Chapter Six #2
I roll my eyes. “Fine.” I snatch the offered helmet from him and slip onto his bike, making sure to hold the bars at the back instead of his waist. I watch as Bria gets on behind Bully, wondering why he hasn’t demanded I ride with him like he always used to.
And it hurts. The silent treatment hurts.
Bully
I’m pissed. So pissed, my hands hurt from gripping the handlebars too tightly. I’ve spent the week watching from a distance, learning what she likes, what she does outside of work. I even asked what she’d ordered from her local takeout last night. The server thought I was a creep.
But I wanted to give her the space she clearly needed while I learned more about her, because even though I hate to admit it, she’s right—I didn’t listen as much as I should have on all those visits. I was too busy making sure no one was paying her any attention, letting my jealousy rule me.
But then Whizz tracked her phone to Tudor’s and checked the live cameras to see her talking to that fucker, again, and I lost it. I can’t even bear to look at her right now.
I blink, realising I drove the whole ride lost in thought and I’m back at the club. Taz pulls beside me, and Liv jumps off before he’s even stopped the engine. She rips off the helmet and shoves it against his chest. “What the fuck am I doing here?” she demands.
Bria slides off from behind me, taking off her own helmet and passing it to me. “Calm down, Livvy,” she soothes.
“Why are you suddenly complacent in all this?” she snaps.
Bria looks surprised at the anger aimed her way. “I’m not, but you’re getting so upset. We can get a cab. The good thing is we’re away from that guy.”
I remove my helmet and get off the bike. “That guy who’s part of The Bloody Scorpions,” I say, putting my helmet away.
I head inside with the women hot on my heels. “Am I supposed to know who that is?” Liv demands.
“You’re staying here,” I say. “Both of you.”
“I can’t,” Bria begins, and I spin, narrowing my eyes until she recoils.
“Both of you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Liv yells. “We have jobs and a life.”
“And then you mixed yourself up in a war.”
She follows me into the office, slamming the door closed. I sit, smiling when Misty jumps on my lap. Liv stands in front of the desk with her hands on her hips, looking around. “It hasn’t changed.” She says it like it leaves a bad taste in her mouth.
“You wanna decorate?” I snap. I open the drawer and pull out a roll of cash, throwing it on the table. “Then decorate, Liv. Whatever makes you happy.”
“Why are you mad at me?” she snaps. “I’m the one who should be mad.”
“You’re always mad. Why change the habit of a lifetime?”
She glares at me then bursts into tears.
My heart aches to hold her, but I grip the arms of the chair and force myself to stay seated.
“You have this way of making me feel like a nagging old wife,” she cries, swiping angrily at her tears.
“Like my reactions are unjustified.” I keep my mouth closed as she begins to pace.
“I had everything planned, and you came out of prison and just continued in this life like you’d never left.
I waited for you for five years, believing your promises to change your ways. Did you lie just so I’d stick around?”
“No,” I say, frowning, “of course, I didn’t.”
“And the day you got released, I sat outside like a fucking idiot, Bully. I was excited to see you, to finally be able to hold you without being told off by a guard. I chose my outfit, my underwear . . . I even went and had my hair done. I booked us that room so we could spend the day and night uninterrupted.”
“We stayed at the hotel,” I argue.
“To fuck,” she screams back, and Misty growls. “We fucked,” she repeats more calmly.
“And you walked out the next day like we were a one-night stand. So, you made it seedy, not me.”
“Because that’s how it felt,” she whispers sadly. “The only time you spend any time with me is when you’re inside me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Five years of visits, once a week. Daily phone calls for five minutes. What did you learn about me, Bully?”
I lower my eyes, knowing she’s caught me out. “We’re both adjusting,” I mutter.
“Nothing,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You learned nothing. And the years before that, you spent wrapped in this club. I know this is your life, Bully, and I’ve given up trying to make you notice me. So, let me go. Stop holding on to me when you have other priorities.”
“So you can go and fuck the president of the Scorpions?” I spit. “You think he’ll have more time for you than me?”
“He turned up there. I had no idea.”
“But you sat and had a drink with him.”
“I was being polite.” She sighs. “I have no interest in him or his damn club. But one day, I will move on from you, Bully. Surely, you know that.”
“Why can’t you just stay by my side, support me with the club?”
“You know why.”
“Because you blame them for me going inside?” She nods.
I take a breath and look her in the eye.
“I know you want to believe they made me do that shit,” I tell her, “but you know me, Liv. You know it was me.” She shakes her head again, this time breaking eye contact.
“I beat him, and if I hadn’t been stopped by Hawk, I’d have finished the job. ”
“No,” she whispers.
“You know deep down and you’re trying to find reasons to justify it. But you know this is me. I am that guy. I live on a very thin line between good and bad, and let’s not pretend that’s not the reason you fell for me in the first place.”
“If you weren’t loyal to this club—”
“I’d be inside for murder,” I tell her. “This club gives me a reason to live. It keeps me on that line instead of letting me cross over and living my life on the dark side. Hawk didn’t ask me to go after Pearce.
I did that because it was the right thing to do.
He didn’t deserve to breathe after what he did to your sister, and I did what I did for that reason, not because the club ordered it or I wanted to prove myself. ”
“Bria wanted him to pay.”
“And he did pay.”
“By the proper channels,” she screams. “She wanted justice.”
I stand abruptly and round the desk, standing close so she has to crane her neck back to look at me. “I gave her that because he was gonna walk from prison, Liv.”
“You don’t know that.”
I groan in annoyance. “He was gonna walk, I promise.”
“The whole trial collapsed because of you.”
I grip her shoulders, gently shaking her.
“The judge was corrupt. He was going to walk free. I had to give him a clear message.” She shakes her head and tears slip down her cheeks.
“I want to protect you. I like that you don’t see the darkness in this world, Liv.
It’s why I let you look at the world through innocent eyes.
But I know different, and I am telling you to trust me on this.
He was going to get off. Stop blaming the club.
It was on me.” I release her. “I think you were looking for any excuse to hate this place,” I add, my tone gentler.
“If I hadn’t been involved in this club, I never would have introduced Bria to that monster.”
I nod in understanding. “And that’s the real issue, you feel guilty,” I mutter. “Why did you wait for me, Liv?”
She glances up. “Because I love you.”
“If that’s true, you wouldn’t ask me to choose.
You’re looking for reasons. You know damn well I won’t leave this club, and I don’t think you even want that.
You want a reason to walk away so you can tell everyone I wouldn’t choose you.
Deep down, you blame me, but you can’t openly say that because everyone will tell you you’re wrong.
You’ll look unreasonable, and we all know how you hate to be the one to blame for anything. ”
She glances away. “That’s not true.”
“We all lost out the day Bria got attacked,” I snap.
“I lost a brother, and Hawk lost a nephew. My dad lost a son. But we put you and Bria before the club.” She opens her mouth to speak, but I don’t give her a chance.
“Not only because we loved you, but because it was the right thing to do. You both turned your backs, and I sat back and let that happen because I felt guilty. But I’ve had five long years to think shit over, Liv, and I realise it’s not my fault.
It’s not the club’s fault. It’s not yours either.
The blame is on him. Pearce. He did what he did, and he faced the consequences.
And if I could, I’d kill him, but he even took that away from us. ”