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“What’s that mean? You think I was gonna fuck all over it?”
She blows out a breath and turns away. “What does it matter? It’s all hypothetical. That’s all it was ever able to be with us. If this is about closure, I’m not sure what else I can offer you. We closed the door before you went into hiding.”
“It was never closed, Char.”
“Maybe not, but it was never wide open either. Your club life never allowed for that. You knew I wouldn’t agree to becoming your Old Lady. That’s not my style, neither is that type of life.”
“It ain’t mine now either. I ain’t club no more,” I tell her, snatching up my black tee.
She scoffs. “Come on.”
“What?”
Her expression softens and she comes back to me. She reaches out and runs her fingers over the one and only tat I’ve got. My Thorns club crest on my left inner forearm. “Not being a member anymore is just a technicality. It will always be a part of you.” She looks me in the eye. “Otherwise, you would’ve had this removed a long time ago.”
I jerk my arm free and step back. The way I feel about Thorns is way too complicated. It ain’t something I wanna wrap my head around or sort out right now.
Her being in my space, all the memories it’s bringing roaring to the surface, are clouding my judgment. I got a serious situation I gotta take care of right now. Getting all personal and heavy with her ain’t what I should be focusing on.
I got a hit on me, for fuck’s sakes. That’s what I gotta handle.
“I gotta go,” I tell her.
“What? We’re in the middle of a conversation. Just because you don’t like what I’m saying—”
“Ain’t that,” I cut in, before she really goes off on one. “Priest wants me dead. Sorting that’s gotta take priority.”
“We’ll do it together.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrow. “I’m involved in this too. What you do impacts me here, Cal. So, you better believe we’re going to act as one on this.”
“All you gotta do is tell that asshole that I got away and you’re pursuing some leads. That’ll get him off your back long enough.”
“Long enough for what?”
“For me to arrange a meet with him.”
Her eyes widen. “You can’t be serious.”
“Dead serious.”
“Yeah, dead is exactly what you’ll be if you do this.”
“I know how it works with him and the Gatekeepers.”
The look in her eyes tells me that she knows exactly what I mean. It’s clear to me in the next moment that she hasn’t changed over the years, hasn’t wised up, because she tells me, “It doesn’t need to be like that. We can figure something out.”
Damn, she just can’t accept something for the way it is. Always looking for a loophole.
The thing is, I ain’t prepared to take that kind of risk.
Maybe with my own life, but not my family’s.
I gotta make that clear to her right off the bat, so she don’t try to go around me and work something. “There ain’t no fight here, woman!”
“You’re giving up? God, you really have gone soft, haven’t you?”
