It’s such a lie I almost expect to get struck by a bolt of lightning.
“Yeah, you do,” she says quietly.
She’s not wrong, but also, she’s not being very nice when my entire world has been torn apart. I close my mouth firmly and hold her gaze, hating this but not willing to make it any worse by saying the wrong thing.
She turns away with a heavy sigh. “Fine, I’ll go find him and ask him what’s going on.”
Still with the t-shirt clutched in her hand, she runs from the room, her footsteps pounding down the hall. A moment later, the door slams.
“Vani, wait!” I yell as I race after her.
My heart is beating so hard it’s making me dizzy. My arms and legs don’t feel like they belong to me. I run out of the house and look left and right, trying to spot my friend… well, probably ex-friend by now. I see her in the distance, heading toward the clubhouse.
“Vani, please stop!”
At my voice, she picks up speed, and I give chase. I can’t let her tell Jack about finding the t-shirt without coming up with some kind of explanation. God, I feel so stupid and embarrassed. He already treats me like a child half the time, and now he’s going to find out I’ve been sleeping with his t-shirt like some lovelorn teenager.
Vani reaches the clubhouse and vanishes inside.
I want to cry. I don’t want to go in there, knowing Vani’s men are also in there to support her, but I can’t let her speak to Jack without putting across my side of thestory. While she’s not wrong that I want to fuck her dad so badly it feels like I might actually die from unrequited desire, she also needs to know that nothing has happened between us. Of course, that’s all been down to Jack, so she has every right to never want to speak to me again, but I have to make sure she understands that she can’t be mad at her father. He hasn’t done anything wrong. All he’s done is take care of me.
I burst into the clubhouse to find everyone standing in the bar, including the club members who were in the meeting I interrupted—Ace and Ghost, and Saul. Vani is in front of her father, crying and waving the t-shirt around.God, please let the ground open up and swallow me whole right now.
Jack spots me, and his line of sight moves from his daughter, over her shoulder to where I’m standing, shaking and on the verge of tears, too.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt. “I just wanted something to sleep in. It didn’t mean anything.”
Vani throws me a look of pure rage over her shoulder. “Stop fucking lying!”
“Jack,” I say helplessly. “Please, tell her the truth.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, I wonder if that’s even possible. What if he was the one standing behind me last night, with one hand wrapped around my jaw and the other deep inside my pussy while we watched two other people fucking? If so, there’s no way he’s going to be able to do that. Is there?
I guess I’m about to find out.
29
JACK
I lookbetween Camile and my daughter, trying to figure out how the hell to handle this. Vani is my priority, but I feel for Camile right now. She looks broken, and if Vani were the one in her shoes, with me dead, and the rest of her family in hiding, I’d sure hope she’d find some softness and care in the world.
Guilt hits me as I realize that all we’ve given Camile is hardness and the biker life.
Christ, have I failed both these young women, the same way I failed my wife by letting her die?
“What the hell is going on between you and my friend, Dad?” Vani says with fire in her eyes, dragging me from my thoughts.
“Jesus, Vani, nothing!” What the hell else can I say?
“Don’t treat me like a damn child. I’m a grown woman. I recognize sexual tension when I’m around it.”
I don’t even like hearing the word ‘sexual’ come out of my daughter’s mouth. “Don’t speak to me like that.”
She brandishes the t-shirt again. “She has one of your t-shirts in her bed.”
“She does?” I focus on the material in her hands this time and recognize it. This is news to me. Where did she get it? She must have taken it from my laundry basket.
“Yeah, the one you lent her to sleep in. Where was she sleeping the night you gave it to her, Dad? In your bed?”
