Chapter 6
Six
I’d call you a cunt, but you lack the warmth and depth.
—Gentry to Black
Gentry
I’d meant to go talk to her before this.
Really, I had.
But life had gotten a little bit busy.
I’d had the club.
My new job.
The friends that I’d made.
The looking over my shoulder.
Fuck.
I should’ve made time.
Looking at the hurt and broken look on Sage’s face made my stomach clench.
“I’m alive,” I said, “because some man that has the skills to get me out took pity on me and my predicament, and made it happen.”
She opened her mouth and closed it, dropping her finger from my uniform shirt.
She looked lost in that moment, and it took everything I had not to pull her into my arms and hug her tight.
“And it’s just a coincidence that I ended up here right along with you?” she asked softly.
Too softly.
“I didn’t want you to have to marry that asshole,” I said. “And you were just as much a victim in all of that as I was.”
She said nothing.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. We couldn’t chance anything at first. Then I just got…overwhelmed.”
“Overwhelmed,” she mused. “So you let me think, for nine months, that you were dead. That I was the reason you were dead.”
I winced.
When she said it like that…
“I didn’t mean it to come off like that.”
“I know there’s no love lost between us,” she whispered.
“I know. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t care.
I wrote you every single day, Gentry. I cared.
I cared a lot. You saved me from a fate worse than death.
And I’m really sorry for what happened afterward.
But I deserved to know that I hadn’t killed you. ”
“You didn’t,” I promised.
She turned her back on me and opened the door to her RV using a key code on the lock pad.
Her dog barreled out, stopped to growl at me, then started wagging his tail.
The day before I was sentenced, I’d seen a man in the parking lot of the Walmart selling dogs.
There was one left, and I thought… “Sage needs a dog to protect her.”
It’d been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
I’d paid a grand for it—not like I’d be needing my money anytime soon anyway—and then taken it to her house and dropped him off.
I’d spent a total of thirty minutes with the puppy.
But it looked like he still remembered me.
“Hey, boy.” I held out my hand and let him sniff my fingers.
He barked, tail still wagging.
He didn’t come to me, though.
“Neo.”
The name must’ve been a release of some kind because the dog shot toward me, sniffing me excitedly.
I gave him a good scratch and then looked back toward Sage, who was watching it all with no emotion on her face. “I knew you were the one that got him for me.”
I shrugged.
“It meant a lot,” she admitted. “Thank you. He’s been my best friend.”
I nodded. “Sage…”
“I think I’m good.” She went on, “You can go.”
I sighed. “I was just going to tell you a few things since you know now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and waited.
I scratched at my head, realizing that I should’ve known this wasn’t going to be easy.
Yeah, I should’ve told her everything the day she got here.
I shouldn’t have waited.
“I pulled some strings to get you here.”
Her eyes zeroed in on my face so intensely that I shifted from foot to foot.
Her long brown hair was up in a messy bun on top of her head, and there was quite a bit of it falling out all around her face.
And her gray eyes.
So beautiful.
“We kind of…hid you.”
She tilted her head. “How?”
At least she didn’t ask why.
We both knew why she needed to be hidden.
“When you left and sold your house, Apollo was able to hide your trail. No one knows you’re here. The person that loaned you the truck was a club brother. He was with the Little Rock Dixie Wardens Chapter.”
She blinked.
“Your new ID was from one of our guys, too. So it’s very solid.”
She shook her head. “Is that why it says Sage Ryan instead of Sage Kelly like I told him?”
I nodded.
“And that’s why this long-term RV reservation is under Sage Ryan?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“What about my travel nursing paperwork?” I asked. “I did it under my married name.”
“All changed, hidden, and secure. You’re free.”
She shook her head. “I like that you think that I am…but I’m not. I’ll never be free of them. It’s only a matter of time.”
The look of disappointment that went through her had me reaching for her hand.
She snatched it back before I could touch her.
My stomach sank.
“You’ll never have to worry about Dario O’Neal, Sean O’Sullivan, your brother or father ever again. That I can promise you.”
She shrugged. “You may think that but…”
“This town is protected by the Dixie Wardens MC, Sage,” I said. “You live your life, and we’ll keep making it safe for you to live it.”
She looked like she was afraid to hope.
“And what about us?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Are we still married?” she wondered. “How does this spin in your made-up world?”
“To everyone on the outside, you’re my ex-wife,” I explained. “Only the club brothers and their spouses know the real information.”
She shook her head. “Are you telling me that there are people out there that know my life story? Know everything?”
The anger that I saw in her eyes was something else.
Sexy as hell and captivating.
She probably would hate that I thought that.
“If you’re asking if they know about that night,” I said. “They don’t. They know you’re here to escape someone. But that’s all they know.”
She looked like she still didn’t believe me.
“I promise,” I said.
She snorted. “I don’t think your word holds much power anymore, Ramsey.”
She hadn’t ever called me by that name.
And it hurt that she’d used it now.
“You can’t use that name ever again,” I said. “It’s not just us that needs to stay hidden.”
Curiosity lit in her eyes.
I could tell that she wanted to ask questions.
But like I didn’t share her information with the others—at least not fully—I wouldn’t share theirs with her.
If they wanted to share it with her directly, that was their prerogative.
But I’d had my life violated enough to know that I wouldn’t want others doing it to me, so I didn’t do it to them.
“Whatever.” She looked away. “I have to take Neo for a walk.” She moved past me. “See you around.”
I was dismissed.
I found that I didn’t like being dismissed.
At least not by her.
But since I was a good person, I chose to give her the space she was obviously asking for.
As I left out, though, I tried not to examine how the situation made me feel.
It was of my own making, after all.
Every time I saw her over the next three months it was more of the same.
Acknowledgment. Politeness. But under it all was a burning anger directed at me.
I deserved it.
After I’d left her that night, I’d given it a lot of thought.
And I realized that I would’ve been pretty fuckin’ pissed, too, had I learned that she’d died, then found out that she wasn’t dead after all, but hiding.
We had a bond.
One that was forged in fire.
I should’ve shared it with her sooner.
Or as soon as I could.
I’d gotten her here as fast as I could, away from the Irish Mob’s clutches.
But I hadn’t spared the time she deserved.
So, yes, it was understandable that she would actively avoid me. Or outright glare.
I deserved everything she was giving me and then some.