Sin exhales, stepping forward. “Okay, Millie, you’ve said your piece—”
“No, I’m here to uncover the truth of this club, so if I need to be put back in my place, then let me hear it all. Millie, go ahead…please,”I reply.
Millie glances at Sin, and he huffs, then waves his hand through the air, giving her the go-ahead.
“You asked why the club girls would willingly work here and offer up their bodies to the brothers?”
Nodding, I fold my arms across my chest and raise my brow. “It makes no sense to me.”
Millie hums under her breath. “Hmm… maybe that’s because you’ve had an easy life. Or at least, easy compared to the people out in that clubroom. You clearly have a good job, which you had to go to college for. Which also means you had an education. Probably a family growing up. It may not have been perfect because whose is, but you had one that was at least a little supportive of you achieving your goals. Am I right so far?”
Sin says nothing, just lets Millie continue to talk to me, my stomach knotting further and further the more she speaks. “I mean, yeah, but I still don’t know what you’re getting at here, Millie?”
Millie tilts her head. “Andthat’syour problem.Thatis why you’re judgmental. You were brought up in such a vastly different way from those girls out there. They have had to fight every day of their lives just to survive.” Millie took a breath. “Ro… when her Catholic parents found out she was bisexual at the age of fifteen, they not only excommunicated her from her church, but they also threw her out of her home with absolutely nothing and nowhere to go. She had to fend for herself, which is why she has that tough exterior.”
“Jesus,” I whisper under my breath, my hand moving to my mouth in shock.
Sin’s eyes meet mine, his anger seeming to ebb. “She came to us when she was seventeen, asking for help. We took her in and got her medical help because she had been on the streets for the last two years. She was skin and bone, malnourished. The doctors said that if she hadn’t come to us when she did and had been on the streets for another week, she wouldn’t have made it. That was five years ago…” He smiles. “Now she’s our head club girl. Studies music, which she always wanted to do, but her parents would never let her because they said the music she liked was the devil’s music, and if they caught her singing or playing it, they would have the priest come and perform an exorcism. But here, she’s completely free to be the person she wants to be. The club pays for everything for her, including the therapy to help her deal with the trauma from her past.”
My heart thumps in my chest for that poor young girl as Sin continues, “And the other girls, Gia and Jessa, unfortunately, their stories are just as painful. Each is different, but the same outcome. The girls are here because they needed sanctuary from their lives. And we provide that for them. Soyoumay think the club girls are here cooking, cleaning, and fucking against their will, but to them, it’s showing their gratitude and not a chore at all. It’s their way of thanking us, and it’s the only way they knowhow. Fighting back from the way they were raised is the only way that makes them feel like they are giving back. Like they are part of something. Like they have a family they can count on. A family they didn’t have in the one that shared their blood.”
My eyes glisten on their own. I can’t help the emotion overwhelming me, hearing the trauma these poor girls have gone through and the way the club has helped them get back on their feet.
Fuck.
Sin is right.
I reallyamjudgmental.
Sniffing, I wipe my nose with the back of my hand as a single tear rolls down my face. I quickly swipe it away, turning so Sin can’t see the effect this conversation is having on me.
Closing my eyes, a wave of emotion crashes over me. When Sin pushed me against the wall, he could have forced himself on me, pressured me into a kiss—or something more.
But he didn’t.
Dammit!
I judged him, thinking he would prove me right about him, about bikers and the heathens they are, force himself onto me, but he left me there, leaning against the wall as if he knew what I was thinking.
Letting out a shocked breath, I open my eyes, spinning back to face him, his brows furrow, clearly seeing the wetness on my cheek as I stride right up to him and reach out, taking his hand in mine. His eyes widen in shock at my forwardness.
I shake my head, more tears welling in my eyes. “I am so,sosorry.”
He jerks his head back like he’s completely in the dark on my one-eighty. “Ahh, what’s happening here?” he questions, clearly confused by my change of heart.
“I judged you… you were testing me. Before we came in here, you leaned into me against the wall to prove your point. I wanted to fight you off, but because of my preconceived notions about bikers and the fact that telling you no would only aggravate the situation, I judged you. You knew I would think that, and you were testing me,right?Hence, why you pulled away and said that I was judgmental before we came in here?”
Sin smirks cockily, a small chuckle escaping his mouth. “Look at you go, wildcat. Maybe youwillbe arealinvestigative journalist after all. Putting all the pieces of the puzzle together that quickly, great job. Yeah, I was proving a point, but I sure am glad you’re starting to recognize that noteverysituation is so cut and dry.”
I sigh, letting go of his hands, and step back, the realization hitting me.Sin wasn’t actually trying to kiss me, just merely proving a point.But the fact he was only making said point and not trying to kiss me is exactly the thing that terrifies me right now, because I am disappointed.
Deep down, even though I said I wanted to force him away from me, even though I said I wanted to fight him off because of my prejudice against bikers…
I didnot.
Notat all.
I wanted him to lean in.
