Page 63 of Bombshell

She let out a heavy sigh. “Calista Churro. Her daddy was in Judgment before he was killed in a motorcycle accident about eight years ago. She only stayed around about six months after that and then left without warning to California. She has an aunt that lives out there or some shit.”

I continued to stare at Pepper. There was more. More she was not wanting to tell me. I could see it all over her face. But I also knew she would. Pepper was the most honest person I knew.

She leaned back on the edge of her desk. “Calista and Micah grew up in the club together. They were friends for years until they were more. Micah…well, Micah was in love with her. But Calista could only truly love herself. She’d always been that way, but Micah was too blind to see it. She left him with nothing but a letter, apologizing. I thought he’d chase off after her, but he didn’t.”

Micah had been in love. Micah had been in love. Micah had been in love.

I felt as if I might break into a million pieces right here. Part of me wished I could.

Micah had been in love. With…a woman who looked like a supermodel.

“Stop it,” Pepper said, standing back up and walking over to me. “This was seven years ago. Micah has long since moved on from his childhood love he had for Calista.” She bent down in front of me and took my hands in hers. “Don’t do this. You’re getting in your head and making this more than it is. If he had wanted Calista at any time, he had known where she was and could have gone to find her. He never did.”

I took a deep breath, feeling the burn of it all the way into my chest. “He told her I was a friend.” My words barely came out as a whisper.

Pepper’s hands tightened their grasp on mine. “He’s going to regret that. It was just the shock of seeing her here. This thing with you is new to him. He’s never in his adult life felt like he does about you with any woman. You make him happy. As much as I was against the two of you, I will admit that I’ve never seen my brother so damn happy in his life. He’s settled. He isn’t searching for something. He isn’t restless anymore.”

“Pepper, don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I saw her. I cannot compete with that.”

“And you don’t have to because you win, hands down. You DO NOT know her. She might look pretty on the outside, but it is skin deep. Micah found that out the hard way. Your beauty is inside and out. She can’t compete with you. She doesn’t even hold a candle.”

I shook my head just as the door to her office swung open, and Micah came storming inside the room.

His gaze went from Pepper to me. “What the fuck are you telling her, Pep?” he demanded.

Pepper stood up and placed a well-manicured hand on her hip. “What you should have told her before just running off like an asshole.”

“I needed a goddamn minute!” he shouted. “I didn’t need you to come take her and tell her shit that doesn’t concern her.”

Pepper threw up her hand and stalked toward Micah. “Doesn’t concern her? Are you shitting me right now?!”

“Come on, Tink,” he said, looking past her to me. “We’re leaving.”

I stood slowly, not sure if going with Micah was what I should be doing, but the idea of him leaving me also felt unbearable. He held out a hand in my direction, and like a moth to a flame, I went to it. Knowing that the woman he had loved thought I was a friend of his. She was back and wanted to talk to him. It had affected him too strongly for there to be no feelings left there anymore.

His fingers wrapped around my hand, and he tugged me closer to him. “Congratulations on your opening,” he said to Pepper, then all but dragged me toward the door.

“Don’t fuck up,” Pepper warned him.

He didn’t turn around or even slow down. We walked through the bar and right back to the front door we had entered earlier. I didn’t look around or make eye contact with anyone, although I knew every Judgment in here was watching me being hauled away by Micah.

When we got outside and I saw my pink helmet sitting on his bike, I wanted to burst into tears. I had thought his buying that meant something. That it had been his way of saying I was his. That we were together. That he cared.

He didn’t say a word as he walked me over to his bike, put my helmet on me, as he always did, then climbed onto the bike. I took his hand and threw my leg over, sliding in close to his back, then wrapped my arms around him.

Tears burned my eyes as I inhaled the leather vest and wondered if this would be my last time on the back of his bike.

30

Dolly

I walked into the apartment after Micah unlocked the door and opened it, then stepped back for me to enter. Silence. He hadn’t spoken one word to me, and I wasn’t sure what to say. Everything I’d thought I knew had been snatched away from me in moments. The security I had started to feel with him was gone.

“What did Pepper tell you about Calista?” he asked me.

I turned around to see him standing there with his arms over his chest defensively. As if I had something to answer for and this was all my fault. I wanted to scream at him. Hit him. Make him hurt the way I was, but I knew I’d never do that.

“That you grew up together. You were in love with her, and she left after her father was killed,” I said simply.

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