Page 34 of A Twist of Fate

I blew out a frustrated breath. “I’m not a part of the club any longer.”

“G, I can’t explain everything right now, okay? What I’m going to tell you is that I don’t think one lone chick could follow you guys the way she did without help.”

There was no containing the stunned gasp that left my mouth. “You think someone in the club made her do that?”

Kane nodded his head. “Even if that turns out not to be the case, we still needed someone on the inside to look out for you guys. Ever’s even closer to the club now than before since she married Deck. You’re close to Anna again, and she’s married to the club too.”

“But I’m no one,” I whispered.

“You’re someone to me. To us,” he corrected quickly. “You girls need someone looking out for you. That’s all this is. I swear to you, I wouldn’t have any need to join this damn club if not for that.”

“I can’t ask you to do that though.”

“You didn’t ask. I’m still doing it, G. It needs to be done, even if I have to dismantle the club from the inside out to make sure you’re all okay. There’s a rot inside that club and it’s been tainting everything that comes in contact with it for a really long time.”

“Why does it have to be you? It’s dangerous, Kane.”

“I know what I’m doing, and I have backup on the inside too, honey. No need for you to worry about me. I promise.”

“You can’t make that promise to me. Toby made me the same promise, and look what happened to him.”

“Okay, how about if I tell you I’m being as careful as I can while making sure you’re all out of the crosshairs of anyone who may have possibly been working with Seneca.”

My heart stopped beating. Swear to God, it skipped whole beats. I didn’t like it at all. “I already lost Toby,” I whispered to Kane as he watched the emotions play out on my face. “If what you’re thinking is true, then you could be in danger. I don’t know if I could take it. What if we lost you too? And this time I would know that it was my fault.”

“How the hell could it possibly be your fault?”

“That woman didn’t start following Toby until I was in the picture. She used our secret trysts to her advantage in a way, because no one else ever saw her following us, following him, so they never took it seriously. Not until just before…” I couldn’t even get the words out. “If you’re really there to protect me, and the other girls, then it would be my fault. All of it.”

Kane reached out and pulled me into the warmth of his embrace. The heat from his body seeped into me, chasing away some of the cold dread that had settled deep in my bones. “Please, don’t take that on your shoulders sweetheart. It’s not like that. I’m helping to weed out the bad people from the bunch, and they’re already rotten to the core. No involvement from you could ever change that fact. It wouldn’t matter if you tucked tail and ran off to the other side of the world, there would still be a problem in that club that needed to be dealt with.”

“But you’re not even a full-fledged member yet. Why can’t one of the actual club brothers do something about it?”

“Because Merc doesn’t know who to trust and who not to trust. The older guys came up with him and he has blinders on where most of them are concerned. Then there’s the younger crowd that he doesn’t really know well enough, they haven’t been tested thoroughly enough yet to know how loyal they actually are.”

“Please, just be careful.” It was all I had left that I could say. I knew it, and so did he.

“I have an appointment scheduled in a few minutes. Will you be all right up here until I get finished?”

“Go, do your work. I’ll be back down in a minute. Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be throwing all my drama around at work, but you shocked me walking in with that thing on.”

“I know it, G. If I could have given you a warning, I would have.”

“Did you actually plan to tell me?” There was a slight pink tint that flooded his cheeks that gave me the answer.

“Honestly, I was hoping to put it off as long as I could because I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Well, I’m officially worried, but Kane,” I started and waited until I had his full attention again. The moment his brilliant blue eyes settled on my own I finished. “I would rather worry over you than have you living lies like I lived before. At least this way, I know to look out for you too.”

Chapter 11

Accountability

Kane

Gretchen pushed into me and gave me a hug before I left her in the apartment to pull herself together. It felt right to have her in my arms, even as I felt guilty as fuck for thinking it. Toby was dead, but for some reason it still felt like I was betraying him, betraying what they had together to feel things for her. That’s why it didn’t settle well with me as I walked down the stairs to hear Zeke placating Ever about what had gone down and the things Gretchen had mentioned before I took her upstairs.

Zeke handed Ever a tissue to wipe the tears from her face as I moved into the employee lounge where they were. “Don’t sugarcoat things for her,” I told him before addressing her. “You and your family found out about Toby, and you all left that girl high and dry in the hospital. She just lost her man and her baby, was physically hurt herself, and not a goddamn one of you came back to make sure she was okay. I get it, you all lost Toby. She lost the two people she loved the most that day, one that had still been a very physical part of her being. I thought you were better than that.”

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