Page 96 of Outcast

ESTEBAN

Rita held the door open to her room for Matías and me to step in. Then she shut the door, twisted the lock, and flopped down on the bed.

She groaned behind her hands that spanned her face.

Matías pressed his knees into the edge of the bed and smoothed an errant strand of hair off of her forehead.

"You were magnificent in there, Rita," he said softly.

The familiar jealous ache that seemed to tear through my body each time I saw them together was missing. It was really fucking hard to hate someone when they saved your life. Especially when you were a dick to them first.

Only, an anxious weight sat on my chest that had nothing to do with either of them.

I grabbed the chair by her desk and spun it around, straddling it as I faced them.

"That was awful."

Matías chuckled under his breath. "It was bloody and beautiful. You had a purpose, you stopped when you met that purpose, ending his misery, and you walked away. That's what's important."

She pulled her hands back and stared at him, most likely trying to gauge his sincerity. I didn't doubt it. All I'd ever heard about Matías when I'd joined Dirty Dogs was that he lived with a fucked up psychopath, he witnessed horrors we couldn't begin to fathom, how strong he was to not be crazy after all those years inside that hellhole.

I could name a hundred other statements Javier had said in his favor.

Rita glanced at me. "Did you know?"

"Hell, no. That's what's making me question that little asshole." I believed he met with Tiago and Rob. That rang true. I believed that one of those newpendejoswas there.

What I had a hard time with was a sect of Dirty Dogs that wanted to fuck everything up and go back to our roots.

I scrubbed a hand down my face. "Shit, I know some of the guys hate that we left the skins and drug business." Leo had chirped about it like an annoying bird hovering in my ear. "But I haven't heard anything on a large scale that divided the club." I tightened my grip on the back of the chair. "I haven't heard anyone make plans like that."

"We don't know who the rat is, and now we know the issues in our gang run deep. Deeper than I ever thought possible." She pouted and it was hard for me to hide my smile.

Life was shit right now, and it would be for the foreseeable future. But Rita was damn funny when she pouted. Sexy as hell too. That soft, full, bottom lip sticking out was begging to be nibbled on.

"This is good," I said, trying to convince myself, and Matías nodded his agreement. "We know who wasn't here today." I ground my teeth. Due better have a real good fucking reason for not being here.

At no time had he ever expressed any desire tooverthrow Javier or kill Rita. He hadn't even made comments about leaving our old ways behind.

"I know that!" she snapped, huffing her irritation and expanding those gorgeous tits of hers.

"We also know a few names of the people who Kurt was scared of," I continued.

"Yeah? What are we going to do about that? His information doesn't make any sense. Who killed Tiago if they were all in on it together?"

I clamped my lips shut.

"We'll find out." Matías pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Which leads me to my next request." Caging her to the bed, he dipped until his nose brushed hers.

She started breathing quicker. He didn't smile or even blink. Damn it, she was getting turned on. A tiny spark of jealousy flared in the pit of my stomach.

I wanted her to react to me like that.

"Hmm?" she hummed.

"I'm going back to catch Matthews. Without you."

The spell broke as her brows pinched and she pushed herself up on her elbows. Matías jumped back to avoid a smashed nose. "The hell you are! We stick together."

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