Page 15 of Battling Aries

“Fuck, man, it’s not like I need a babysitter. I just need to get the fuck out of here for a bit.”

“Why don’t y’all go ahead and head out for the shipment we needed to take care of. Make sure the warehouse is secure. Kevlar, Dutch, and the others can meet y’all there tomorrow. Mateo’s got the first shipment coming in for us. Better to be on the safe side with this shit. It’ll also give Aries the time he needs to get his head right,” Cyprus suggests, brows drawn together, eyes watching me closely.

“Fine,” I grunt, nodding, wanting this conversation over with so I could get the fuck out of there. I needed the open road to help clear my head.

We handled some other business since moving here, but this would be the first one for Mateo. If it weren’t for Cyprus’s ol’ lady being his cousin, we probably wouldn’t have created the alliance we did with him and his cartel, but regardless, we did. Mateo isn’t too bad to work with. He has values similar to those of the club, so I guess I can respect that.

Viper agrees and steps back, eyes going to Wolf and then back to me. “We’ll keep an eye on Rory ‘til you get back.”

“She tries to leave, chain her ass to my bed,” I tell him, deadly serious. I’m not about to let her run off while I’m trying to get myhead wrapped around the shit she shared. It doesn’t seem like much, but it still was.

“She won’t be going anywhere, brother, promise you that.” Viper grunts.

Nodding, I start my bike, back out of my spot, straighten, and hit the throttle, ready to hit the road.

The shipment wasn’t expected to come in for another week. That was okay with me. I’m good with being away for that long. Gives me time to think. Get my head right where Rory’s concerned. It’s gutting me that she’d been pregnant with my kid. Carrying a part of me inside her, only to lose it.

No, she didn’t lose it. Roger took it from her.

The anguish in her voice, the hurt she tried hard to hide as she stood strong against me, echoes in my head.

Mace had even told me, but I didn’t believe it was mine. For fuck’s sake she’d been through hell, and I didn’t even think about it. She’d broken up with me in a letter. A letter I know by heart. I still have the damn thing. I kept it as a reminder.

Aries,

By the time you’ve read this, I’ll be gone. I’m not coming back. We’re over. There’s no longer an us. We were lying to ourselves in thinking there could ever be. I wasted both of our time in being with you as it is. You need to go your way and me mine. I’m not the woman for you. Nor are you the man for me. What we had was a child’s love. I’ve found the man I was meant to be with.

Don’t contact me. Don’t come looking for me. I won’t be there. I don’t want anything to do with you. You need to move forward and leave the past in the past. We’re done, and that’s that.

If you try to find me, you’ll be disappointed. I won’t greet you with anything but disdain. And if I’m honest, I never truly loved you as I do the man who holds me.

So do us both a favor, forget about me.

Rory

I read that letter hundreds of times.

Knowing what I know now, it shouldn’t change things, but it does. I just don’t understand it. Not really.

I’m just hoping the open road will do me some good. Give me time to get my mind right where Rory is concerned.

If I don’t, I’ll end up hurting not just her, but myself in the long road.

“You good now, brother?” Wolf asks hours later.

We finally made it to the hotel we’re going to be staying at, not too far from the warehouse we have to check out. We probably could’ve stayed at the warehouse, but at least at a hotel, we know what to expect.

Next time, if we’ve gotta be early, it’ll probably be where we stay. With it still being a week out, there’s still the potential to end up going there and sleeping on who the fuck knows what.

“Not by a long shot,” I grunt, shaking my head, answering my brother’s question with the truth. I thought the ride would do me some good, but it didn’t.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Don’t need to talk about it,” This is something I fucking I didn’t want to talk about it. If I did, I’d probably end up losing it.

The more I rode, the faster I went, the more I thought. Several times, I thought about turning around and going back to see Rory and demand more answers. She answered a lot and left so much out in one statement. The questions keep circling in my head.

“Let’s get checked in and get some food. I’m starving,” Wolf suggests.

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