The tension in here feels nuclear.
I don’t touch her, even though I want to. I want to make things right, but she’s gonna hate me for what I have to say.
Once we’re in my office, she turns to face me. “Haze? What’s going on?”
I gesture to the chair. “Take a seat.”
“If this is about before, I need to talk to you about that.” She swallows hard. “I yelled at my dad and kinda told him to butt out. I don’t want him in my life anymore, and I’m sorry for jumping to his defense without knowing the details.”
Pain stabs at my heart.Fuck.
“We can talk about that later. I have somethin’ I need to say.”
“Is it about why you were arguing with my dad?”
“Yes.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “I want you to know I kept this from you because I’m an ass and I thought I was doin’ the right thing.”
She stares at me, her eyes wide, then she folds her arms over her chest. “I’m listening.”
“I, well, there’s no easy way to say this.” I puff out my cheeks. “Willow, your dad came to me because he’d received multiple death threats toward you, threats he’s been interceptin’ so you didn’t know.”
“W-what?”
I swallow. “He came to me to ask if I’d keep an eye on you. A protection order, and the contract for the maintenance and upgrade of the security system and cameras.”
“Oh, my god.”
“And I agreed, obviously?—”
“Is that… is that why you’ve been sleeping with me? Because it’s part of yourjob?”
“No,” I say quickly. “I don’t know how you can even think that. You know what we have together. But these threats, Willow, you have to understand we were tryin’ to protect you.”
“How? By trying to rule my life just like my father? He clearly thinks I can’t run my own life, and so do you!”
“That isn’t true. Trust me when I say I never wanted to lie or keep things from you. I love you. The idea that you could be hurt, or someone could take you away from me, overruled every other emotion inside of me.”
She shakes her head. “That is not a good enough justification for lying and keeping shit from me. Who else knows?”
I look down at my feet.
“Haze? Who else knows?”
“Just my brothers, Sawyer, Cash, Ryder and Star.”
“Star?”
“She was doin’ some PI work.”
She backs away. “I don’t believe this. You not only went behind my back and sided with my father, but then the entire club is aware of something I’m not even privy to?”
“When you put it like that, it does sound shitty.”
“How dare you,” she says, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “I trusted you!”
“Babe.” I reach for her. “I’m sorry. This fuckin’ creep sent letters. You don’t understand how depraved he is.”
“Show me.”
