Page 51 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Well, whatever it’s like, you’re not going to blame me because you never took any of the many opportunities you had to get to know me.”

“You’re right.” He scraped up a few more pieces of glass as I slid past him to go downstairs and get some towels to mop up the rest of the mess.

When I got back, he took the towels from me. “There are tiny pieces of glass mixed in. I don’t want you getting cut,” he told me, so I moved to go lean against the edge of my desk.

As soon as he got all the moisture up, he threw the towels inside the trash can too and then moved to me, holding his hand out. Curious, I took it with my own.

“Come with me?” He asked.

“Depends on where we’re going,” I answered honestly.

“We’re going for a ride, but you need to go get changed first.”

I eyed him skeptically but followed him downstairs anyway. When I was finished getting some jeans and boots on, he was waiting for me in the living room with two helmets in his hands. One was clearly meant to be a woman’s helmet since it was a sparkly purple color.

“Yeah, no, I’m not wearing that!” I told him automatically.

“What? Come on, I’ll drive safe, I promise.”

The noise that came out of me was the sound of disbelief, but it had nothing to do with whether I thought he would keep me safe. “I’m not wearing the helmet that you put all your whores in when they ride with you.”

His head drooped immediately, sinking between his shoulders as if it was too heavy to be held up any longer. “Fuck, Lily! Can you make anything easy? I just fucking bought this thing so I could take you on a ride. I haven’t even had a bitch on the back of my bike in years.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that last part, but I moved closer and noticed that there was still a tag stuck to the helmet. “Fine.”

“Can you try to trust me for a minute? I know that I’ve done fuck all to earn it over the years, but I’m really hoping you can try, just for today.”

He sounded so sincere that I gave in, grabbed the helmet and put it on. “Let’s ride then.”

He grinned as he put on his own. Then he took my hand and walked me out to where his bike was parked behind my Jeep.

“Wait,” I yelled and started heading back to the house, but his grip on my hand made me come to an abrupt stop.

“What?”

“I need to call my dad and let him know where I’ll be.”

“No, you don’t. I left a note on the table, the prospects at the club know, and grandfather duty isn’t supposed to be up until sometime tomorrow anyway, right?”

“Right,” I agreed reluctantly as he threw a leg over his Harley, and I had no choice but to follow. I got settled behind him and rested my feet on the pegs that Merc had flipped down for me.

He walked the bike backward out of the drive, slowly, trying not to tip us since my added weight made it a little awkward. “I could have waited to get on once you turned around,” I teased.

“Hush,” was his response as he reached around, grabbed my hands and pulled them tight around his mid-section. I held on, as he intended for me to do, and he took off down the street heading for the highway, I presumed.

To my surprise, we rode for a little over two hours and ended up in Savannah, Georgia. When he finally pulled off down in the French Quarter. We both took our helmets off and then just sat there for a moment. “What are we doing all the way down here?”

“Lily, outside of what you told me earlier, when’s the last time you went anywhere without Declan, just to enjoy some time to yourself out of the house?”

He got off the bike and helped me up as I thought about it. The lunch I had with Paul was the last time I left the house without Declan in months. Before that, it was to go see a movie in the theater with Stacey when she came to town to visit as well as a night of dancing while Shannon watched Declan for me. There wasn’t really anything else. I wasn’t counting the party Merc took me to a year ago, because I tried to forget that ever happened.

“It’s been a while,” I admitted.

“I’m an idiot,” he told me as he put the helmets down on the bike and pulled me closer to him. “I’m going to do a little something to make it up to you, but you have to trust me, okay?”

Once again, he was asking for a pretty tall order, but I hadn’t been to Savannah since before my mom left us, so for the night, I was just going to let go and see where this adventure took us. “Okay, lead the way then.”

To my complete surprise, instead of stepping back away from me, he leaned in and kissed the top of my head, then made sure he had ahold of my hand before he spun and pulled me along with him.

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