Chapter Twenty-One #2
“And that song rocks.”
“Totally,” I agreed as I unlocked the door.
I pushed open the door just as Dani said, “I still can’t believe—”
I stalled, cutting her off and she slammed into he back of me with an, “Oooph. What the hell, Maisie?”
“Hey there, Sunshine,” Hatch said, his booted feet up on the coffee table of the little living room, his arms looped over the back of the sectional, and an expression on his face looking like he might murder someone.
“Oh, shit,” Dani whispered behind me.
Hatch rose to his feet. “Your man’s down the hall, sweetheart. Go ahead and join him, yeah?”
“I’m not leaving her alone with you in this state,” Dani countered.
“Why the fuck does everyone think I’m gonna hurt the women around me?” Hatch growled.
“Just go, love,” I said. “I’m good.”
Dani frowned, but left us alone, and I faced my husband, setting my purse on the counter. “How did you find us?”
He shook his head. “Oh, we’re not doin’ that right now.”
I crossed my arms. “And why aren’t we doing that right now?”
“Because I’m holdin’ on by a goddamn, fuckin’ thread so instead of you askin’ me questions, how about you start by givin’ me some answers.”
“And what answers would you like?”
“What would possess you to leave without your phone, panic buttons, or anyone at your backs?”
“I think that would be obvious.”
“It’s one thing to do that to me, Maisie, but another to do it to my brothers.”
“Your brothers kept the fact that you were going to face a psychopath alone at some ungodly hour of the night while I was healing from major surgery. An emergency surgery, I might add, where you left me alone and unprotected and someone got to me.”
“You weren’t alone, baby. We got the asshole before he could do anything and I had to finish it.”
“No, you didn’t,” I snapped, tears coming unbidden.
“Yes, I did. Warlock would have kept coming if I hadn’t finished it.”
“And what if he’d killed you?” I screeched. “What if he’d taken you from me? What then, Connor?”
“He didn’t. And it’s finished now.”
“Well, it isn’t finished with us. We needed a way to make you understand how much you broke our trust.”
“Your trust, you mean.”
I waved my hand around the room. “Our trust!”
“Jesus christ, woman, it was reckless, and you know these woman would walk off a bridge if you told them to.”
“Oh, hello pot. And I didn’t tell them to do shit!
” I practically bellowed, tears now streaming down my face.
“They were just as angry as I was that you walked out of that clubhouse without your trackers and phones, and we didn’t know where you were for hours.
I know what it means to be the wife of the president of a club, Hatch.
They are well aware of the responsibility too, but we have limits.
And we reached ours when you came back beat to shit and nearly dying on the clinic table because we couldn’t take you to a proper hospital! ”
He dragged his hands down his face and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say here. I think we’re at an impasse.”
“We’re at a fucking impasse, Hatch?” I whispered. “Really?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say you’re sorry. I want you to acknowledge what you did was wrong! I want you to promise you’ll never do it again!”
“Can’t do that, baby.”
“Then, you need to get out.”
He scowled. “What the fuck?”
“You’ve dug your heels in, big man, and when you do that, you can’t be reasoned with. Right now, I’m tired and a little drunk, and when I’m like that, I have no patience for your bullshit!”
“Mais—”
“No, Connor, we’re done. You need to go.”
He studied me for a few tense seconds and then shook his head. “I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
I let out a frustrated grunt and returned his scowl. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re boorish and bullheaded, and I’m not dealing with this crap anymore.”
Palming his eye sockets, he let out a long sigh, then met my eyes again. “I will never lie to you. I promised you that when we first met and I have never gone back on that, so I can’t say that I’m sorry for what I did because I’d do it all over again to protect you, the club, and our family.”
I crossed my arms again but stayed silent. He could talk and his words could form the noose with which to hang himself.
“Nothing I ever do is meant to hurt you. Ever. You are my world. If anything happened to you, baby, I’d follow you into the dirt.”
I will not fall for his sweet words. I will not fall for his sweet words.
“Then why would you do something so colossally boneheaded as fight Warlock to the death?” I screeched.
“He wouldn’t stop coming at us, Sunshine. He has always done shit like that. All the way back to fuckin’ Jana when we were young.”
I gasped. “He was the one?”
“Yeah. He was the one,” he confirmed. “And he was comin’ after you next, baby.
Do you really think I was gonna let that happen?
” He jabbed a finger at me. “And before you try to twist this into something about payback for my ex-wife, you know that you mean, and have always meant, a million times more to me than she ever did.”
“I know,” I whispered.
And I did know that. I knew how much he loved me and how far he’d go to protect me and our children. Jana was simply a footnote in Hatch’s sad past. One he’d worked really fucking hard to overcome because he had four younger siblings he needed to raise.
He stepped a little closer to me. “That being said, I will not apologize for what I did, but I will apologize for the way I made you feel.”
“Maya Angelou cannot save you right now,” I bit out.
“Baby, I don’t give a rat’s ass about her. I care about you.”
“If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have done what you did.”
“That’s untrue and a little unfair, and I think you know that. The situation wasn’t that simple.”
“What is simple and unfair, is you putting your life at risk without me knowing where you even were.”
“That was to protect you. But I’m sorry you were scared.”
“Scared?” I slapped my chest. “Hatch, I wasn’t scared, I was terrified. You’re not hearing me!” I suddenly couldn’t breathe, and I sank to my knees.
“Fuck,” he hissed, lifting me off the floor and carrying me back to the sofa, settling me on his lap.
It took me a minute, but once I could form words again, I said, “I’ve been scared before, Hatch. Fear I can handle. But this time, you terrified me. Your actions had me more frightened than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
Hatch wrapped his arms around me, holding me close as I cried and it didn’t take long before he gave me a squeeze and breathed out, “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so fuckin’ sorry. I get it now. I will never scare you like that again.”
“Never again.”
“I will never go anywhere to get my ass beat unless you have full disclosure beforehand. How about that?”
“Oh, you’re never going anywhere without a goddamned leash.”
“You’ve already chipped us, what more do you need?”
I bit my lip and fiddled with his zipper pull on his jacket. “Well, about that…”
“What now?”
“B-12 shots.”
His body stiffened. “What the fuck?”
“Katie had to give you a tetanus shot at the clinic, and it gave me an idea. I mean, some of the guys got actual tetanus shots, because they were alarmingly out of date, but you got a B-12 one.”
“Is that why my piss smelled weird?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Your ability to evade, lie, and generally pull one over on a group of people astounds me, Sunshine.”
I tugged on his beard. “I learned from the best.”
“I love you.” Hatch ran a thumb gently down my cheek. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I will work to earn your trust back and we’ll figure out a way to communicate differently in the future, so this doesn’t happen again.”
I grabbed Hatch’s phone from the side table and sent a quick text, then focused back on him.
“What was that?” he asked.
I buried my face in his neck, drawing in his scent. “Just calling off the hit I’d put out on you.”
He laughed. “With my phone?”
“Well, I don’t know any hit men.”
“Good point.”
I kissed his neck again. “I was letting Dani know I’m gonna need some uninterrupted time for my husband to apologize some more.”
He chuckled. “Is that what you need?”
“Yes.” I kissed his neck. “So, get to it.”
He squeezed my bum and eased me off his lap. “Lead the way, beautiful.”
I took his hand and led him down to the bedroom.