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Before I can figure out if I should knock or just go in, Connor pulls open the door. His green eyes run over me. Relief blooms in their depths before he quickly masks it.
"Catriona," he growls, blocking the door with his body. He looks tired. His eyes are bruised beneath as if he hasn't been sleeping much. His jaw is scruffy where he hasn't shaved, his hair mussed. His black t-shirt is fresh and clean, but his jeans have a hole in the knee and grease down one leg.
"Um, hi," I whisper, fidgeting nervously.
"Why are you here?"
Okay, wow. That's not exactly the reaction I was expecting from him.
"I came to talk," I say, frowning. He seems so…hostile. Like I did something wrong.
He stares at me for a long moment, the silence between us tense and strained, his gaze unwavering. "Your note said it all, Catriona. We don't need to rehash the shit now."
I gape at him. "Do you even care where I've been for the last week and a half, Connor?"
"You said you were with a friend." He shrugs.
I open my mouth and then snap it closed, my temper rising.
What is wrong with him? Where is my brother, the one who told DHS that they'd have to call the National Guard to separate us because he wasn't going to let them take me from him no matter what? The one who went to court and fought to keep me because I was his family and I belonged with him, not with some stranger I didn't know? Where's the guy who used to sit in my room when I had nightmares and came home with eight different kinds of feminine pads when I had my first period because he panicked and didn't know what to buy?
The guy standing before me isn't that one. Because that guy would never have let me leave for a week without knowing where I was and who I was with. He would have lost his dang mind trying to find me. This guy…this one isn't one I want to know.
"You're a liar, Connor Grady," I say, seething in fury. And maybe a little bit of sadness too. "My whole life you told me that I could always count on you, but that was a lie. The only person who can count on you is you. You're a selfish bully and a criminal. You lie and cheat and steal and hurt people and you do it because you like to do it. You're not a good person."
He stares at me, not saying anything. Not reacting at all.
"You lied about the Silver Spoon MC too," I shout at him, waving my hands like a crazy person. I don't even care if the few neighbors left on the block hear me. I don't care if the whole stupid town hears me. "They aren't bad people. Andreas Romano is a better man than you'll ever be, Connor Grady! And just so you know, I'm marrying him." I glare at him, defiant and ferociously angry, just daring him to insult the man I love. "I've been living with him all week. Not that you care."
His jaw tics, but he still doesn't say anything.
"I know that you and the Vipers are planning to target their families. Do it and I'll tell them everything I know about the Vipers," I growl the warning, meaning every word. Andreas might not ask it of me, but I made my choice. To protect him and the people he loves, I'll spill all the Vipers' secrets. "You may think you kept me in the dark all this time, but you're wrong. I know a lot more than you think I do."
Connor eyes me for a minute. "You'd choose him over your own family?"
"I chose the family who chose me," I snap, glaring at him. "You chose the Vipers, Connor. Andreas chose me. Every single damn day since I met him, he's chosen me."
Connor opens his mouth to respond, but the roar of bikes in the distance silences him. He whips his head toward the end of the street and then looks back at me, something almost like panic in his gaze. "You need to leave before they find you here," he growls.
"I don't care about the stupid Vipers!" I cry, throwing my hands up.
"I do," he snaps. "Leave, Catriona. Now."
There's no reasoning with him, not when he doesn't want to see reason. He's made his choice, and I've made mine. My shoulders slump, the fight draining out of me.
"Go to hell, Connor Alaric Grady," I say, tears filling my eyes. I turn on my heel and start down the steps as two bikes roar around the corner. As soon as I catch sight of them, the tears fall faster. It's not the Vipers. It's Andreas and Giant. I'd recognize my man anywhere.
"Son of a bitch," Connor mutters behind me.
I draw to a stop at the bottom of the steps as Andreas and Giant race down the street toward us. I can tell by the look on Andreas's face that he's furious. His onyx eyes blaze with righteous fury. Every muscle in his body is rigid. He stops behind my car, his wild eyes running over me.
I stumble in his direction, my heart battered and bruised and a little bit broken.
"Are you okay, little one?" he asks, scooping me up into his arms. They close around me, holding me tight. His body trembles faintly, and I know I scared him. My tears fall faster, guilt rushing through me.
I silently shake my head, pressing my face to his throat.
"Did he hurt you?"
