, taking note of the way her whole body tensed. “Maybe I just wanna know why you chose to stay here with me.”
Her breathing slowed a fraction and she remained silent for a beat. She lowered her voice when she finally answered my question. “You’ve saved my life twice now. Both times you didn’t have to. I don’t know why I chose to stay with you, but if someone helps me when they get nothing out of it, it means something to me.”
Not the answer I expected.
Not by a long shot.
I stood and reached for her phone. After I sent myself a text so I had her number, I said, “I’ll text you when I’m ready. You can come with me to find them. It’ll give you a break from the noise here. Turning to leave, I paused and added, “I did get something out of it, Vegas. I kept Billy on side.”
Her voice filtered through the crowd as I walked away. “Not the first time.”
14
Tatum
“Voodoo Child” by Rogue Traders
The silence in Nitro’s ute was bliss. After a morning of being cooped up in the clubhouse with rowdy bikers and their family members, I craved the peace and quiet. Nitro had taken forty minutes or so to text after he left me in the bar, and I hadn’t hesitated to meet him out the front when the message came through.
“You waiting on a call?” he asked after about fifteen minutes of us keeping to ourselves.
I looked up from my phone that I held in my hands. “Yeah, from my cousin. One of my girls is staying with her at th
e moment and I just want to make sure she’s doing okay. Her boyfriend is an ass and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s gotten in her head and convinced her to go home.”
“Does she usually take this long to return your calls?”
“No.” And that had me worried.
He nodded but didn’t say anything further. We drove the rest of the way to his house in silence, but instead of my mind being focused on Monroe for that time, my thoughts were completely fixated on Nitro. I wondered what had happened to him in life that made him so closed off? I’d met a lot of men who didn’t do much talking, but none quite as detached as Nitro. As much as I didn’t want it to be the case, the man fascinated me. Because while he appeared to be a moody asshole, I’d become convinced there was a lot more to him under all that. It was probably buried deeper than most people would be willing to search, but I wasn’t most people.
He pulled his ute into the driveway of his house and jumped out. I followed him inside as fast as I could in an effort to escape the rain. Nitro’s home was as cold as he was and I shivered as I entered it. Following him down the hallway, it struck me again how bare his home was. Each room had the absolute necessities in it; actually, some rooms didn’t even have that. Two out of the three bedrooms were completely empty of furniture, the lounge room had only a couch and a television, and besides those rooms, there was only a kitchen, dining room, bathroom and laundry.
“How long have you lived here?” The words were out before I could stop them.
Nitro didn’t slow down to answer me, he simply called over his shoulder, “Fifteen years.”
“Fifteen years?”
