Page 75 of Traitor

He sat up and moved away from me. “Lauren, the department had launched an investigation. All of a sudden, no one believed that I didn’t know what happened to Landon that night. Everything I’d worked for was going up in flames and I thought if she was gone, then maybe it would balance everything back out.”

I closed my eyes. It didn’t fit—Mike wasn’t a coldblooded killer. It wasn’t him. Then again, I’d thought that his father seemed like someone with a lot of heart. Maybe that was the thing with Sullivan men; they were very skilled at hiding their true selves.

Mike continued, “Even after I found out Lee was responsible, I’d planned on neutralizing the threat.”

“Neutralizing the threat? Does saying it like that make you sleep better at night?” I thought of Katya and all that she’d endured and it left me sick, knowing that Mike had come close to ending her life.

His hands rested on top of his head. “No! Jesus, Lauren. I—I couldn’t do it. Do you want to know why?”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure that I did.

“Because when I was a kid, I swore that I was going to be one of the good guys, and I realized that I was the furthest thing from it. Katya’s boyfriend risked his life tonight to keep her safe and then there was me—so scared of the truth coming out, that I’d been ready to end an innocent person’s life. A fucking coward with a gun.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to my chest. “Mike, you’re not a coward. You’re a good man.”

He shook his head and I wasn’t sure whether he was disagreeing or burrowing into the space between my breasts. “I’m not,” he said in a muffled voice. “Not yet. But I want to be that for you and, more importantly, for myself.”

I rubbed his back. “Why didn’t you answer my calls? I would’ve helped you.”

Mike moved back and looked up at me. “Why didn’t I answer your calls? Because, Red, I didn’t want you going down with me if it all fell apart. Let’s face it, I’ve dragged you into enough of my shit.”

I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “Dragged me into it? I’m pretty sure I found most of it all on my own. Apparently, asking the biker camped out in your work parking lot who the fuck he thinks he is a bad idea. As is barging into a biker bar and demanding to speak to people too.”

This time it was Mike who pulled me into his arms. “A biker was watching you at work? When? Who was he?”

I inhaled deeply. He smelled like aftershave and firewood. It was nice. I realized by the way his hands dug into my skin that he was worked up and needed me to calm him down before he snapped. “I don’t know who he was. He had the leather vest like the guys, but they said he wasn’t with them. Maybe he’s with the other biker gang. I don’t know—it doesn’t even matter, to be honest. You’re not responsible for my choices though, Tex. You trying to keep me out of it further proves what I’ve known was true—that you are a good man, Mike. Even if you can’t see it yourself.”

He gripped my hip tightly in his hand. “Move in with me.”

“What?” I whispered back, certain that I’d misheard.

His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I asked you to move in with me.”

He’d given me his secrets; the parts of him that no one else had. Now, he was offering me the one thing I’d yearned for—a safe place to call my own. His arms to fall into every night.

He was my home.

I bit down on the corner of my lip, even as it turned up into a small smile. “Okay.”

“Good lord, Lauren. How many more of these is he gonna have us do?” Elizabeth panted from the mat beside me.

I ever so slightly turned my head toward her. “What? It’s good for your core.”

She dropped out of planking position and onto the mat with a thud. “I just had a baby ten months ago. I’m not sure I should be doing all this to my core yet. That C-section was hard on me.”

I exhaled a short burst of laughter before rolling onto my side to face her. “Nice try, Greene. Jimmy isn’t going to let you get out of this now.”

She picked her face up off the mat and glared at me. “I hate you. You know I walked out the same day you did. Solidarity and all, and this is how you repay me?”

She had. I had a sneaking suspicion that she’d only dropped to part-time to appease me. Her heart was with Kaden so, once I was gone, she was gone.

“I know you did and I swear that I am not trying to kill you,” I replied with a grin.

“Are we ready for the next thing?” Jimmy asked, cheerily, as he walked back over to us. I found myself wondering if he had his gun on him right now. Ever since the car incident, he’d insisted that I not work out alone.

Elizabeth gave a fake cry of protest. “Jimmy, is it supposed to feel like my abdominal muscles are going to fall out of my belly button?”

His eyebrows knitted together. “When did you have your son?”

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