Page 92 of Protecting Her Secrets

The fast change has an alarm bell sounding in my head. If he doesn’t have the house, why did he sound so convinced he’d get Skylar back? There are no alerts on my phone, so I know Skylar’s still safe at the house. So if not that, then what?

We watch as they file out of the bar before following them. As if they were waiting for something and just now got confirmation, every last one of the Broken Rebels walks out of whatever shop they were in and climbs on their bikes. Then they’re gone, leaving me confused.

“What the fuck was that?” Cyrus asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Walker!” Rowan rushes out of the bar. “Something’s going on at your house.”

“I just checked. Everything’s fine.”

“No, it’s fucking not. I don’t know if Skylar turned it off or if it was hacked, but your system was shut down for ten minutes. It didn’t alert you because the code was used from inside the house.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” I say, but I don’t believe the words because would she? No, I can’t believe it. This isn’t like fifteen years ago. She wouldn’t do this to me again.

I thought I was over the hurt from the morning after our wedding, but the thought of her walking away from me again on her own makes me realize the doubt is still fresh. Even though I believe she wants me and the life we have planned, I still think she’d leave me if she thought she was protecting me. But I’m notsome naive college student anymore. The situation is different, and her leaving wouldn’t do anything.

So if not because of that, then why?

Chapter Thirty-One

Skylar

I chew on a nail,seething at the way Walker left without telling me what was going on. I hate being left in the dark; it leaves me feeling out of control, and I’ve had enough loss of control to last a lifetime. I was just starting to get it back when the club decided to invade the town.

It was a dick move for him not to discuss it with me before he left, and when he gets home, I plan on making sure he knows that.

If he gets home.

No, I can’t think like that. Walker is smart and would never do something to put his or my safety at risk. And with me being pregnant, the stakes are too high. I just have to trust that whatever he’s doing will bring him home in one piece and get the club out of our lives for good, even if that seems like a tall order.

My cell rings, startling me. Gently, I ease Sprocket’s head off my lap, where it has been since I sat down. The poor little guy is beside himself, feeling my tense energy and not being able to calm me. I rush over to grab the phone, positive it’sWalker calling to tell me everything’s okay, but it’s not his phone number. Matter of fact, there’s no phone number at all. The caller ID is blank.

“Hello?”

“Sky?” I don’t recognize the woman’s gruff voice.

“Who is this?”

“It’s Aunt Amy.”

Amy is the enforcer’s ol’ lady. She has known me my whole life, and although there’s no blood relation, I’ve always referred to her as my aunt. When Mom died, she was there for me, doing things with me moms usually do. She’s one of the few people involved with the club I’ll actually miss.

That being said, my hackles still rise because this is a burner phone.

“How’d you get this number?”

“I begged Puss to do his computer thing. I don’t know how all that works.” Her chuckle sounds like rocks in a dryer from her two-pack-a-day habit.

“Why are you calling?”

“Don’t be like that, girlie. I missed you. You just up and disappeared without a word. I was worried.”

Hearing the sadness in her voice, I relax a little. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t go through with the wedding, and besides that, I’m kind of already married.”

“I heard, you little brat,” she teases. “Keeping a secret like that all these years. No wonder it took so long to agree to marry Klutch.”

“It wasn’t that. I don’t love him, Aunt Amy.”

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