“I’m staying safe.” I resist the urge to wrap my arms around myself and hide from him.
“Here? You married one of them instead of Grant?” The disbelief and entitlement in his tone tells me this was probably a mistake.
“Do you know what kind of monster he is? What he planned to do to me?”
Robbie’s dark eyes search mine like he did when I shut down as a kid. When the expectations on me became too much, when I got too emotional for either of my parents todealwith me. “Is it worse than what you’re letting these men do to you?”
They haven’t done anything to me, but Robbie would never believe me if I told him as much. “They’re protecting me. From him. From Dad. From you.”
That makes him flinch.
“He doesn’t want me back because he loves me. He wants to silence me.”
“I won’t let him hurt you.”
I hate how sincere he sounds because he has no idea what it’s like to be a woman under the thumb of a powerful man like Grant. I’ve been lucky enough to get out unscathed.
“How are you going to stop him?” My gaze is steady.
Robbie’s brow wrinkles, and he’s got no answer for me. Because he’s just as much a cog in the machine as I am.
I shake my head. “The answer is that you can’t. That’s why I’m here. It’s why I’m staying.”
“Do you love him? Your new husband?”
I shrug. “I don’t know him well enough to love him, but I do feel safe here.”
He nods, resigned, frowning when he looks to where our father waits. The disappointment he’s going to face when he returns without me is going to be rough. But if anyone knows how to endure our father’s disappointment, it’s his kids. It’s us.
Robbie steps forward and wraps me in a tight hug. “Just be careful, Wren.”
“You, too.”
After he leaves, I go back to my room and do as Doc instructed me, I use my violin to process the mess of emotions swallowing me whole.
13
SIN
I slam my way through the back entrance of the club house. Another fruitless stakeout, watching Knox while the guys go on a weapons run. Smuggling them has gotten easier, but the risks never abate.
My skills would have been better utilized on the run. My potential wasted, and the only thing that kept me in place was that watching Knox meant the thought of Wren’s safety.
But the silence. The lack of movement. The waiting.
It has me too far in my own head, and that’s not good on a normal day. It was worse today because my thoughts turned to Wren while I sat there. How I can’t seem to get over her lack of fear. Of me, especially.
I’ve never seen a woman like her shine the way she does, even when she’s amongst the club members. Even when the sweetbutts make snide comments about her to whoever’s bike their warming that night.
And I can’t seem to stay away from her when I’m home. Can’t seem to stop watching her. Drawn to her out of instinct.
Maybe it’s how she doesn’t flinch away from my touch.
Saint’s noticed.
Judge’s noticed.
Doc’s noticed.
