Page 25 of Protecting Her Secrets

“Let me up,” I say, needing to get my naked ass off his lap.

“No. Not until you tell me everything.”

“I can’t tell you about fifteen years, Walker.”

One eyebrow lifts. “Give me the bullet points.”

“Remember what my life looked like before you left?” He hums out a “Mmhmm” before I continue. “Well, my life has still looked a lot like that, but add in a job at the preschool I got five years ago, plus moving into my own apartment.”

“Your dad caved and allowed you to work and move out?”

Whenever the discussion about Dad “allowing” me to do things comes up, I feel like a little girl. I guess that’s how he made me feel, like somehow, the fact that I have a vagina made me dumb and unable to navigate life on my own. And he wasn’t that far off, since I believed him. It wasn’t until my twenty-seventh birthday that I was able to wiggle out from under his thumb, and that was only because I accepted Klutch’s proposal, which made me his problem, not Dad’s.

“No. I traded one chauvinistic man for another. The only difference is, the one I’m with now doesn’t care if I work and insisted I have my own place so I wasn’t walking around the clubhouse where other men could hit on me.” I clamp my mouth shut, pissed I let myself reveal even that little amount of my life.

“The fiancé?” I nod, and he shakes his head. “Never understood why you didn’t just leave.”

“There’s nowhere I could’ve gone where he wouldn’t have found me,” I say so quietly, it’s almost a whisper.

“And even though your dad is gone, you still can’t leave because you’re marrying a guy who replaced your dad in your life?”

“I guess you could put it that way.”

“Do you love him?” he asks, and the pain I see in his eyes hurts almost as much as it did the night I left him.

“Walker—”

“I’m a big boy, and we haven’t been together for a long time. So tell me: do you love him?”

Chapter Nine

Walker

She bitesher lip and considers it, as if I just asked her a complicated question when it should be the easiest to answer. The fact that it’s not has me wondering what my next step will be. I told her I wouldn’t sign those papers unless she was in a better place than the one I could give her, and from what I’ve seen and heard, she’s not even close to that.

Since she’s here so desperate for my signature, I’m assuming she doesn’t know she could take her divorce request to any judge in the state and get a default judgment, or hell, probably an annulment, for that matter. I know I should tell her, but I also should’ve done more to help her get away from her dad and the club fifteen years ago. This is my one chance to try again.

Only this time, I’m not a boy trying to figure out my own life. I’m a man who’ll fight for her—not so I can trap her here in this small town with me, but so she can know what it feels like to be in charge of her own future. If I’m the one she ends up wanting, I’ll protect and cherish her for as long as she’ll let me. If not, I’ll help her get where she wants to go.

Protect her and cherish her for as long she’ll let me?What am I talking about? We don’t even know each other anymore. So why does it feel so right for her to be here in my space? Like everything I’ve done up until this point was just biding time until she came back to me?

“No,” she finally says. “I don’t love him. I don’t even like him.”

“Then explain why you can’t leave. I know you said there’s nowhere he can’t find you, but break it down like I’m one of your preschoolers. Tell me what makes him so different that you can’t leave like you would any other man you don’t want to be around.”

“All clubs have rules, hierarchies, and traditions, but most have evolved with the times. The Broken Rebels have not. Everything about them has stayed the same since the sixties, when my grandpa came back from Vietnam and got together with some of his other buddies who were having a hard time adapting. They craved the regulations and routines they had while they were serving.

“When my dad took over as president after my grandpa died, he didn’t see why anything should change. And why would he? He’s at the top of the food chain; everything is golden for him. That’s true for all the men in the club, really. They think they’re honoring their way of life by being criminals, that their traditions give them permission to treat women like possessions.”

“But really, they’re just assholes,” I add on.

“It hasn’t been all bad.” She’s quick to defend. “I had an amazing childhood. All the men and women in the club were like aunts and uncles. They treated me like I was special and showered me with attention. Even my dad. For all his faults, I still can’t say he was a bad dad because he wasn’t. He was strict and protective, but I always knew he loved me. And before mymom died, she did her best to prepare me for the role I was expected to fill.”

“You realize how insane all this sounds, right?”

“Yes. That’s why I pulled away the last few years. It actually worked out well. Klutch wasn’t looking to get saddled with an old lady, so as long as I made a very vague agreement to marry him someday, I had all the freedom I wanted.” She picks at invisible lint on my shirt. “I wasn’t anticipating my dad dying so young, but I guess chain-smoking your whole life will do that to you. One day he was fine, and the next, he was dead. As VP, Klutch stepped into the role of Prez until an official vote could happen, and he feels like marrying the princess of the club will ensure the vote goes his way.”

“So now it’s time to pay the piper, so to speak?”

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