Page 24 of Stealing the Biker

I catch up to her at her car. “Brina, let me explain.”

Ember peels off to give us some privacy. Not that it matters. They tell each other everything, anyway.

She cuts me with a look sharp enough to draw blood, arching her brows up as if to say, ‘well, let’s have it.’

“Happy birthday, babe,” the words come out sounding as hollow as I feel.

“Oh, save it. I don’t want your well wishes or your half-assed apologies. I go out of my way to make sure you know how much I care about you. To make you feel special and I can’t even get a fucking card or a text. I love you, but I don’t like you very much. You’re a real dickhead.”

Ouch. “You’re right. I deserve your wrath and more. I’ve been distracted.”

“Distracted,” she parrots. “Is that what you call her?”

“Who?”

“That pink haired bimbo you were all over in there. I thought you’d be a lot of things, Jimmy. But a cheater was never one of them.”

“You’ve got it all wrong.” The lie rolls off my tongue, smooth as whisky. “I’ve been an idiot. I should have told you what I was doing from the start. Kiesha.”

“Kiesha,” she grumbles. “Even her name sounds slutty.”

“Would you just stop and let me explain?”

She puts her hands on her hips, pursing her lips.

“Thank you.” I bend down to kiss her and she slaps me. “Jesus.”

“You think I want to stand here and listen to you tell me about the bitch you’re cheating on me with?”

“I’m not cheating on you. I was protecting her.”

“Oh, I bet you were.”

“She’s Link’s niece, and I was tasked with keeping her safe.”

“From what?”

“Her asshole of a father. He attacked Zoe a few days ago. Landed her in the hospital and they haven’t caught him. So there’s a chance he could go after Kiesha or Kimber and they needed an extra set of eyes to keep a lookout and today the guy showed up at her school. So yeah. I got distracted by work.”

“She looked pretty safe to me back there.”

“You know me. You know how much I care about you.”

“I used to. Now. I’m not so sure. I think I need some space.”

“Sabrina.”

“I’ll call you or not.” She shoves me back and gets into her car as Prodigy and Link roll through the gate.

“Just give her time to cool off. I’ll talk to her,” Ember assures me.

“Right.” I nod.

I watch the two of them drive off and head back into the clubhouse to drink myself into a stupor. That is, if I’m off the hook for the night with the club.

I’m conflicted. Part of me wants to chase after her, but the other side of me wonders if cooling things off at least until I make the cut would be better.

I slump down in a booth in the back like a wounded animal with my tail between my legs. That blow up happening in front of some of the guys is fucking embarrassing. I take a sip of my beer, but it tastes as wrong as my world feels.

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