Page 29 of Cold Hard Truth

It’s not the first time I’ve seen them have a conversation, and there’s nothing noteworthy about it. But it doesn’t matter when she laughs at whatever he says because this wound-up ball of jealousy sitting in my gut clenches. And even if I know Sage wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt me—and that what we shared meant as much to him as it did to me—I don’t like the person I turn into when I freeze in the doorway.

Sage’s eyes meet mine from across the room, and I feel it. One night with him transformed me into my mother. I’m worrying for no reason and obsessing about what-ifs before they even have a chance to come to fruition.

I should trust Sage when he’s done nothing to make me doubt his intentions are genuine. But he’s a biker and this is how it goes.

Insecurity.

Doubting what I have to offer.

I handed myself to him and haven’t heard from him since. He disappeared on a run, and I hid away in the neighborhood.

If Sage really wanted to become something more, he would have told Kane about us already. Or, at the very least, he would have talked to me about it.

He hasn’t.

Because the club will always mean more to him than I will, and the fact that he returned to town and hasn’t even tried to find me says everything.

The club comes first. Always has. Always will. It might as well be written on their patches.

I don’t know what I came here for, but the moment his eyes meet mine, I realize my mistake, and I have to turn and walk away.

This is Kane’s life.

Sage’s life.

But it’s not mine.

I don’t want doubt and resentment. I don’t want to lose the only man I’ve ever trusted by trying to force this on him. Doing that will ruin anything good we have, and I can’t risk turning us into that.

I’ve been sitting around the compound waiting for a sign and this is it. It’s time for me to go just like Ellie and Reed did.

I barely make it to the front hall of the clubhouse when Sage stops me, somehow closing the distance faster than I could make it to the door. He spins me around and pins me to the wall before I can escape.

“Lyla, wait.” Sage tips my chin up when I refuse to look at him. “Where are you going?”

“You’re busy.”

His eyebrows pinch, and I should appreciate that it takes him a moment to register what I’m talking about because it’s proof it’s all in my head. But it changes nothing. “Seriously? We were just talking.”

“I know that.”And I do.

That’s not the problem—I am.

I’m falling for him. Hard. It’s making me irrational and all I can see is the chaos this will bring if I feed into it.

There’s no room for jealousy at the Twisted Kings clubhouse. And that’s what this place breeds if you aren’t careful. Sage might not be fucking anyone else now, but I don’t want us to get to that point.

I know how the members of the club view women. Worse, how they treat them.

They’re not as important, and they come second. Sage might tell himself I mean something to him, but he’s keeping me a secret. He’s not willing to actually pay the price of what it means if we cross that line.

“What’s wrong then?” Sage lowers his hands to my hips, but he doesn’t step back.

I hate that he really is a good guy. That his eyes open the door to his soul, and I know if I tell him what I want, he’d probably be faithful. He’d believe we could be the exception when we can’t. He’d try to give me what I ask for, even if it went against every dream he’s ever had.

He wants to be a Twisted King, and I don’t want this life at all.

I’m not willing to make myself into someone I’m not. Into a pawn the club’s enemies will use against him. I’m not willing to take his freedom away.

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