Page 324 of Savage Brothers MC: Tennessee Chapter

“I love Glenna,” she counters.

That pretty much says it all and I can’t really argue with her.After all, Liam is asleep upstairs in my bed.

“Dawn, why didn’t you and Mom tell me that Liam called me after I moved back home?”I ask softly.I expect her to deny it.It’s not that I think Liam is lying to me, but if Dawn knew, she would tell me.We don’t have secrets…or at least I didn’t think we did.The longer she is silent, however, the more I begin to doubt that.My eyes close as this sense of betrayal fills me.

“That bastard had put you through enough.You were struggling.”

“You don’t think hearing from Liam might have helped me?”

“Or made it worse.You’d been home for a month, Ellie.He hadn’t bothered to call you.That pretty much said everything we needed to know.”

“He’d been out of town?—”

“They don’t have phones out of town?”Dawn snaps, and now her tone is defensive, but I don’t want to hear it.

“You still should have told me,” I murmur.“I’ve got to go.Be safe and check in.”

“Ellie—”

“I can’t right now, Dawn.Just promise to be safe and check in.”

“Whatever,” she says and I hang up.

I just stand there for a few minutes, staring at my cellphone, as I try and think about everything.All of this time, I thought I wasn’t important to Liam.The fact that he called changes things.I can’t go back, but it does matter just the same.

“Why don’t you look like a woman whose man made her see stars last night?”Liam asks, and I jerk my head up.

“Called Dawn,” I reply.The smile on his face fades.He just stands there, but he opens his arms up and I don’t even think.I run into them.I close my eyes the instant he closes his arms around me, cradling me.

“It’s going to be okay, Ellie.”

“She knew that you called and didn’t tell me.I thought she was someone who would always tell me everything.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he says, but I instantly shake my head no.

“It does.If I had known you called…”

“We can’t go back, Ice.We have to look forward.We’re different people now.At least, I know I am.I know what life is like without you now.You have to know I’ll fight like hell to keep you in my life from here on out.I don’t want to be without you again.”

I tilt my head back to look at Liam.I want to see his face, Ineedto.

“We let the past die,” I respond.

“We learn from it and we let it go,” he corrects me.

“What comes next?”I ask, my heart beating harder all at once.

“You know the answer to that one, Ice.”

“You want me to come back to Tennessee.”

“Definitely.You liked it there.It was home, remember?”

“What if the club doesn’t want me back?”I whisper, my biggest fear.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now, Ice?The boys love you.”

“So much has happened, changed…” I’m trying not to panic at the thought of going back to Tennessee, but I definitely am.

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