Oh. No.
The ginger had a smug look on his face and I really don’t think I imagined him mouthing, “I knew it,” at me.
I'm sure my face turned a kaleidoscope of reds and pinks as I tried to take a step back and away from Dex, but when he kept his arm tight around my waist, it was useless.
"Okay," he finally answered in a hoarse voice, not bothering to turn around.
Dex kept his head down, toward me. His arm was stiff on my back. Sucking in acrispbreath through his nose, he let out a shaky exhale out through his mouth. He leaned in and whispered three words that made me break out in goose bumps. "This isn't over."
I really friggin' hoped not.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Tell us what happened."
Ef me.
Sitting across the office from Dex, Luther, and thatcutebiker that worked at Mayhem, I sucked in a breath and folded my hands across my lap to hide the fact that I was on the verge of panicking. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't know the question was coming. It had to be.
After our brief make-out session outside of Pins, the subsequent phone call that Dex had with Luther in his office, and then seeing at least two motorcycles drive down the street in the opposite direction of Mayhem—I found myself there. In the office. Under the second Inquisition.
Now, I could lie. Or I could tell him exactly what happened outside with Liam. That's what made me panic.
I'd been a moron and I was scared to admit it.
But I hadn't been a liar before this, except for kind-of, sort-of not telling Sonny about my arm for months. Since then, I'd tried not to lie because keeping things quiet by omission wasn't lying. Right? I think it depended on the circumstances, or at least that's what I liked to think to keep my conscience clear.
"Ritz," Dex spoke up, screwing the Rangers cap on his head from side to side in a gesture I wasn't familiar with.
Well, shit.
I was tougher than that. What did I have to be scared of?
Looking at Dex's pissed off face, I knew exactly what but that didn't mean I was going to cower from his judgment, damn it.
"He saw me outside and he said he had a proposition for me," I started. "He said that he had a solution to save my dad and Sonny from the debt that needed to get paid at the end of the week."
Luther looked over in Dex's direction with a wary glance I didn't miss.
"He said he'd take six months with me in exchange for... I don't know, not going after one of them if it wasn't paid. I just told him no." And then told him I was with Dex.
"He didn't say anything else?" The hot older guy asked.
I shook my head. "Nothing important." He just called Dex trash, but I'd be an idiot to bring that up.
Luther blew out a deep breath that made his lips flutter in exasperation. "That son of a bitch."
Hot biker guy shook his head incredulously. "I heard he just split up with his old lady not too long ago."
"I heard the same," the president of the MC agreed. "But why the hell would he try and take Ris as an exchange? That doesn't sound like their style even if he's trying to piss us off doing it."
Now that question, I had no answer for. And all of a sudden, I felt guilty that I hadn't agreed. That I wouldn't do my part to assure Sonny's safety but...
"I’ddo almost anything for Son, but I don't want to go with Liam," I tried to explain to them in a small voice.
"You're not goin' with anybody," Dex interjected quickly. "Not for Son, your dad, for nobody, Ritz. Ever."
I happened to be looking at Luther while Dex spoke and I could see his mouth twitch.
