Page 43 of Bound By Consequences
All I wanted was to keep my mind off the fact that Cyrus was coming. Cyrus. Fuck me. And she’d changed her name to Ensley. There had to be a hell of a story there. How in the world did she get to Sumner, Georgia? How did she know the Ravage MC? Who was Ryker to her, considering he was the one who gave the order to keep me back from going after her.
Of all the places she ended up here? How was that even possible?
Hearing her coming up the drive, I turned my head as she parked her Impala and got out, shutting the door behind her. She was still as beautiful as I remembered with her long red hair, but this time it looked as though she colored it, giving it a darker appearance. She had on jean shorts and a tee that fit her very well. It was nothing flashy, but it caught my attention.
Her hands clutched around the keys so tight her knuckles were white. She had a look of dread or fear, and that wasn’t what I wanted to see on her face. Better yet, why would she fear me? Our night together was fantastic. She had no reason to feel as though I’d hurt her in any way.
I hopped down from the table and met her halfway.
“Hey.”
She gave me a small, sexy, smirk and her beauty hit me like a punch to the gut. The thing about her was she didn’t know how beautiful she was. I could tell that by the way she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey, yourself. Come on.” She walked to the table that I’d just vacated, hopped up on the top, and faced the water. I joined her, leaving a bit of space between us. Sure, I’d kissed and licked every part of her body, but that didn’t mean she would be open to going a second round. She was here, and I wasn’t going to push my luck. Instead of inviting, she looked like she was going to jump out of her skin at any given moment. She reminded me of a scared jack rabbit, ready to scurry away at any given time.
We sat in quiet for a bit, watching the light reflect off the water. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was playing at. After our night together, she had no reason to distrust me.
What was going on in her head? Why was she scared? What happened to make her that way?
So many scenarios ran through my head that they all became jumbled. Whatever the answers were, I needed to know she didn’t fear me. That was the one emotion that ate at me.
Needing to have answers, I had to get the ball rolling. “First. It’s great seeing you, but I gotta know why did you run when you saw me at the clubhouse?”
She let out a huff of breath as her hands clenched together in front of her. If I knew what the hell was going on, I’d reach out and put my hand over hers, trying to give her just a beat of reassurance.
Her actions were puzzling me. Almost as if she had this huge secret that she was holding inside. While I wanted to know right then and there, she needed patience and to tell me when she felt the time was right.
“You surprised me. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again and poof, there you were out of the blue in the last place I’d ever thought you’d be.” Her voice came out quiet, just like it sounded over the phone. Timid. Unsure Frightened. Nothing like the night we'd spent together. This part of Cyrus I couldn’t wrap my head around.
What she'd said, though, was a plausible answer. It was the emotions rolling off of her that concerned me. “I get the shock, but why run? I’d never hurt you. There’s no reason to think I’d ever lay a hand on you.”
Her head tipped to the side, her stunning green eyes coming to me for a brief moment before going back out to the water. “There are a lot of things I need to talk to you about, Micah.” Her tone was heavy and laced with fear, which rolled off of her in waves. I didn’t like this one bit. All my instincts came to the forefront.
“I’ve got all the time in the world for you, Cyrus.” It was the honest to God truth. Now that I’d seen her, there was nothing more I wanted to do than to spend time with her.
Her body jolted, and her head whipped around to me so fast it surprised me, which wasn’t something that happened to me these days. But the sudden change in her closed-off nature to alert and in control wasn’t expected. “No. You can’t call me that, Micah. That girl doesn’t exist anymore. She’s dead and buried and will remain there forever.” Fear mixed with anger came through loud and clear.
That tight pit in my gut twisted. There were only certain reasons a person would change their name, and the most prevalent was somebody was after them. Every protective instinct came to the surface. “Are you in trouble?”
“Yes… I mean no. Not any more really.” Her head shook, and I could tell this was hard on her, that she didn’t know what end was up and what end was down. I felt her terror and uncertainty returning like whatever was on her shoulders was weighty and bogging her down.
I felt the desperate need to take all of that from her and carry it on my shoulders. For her to take a breath and let me make all of this disappear for her. Even not knowing what had her twisted up, it was right where I wanted to be.
Turning my body toward her, my knee went up to the table as I grabbed her hand, getting her to turn to me. She didn’t pull away, but she tensed and let me hold it. I wanted to give her my strength to get through whatever she had to tell me and for her to feel safe in doing so.
“Talk to me.”
She let out a burst of air, her hand gripping mine tightly then releasing. A sign she wanted to talk to me and let it all hang out. At least I’d hoped. “Right. You have questions and deserve answers.” She took a deep breath, and her back straightened as if she were preparing. For what? I had no clue yet. “Cyrus was from my old life. A life that doesn’t exist anymore and needs to stay in the past. You can never call me that again. It’s Ensley. The other name is long dead and buried.”
“That’s not telling me the why.”
She turned fully to me, propping her knee up on the table as well, still allowing me to hold her hand. I counted this tiny gesture as progress, small but still there. Part of me wanted to plead with her to tell me, but I refrained.
“Do you know about Ryker’s family?” Her brow arched in question.
This confused me because of the switch in topic so quickly. “The Ravage family. Yeah.”
She shook her head, her beautiful red hair moving with her. “No. Before the Ravage MC. What he was born into. The family he was raised in.”
My brain shifted back, trying to recall if my father ever said anything to me about Ryker. Then it clicked. The conversation was short but memorable.
