Chapter 17
FROST
“We expecting company?” Chaos asks.
I don’t look up as I put in the last screw for the new chrome tailpipes that I had custom-made for my Harley. The chrome really stands out against the matte black finish. Most of my brothers prefer a glossy paint job, but not me. I’ve always been drawn to matte finishes.
“Not that I know of,” I respond. “You know how it is this time of year, though. Could be a last-minute toy donation.”
Colt whistles. “Whoa, who’re they?”
“Definitely not from around here,” Glitch adds. “I’d remember those beauties.”
I swing my head in the direction they’re all looking. Her car pulls into an open parking spot by the front door.
Hope.
For a split second, I genuinely think I’m hallucinating. I blink hard, twice. Nope, it’s her. She’s here. My entire world tilts as she puts the car in park. Then the passenger door opens, and Amy steps out with her bat.
“Oh shit,” I groan.
Chaos glances at me and back at Amy. “What the fuck?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Glitch step forward. Reaching out, I grab Glitch’s arm before he can intercept.
Amy clocks his movements, scowls, and swings her bat wildly. “We’re not here for you, but I’m willing to make an exception if you piss me off.”
Glitch crosses his arms. “You’re fucking psycho, lady.”
Amy laughs maniacally. “You want to come over here and find out just how crazy I am?” She points her bat at me. “Your boy here, destroyed my best friend, my sister in arms. I’m here to make sure he listens to everything she has to say. If he doesn’t, well… what’s a broken kneecap… or two?”
Throwing my hands in the air to surrender, the tools I was holding clatter beside me as I drop them.
The second Hope steps out of the driver’s side, my heart skips a beat.
Those beautiful hazel eyes seek out mine.
If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man, but behind the fury, I see the hurt and pain that I caused.
“Amy!” Hope calls. “I’ll handle it.”
I instinctively reach out for her. “Hope—”
“How dare you!” she shouts, voice cracking on the last word as she storms toward me so fast that I’m bracing for impact.
I flinch. “Darlin’, please—”
“No.” She jabs a finger into my chest, hard. “No, you don’t get to do that! You do not get to call me that right now!”
Amy stands behind her, gripping the bat like she’s waiting for her cue to swing.
Hope keeps going, her voice shaking with fury and heartbreak. “You left. You left without a word. Without a call, without a goodbye. After everything we… after everything… I thought we were—” she stutters, and it guts me. “You disappeared, Frost.”
Every word slices straight through me like a hot knife through butter.
“I know,” I say, voice rough. “I’m sorry—”
“Sorry?” she yells. “Do you know what the past week has been like for me? Do you have any idea how terrified I was? How hurt and confused I was! I thought… I thought I did something wrong.”
The idea that she ever believed she was the problem nearly knocks me to my knees.
“No,” I choke. “God, Hope, no. It wasn’t you. It’s me.”
Amy snorts. “That’s what they all say. Move, Hope, I’m gonna hit him.”
Hope throws her arm out, blocking Amy with surprising force. “Amy, stop.”
“He made you cry,” Amy hisses.
“You’re right, he made me cry,” Hope fires back. “This is my problem to handle.”
Amy lowers the bat a millimeter. “Fine, but if he blinks wrong, I’m taking out one kneecap.”
I swallow hard. “Fair enough.”
Hope returns her focus to me, eyes watery and blazing. “Talk, Frost. Explain to me why.”
I rake a hand through my hair and begin to pace. My chest is too tight, and all the things I’ve shoved down break loose at once.
“I left because I’m a coward,” I start. “When my dad texted me about the club’s annual toy drive for Christmas, everything hit me at once. The responsibility, the grief, and the guilt. Stuff I thought I’d outrun. I felt like I had no right dragging you into all this, into my fucked up head.”
Hope’s expression flickers, and her anger seems to abate just a notch.
“I told myself you deserve better,” I continue, voice cracking despite my best effort. “Better than a guy who’s still broken over losing his mom. Better than someone who doesn’t know how to get his shit together. Anyone but me.”
Hope’s lips tremble.
“You’re still a dumbass,” Amy mutters quietly, but I hear her.
“I panicked,” I say. “I freaked out, and I ran. I shouldn’t have.
I know I shouldn’t have, but I was scared, Hope.
Scared of being too much. Scared of not being enough.
Scared of… losing you before I ever really had you.
” I blink back the tears threatening to spill over.
“I’ve been a wreck without you,” I whisper, the confession tearing out of me.
“During the day, I walk around the clubhouse biting everyone’s head off, and at night, I can’t sleep.
When I close my eyes, all I do is envision you lying next to me.
I swear I could smell you if I concentrated hard enough, but it's my own damn fault I left. I’d reach for my phone to text you, but I'd get sidetracked… No, that’s not an excuse.
I should’ve made time. I mostly stopped myself because I don’t deserve you. I—”
My breath catches. Hope steps closer, slowly, like she’s approaching a wounded animal.
“Frost…” she whispers.
“I’m sorry,” I choke out, voice raw. “I’m so fucking sorry. I love you. I’m in love with you. I was too fucking scared to say it, too scared to fight for it, so I ran like a coward. It nearly killed me, Hope, being without you. I didn’t realize how much you saved me from myself until I left.”
Her eyes go wide, tears spilling instantly. “Say it again,” she pleads.
“I love you,” I say with conviction. “I love you so damn much it scares the hell out of me.”
That’s the moment she breaks. She lunges forward and grabs me by the collar. I wrap her in my arms and welcome the feeling of being whole once again. She buries her face in my chest, and her fingers clutch my shirt like I’ll disappear again if she lets go.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her hair. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me… Please give me another chance to make it up to you.”
She sobs into my shirt for a moment and then lifts her head.
“We can work it out,” she says, cupping my face with shaking hands. “But you have to communicate, Frost. You can’t run from me. You can’t shut me out. If we’re doing this, we do it together.”
I nod, press my forehead to hers, and let my tears finally fall so she sees the sincerity behind my words. “I’ll never run again. I swear it.”
Amy sniffles loudly behind her. “Okay. Fine. You two can be disgustingly cute. If you hurt her again, I’m gonna do more than break your kneecaps, and then your boys over there are gonna help me bury the body.”
“Can do,” Glitch promises.
Hope turns and snaps, “Amy!” Her expression is murderous.
Amy just shrugs. “What? I’m expressing boundaries.”
I laugh, actually laugh for the first time in days, my arms still locked around Hope.
She looks back up at me, tears wet on her cheeks, and whispers, “Don’t ever leave me again like that.”
“Never,” I say, meaning every damn syllable. “Never again.”
I found the other half of my soul. I won’t let go.
Hope is my anchor, I see that now. When I walked away from her, the meaning of my life disappeared, and I became a shell of a person. Now that she’s in my arms again, I can breathe easily. No one expects to find their soul mate and fall in love in a matter of days, but I did.
Applause erupts all around us, and Hope’s cheeks burn red.
“Alright, assholes, knock it off,” I demand.
Chaos claps me on the back. “You fucked up, bro.”
I jerk my chin. “I know.”
“Damn, if I’d known you did all that to this beautiful creature, I would’ve beat the shit out of you myself,” Glitch admits.
Amy cocks her head at Glitch. “What’s your name?”
“Glitch.”
“Well, Glitch, your psycho is showing.”
Glitch throws his arm around her shoulder. “Stick with me, sweetheart, I think we’ll make a good team.”
I groan. “Oh fuck, no.”
Hope giggles beside me, and it’s like music to my ears. “You won’t be able to stop her now. She found someone as crazy as she is.”
The world could fall apart at my feet this very moment, and I wouldn’t give a shit. I have Hope back in my arms where she belongs, all is right.