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Chase looks lost in thought. He chews on his lip ring, with a pained expression.
“Chase? What is it?”
Sighing, he meets my gaze. “Baby…there’s something you should know, and I want you to listen to me. It’s going to be hard to hear it, but you need to know the truth. All of it.”
This doesn’t sound good already. “O—kay,” I whisper hesitantly.
Chase drops the bomb of all bombs. He explains why Trent began the affair with Cynthia, how he needed to have her on his side to avoid the account being uncovered, how he never wanted to have a relationship with my ex-boss and felt he had no choice, how he’s stuck with her or else faced her turning him in to the authorities.
Chase wraps it all up with, “Trent loves you.”
Stunned, I sink against the bench as I mentally try to take it all in. I slowly shake my head. “Unbelievable.”
My biker stares at me, worry marring his handsome face. “Do you still love him?”
His question has me jerking back from his embrace, annoyed at having to state the obvious. “No! Absolutely not.”
Chase doesn’t look convinced. He takes my hands in his rough palms. “It’s okay if old feelings resurface after learning the truth. I’d understand if you’re torn between us.”
Is this a joke?“Chase, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious,” he husks. He grips my hands a little firmer to grab my attention, holding me securely, without causing me pain. “With you, I’m always serious. You’re all I care about outside of the MC brotherhood. I would do anything to make you happy, even let you be with that pathetic sap. He fucked up epically by making the wrong choice. Many people would when put into a hairy situation.”
My hands shake as anger takes hold of me. “You’re right when you say he chose wrong. There were a million other alternatives. Yet he fucked my boss behind my back.”
“I’m not saying what he did is acceptable,” he amends quickly. “I can understand why he felt like he had no choice. Seducing your manager was a shit thing to do, but it was effective, fast, and saved his sorry hide. The only thing he could never predict was Cynthia sabotaging his relationship with you.”
I yank a hand free of Chase’s grip, jabbing my finger against his chest. Tears sting my eyes as I blubber, “How could he not see he could end our relationship if caught? You wouldn’t have made the wrong choice. You would have found a way out of the mess and keep our relationship intact. You would have protected my heart.”
Chase pulls me into his arms, cradling me against his body. “I know, Numbers. I know. Let it out. It’s okay.”
So I do. I cry until I’ve drenched his work T-shirt. I cry until my shoulders ache from shaking. I cry until my throat goes dry and no more sound leaves my tired lungs.
And I cry because there’s not a damn thing I can say in this moment to make Chase believe me when he’s stubbornly blind to my feelings for him.
CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT
CYNTHIA
My fingers clench and unclench into fists at my sides as I spy on Trent. He stares pensively after Simone in her dirty biker’s arms. When Trent took the back stairs after the audit team left work for the day, I pursued him, following him out to the parking lot, where he got in his car and trailed after them. I hopped in my vehicle, joining the caravan.
After the pink-haired bimbo showed up on the job, I suspected Trent was enamored with her. He sure wasn’t afraid to admire her whenever the trash came near him.
Imagine my astonishment when he continued to follow the motorcycle Simone was riding, not the one turning off down a different road with the infuriating Candy. It was worse than if he followed the new ass-candy. He was following his old love, the one I couldn’t get him to forget.
With my heart in a tattered mess, I followed them to the historical garden, parking a safe distance from Trent and the biker. I walked along the border of the park, keeping out of sight from Trent as he stalked several paces behind the couple on the other side of the garden.
And here I stand, hiding behind shrubbery to conceal all of myself but my face, mirroring my lover’s actions on the opposite side of the park.
Hurt and frustrated, I want to scream, to charge across the park and slap Trent across the face for harboring feelings for his ex when I’ve given him everything I have to give.
Why am I not enough?
Simone sobs in her boyfriend’s thick arms, crying about God knows what. Trent looks about ready to burst across the lawn to snag her from the biker, his face lined with pain as he watches another man comfort his former partner.
It’s too much for me to take in, too difficult to swallow and accept. But I can’t look away.
My eye twitches the longer I watch the man I love pine for another. Unconsciously, I slip my hand into my coat pocket. My fingers curl around the cold metal of Trent’s pistol, still in my possession. Since the day Trent handed me the weapon, I’ve kept it on me while at work. If Trent gave it to me for protection, then it’s important to keep it close.
