Chapter 37
“I can’t do it.”
The room falls silent the second the words leave my mouth, eight pairs of eyes all darting my way from around the table.
I’ve been building myself up to this all fucking day, trying to figure out the best way to break the news that my plan to bring down Watson royally backfired when I fell in love with his daughter.
Ultimately, there was never a right time, so I opted to ripping the Band-Aid off and getting it over with. Either way, it won’t go down well.
I’ve failed my club. My family. They put their faith in me and I’ve let each and every one of them down.
“Can’t do what?” Myles asks.
“The photos of Kaia. I can’t use them. I can’t do that to her. I won’t.”
“…fucking knew it,” Jett mutters under his breath across from me.
I narrow my eyes. “What was that?”
His eyes dart up to mine. “I said I fucking knew it. I knew from the start it was a bad idea. You’ve been dragging this out for months and it’s only now you decide you can’t pull through?”
I’m taken aback by his words. “Why would I drag it out?”
“Maybe because you enjoy fucking her a little more than you anticipated,” Jett snaps.
“Fuck you!” I jump up from my seat, my chair crashing backwards to the floor as I grip Jett’s collar and drag him across the mahogany table.
Myles rises from his seat as the rest of the guys disperse, backing away from the table. “Killian. Jett. Cool off!”
Jett grins and my anger grows. “I’m right, aren’t I? Typical Killian letting his dick do the thinking.”
“Shut your fucking mouth. You have no fucking idea,” I spit.
“So what? Killian Hunt finally decided to grow a conscience?”
“What the fuck do you want me to say? That the thought of betraying her like that, degrading her doesn’t makes me sick to my stomach?
‘Cause it does. Every time I look at her, every time she smiles at me like I’m the guy who hung the fucking moon, the guilt eats me up from the inside out.
You want me to admit that this whole plan I came up with has blown up in my fucking face?
Because it has! I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t.
Either way, I let one of you down. Her or the club. And I choose her.”
Jett’s eyebrows shoot up. “You’d choose her over us?”
“Everything I’ve done has been for this club! I owe Myles and this club my life and I love every single one of you like family but there is nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Nothing.” I’ve said too much.
Jett studies me for a moment. “You love her,” he breathes out, his expression softening. It’s not a question because he already knows the answer.
My grip on his shirt loosens. “Yes.”
There’s a long pause, my confession hanging in the air, the silence deafening as Jett’s eyes flick between mine.
His mouth stretches into a smile, and he laughs. “Well, fuck me, it’s about damn time.”
I release his shirt, taking a step back. “What?”
“Do you think we’re all so blind we don’t see it?”
“Kill, man. You forget we know you so well,” Cruiser adds.
“We’ve known how you feel about her for a while, bro. Seems it’s been obvious to everyone except you,” Alex says from the other end of the table.
“You just needed a little nudge,” Myles says.
My eyes ping pong between all of them.
What the fuck is happening?
“You’re telling me you did all this to get me to confess that I love her?”
Jett shrugs with a smirk. “You’re a stubborn bastard, you sure as hell weren’t gonna do it on your own.”
Ray’s hand lands on my shoulder. “Gotta say, I never thought I’d see the day you got yourself a girl. But I’m happy for you, kid. She’s a good one.” Ray gives me a wink.
I smile. “Yeah, she is.”
“Does she know how you feel?” Myles asks.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Then I suggest you lock that shit down pronto, bro,” Cru says.
“Hell, you two getting serious is the biggest ‘fuck you’ to her dad!” Jett’s grin is wide.
“You’re not mad?”
Myles sighs. “Kill, how could we be mad? We’re your brothers. We’re happy if you’re happy. And you look pretty fucking happy to me.”
I scrub a hand through my beard. “But I couldn’t pull through on my end. I’m letting you all down.”
“You’re not letting anyone down. You thought we’d be mad at you for falling in love?” Myles asks.
“There’s definitely something to be said about the love of a good woman,” Ray adds. “It’s what makes us better men.”
“And the plan?” I ask.
“Fuck the plan. The plan went out the window the second you started listening to your heart and not your dick,” Jett chimes in.
“Where do we go from here? Without the photos, where does that leave us? Watson’s not just gonna give up.”
Cru smirks. “Funny you should ask. It’s not been easy and I’ve had to do some pretty shady shit but I think I’m onto something. Got into his finances. Took a while, but I got there. He’s made multiple payments to the same account, payments that date back over twenty years.”
I lean forward on the table. “Who was he paying?”
“Not got that far yet, but I’m working on it. Watson knows how to cover his tracks, but not well enough to hide them from me. I’ll get there.”
Just like that, a massive weight has been lifted from around my shoulders. My brothers don’t hate me for backing out of the plan I set in motion, we’ve figured out a way to get rid of Watson and I get to keep the girl.
Either I’m the luckiest bastard in the planet or it’s all too good to be true. And in most cases, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.