Chapter 24 Chance
CHANCE
“Nice seeing you where you belong.” Paul smirks, staring at me through the bars. He’s wearing some fancy-ass suit, his hair combed back.
“Nice seeing you lose again,” I reply, smirking. “Consorting with bikers now, Paul? Who would have thought that you’d drop so damn low?”
“Rather them than you,” he replies, pulling out a chair and sitting. “You know I ran into a man at dinner last night, and we got to talking. Did you know that Miss Masters’ ex-boyfriend is in town? Flew all the way from Melbourne to try and win her back.”
My throat tightens to the point that I can’t breathe, but I keep my face expressionless because, no, I didn’t know that her ex was here.
“You seem very invested in my private life. Is that why you got your son to try to make Kenzie uncomfortable at school? Are you proud of raising a man like that, Paul? Seems you hate me for being a criminal, but you’re raising an even worse one. Even I would never harm a woman.”
His face turns red. “I hated you long before you were a criminal, Chance. I hated you when you fucked my girlfriend. The only woman I ever loved.”
“That was almost twenty years ago. You should probably let it go.”
“She moved away after you broke her heart. I was going to marry her!” he spits out, shaking his head and calming himself down. “The Bloody Scorpions might not have worked out, but you’ll still be doing time for the drugs they found.”
“Is that why you’re here? To rub that in my face?”
His beady eyes dance with glee. “I’m here to tell you that while you’re in here, I might ask Miss Masters out. She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she? Maybe she’ll want a professional man now with a degree. One without a harem of women.” He stands, laughing before he walks out.
I’m going to kill that bastard when I get out of here.
I killed two of the Bloody Scorpions, and Ghost took out the president. The rest of the club left after that, and Ghost told them that if they came back here, he would come back too.
Why the fuck didn’t I tell Kenzie about Gia? A small omission, I thought, but it’s come to bite me in the ass now because she’s going to say she doesn’t trust me.
She doesn’t trust me.
I fucked up everything.
When she hung up on me yesterday, I lost my shit.
I need to get out of here so I can talk to her in person. I need to make her understand that I love her. I want her to be my old lady, to wear my patch, and be on the back of my bike for the rest of our lives.
I don’t want any other women.
She’s mine.
And I’m not letting her go.
Not now, not-fucking-ever.
It takes longer than I thought to get released, but when I do, a week later, I make a quick stop at the clubhouse before riding straight to Kenzie’s.
Cash told me he has basically moved in there and is getting the life he never got with me.
Kenzie makes his school lunches and cooks him dinner every night.
She does homework with him at the table.
She’s become the mother I wished he’d had.
When I pull up at her house, I see her out the front, looking beautiful in a long black dress.
Her hair is tied up in that high ponytail she likes to wear, showing off her beautiful features.
Standing next to her, though, is a blond-haired man who must be her ex-boyfriend.
Why the fuck is he here? Did I send her right back into his arms?
They are both watching me as I climb off my bike, and my temper flares hot as he steps in front of her as if protecting her from me.
“Chance,” Kenzie says softly, keeping her expression blank.
Fuck. I hurt her so much, and it’s killing me.
“Siren.” I sigh, my eyes just eating her up. I’ve missed her so damn much, and with everything being up in the air between us, I’ve hated every second of being away from her.
“Who is this?” he asks, and my eyes narrow. He looks to be about her age, which annoys the hell out of me. A suit, Freya had called him. He probably works in an office, has no tattoos, and has likely never been arrested or in any trouble with the law.
On the outside, it probably looks like he fits her better.
But no one will ever love her like I do.
“Chance, this is Jesse. He decided not to take the hint and tried to talk to me again. But he was just leaving, weren’t you, Jesse?” she says pointedly.
Jesse glances between us. “This is who you’ve been dating? How old is he?”
“None of your business,” she replies, turning to me. “I need to talk to you quickly, and then you can leave too.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” I tell him, taking a step closer. “I might be older than you, but I can still beat the shit out of you without even breaking a sweat. Kenzie is mine. I don’t want to see you here again.”
He takes a few steps back, then turns around and storms to his car.
“You’re back,” Kenzie murmurs, taking me in.
I need a shave, and I could probably use a haircut. But more than anything, I just need my woman. Unable to stop myself, I reach out and touch her cheek. “What did he want?” I ask, even though I already know what he wants. And he’s not going to get it.
She rolls her eyes and shifts on her feet, looking down. “Nothing. I just wanted to make sure it was okay with you that Cash has all but moved into my guest room. Now that you’re back, I’m guessing he will move back into the clubhouse, but he’s always welcome to stay here.”
Cash? She wants to talk about Cash.
I suppose I should be happy I still have any connection to her, especially since it’s something like her love for my son.
But right now, I want to talk about us.
“He can stay with you if he wants, but right now we’re going to discuss something else,” I say, pulling her closer to me.
“Chance,” she warns, her hazel eyes flickering with hurt.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave, but I needed you to leave,” I say quietly, breathing in her scent.
“I panicked at the thought of you getting hurt. They threatened to kill you, and they sent me pictures of you. They were following you. I needed you to leave right away. So I told Freya to take you away. I gave her my credit card and told her to take you somewhere you always wanted to go. She said you always wanted to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Freya knew?” she asks, her eyes filling with tears.
“No, she didn’t know what I was going to do,” I promise her. “But she did know that she was going to take you away until things were contained here.”
“You could have just told me. You didn’t need to break my heart with something that I was insecure about anyway. Between Gia and seeing what I saw…” She covers her face with her hands. “I can’t unsee you with that woman, Chance. And now you’re saying it wasn’t even real. Is this all a game to you?”
“No, baby. No.”
She’s tearing my heart out, and it’s only fair considering I did the same to her.
“There were so many ways you could have handled this, and that is what you came up with? To hurt me so badly, you knew I would leave and not come back to you. Well, you got what you wanted, because this changes nothing. You put me through all that for nothing? That makes it worse!” Her tears fall, and I wipe them away, each one like a knife to my chest.
“Fuck you, Chance. Go back to not caring about women. That’s safer for you, anyway, isn’t it?”
I don’t let her see just how much her words wound me. She needs to get all this off her chest, and I need to endure it.
I know I deserve all her hate.
And she’s right, I was an idiot.
I was fucking terrified that they would get to her.
“I didn’t touch that woman. I haven’t touched any other woman. I only want you. Be my old lady, Siren. I love you.”
She’ll probably hate me when she finds out how I make that official, but it’s too late for that.
“You’re going to tell me you love me now?” She frowns, shaking her head as she turns around to walk back to her front door.
Where my woman and my son live…
Without me.
This feels like a fucking failure, and one I’m going to rectify immediately.
I’ll do whatever it takes to win back what I’ve lost.
Mackenzie Masters is mine.