He’d been devastated when, back in the day, Chaos had gonefrom running a garage and growing and selling (then illegal) pot totransporting drugs and firearms through town and pimping women.
He’d been thrilled when the Club had ousted Crank, someoneDad had always hated (and he wasn’t a hater, if he didn’t like you, he justdidn’t like you, he didn’t detest you—but he’d detested Crank) and Tack hadtaken his place and cleaned up the Club.
And now here this all was, in my new house where I hadn’teven sat my ass down on the couch.Goodness, the kind that Dad had always givenme, and more, Dad would always want for me.
Goodness that it was now Snapper who was giving it to me.
“Rosalie,” High called my attention to him.
“Yeah?”I asked absently.
He was watching me closely.“You good?”
I shook my head, not in the negative, to pull myselftogether.“Yes, yeah.I…it’s just that a lot is happening.”
“Then I’ll get this over with, get you inside so you canhave a drink, get warm and startsettlin’ in.”
Okay, now I was focused on why High and I were weirdly outin the courtyard for privacy.
“Uh…” I mumbled.
“It was me,” he stated.“Snap wanted on you.He wanted tomeet face to face.I fucked up.Made a piss-poor call.I was worried that hewasmeetin’ face to face with you because he was intoyou, which he was and is, but you had a man so I thought he’d get his heartbroke.I also worried that Bounty was entering territory they weren’t used todealin’ with.I provided security back in the day whenChaos did stupid shit, and when I did, I’d keep an eye on everything.Even oldladies.I thought he’d get caught with you or someone would see you togetherand inform on you, and I thought you’d be safer, communications were not inperson, but he’d also be safer, notfallin’ deeperinto it spending time with you.”
I had to admit, it was good to know why that had happened.
And I didn’t want to admit, but I had to do it, that havingHigh confirm what Snapper had already made very clear, that he’d been into me along time, was more than good.
But now that I knew why, and the why was that why, it didn’tmatter.
More, I didn’t like the idea that these guys were kickingthemselves about something that, bottom line, wasn’t their fault.
Yes, they’d promised to protect me.
But I had to pull my head out of my ass and get over thefact that what happened was not about them not doing that.
It was about the choices I made, the choices Beck made, andthe choices Bounty made.
The Chaos brothers did the best they could do.
The rest was not on them.
“It wasn’t you who beat the hell out of me, High.You didn’tfuck up.”
“Snapwouldakept a closer eye onyou if I hadn’t warned him off.”
“He couldn’t be with me twenty-four, seven and have the jobget done,” I pointed out.“None of you could.”
“We fucked up,” he reiterated.
“You didn’t fuck up.”
“You were at work and Speck was on you and we covered you intransit or when you were at your ma’s orshoppin’ orshit like that.We also kept an eye on Bounty to be sure they weren’t makingyou.We couldn’t be on you when you were with Throttle because eventually, he’dsee.But Speck was supposed to do drive-bysof therestaurant and since the bust went down and you didn’t get outed, he thoughtyou were safe so he went and got himself some tail from a girl he’sseein’ and didn’t stay on you or alternately keep tabs onThrottle.He thought you were at the restaurant, you’d be safe, and he knewwhen your shift ended and he’d see you home.We also had no warning Bountyclued in on what you’d beendoin’.”
“High, seriously,this isn’t on you.It’s not onSpeck.It’s not on Roscoe.It’s not on Snap.Being with Throttle, you couldn’tkeep an eye on me every second of every day and I knew that.I also knew therisks I was taking and I got caught.I informed on an MC to what is now a rivalMC.The cops were involved.This is not okay in the world I was living in and Iknew that.I still did it, I understood what I was doing, and I knew if I wasfound out I’d have to deal with some unhappy bikers.”
“We were supposed to have you covered.”
“That was an impossible task.”
