Page 11 of Bound by Vengeance
After pizza and beer, I make my move to Deke, sucking in a deep breath as I do. Cooper already left and some of the others are starting to get up, too, but Deke needs to stay.
Sliding up to him, I ask, “Can you stay for a few after?”
“After what?”
Deke is a rock of a man. He used to be an underground fighter and was estranged from the family for years, until I went to him for help. Dragging him home didn’t make him happy, and me shutting him out these past few of months really hasn’t made him any happier, or so Emery’s told me.
When we got home, Deke had to face a lot of shit from his father. Then he learned that his mother had cancer. Not to mention the club and coming to terms with the reason he left in the first place, namely JK. It wasn’t an easy road for him, and I added to that hardship.
As much as I wanted to talk to him before, something held me back. It’s time to clear that up.
I look up at him. “They leave. Can we go somewhere to talk?”
He pulls out his phone, looking at the time. “Need to be back to Rylie in an hour. Let’s go now.”
“Right.”
When we leave, nothing is said by anyone except for goodbyes. I hop into his monster of a truck, and he fires it up. It feels like old times.
“Where are we going?” I ask in a rush when I wake up to find we are flying down the road in Deke’s truck.
“Home.”
Anger bubbles inside me, along with a twinge of fear. “You asshole! You told me I could stay with you.” I move to get the seatbelt off, only thinking one thing—must get out of this truck.
He reaches over and grabs my arm, tightly holding me in place. Damn man is too strong for his own good. “No, I said you could stay last night. Already called Nox, and he’s expecting us.”
“Fuck, Deke, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” I groan, falling back to the seat and dropping my head onto the back window with a thump. The cramps in my stomach are no match for the pounding of my heart. “I’m fucking dead.”
“Shoulda thought of that before you hopped in a car with someone you didn’t fuckin’ know. That’s some stupid shit right there, Austyn. Know you’re smarter than that.”
I sigh heavily. There’s so much he doesn’t know and he would have had he returned home at any point in the last four years. “Fuck, Deke, you have no idea what you’ve done. You have no idea what’s going on.”
“Fuckin’ enlighten me so I know what I’m gettin’ myself into.”
He’s right. He’s driving me back home to a place he doesn’t want to be. I owe him something. Not all, but something, even if I don’t want to give it. My insides ache.
My voice softens. “I lied.”
He slams on the brakes, and I put my arms out to the dash to brace myself, my head moving forward with the truck. I blow the hair out of my face in a huff.
“What?” he clips, anger pulsating out of him.
Knowing I’m too late, I still say, “Don’t get pissed.”
“Too fuckin’ late. Talk.”
Pain hits me hard in the gut as an emptiness inside me makes its presence known. I’m hollow, vacant, a void. My heart is strangling just at the thought of telling him.
“You can’t tell anyone, Deke. I’m confiding in you. I can’t let anyone know why I was in Grayson.” I picked that town for the sole purpose of going to Deke afterward, but nothing ever seems to go as planned.
“Talk!” he barks, making me jump in shock.
“Deke,” I snip back. “I mean it. This is serious shit.”
“Talk. I’ll decide.” From the look on his face as he stares at me, he’s not going to let this go. I opened that door, and now I have to walk through it.
“You’re not gonna let me go unless I tell you …” My thoughts trail off, and I pause for a few moments, getting all my thoughts in line. “I didn’t hitchhike. I’m not stupid. I took the Greyhound here, not wanting the tracker in my car to keep tabs on me.”
