Okay, enough was enough. “Um… I’m right here, and I’m a fucking adult who can make her own choices. I don’t need you to give your club rules about me like I’m some unstable person who can’t be trusted to make a good decision for myself.”
Copper stared at her hard, probably thinking of the horrible choice she made in choosing Jason, but thankfully didn’t say it.
“I’ve never done anything to harm this club, Copper,” Saint said, solemn as could be. “And I never would. I do not believe my relationship with Beth causes any problem for the club.”
Copper laughed, but it sounded ugly and mocking. “Relationship.”
“Yes. I am deadly serious about Beth. About us. I won’t walk away from her.”
Beth stared up at him in awe as realization crashed over her like a wave she never saw coming. She loved him.She loved him.Not just wanted him, not just needed him, but loved this man who’d risk his entire life to be with her. Who’d stand in front of her father, knowing Copper held so much power over him, and say he wasn’t leaving as if it were the simplest truth in the world. Her throat tightened, and she blinked back tears.
Copper scoffed. “You’re what? Fucking twelve or thirteen years older than she is?”
Shell coughed.
Beth gawked at her father. “Seriously?” The man had sixteen years on his wife, whom he worshiped to this day. Who the hell was he to judge?
“You fucked your position in this club, Saint. No matter what happens right now, you’ve destroyed the trust of every fucking brother.”
“No, he didn’t,” Beth said, exasperated beyond belief. “That’s insane.”
“It ends now. Maybe you can salvage something if you cut it off now.”
“Dad!”
“I’m sorry, Copper. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
Relief made her knees wobble.
“Then get the fuck out of my clubhouse. The club will vote because that’s how we do it, but you’re done. You fucking betrayed me.”
And there it was.
She wanted to scream. To beg her father to change his mind, but the stern set of his jaw and the flat look in his eyes told her it’d be a waste of breath. Copper had made up his mind.
“I’ll go too,” Beth whispered. “If you make him leave, I’m going with him.”
An expression of pain she’d never seen before crossed Copper’s face. “I wish you wouldn’t,” he whispered in a resigned voice because he knew.
She’d made up her mind.
Beth looked to her mother, who also had tears rolling down her cheeks. Shell nodded and mouthed,I love you. At least they had the support of one of her parents.
Still holding her hand, Saint turned, and together they walked out of the clubhouse. The pain was excruciating. It felt like a death. She’d have to grieve the part of her life she’d just gotten back and realized how much she loved.
As soon as the door slammed shut behind them, closing them off to their entire world, Beth’s knees crumbled. If Saint hadn’t caught her, pulling her against his chest, she’d have collapsed on the concrete.
“We’ll be okay, Beth,” he whispered as she buried her face against his chest and wept. “I fucking promise we’ll find a way to make it okay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
BETH DIDN’T SAY much on the ride to his house. Saint tucked her into her car’s passenger seat and texted Gator to pick up his motorcycle later. Gator agreed to deliver it to the house in a few hours, with Rizz’s help. Beth was too distraught to ride home on the back of his bike safely.
He held her chilled hand and didn’t try to make conversation as she stared out the window, lost in thought. She needed this time to absorb everything that happened tonight.
Copper’s face, when Saint strode into the clubhouse, would stay with him for a long time. Shock, betrayal, and hatred. A man he’d respected and admired since the first time they met stared at Saint as though he were no better than a deranged serial killer.
That fucking hurt.
