“I feel shit for her,” I finally admitted. “Real shit that burns in my gut. I can’t just forget that and walk away from her. One taste of her was always gonna be my undoing, but I had to have her all the same.”
We stared out over the side of the clubhouse, smoking our cigarettes in silence until the gates opened and the sound of Harleys filtered up to us. Ripped, his crew, and the rest of the Highwaymen drove into the clubhouse grounds before pulling up and parking their bikes.
I turned and Fighter grabbed my arm.
“Brother?”
I glanced back at him, my mood somber. “What?”
“What are you going to do?”
I clenched my hands into fists, squeezing them open and closed as I took a steadying breath. “I’m going to tell him how it is now.”
Fighter frowned and stepped in front of me when I tried to walk away. “And if he don’t like how it is?”
“He won’t have a choice about it.”
~ 17 ~
Quinn
“Holy hell, Quinn, your life is more of a train wreck than mine is!” Gracie took a sip of her vodka and Diet Coke and grimaced. “And we all know what a total fuckup my life is right now.”
Bonny-May was sleeping in her playpen in the living room, and we’d headed to the kitchen to fix me a drink to steady my nerves. I wasn’t entirely sure what Battle intended to do, but either way I couldn’t see it working out in my favor, no matter how many promises he made me. I had no doubt—no doubt whatsoever—that he intended to keep me safe from the fallout of everything, but I knew promises couldn’t keep me safe from Ripped.
Ripped wouldn’t let me go without a fight, and it was a fight that Battle would be more than willing to give. If nothing more than to save face.
“Hey.” Gracie reached out and placed her hand on top of mine. “It’s going to be okay. That man of yours isn’t going to let anything happen to you.” She pushed her drink toward me and I gratefully accepted it.
“Yeah, and which man would that be?” I snarked before taking a long drink and wincing. “Oh my god,” I gagged.
Gracie smirked. “Yourrealman—Battle. Now drink up.”
She grabbed a mug from the cupboard and turned the water on the stove on to boil as she started fixing herself a coffee. I stared down into my glass of vodka before pushing it to one side.
“Make me one of those,” I said, and she smiled and took another mug down. “How are you feeling today?”
Gracie sighed and leaned against the countertop. “Like a truck hit me, but we’re all about the Quinn-plosion today, remember?”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t we just talk about you for a while?” I dragged my hands down my face, my fingertips lingering on my mouth as the ghost of Battle’s lips brushed over them. What the hell was happening to me? How had I even gotten myself into such a mess? I had been unsure of where Ripped and I were going for weeks now, but I never saw myself cheating on him. Especially not with a Highwayman.
But Battle filled my soul in a way nothing ever had before. He made the air taste sweeter and the world seem a little brighter. Everything just made sense when I was with him and he was stealing pleasure from my body and whispering things to me.
Yet we were chaos and destruction and I couldn’t see how we could come through it together, without blood or tears being spilled.
“Hey, earth to Quinn.” Gracie took away the vodka and replaced it with a mug of coffee.
She was staring at me with concern and I felt a bubble of emotion pressing between my ribs before it slowly began working its way up my throat. My chin began to tremble and my eyes burned with the need to cry.
“Don’t do that,” Gracie said, coming around the counter and pulling me into a hug. “It’s going to be okay, I just know it.” She kissed the top of my head and the floodgates opened.
I started to sob and she hugged me even harder. “It’s all just such a mess, Gracie!” I wailed, “and I’m such a coward!”
She pulled out of the hug to look at me. “A coward?”
I nodded.
“What do you mean?”
