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“It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“You know you don’t have to keep on saying that. I’m a big boy, I can take it.”
Tears filled her eyes, but this was a holiday to be thankful for. She had no intention of ruining it with tears.
“I would tell you if I needed to.” She smiled at him. “So, where can I help?”
****
Bull looked down at Maddie’s bed, and an ache in his gut started that refused to go down. This was where Maddie slept.
His woman.
All on her own.
She didn’t deserve to be here. She should be by his side.
The sound of the door opening and closing had him glancing behind him.
“Bull, damn it,” Grant said.
He left Maddie’s room, wanting to take one of her pillows with him, but he figured that would make her suspicious.
“What the hell were you doing in the diner?” Grant asked when he met him in the sitting room.
“I had to see her.”
“Yeah, and you scared the fuck out of her.” Grant folded his arms. “I’m supposed to be on her side, and she was the one who came at me, knowing that I was the one who led you there.”
“I had to see her. You know I did.” He was going out of his mind not being near her. Each day he was away from her was another day driving him crazy.
“We have a plan, Bull.”
“How is she?”
Grant groaned. “Do you want to know the answer to that?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“Just give it to me straight.”
“I’ve only been here for two nights, and … she calls for you at night,” he said.
“What?”
“If you watch the footage, because I know you’ve got this place bugged or watched, or whatnot, listen to her at night. She spends a good hour before she falls asleep exhausted, crying. Then, she … and she doesn’t know this, she calls for you. It’s so fucking sad.”
Bull gritted his teeth, hands clenched into fists.
“Don’t fuck anything up. Maddie doesn’t even know you’re here. If she did, I imagine she’d have my fucking guts.”
“What do we know about the gym owner?” he asked. He had to stay focused. All he wanted to do was take her in his arms.
“He seems on the up and up. Knows his shit. He’s helping Maddie to lose weight.”
“I want you to put an end to that shit,” Bull said. Maddie was perfect the way she was. He didn’t want her to change.
“Brother, you ended things calling her fat. Maddie has been bullied for her weight for a long time. She’s not going to stop.”
“Fuck!”
He wanted to kick something or at least throw it.
“Bull, don’t damage anything.
“You’re not giving me good news here, Grant.”
“I’m with them when they run. I’ve paid to go to the gym, and I’ll be there on the three nights Maddie is, okay? I am doing everything I can. It’s hard to befriend someone who … in all honesty has a right to hate my guts.”
“Maddie isn’t like that.”
“I know. I was shocked the dumpster ruse paid off. She couldn’t stand for me to be out in the cold.”
Bull ran a hand down his face.
“Are we any closer?” Grant asked.
“Pat has intel from one of the groups tracking him. It would seem Julio has pissed off a few people, and they want him dead. He got a call yesterday. A couple of men were spotted here in Carnage.”
“Shit,” Grant said.
“I want you to keep a close eye on Maddie. Don’t let her leave your sight. I don’t want her to come to harm because of this.”
“I’m on it. I am going to need my keys though.”
Grant had sent him a text as to where he kept them so they could have this meeting. His brother insisted on keeping in contact with him while they did this.
The club hadn’t argued with his expulsion of Grant based on the made-up charges. Everyone had voted that he had to go and stay gone.
Some of the club women were in mourning for his dick, but they’d get over it.
He handed Grant the keys and shook his hands. “You stay safe as well.”
“I always do.”
Leaving the apartment, he took a couple of steps and paused as Maddie came toward him. When she saw him, she stopped as well. She was at the bottom of the steps, and Bull continued down toward her.
He couldn’t look away.
Her face looked thinner, and the clothes she wore pretty much hung off her frame, and he fucking hated them.
She needed to stop losing weight.
What do you expect, asshole? You hit her where it hurt.
He’d known her weight was a sensitive issue for her, and he’d exploited that.
There was nothing for him to say. He was a grade-A asshole. No, worse than that. He just couldn’t think of the right words.
“Maddie, I—”
She held her hands up. “I don’t need an explanation for why you’re coming to visit your brother. I don’t need anything from you.”
