“I’ll scream,” she warns.
“Go ahead. I’ve got Latin blood from three different countries running through me, so there isn’t much I haven’t seen and heard.”
“You are impossible.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“You look like a spoiled little kid.” My lips curve into a grin, and she frowns harder.
“That’s a laugh. Me, spoiled? All I’ve ever done is take care of people, and what has it gotten me? A prison term and an ankle monitor.” She waves her hand at me. “And now a bossy biker who thinks he knows what’s good for me.”
“At least that’s a start.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You being pissed off, getting it all out.”
“You want pissed off, you got it, ‘cause I’m sick of worrying about everybody else while they shit on me.”
“Like me?” The two words hang between us, and I swear if Ace is wrong about this talking shit, he’s gonna feel me.
“It’s everything and nothing, and I just don’t know . . .” She shakes her head. “No, I’m not doing this.”
“Why? Scared?”
Her eyes widen, and I consider shielding my balls.
She jerks herself up and glares at me. “Fine. You wanna know what’s going on in my head?”
“If you’re not too scared.”
When her eyes get wider I know I’m on the right track.
“The morning before the fire, I gave you the perfect out, but instead of being honest, you told me we had something special. Real special. Until you talked to Ace, and he convinced you I was—'unwanted baggage,’ I believe was the term he used.”
I hang my head. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“So you said, but what difference does it make? He said it, and you agreed with it. Then later on when he basically called me a whore, you let that go too.”
“He feels bad about that, and so do I.”
“Ohhhh, how sweet. So now I’m just supposed to act like he didn’t say those things, and you didn’t agree with him, eventhough it gutted me? Even though neither one of you knew what really happened or what I was going through?”
She turns away from me. “Viper was texting me. Threatening my father and you.” Her voice catches, and I reach out to her, but she pushes me away. “No matter what choice I made, someone would lose.”
“And you couldn’t trust me after what you heard me say to Ace.”
She nods but won’t look at me.
I sit down next to her on the bed and angle her face to mine. “I fucked up in a lot of ways, but believe me, I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did,” she whispers.
“Ace was wrong, but he's my VP, and after the last time, he was just trying to protect me, but?—”
“And what am I?” She points to herself. “Before we go any further, I think you better come clean and be honest with yourself and with me, ‘cause someone else letting me down will break me for good.”
“You’re right.” I heave out a breath. “I’ve spent too much time reliving the past and how I got screwed, when really it was my own fault. I had no right to put that shit on you.”
“Fine. Then are we done here?”
