Mimic met me outside. “Where are you going?”
“None of your fucking business.” I tossed the bag in the back seat and climbed behind the wheel.
“What do I tell Sam?” His words made me pause. I didn’t miss that he was more concerned about Sam’s feelings than Jack’s. He was closer to her, despite Jack being his club brother.
I blew out an angry breath; I was a grown fucking man who didn’t have to answer to anyone. But Jack was my brother, and I was trying to build a relationship with him. And Sam, even though I didn’t love her the way I thought I did, I still loved her like a sister. I owed them both for opening up their home and their hearts to me.
“Tell them I have something I need to do, and I’ll be back in a few days.” Then I pulled out of the clubhouse in the direction of Pennsylvania.
Chapter Fifteen
Katrina
A few days had passed since I told Derek what Richard had done to Frankie, and we hadn’t seen or heard from him. The anger I saw on his face as he threw the money on the table and looked at me told me everything I needed to know.
He blamed me.
I couldn’t fault him for his assessment; I blamed me too.
I didn’t know what possessed me to tell him everything. Except that he’d opened up to me and told me about his parents and his brother. He shared something personal with me, and I felt it only right to do the same. Then he stood up and just... left without a word.
Just like he did after he kissed me.
Frankie watched him leave and the smiles and laughter she’d shared with Cami disappeared. They still hadn’t come back.
“Hey, Frankie, want to go shopping?” I asked, sitting down beside her on the front porch.
“No,” she answered, her eyes pointed down the road.
“Why don’t you call Cami and we can see about going over to the orchard? I know you’ve been wanting to go.” She didn’t answer, just stared down the road. “Frankie?”
“Where do you think he went?”
I closed my eyes, not wanting to have this conversation. “Why do you think he went anywhere?”
“Because he hasn’t been to that house.”
“What house?”
She pointed to a cute little two-story home a few houses down. “He goes there every week. But he hasn’t been there.” She had a hopeful look when she turned to me. “He must have gone out of town.”
“Frankie, it doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. Maybe he had to leave suddenly.”
My heart couldn’t take much more. Derek had been playing with my daughter’s affection since the day we met him. I had to find a way to pull her away from this obsession she had with him.
“Frankie, it’s probably his girlfriend.”
“No!” she snapped. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend. He told me.”
“He probably lied. That’s what men do.”
“He didn’t lie.”
“Frankie, you don’t know—”
She jumped off the step and turned on me. “I do know! It’s his therapist. He told me.”
