“I don’t trust him,” Donovan argued.
“So trustme,” she pleaded. “Trust that I know what I’m doing. What do you think he’s going to do? Kidnap me in front of all these witnesses?”
“Wouldn’t put it past him,” Donovan muttered under his breath.
Aislynn laughed. “Relax. I’m not a kid. I know how to handle him. I’ll go, hear him out, and make him delete that video, then we’ll all be grand.”
Callum appeared at our little huddle with Maeve under his arm. “You don’t have to go, Ash. We’ll work something out for Rosie.”
Aislynn waved a hand dismissively. “He’s always been good to me except for the incident with Saskia. I’ll be fine.” She turned back to Pagan and called out with a confidence I couldn’t believe she was feeling. “They’re worried you’re gonna hurt me. Can you reassure them I’ll be safe?”
His spine stiffened, fury flickering in his glare. “And what do you think?”
“I told them you wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But I needyouto tell my brothers that if I go with you, I’ll be safe?”
His jaw clenched tightly. “Offended you’d even doubt me, Ash. You know I’d never let anything happen to you. I just wanna go somewhere quiet and talk this out. What happens after that is up to you.”
She nodded once, resolute, then squeezed my fingers. Without another word, she walked toward Pagan, taking the hand he offered her, and climbed onto the back of his bike.
“I don’t like this,” I murmured, my heart racing as the KOA boys fired up their engines.
Callum pulled Maeve closer to him. “If there’s one thing about Ash you need to know, Rosie, it’s that once she’s made her mind up, you won’t change it. A part of her must have wanted to hear what he had to say, or else she wouldn’t have gone with him.”
We watched as he pulled away and circled around toward the gate. His brethren followed, and they turned onto the road and disappeared. The roar of their tailpipes faded in the distance as they left us standing in the charged air.
“She’ll be okay, won’t she?” I bit my lip.
Donovan’s arms slid around my waist, and he pulled me back into him. “Ash knows what she’s doing, baby. She’ll be fine.”
I twisted my neck to look up at him, and with a thudding heart, I whispered, “I hope so, honey, because if anything happens to her, it will all be my fault.”
CHAPTER 22
DONOVAN
“Honestly, I’m fine,” Aislynn’s voice assured us through the cell phone sitting on Callum’s desk. “We talked, and he eventually accepted I wasn’t budging. After some back and forth, he took me home to Ma’s.”
My shoulders slumped. “Thank God.”
“What were you so worried about?” she asked. “I can look after myself.”
A muscle ticked in Callum’s jaw. “We know you can. It’s Pagan Sinclair we don’t trust.”
“Well, there’s no need to worry,” she said reassuringly. “I’m going back to Denver later, and that will be the end of it.”
“And the video?” I asked.
Her tone turned icy. “Pagan didn’t give a damn about the video. Never cared about Saskia getting hurt, either, and he sure as hell wasn’t calling the cops. It was all about him getting his own way. He deleted the video in front of me. Rosie’s in the clear.”
I slumped back in my chair, relief slamming into me. “Thank fuck.”
Atlas cleared his throat. “Ash, can you send us all the numbers you’ve got for Pagan and his men, including anyburners? Colt wants to hack into their phones so we can check that none of the others kept the video. Pagan may have deleted it for your benefit, but it doesn’t mean Cruise did. Tristan gave us his number, so we’re wise to whathe’sgot, but they proved last night that they’re sneaky fucks, and I’m thinkin’ they’ve got other cells stashed away.”
“I’ll forward them the second we finish,” she confirmed, then quietly asked, “How’s Rosie holding up?”
My heart twisted. “She’s been a wreck, pacing the house all night. I told her you’d be okay, but it barely calmed her down. She felt guilty that you had to go with Pagan because of her.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Ash declared. “What’s going to happen with the truce?”
