Unfortunately, the way Lane responded, I wasn’t sure he understood. I think he heard it as “inflict violence.”
“I like it,” Lane said, a confident smirk forming on his face. “Thanks, bud.”
I nodded as he left the room, leaving me by myself to ponder what I had just done.
In some ways, default aggression had helped me a lot. It had led me to join the military, it had led me to join the Black Reapers, and it had gotten me to do a lot of things in life.
But it also had given me the saddest day of my life. And unfortunately, it sure seemed like things were unfolding in a very similar fashion as they had before.
If I were to prevent it this time, I had to make sure everything was in order. Default aggression had to be our, well, default. But we had to make one hundred percent sure.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t just lose my friends in the club.
I’d probably lose everyone and everything.
And when I feared losing everyone and everything, I didn’t just mean within the club.
Kaitlyn
Ididn’t sleep much that night, but it was weirdly because of how I kept thinking fondly of the evening.
It wasn’t really a conscious choice, either. It wasn’t like I wanted to think of it happily. Michael just sort of had that effect on me. Even when he was pressing a little too hard on things that weren’t his business, he was a guy who had such a calm air about him that I couldn’t help but forgive him.
Plus, let’s be honest, he was really freaking handsome.
Attractive? Or hot?
Actually…
But as I parked my car at the hospital the next morning, I reminded myself that I had to keep my personal and professional lives separate. Whatever happened with Michael was bound to create some conflict and difficulties. No matter what, no matter what personal path I went down, I was not going to put my career at risk.
I walked into the changing room, saw Devon, and nodded to her.
“Looks like someone had a fun night,” she said.
I shrugged, playing dumb.
“I went out and had some fun. Nothing crazy, and nothing like that,” I said, seeing her eyes go wide.
“Really,” Devon said, sounding like she didn’t quite believe me. “Because rumor is you went out with one of the biker boys.”
Wait, what?
“I... I don’t know where you got that idea,” I said, but the halting nature of my words made it all but impossible for her to believe me. “I had a nice evening, but—”
“Kaitlyn, you don’t have to lie,” she said. “It’s okay to say you went out with one of them. They are quite hot, you know. And besides, Brewskis is the only place where they’ll ever take a lady.”
Wait, she knows I went to Brewskis too? How much does she know of my night?
I couldn’t even muster any words in response to her apparent omniscient knowledge of my night. My mouth opened, and I tried to utter something, but nothing came out. There was nothing I could really say. It was like she had spied on me the whole night without me even knowing.
“How did you know?”
It was all I could finally utter, but even those words more or less tumbled out of my mouth.
“I have friends around town, and they say things,” she said—a phrase that left me feeling a little uneasy. “But it’s fine, girl! Really, don’t feel like you have to hide it.”
“I’m not,” I lied. “I mean, well, okay, it wasn’t exactly something that I was going to come in here and start blabbering about, but it was something that happened, yes. I enjoyed myself, but he’s a nice guy. He’s not like any of the other bikers, he’s very polite and respectful, and the moment that he does something—”
