No matter how much that fucking hurt.
“Your phone’s buzzing,” Jeff snapped, tossing it at me.
I barely caught it before it hit me in the face. Lizzy was calling, and she never fucking called me in the middle of the night.
“Lizzy,” I answered immediately. “What’s going on?”
“Your girl is drunk and just got in a fight.”
I sat up, already on edge. “What?”
“Yep. She came in with Cheyenne, and the shit I heard…” She let out a low whistle. “Brother, I really hope what I heard is not true. Please tell me you did not treat your girlfriend like shit after she was kind enough to pick you up from the hospital.”
I glanced at Jeff, who was pointing at the phone for me to tell Lizzy. But I couldn’t do it. No one else could know the truth.
“She’s the reason I was in the hospital,” I said, putting extra bite in my tone.
Jeff flopped back, tossing his hands up in the air in frustration.
“Are you kidding me? She was scared and made a mistake.”
“And I almost died two days earlier because she didn’t take care of her car. Pretty fucking hilarious since she’s a mechanic.”
Silence greeted me. I had her right where I needed her. Pissed as hell and ready to end my life.
“Are you seriously blaming the woman you love for the accident?”
“Never said I loved her,” I answered nonchalantly.
“Liam—”
“Was there a point in you calling me?”
“Yeah, I thought you might be concerned that your girlfriend is getting hauled down to the station. Clearly, I was mistaken.”
“A night in jail would do her some good,” I answered before ending the call.
My chest ached as I stared at the phone.
“Man, that was really fucking low.”
“She is safer in jail,” I muttered. “Until I can figure out how to eliminate Austin, I can’t let her anywhere near me.”
“Maverick as good as told you he would back you up if you wanted to…take care of Austin.”
“He also said his hands would be tied. Austin’s old man would come after the whole fucking family. I can’t put everyone through that.”
“So, instead, you’re going to break Bailey’s heart. You’re actually going through with this.”
“It’s my only fucking choice at the moment,” I snarled. “Do you think I want to do this? Do you think I’m happy to hurt her when I know she might never forgive me?”
I shoved to my feet, ignoring the pain coursing through my body. At least if I was in pain, I wasn’t focusing on my heart splitting in two by what I was about to do.
“I’ll break things off with Bailey, and Austin will leave her alone. Then I can focus on how to get him out of my life.”
“And in the meantime, Bailey will hate you. She’ll never forgive you for not telling her what’s really going on,” Jeff pressed. “If you told her, she could go along with it.”
“No,” I snapped. “Do you think she could fake that kind of heartache?”
