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Once an addict, always an addict….
My curiosity got the better of me. I caved. “How is she?”
Storm crossed his arms over his chest again. His silence had me sitting upright in my seat. “Not good.” Two words. He never held back or sugarcoated anything. Painfully direct was his way.
I rolled my hands into fists on the table to steel myself. “What do you mean?” I needed more, even though I knew I wouldn’t like what came next.
“The first couple of weeks, she was okay. Holding on to hope. Expecting you to walk through the clubhouse doors. When that didn’t happen, she was sad. Hurt. Then she was angry as hell. Now Angel says she appears depressed like she’s shutting down.”
Damn, this might’ve been the most I’d ever heard the Prez speak.
I exhaled a painful breath. “Is she going to work? Eating and sleeping properly?” I didn’t want Tara to sink into a dark abyss over me. I wasn’t worth her time or energy.
“Don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? What’s she been doing at the club?” If any of my brothers had their hands on her, I’d choke the life out of them. Not like I had any right to her since I hadn’t officially claimed her. She was so beautiful and alluring. Someone had to have tried to get with her. The very thought made me sick to my stomach.
“She’s not staying on the compound. She moved back home. Angel sees her at school, but she can’t get her to come to the clubhouse. You know I won’t let my woman run around without me after everything. It’s too soon, so she comes home after work. And Tara goes to the trailer park.”
I blinked, seeing red. I leaned forward and opened my mouth.
Storm’s hand flew up. “Before you bite my head off, I had Grizz install a home security system linked to the clubhouse like all the club businesses before she returned home. I’ve got eyes on her at all times.”
I exhaled, gritting my teeth, but it didn’t help the fury I felt. “She wasn’t supposed to move out of the compound.”
“And you were supposed to return with me from the run.”
“I told her to move her shit into my room.”
“And she did. But then you didn’t return.” Storm pursed his lips thin. “Angel said you never called Tara. Or sent her a text. You ghosted her. That kind of treatment pisses off these women, man. They’re not like the kittens who just shrug and move to a new brother. What were you thinking?”
“How could you let her leave?” I shouldn’t put this on him. It was a dick move but still, how the fuck could he do that?
Storm pointed to his chest. “Me? How could I let her leave?” Shit, now he was pissed. “Did you claim her in front of the club, brother? Are you secretly married to her? Because I’ll tell you. The way it looks to everyone, including Tara, is you used her to get your rocks off then dumped her.”
“Fuck you!” I was out of my chair. A DO swung the door open.
Storm put his hand up. “It’s cool, Barry. He’s just blowing off steam.”
Barry, the grunting DO, backed out of the room and shut the door. Fuck, everyone did as Storm said.
Prez’s lethal gaze met mine. “Calm your ass down and sit.” He clasped his hands on the table. His platinum wedding band mocked me. Laughed in my face for all I’d lost and would never have. A wife. A baby. Happiness. “What are your intentions? Is she yours? Are you claiming her?”
“Now that she’s left the compound, it doesn’t even matter.”
“Sure it does. It matters to me, to your brothers and your womanifshe’s your woman.”
“I’m in here because of that fucking Sonny. I was going to see her.”
“After getting drunk?”
“I was just getting my head straight before dropping in on her. But hey, the enforcer is in here. The asshole tried to rape her.” I scrubbed my hands over my face remembering the way that fucking animal touched my girl, tearing at her clothes and backhanding her. The sting of tears pooled behind my eyes like a pussy.
“I know.”
“I want blood, Storm. That motherfucker’s blood. I can’t move past anything until I take him out. In the meantime…” I grabbed the back of my neck. “Keep her safe.”
What was I doing? I got myself into this mess because I stopped at the Wild Hog in Winters when I should’ve gone directly to Tara. I should’ve been holding her in my arms that night. Making love to her. Keeping her safe myself. Fuck, I was an idiot for depending on another man to protect what was mine.
