Page 42 of Bound by Vengeance
Cruz shakes his head. “Nope. Out.”
Cooper reluctantly goes, the door clicking shut behind him.
Deke sits on the opposite side of the table from me with his arms crossed over his chest, obviously not wanting to tell me what the hell is going on with my girl. Yes, my girl.
“Brother, you need to tell us what the hell is going on,” Cruz says. “This is a club issue now, and we need to know this shit going forward. You don’t want everyone to know, fine; that’s why I had them leave. But us right here, we need to know.”
“Can’t,” he responds without hesitation. “Made a promise before I became part of Ravage. Can’t go back on it.”
“If I knew something about Riley that was tearing her up from the inside out, that was making her feel dirty and unworthy of any kind of affection, wouldn’t you want to know, Deke? Wouldn’t you move hell or high water to get the information?”
His jaw ticks slightly. “Yep.”
I slam my hand on the table. “Then fuckin’ help me!”
“I tell you, she’ll never talk to me again. She’ll wipe me clean from her.”
“And what, her living in pain and cryin’ all the time is better than her bein’ pissed at you? Seriously, man?” Keeping my anger tapped down is becoming harder and harder. The man can fight. I’ve seen him in action, but fuck, I want to punch the living hell out of him.
“No, it’s not, but this shit isn’t easy. I don’t go spreadin’ people’s shit around everywhere.”
“Deke,” Cruz interrupts. “This is important. We need to know what’s eatin’ at my little girl. She’s not right, and if you can help, we need you to.”
“Is this an order?” Deke asks, knowing Cruz can say it and it’ll be.
“Do I need to make it one?” Cruz challenges.
Deke contemplates, looking back and forth between us. Coming to a decision, he says, “Bring her in here.”
I’m taken aback by his statement, and from the look on Cruz’s face, he is too.
“I’m not spillin’ her shit. Bring her in here. She’ll tell ya if she knows I have to talk,” he responds.
“No one comes in here, Deke,” Cruz reminds him. This is church. No one comes in church except patched and prospecting members.
“You want to know, make the exception.” Deke doesn’t back down from the club president. “Wasn’t the man I needed to be for Ravage for a long fuckin’ time. Learned shit, lived shit, and fuckin’ ate shit. This is not my shit to tell. You bring her in, she knows I didn’t break my word, but my hands are tied. She’ll do what needs to be done.”
Cruz looks at me, and I nod. She’ll be pissed, but I’m at the point I don’t give a fuck.
“Deke, go get her.”
He nods once then leaves the room.
I rub my hands over my face. “This is going to go bad.”
“Yep, but we’ll have some answers.”
“Right.” I just hope she’ll get through this.
I want to beat the answers out of Deke to spare Austyn any pain. I also want to shake the man’s hand for being so bold and standing behind my woman when she felt she had nowhere else to turn. He’s an honorable fucking man, even if he pisses me off.
That was my mistake. One that won’t happen again. I’ll always be the person for Austyn to turn to from now, until my very last fucking breath.
C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N
The soda sits in front of me, untouched, not even popping little bubbles anymore, while conversation flows around me. Here, but not. That seems to be my existence now. Here physically, but mentally distant.
Last night was an idiotic thing to do. To ask him to touch me, to make me feel less dirty. Why did I do that?
