Page 55 of Sinner's Fury

Not with the kids around.

And apparently, he felt the same way, because the only thing he mumbled to me, while pushing a plate of food toward me, was “Eat up.”

That’s it.

Nothing more.

He stayed silent when we loaded the kids back into the car, then got on the road. Inside the large SUV, the only sounds were the gentle drone of the engine and the faint audio of amovie playing through the children’s headphones. The absence of sound was a palpable thing, pressing against my eardrums, a tangible weight in the stillness. The rhythmic thump of the tires on the asphalt filled the car as he drove, while I sat in the passenger seat, completely silent.

My mind raced with a multitude of questions I yearned to pose to him; but his white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel made it abundantly clear that he was not in a conversational state of mind. It was clear from his body language, from the way he shifted uncomfortably in his seat to the barely contained restlessness radiating from him, that he intensely wished he was anywhere but here, in the car with me. With each passing moment of prolonged silence, a similar sense of apprehension began to creep into my own consciousness and mirror the growing tension in the vehicle.

Chapter Nineteen

Fury

I was an idiot.

I fully intended to return to her once I had successfully settled Bri into bed, but in the end, I failed to do so. Instead of taking action, I found myself perched on the edge of the bed, plagued by self-doubt and relentlessly scrutinizing every decision I’d made in the time since I met her. Considering the complex and sensitive nature of her situation, I couldn’t, in good conscience, become involved in her life. The fact that she was a daughter of the Golden Skulls was already problematic enough, but to learn that she would lead theSocietyadded insult to injury.

That was a can of worms I didn’t want any part of.

She was right about one thing though. There was no place on earth she could hide because there would always be someone after her. If it were just me, maybe I could tolerate the constant hiding and running, but I had my girls to think about.

I couldn’t do that to them.

They deserved a stable life, free from all this shit.

Eventually, I found solace by climbing into bed with my girls, attempting to push away thoughts of her intoxicating presence in my embrace, the fiery allure of her lips, and the undeniable feeling of regret gnawing at my insides.

I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t.

Honestly, it was all my fault really.

I didn’t expect to see her standing there in my room. I had thought she’d gone to bed. But there she was, all doe-eyed and blushing, her cheeks flushed with a rosy hue that spoke of something beautiful. I couldn’t resist the temptation. And when she snapped out of her daze and vacated my room, I just smirked and figured why not?

I should have known she wasn’t a hit-it-and-quit-it gal.

Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been with a woman, but fuck me, I knew how to read the damn signs, and whether or not she intended to, her body was definitely giving off the fuck me now signal.

So, what did I do? I reverted to my old ways like I always did, only for it to bite me in the ass. I should have known that anything involving her would be complicated and frustrating from the get-go. Hell, nothing was ever easy in my life. The only woman I ever fucking admitted to loving was my girl’s mother, and she was married to an asshat before he and his bitch of a mother fucking conspired with her cousin to kill her.

So why should Carly be any different?

“I think it would be an easy way to blow off some steam.”

Snapping out of my daze, I turned to see her staring at her hands. Her knuckles were white, as if she were wrestling with something unseen. “Huh?”

“All I’m saying is that it could be fun.”

Bewildered, I furrowed my brows, trying to decipher her strange words, the sound of her voice echoing in my ears.

“I mean, if you don’t want to, I understand. I just thought since we were going to be in this SUV for a while, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity and make the best of it.”

Cautiously, I asked, unsure where she was going with this line of thought. “Make the best of what?”

“Our situation.”

Crap.She was talking about me leaving her hanging last night.

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