Page 35 of Marked By Myth

“Figured you’d be hungry.”

“At least you’re thinking about my welfare.”

He didn’t respond, but I could see the stiffening of his jaw as if he were biting back what he really wanted to say.

The smell from the bag was intoxicating, making me wonder when I had last eaten. Cowboy pulled out a juicy burger and I just about drooled at the aroma.

“Is that…”

“Yes,” Cowboy laughed. “Some things don’t change, do they?”

I grabbed at the burger and carefully unwrapped it, not caring if I got burger juice all over me. This was one of the hardest things to give up when I moved away.

“You’ll get indigestion if you inhale it like that, Rox,” Cowboy warned with a smirk on his face.

“Worth it,” I said around a mouthful of food. The taste of the greasy burger was second to none, and it always had been. The best damn greasy burger joint in all of Sydney and it was just down the road from the clubhouse.

Once it was gone, Cowboy smirked at me and handed me my bucket of fries.

“How you holding up?” he asked, seriously. “I know your stay here hasn’t been…optimal.”

I snorted and almost choked on a chip. “You mean by being manhandled by my ex-husband, thrown around like a ragdoll and marked permanently, sure, my stay hasn’t been optimal. I’m close to asking for my money back.”

Cowboy rolled his eyes. “You and Myth…you’ve always been…intense. Wild, reckless, yes, but together…it’s a sight for sore eyes.”

“We’re not together, Grayson. He is holding me hostage because he’s a caveman and doesn’t like the word no.”

“He’s not a monster, Rox. He has never stopped loving you. When you left, it changed something in him.”

“I’m sure he had plenty of girls jumping all over him to replace me.” I hated that it still scored painfully across my chest when I thought of him with other girls. I was engaged to another man. A man who was incredibly pissed off right now, but engaged all the same, yet the simple thought of another woman being in Myth’s life had me on edge. Being back here had me all kinds of fucked up.

“You’d be surprised.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

Cowboy shrugged. “When he comes to talk to you, Rox, be open to it. Tell him what you went through, because I imagine it wasn’t easy when you left, and then tell him what you truly want. He won’t keep you locked up forever. He’ll listen if you truly want to leave.”

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” I said, almost wistfully.

“What happened?”

“Let’s put it this way, I left fifteen years ago and I only found myself in London seven years ago. I have no family who wanted anything to do with me because I was a biker whore, so I did what I could to survive. I found myself lost to drugs because it numbed the pain of seeing my best friend kneeling in front of my husband and losing him because I couldn’t bare to know that he wasn’t mine anymore.”

Cowboy looked down, and I could see he felt bad for me. Those days were long behind for me, but being back here brought up how lost I truly had been.

“Why didn’t you call one of us? I would have come and got you. Even if you hated him, Myth would have done anything to help you get your feet on the ground.”

“I wanted him to chase me, to pick me. I wanted to be what he wanted and he never came for me.”

Tears burned the back of my eyes as I remembered the feeling of my hope dwindling with each passing day.

“He knew he fucked up, Rox. He didn’t want to hurt you anymore. If he knew there was a chance, nothing would have stopped him from finding you.”

I shook away the bad memories and finished my fries, the food now tasting sour in my mouth.

“Why won’t he let me out?”

Cowboy sighed. “It’s not safe right now.”