Page 15 of April 5

When she was sixteen and found every opportunity to throw her arms around his neck, he should've forbidden her to enter the clubhouse.

Time after time, life threw them together until their age difference no longer mattered. They were two healthy people who connected on a different level.

She'd slipped into his heart and refused to leave. And he could do nothing about it because he was in too deep with her.

He loved Katrina more than he loved the club, and that was dangerous for a man like him. He was a leader. But Katrina made him blind and irresponsible.

Her bag hit the floor. She pummeled his chest with both fists.

"You're just like everyone else," she screamed.

He refused to stop her from hitting him. Since she was a little girl, she feared people leaving her. Understandable, considering her mom abandoned her. Her father left her and spent almost her whole life in prison.

He'd repeatedly promised her he would never leave, and she took him moving to Seaglass Cove as another person who had left her.

"No, I'm not," he whispered. "You know me better than that."

"You leave and don't even think about me." She slapped his shoulders. "You promised me."

He hadn't left her willingly.

She kicked out and yelled in pain when her foot connected with his boot.

Bane entered the hallway, grabbing Katrina from behind and dragging her away from him. He never took his gaze off her.

"Fuck you, Jagger." She squirmed in Bane's grasp. "You dirty cock-sucker. You can go to hell, asshole."

Her screams of profanity kept going long after Bane took her out of sight. Jagger walked back into the bedroom. The door shut. He swung out and punched the wall.

Hot pain radiated throughout his hand. Even his agony couldn't distract him from the painful cries filtering into his room.

She had a right to act out toward him. He deserved every name she could throw at him. He also knew that once she settled down, she'd be right back fighting for him, and that was a hard love to walk away from.

Chapter Six

CARRIED OUT OF THE clubhouse, Katrina pushed against Bane, trying to break free. "Don't fucking touch me."

Bane dropped her onto her feet. She stumbled backward, shoving him with all her strength.

"You're an asshole, too, Bane." She pulled her shirt down. "Touch me again, and I'll have my dad—"

"Katrina."

She stiffened at the sound of her dad's voice. Her threat was left unspoken. While she was mad enough to use her relationship with her dad as her protector, she wouldn't tell him why Bane carried her out of the clubhouse.

Her dad walked over to her. "Talk."

She glared at Bane and spoke to her father. "He wanted to argue about what chapter is better, and I put all my bets on Hatchet, obvi."

"Talk English," he mumbled.

If the V.P. cared about his life, he'd take her cue and not open his mouth. Her dad was a loose cannon when it came to her. It was one of the reasons why she had never had a heart-to-heart conversation with him about her feelings toward Jagger.

While she felt safe in her dad's presence because of his devotion toward her, there was some respectful fear, too. He was a hard man to understand. Despite all the weekly visits to the prison throughout her life, there was still a lot of mystery surrounding her dad.

There were things he would not discuss, even with her.

That fear kept her from spilling her guts to him because she would never do anything to put Jagger's life in danger.

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