“I’m not fucking her,” I grunted low.
Was that enough? Because it sounded like bullshit, even to me.
Brody cracked up, a riotous, unruly sound, likely only picking up on the back half of the conversation. “That woman is sleeping in your bed, brother, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a whole lot of sleeping going on.”
I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t start.”
With an arrogant laugh, he raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m just telling it like it is. It’s damned unlikely that I’m the only one around here noticing you basically go rabid whenever she walks into the room. Not that any one of us would blame you.”
Insinuation weaved its way in, an extra thread in the cock of his head.
Oh, but there was plenty of blame there.
Trevan glanced between everyone, attempting to temper the mood. “I don’t see any reason to be throwing around accusations. Prez says nothing is going on, then nothing is going on.”
It did nothing but drive a hot blade of guilt directly through my sternum.
Phoenix slanted tattooed fingers through his hair, doing his best to tamp down his irritation. You’d think he’d still be quenched from yesterday’s kill, but no, he was antsy.
Thirsty for blood.
He seemed to gather himself a fraction, his words subdued but hard. “Worried something is going on here that you’ve become too blind to see. Am worried she’s becoming a liability. We have too much riding on this for intentions to get skewed. What you pulled last night in front of the entire club…?”
He trailed off with the implication.
I wanted to whip around and tell him that what I’d pulled was letting every single asshole there know she was mine.
But she couldn’t be.
I was the one who’d given the charge.
Deemed her off-limits, and it was the kind of rule that was delivered with a stamped seal that there would be dire consequences if someone was stupid enough not to comply.
I heaved out a strained sigh, trying to gather my thoughts that had sprinted in every wrong direction. Remind myself why I couldn’t continue on the path that I was traveling.
All while I did my best to ignore the energy that seeped from the office, her spirit a hum right at the edges of my consciousness, luring me back toward the moment’s paradise that she had given.
Could still feel and taste her all over me.
“She disobeyed me, and I was putting her back into her place. As simple as that. Nothing is clouded. I know the mission and what’s riding on it.”
It was a miracle I didn’t choke to death on the blasphemous words.
Dubiety dented deep into Phoenix’s sinister brow. “Do you?”
“Of course, I do.”
Everything.
I knew I had to put an end to this obscenity.
Because this was getting so much deeper than just my oath to the club, which was hefty enough. Truth that I’d basically bartered the woman to gain the upper hand on Dereck Webber. The fact that there was a very good chance I was going to have to put the bastard in the ground made it that much worse.
More than anything, the bare specks of my conscience kept screaming to stop being a pillager of the good. Dragging Brinley deeper and deeper into something she didn’t want to be a part of.
I couldn’t keep dipping my toes into the treachery. Convincing myself I was offering her something good when I was really only stealing for myself.
It was nothing but a scourge of selfishness and greed.
