I take another sip of whiskey. “I’m not avoiding her. I’m handling club business.”
“Bullshit.” Nitro leans back in his chair, fixing me with that steady stare that’s gotten more than one prospect to confess their sins. “You’ve been dodging her since that ride in the desert. What the fuck happened out there?”
Everything.
Nothing.
I fucking kissed her like my life depended on it.
And for a moment, I forgot why that was a terrible idea.
“I let things get out of hand,” I admit finally. “Won’t happen again.”
“Because you’re going to hide in here like a coward?”
The word hits harder than it should.
Probably because it’s true.
I am hiding.
From her, from what she makes me feel, from the way she looks at me like she can see straight through every goddamn wall I’ve built.
“I’m protecting the club,” I growl. “She’s here to write a story, Nitro. That’s it. And right now, we’ve got a storage unit full of gold sitting fifty yards from where she’s asking questions about our operations. You think that’s a coincidence I should ignore?”
Nitro’s jaw tightens. “The gold is secure. She doesn’t know it’s there.”
“Yet.”
“Sin…” His voice softens slightly. “I get it. I know what happened when Rebekka fucked with your head—”
“Don’t.” The warning in my voice could cut glass. “That’s not what this is about.”
But it is, isn’t it?
At least partially.
Rebekka, with her bright smile and bigger dreams, who loved me right up until the moment I cut her loose to protect her from the shitstorm that was coming for the club.
I was ready to propose.
Had the ring picked out and everything.
Then the president pulled me aside and told me the Feds were circling, that it was only a matter of time before they moved.
So instead of getting down on one knee…
I broke her heart.
Told her she deserved better than a life with a criminal.
Watched her cry and beg me to explain what she’d done wrong, knowing I could never tell her the truth. That I was letting her go because I loved her too much to destroy her life along with mine.
Six years later, and I still don’t know if I made the right choice.
“This is different,” Nitro says quietly. “Elizabeth isn’t some civilian who stumbled into our world. She came here looking for something specific.”
“That’sexactlywhy I need to keep my distance.”
