Sure, the club comes first. Officially. But it’s not something you talk about with your chick.
“So, the only way this works for you is if I give up my MC and family? You want my fucking balls on the table while you’re at it?”
“No, that isn’t the way itworks for me.” She throws my words back in my face. “I’m not asking you to give up anything. Don’t you get it yet? Iknowthey’re your family. Just like Dad and Marina are my family. No one should have to sacrifice the people they love just to be with someone else.”
“Jesus Christ, Jas. We’re not in a fucking courtroom. Stop with the melodrama.”
She presses her lips together, and the silence is even worse than her crazy accusations. Not that I’m sure what she’s accusing me of, but she’s sure got something on her mind.
She picks up her purse but still doesn’t say anything. Then she looks at me. “I don’t want us to end like this, Ty. Not again.” Her voice trails away, and I grind my teeth. What does she want from me?
“It doesn’t have to end at all.”
“We could keep in contact. I’d like that.”
Keep in contact? I glare at her, my answer plain, and she takes a deep breath and turns away. She opens the door, and my chest hurts like a bitch, but I push the words out anyway.
“Don’t go.”
She hesitates. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and I think she’s come to her senses, that we can work this whole crazy mess out. But then she walks away.
And the whole fucking world crashes around me.
Chapter Sixteen
Ty
It’s been over two weeks since she left. Two weeks since I saw her face or heard her voice, and she’s still haunting me like she’s right by my side. Getting drunk hasn’t helped, and neither have the couple of fights I deliberately started. All that did was leave me with a split lip and bruised ribs.
I haven’t even gotten laid. The thought of taking another chick leaves me cold, and I don’t care if my brothers think that’s fucked the hell up.
If it wasn’t Dad’s birthday today, there’s no way I’d be standing outside my folks’ house. Mom always makes a big thing of birthdays, and, just like every other year, he’ll blow out the candles, eat a slice of cake, and then get hammered tonight with the guys at the club.
Another bike skids to a stop beside mine and the others parked on the driveway. Cade dismounts and strolls toward me. “Okay, bro?”
“Yeah, I’m great.” I haven’t even told Zach the whole story. What’s there to fucking tell? Jas walked out on me.
For the second time.
Cade raps on the front door, and even though I have keys to the place I don’t bother using them. Sav opens the door and gives me a pointed look. “Hey, stranger.”
I grunt and march down the hall. So I haven’t stopped by in a while. Big fucking deal.
Everyone’s on the deck, and the table’s groaning under the weight of all the food. Sav saunters over to Kat, who’s hanging out with Grace and Amelia and a couple of the older guys’ old ladies. They all look right at home.
I grab a beer and swallow half before approaching my old man. We exchange the usual insults before falling into a companionable silence. Although I haven’t swung by since Jas left, we’ve connected a couple of times at the club. He’s watching Mom as she does the rounds, making sure everyone has a drink and enough to eat, acting the part of the president’s wife like she’s an Oscar contender.
Is she acting?I take another swallow of beer, considering. Strange, that’s never occurred to me before.
I rake a hand through my hair. I’m on edge because of Jas. Even though she left me, and I’m mad as hell at her, there’s a part of me that’s still pissed at the way Mom looked at her that last day. And although I understood why Jas saidI guess that’s not what you expected from me,what the hell did she mean byYou, or your brother? What does Viper have to do with anything?
“Your mom said you hooked up with Jas O’Brien again,” Dad says.
I’ve been waiting for that, but since he never mentioned it at the club, I thought I’d dodged the bullet. After the fall out ten years ago, when I told my parents they were a pair of fucking dicks for treating Jas like shit, only to have her dump my ass days later, I should’ve known better.
“That’s right.” I finish my beer and take a second one.
“That girl’s bad news.”
