“Right. Understood.” Cass sucked in his right cheek. “Agnes, your brother is a killjoy, huh?”
“Feds lock them up,” Ryan repeated.
“Sure. Sure. Heard you the first time. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a date with a sonofabitch who thought he was going to murder Agnes and leave her broken body for me to find.” You really think I’ll just let him get locked up?
Ryan hesitated. But Nash had the van cranked up and ready to roll. Time, as both Ryan and Agnes had pointed out, was ticking.
Ryan slammed the door closed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Agnes sat on the floor of the van, her legs stretched out in front of her. There were no seats in the rear of that van. Just a discarded roll of duct tape. Just seeing that duct tape had rage burning through him. If Bear survived his injuries, Cass would make sure the bastard wished that he had died.
“He said Raz covered for him,” Agnes announced. Her back was to the wall on the left.
Cass lowered next to her. Very, very carefully, he took her hand. Her right hand. It was so much smaller than his own hand. Far more delicate.
This delicate hand had been bound with duct tape as she lunged out and tried to grab the back door of a moving van. He brought her hand to his lips. Kissed her knuckles softly.
“You were questioning Raz,” she pushed. “While I was being checked out by the EMTs.”
Questioning him. Driving his fist into the guy’s ribs. Yes, he’d done both things.
“What all did you learn?” Agnes wanted to know.
“I learned that when Bayne came to get his snake tat, Bear was with him. Because Bear was his lieutenant.”
She whistled. “That’s an interesting point to pick up. And, you, uh, weren’t aware of that fun fact before?”
“It was eight years ago. And, no, I wasn’t aware. MCs are tricky bastards. Allegiances are buried deep. And eight years ago…” He exhaled. “Back then, I was filled with so much fury and hate that I could barely see past my own need for revenge. Those were the days when I was hunting my uncle. I’d buried my father and…” He stopped. Focused on what mattered. Her. “Eight years ago…
“That was around the time when I was attacked.”
“I wish I could go back.” The words were the truth. He’d tried to never regret anything he’d done. Tried not to look at the past because what good did that do? But… “If I could go back, I’d say screw the others. Screw everything else. I would come straight to you. I’d find you in Austin, Texas, and I’d make sure no one hurt you. I’d take it all away, and you wouldn’t have this life.” She wouldn’t be in the back of a crappy van with a dislocated shoulder and with the skin ripped from her arm and leg. He swallowed. “You’d be safe. You’d be painting somewhere.” Hell, he’d seen the quick sketch she’d done in the tattoo shop. Her fingers had flown over that paper, and she’d clearly been talented. The snake had leapt off the paper. “You’d be an artist. You wouldn’t have ever needed to pretend to be a prostitute for three months, you wouldn’t have been nearly drugged by some sadistic asshole,” he said, remembering the stories she’d told him about her time with the FBI. “You wouldn’t have gone into a prison and been locked away with twisted guards who wanted to?—”
“Cass.” Just that. His name. Soft. Husky.
He kissed her hand once more, and his head turned toward her so that he could look into her incredible eyes. The eyes that saw straight into his soul.
She shook her head. “You think you could go back, wave some magic wand, and take away all the pain I’ve ever felt?”
If he could, he damn well would. “You should not be in the back of a shitty van with a dislocated shoulder and blood staining your clothes.” Gruff. “You should never have needed to jump from the van, almost killing yourself, because one of my men was a traitorous bastard.” All along, he’d thought that he’d infiltrated the Twins. That he’d been on target to take them all down. Now, though, he saw the truth.
It was my group that was infiltrated. People were watching me. I was the target. There had been plenty of attacks on him over the years. That was the nature of the beast. But he’d survived. He’d thrived. Come back harder.
Looking back, though, he wondered how many of those attacks had been due to inside jobs. Levi and Bear. Two of those in his inner circle. Working to rip him apart.
Yeah, was it any wonder he had trust issues?
One thing he knew with certainty—she did not belong in his world. “I would change it all,” he spoke with complete conviction, “and give you back the boy you loved.”
“I’m staring at the man I love.”
His heart ached when she said those soft words. “You shouldn’t love me.”
“Why? Because you’re so big and bad? Tell that to someone who hasn’t seen you make the worst cup of coffee in the world.”
He frowned.
