“You should have let him,” I murmur.
Bella sighs. “Look. Blade is older. He’s used to controlling shit. Violence. Chaos. Fear. That’s his world.”
Brooke nods. “Men like him don’t get scared and say ‘hey, please stay safe.’ They get scared and yell. They try to force order where there isn’t any.”
I swallow hard. “I don’t want to be locked away just because he’s afraid. I’m not some fragile thing he found on the sidewalk.”
“No, you’re not,” Brooke says. “But he doesn’t know how to love someone without expecting the world to take her from him.”
Bella leans forward, elbows on her knees. “So you two are gonna have to figure out how to do this together. Not over each other. Not around each other. Together. Or you call it before it gets worse.”
My chest tightens. “What if he decides I’m not worth the risk?”
Brooke laughs once. “Then he’s a dumbass and we’ll bury him in the backyard. Problem solved.”
Jax babbles like he agrees, probably plotting where the tiny shovel will go. Bella squeezes my knee. “But you know he won’t. He’s got it so bad he forgot how to talk like a human.”
I lean back into the couch cushions, exhaustion weighing me down again. “I don’t know if I’m ready to hear whatever excuse he tries to feed me.”
I shower.I brush my teeth. I put on clean clothes. None of it helps. My brain is still a hamster on a wheel about last night.
Brooke makes more coffee and breakfast, and I call Mason while she’s scrambling eggs. He picks up on the second ring.
“Hey,” I say when he answers. “Just letting you know I’m working from Brooke’s today. I’ll finish inventory and the order forms.”
There’s a pause. A long one. “You alright?” Mason asks. His tone is all biker boss, zero judgment, and that almost makes it worse.
“Yep,” I lie like a pro. “Totally fine. Business as usual.”
He doesn’t call me on it. Maybe he’s letting me save face. Maybe he’s too busy handling the whole freaking criminal underworld invading our town. Either way, he just says, “You’re good. Take what you need. Rev’s outside if you need anything.”
I hang up and stare at the phone like maybe he forgot the part where Blade should be calling me to say he was an asshole and he knows it.
Nothing from him. Not one damn thing. I set the phone down. Then I immediately pick it back up. Check again. Still nothing. My stomach twists.
Brooke drops a plate of eggs in front of me. “Eat.”
My phone buzzes and my heart leaps hard and I lunge for it.
It’s Ansley.
Ansley: You alive?
Ansley: Blink twice for yes.
I huff out something that isn’t exactly a laugh but isn’t crying either and text back.
Me: Still At Brooke’s.
She replies fast.
Ansley: Did Blade fix his shit yet or do you want me to beat him with his own helmet?
The visual alone helps the tiniest bit. I drop the phone on the table but my eyes keep dragging back to it. I hate how pathetic I feel right now. Like a teenage girl waiting for some boy to text back. Except the boy is a grown man who could kill someone with a spoon and did, in fact, scream in my face last night. Great taste in men, Bri. Truly thriving.
The silence from him feels like a verdict I haven’t been given the charges for. Are we even still together? Is he even thinking about me? Or is he at Perdition drowning himself and letting groupies crawl into his lap for comfort while I sit here feeling like I got hit by a truck?
Brooke sits across from me, watching me like she’s waiting for the meltdown. “You’re spiraling,” she says.
