Page 54 of Brand
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Brand
“Hey, man,” Ky said walking up to me with hurried steps, his phone held out in his hand. “This Cami’s car?”
The question caught me off guard and I jerked to attention as I took the phone out of his outstretched hand.
“Fuck. Yeah.” I blew out a harsh breath as I looked at the screen, scrolling down to find out why a picture of Cami’s car was on his phone.
It was for sale. Something about that didn’t sit right. While Cami wasn’t overly crazy about cars, there was no denying that she loved hers. So it made no sense to me that she would be selling it.
“I called the number and some man answered. I’m headed over there to check it out now.” He paused and I could feel his eyes on me though I didn’t look up. My head was racing, trying to put the pieces together, but I honestly didn’t even know what pieces I was working with, let alone have the first clue how to figure it all out. “I, um, figured something was going on and if anything, the club can buy it and hold onto it for a bit.”
My head snapped up, hearing a softness mixed with concern in his voice maybe tugged at my heart a bit. He was ten steps ahead of me without me needing to ask him for help.
“Thanks, Ky,” I said as I handed him back his phone. “I want to come with, but it’s probably better if I don’t show my face.”
“Might be a good idea to leave the bike and cut behind,” Iron said and I shouldn’t have been surprised he was listening in. “How much they asking? I’ll get it outta the safe.”
As many times as I’d had my brothers’ backs, I never imagined I would need them to do the same for me. Maybe this was something small, but the fact that my club was right there behind me without me even having to ask just about did me in.
The last few days had sucked, to say the least. Cami ghosting me and having to deal with all the outside threats were heavy enough. Add on all the shit I had to fix at the shop to make it new again, I was beyond ready to pull out my hair.
Iron and Ky walked up to the office. I stayed rooted in place feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I was being pulled from all different directions and the only thing I wanted to do was find Cami and set shit straight. I wanted to actually hear the words that she didn’t want me in her life come out of her mouth. Something about the text left me with an uneasy feeling in my gut.
But maybe it just proved that she didn’t really care about me as much as I thought she did, or as much as I did about her. Ending things with a text showed me that what had happened that night in the shop had been too much for her. I couldn’t imagine being shot at then seeing me taken away in cuffs would have left a good lasting impression in her mind. I was so fucking stupid, yet again. I seemed to always fall for the wrong girl.
But I didn’t have time to beat myself up about it right now.
I was starting to think that Chris had been wrong. That it wasn’t time she needed, it was permanent space.
“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit,” Ky said with a slap on the back. He paused and his head turned to look at me, his eyes narrowing a bit like he was studying me for a beat. “So, you and Cami?”
“Yeah, I mean I thought it meant something. I wanted it to be something, I thought I’d made that much clear that night. But it just wasn’t meant to be.” I sighed, my fingers itching to check my phone, even knowing there wasn’t anything there from her. “I’m not even sure about anything anymore.”
“Oh,” he said scratching the back of his neck like he was confused about something. “But I thought…forget it, never mind.”
He may not have known extensively about what was going on in my head with the whole Cami thing, but the guy knew me well enough to know that she wasn’t just some girl off the street. If I’d had her in my room and talked about her like I had a few times around him, then she damn well meant something to me.
I opened my mouth to ask him what he was going to say, but he spoke before I had the chance to. If my mind hadn’t been a million miles away, I would have caught onto the fact that something was off with him a split second earlier.
“We’ll figure it out.”
And maybe it had been the shit mood I’d been in that was a dead give away. With the way his brows pinched tight in almost pity as he looked at me only made me fell like I had to hold back a wince. I imagined how fucking pathetic I seemed right now.
Then he was gone, Lake following him out the front door I imagined just in case they needed to drive the car back to the garage.
I flipped through the channels trying to distract myself. All the things that were going on with the club were honestly second in my mind to Cami. It was stupid, and I knew it. But it wasn’t like I could help it.
Things had calmed down a bit, but that didn’t mean we’d dropped our guard even a little. Sketch was on the mend but still looked like shit, though he played it off really well. I still couldn’t believe what had happened. I couldn’t figure out how everything had turned upside down so damn quickly.
“Dude,” Chris said a while later as he flopped down beside me and handed me an opened beer. “Let’s talk.”
I grunted like an asshole.
“B-ry wasn’t kidding when he said you looked like a sad, pathetic lump growing off of the couch.” He huffed a laugh and to be honest, I really wasn’t in the mood. “Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.” All playfulness had left his voice with that statement.
“Yes, I’m a mopey, pissy dick right now. I just don’t understand. She left here…she was happy, or at least she seemed that way. Why would she play me? And if she didn’t, then why hasn’t she answer me? And why did she send that text about not wanting to see me anymore?”
