Page 65 of Texas Hold Em'
“Please don’t talk like this. I can’t bear it.”
“But,” I said, running my thumb under her eye to wipe away a new tear that escaped, “if Brody brings me back and I get to fight on Friday night alongside my brothers? Well, that will make me the luckiest man alive, because after the fight I’ll have your lips to kiss. Your body to make mine.”
Carrie’s eyes danced back and forth between mine. Her lips were parted ever so slightly, and as she gazed into my eyes, the tears stopped. “To make yours?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. “Mine.”
Carrie drew herself up to me and pressed her lips to mine. She tasted like salt and couldn’t breathe through her nose after all the crying. I didn’t care. She was sweet and soft in all the right places. I gripped her ass and held her fiercely to me, loving how she hooked a leg over mine.
When the kiss ended, she closed her eyes and left her forehead pressed to mine. “I’m already yours, Tex.”
CHAPTER 28
CARRIE
Tex’s apartment bustled with energy on Thursday night. All of the MC members were there along with Suzie and Sam, both of whom had given me fierce hugs when they first arrived in the afternoon. I wanted to believe none of them could tell that I’d spent almost the entire night crying, but who was I kidding? My eyes were still swollen and puffy and the skin around my nose was dry from blowing it a hundred times over.
They all knew. They just had the decency not to say a word about it.
I sat in the corner of the sofa with my legs tucked under myself and a blanket thrown over my lap. In my hands was the burner phone from Bates, and every pair of eyes in the room was on me. I could feel the apprehension in their gazes, their fear, frustration, and hope.
“Go ahead,” Tex said, putting a hand on my knee over the blanket.
My hands trembled.
Abel, who stood over my right shoulder behind the sofa, lightly touched my shoulder. His hand felt reassuring and steady and not full of hate like I expected. Maybe some of them really did trust me. Tex and Mason had been advocating for me for some time now. Did more of them believe I was in their corner than I thought?
“Carrie,” Abel said softly, “give me the phone.”
I looked up at him.
He smiled. “Come on. Give it to me.”
I turned to Tex, who nodded.
I’d already typed out my message to Bates. It was simple and to the point, but it had left a knot in my throat and a stone in my gut.I’m doing it tonight. Stand by.
My hands still shook as I reached up and passed the phone to Abel.
He read the message and looked around at the group. “Here we go, boys. There’s no going back now. If anyone has a reason to not go through with this, now is the time to speak up.”
I didn’t dare look around the room. Instead, I wrapped my arms tightly around myself and stared at the coffee table. Nobody said a word. The silence threatened to swallow me whole, and it might have if Tex hadn’t brought me back by giving my knee a good squeeze.
Abel cleared his throat. “Very well.” His wrist flexed and a button clicked. The old flip phone made an animated whooshing sound before he dropped it back in my lap. “It’s done. Now we wait.”
Tex sighed beside me. “Now we wait.”
The phone, an old Nokia something or other, was smaller than my palm, but in my lap it felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. There was no going back now, and that truth felt heavy.
Cursed.
Abel moved away from the sofa. I heard him rummage around in the fridge or freezer behind us. Nobody paid him much mind, but when he made a particular ruckus and bottles clanged against each other, Tex turned around.
“What the hell are you doing back there?”
I glanced over my shoulder, too. Abel pulled a frozen bottle of some sort of liquor out of the freezer and showed all his teeth in a devilish grin.
Tex arched an eyebrow. “By all means, make yourself at home.”
