Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
B ELLE
Inside the car, Annika doesn’t start the engine immediately. She pauses before she looks across at me. “You okay?”
“Yes, but I’m not the one who got hit in the face.”
She reaches up and touches the bruise forming around the broken skin on her cheek. “It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. We should get Priest to have a look at it when we get back to the clubhouse.”
“No need. Nothing a little ice and makeup can’t fix.” She puts the crumbled box of cupcakes on the back seat. “You did well in there. You might make a good old lady after all.”
“One fit for the president?”
She raises an eyebrow. “We’ll see. What you do next will determine that.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you tell Beast or don’t tell Beast about what just happened with Gaston.”
My eyes widen. “Of course I’m going to tell him.”
I want him to break Gaston’s face for it.
More than once.
“And it’s up to you, of course.”
“Aren’t you telling Ryder? Or your cousin, for that matter?”
“Neither of them need this on their plate right now. This is what being an old lady is all about. Protecting our men.”
“What do you mean?”
“Things are tense already. They both need to focus on what’s happening with the club. And Beast has to make a lot of decisions that carry an enormous amount of weight. Telling him about this will distract him. You’ve got to consider if this distraction is going to put him in harm’s way.”
“I want him to know.”
So he can set fire to Gaston.
Or do something equally as painful.
Maybe with a blowtorch.
Annika looks out the windshield. “Even if he does something stupid because of it?”
“Like what?”
She brings her gaze back to me. “The moment Beast hears about Gaston putting his hands on you, he’ll let his emotions get the better of him. He’ll go rogue. Mow down everyone and everything in in his way to get to Gaston and then cut off his dick and make him eat it.”
The thought, if I’m honest, gets me a little excited when I picture it.
Watching Beast annihilate Gaston is right up there in the spank bank beside a shirtless Beast, fresh from the shower and wearing nothing but a tight pair of boxer shorts that outline his giant?—
“He will defend your honor or do something equally as stupid,” Annika adds.
She’s wrong. Because Beast doesn’t feel that way about me.
Even if yesterday felt more like the real thing than an act to fool the clubhouse staff. Him not coming home last night was the reminder I needed that this is nothing but an act.
I reach for my seatbelt and pull it across my body, clipping it into place. “I think you’re overestimating Beast’s feelings for me. You make it sound like he’d set fire to anyone or anything standing between him and his revenge on Gaston.”
“No, you’re the one underestimating what he feels for you.”
I consider telling her that Beast and I aren’t in a real relationship. That this is an arrangement only. Feelings aren’t involved. But I don’t want to betray Beast, so I keep my mouth shut. It’s better for him to tell her when he’s ready.
“Are you telling Ryder what happened?”
For the first time since meeting her, I see the inner conflict in her expression. She wants to tell her husband. Probably for the same reasons as me. We want our men to hunt down Gaston and pulverize him into a thousand tiny pieces.
She clips her seatbelt into place. “No, I won’t.”
I bite my lip as I weight up the options. “I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s up to you, Punchy. Normally, I would say tell him because I don’t like keeping things from my old man. But in this case, you need to consider if it’s information he needs to hear right now when his focus needs to be elsewhere.”
She has a point.
As much as I want to tell him what just happened, I don’t want him to go off half-cocked and get himself killed.
“I won’t tell him,” I say, and I see the relief in her eyes as well as a smidge of appreciation. She could be manipulating me. But I doubt it. She has nothing to gain from it. Besides, I can see the concern for Beast in her eyes. She loves him. And she genuinely wants me to do what’s best for him.
“Good,” she says, as she starts the car engine. “Now you’re talking like an old lady fit for a prez.”
“Let’s not get too excited,” I say, already doubting my decision to keep my mouth shut.
She pulls out into the street and we head toward the clubhouse.
“And honey, just so you know…” She gives me a sideways glance. “If Beast ever finds out Gaston laid a finger on you today, he’ll do more than burn down anything standing between him and his revenge. He’ll burn down the entire fucking world.”