Page 61 of Diesel
Dayna glares at him. “I listen.” His brow arches. “Most of the time.” The amendment makes us all laugh. Then she turns to me, her eyes sharp. “You’re not what I would’ve expected for Diesel.”
She’s not the first person to say this. Plenty of people look at us and don’t get it. I understand why. Zane is…Zane, and I’m…well,me. Ordinary. Soft, where he’s sharp. “I’m not sure whether I’m about to be offended or complimented,” I say around a tense smile. I like these women, but I don’t know how to take them yet.
“Oh, no. I don’t mean it offensively. I love Diesel. The guy’s a laugh per minute.”
I stare at her. Zane isn’t funny, at least not intentionally. He’s brooding, structured. A little unhinged and breathtakingly intense. But humour isn’t something he really gets.
Dayna’s eyes soften. “I’m really glad he has someone like you, Makenna. Men like him are misunderstood a lot of the time.”
I bristle for a second at the ‘men like him’ comment, but then I pull down the defensive wall I was building. She’s not being mean. She sees him—the real Zane—and that’s rare. Most people think he’s weird or too quiet, too still, too everything. I can’t even count the numbers of times over the years that people have misread his intentions or treated him badly because they don’t understand him.
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” I say with sincerity.
I don’t know what my life would have looked like without him in it. He saved me more times than I can count over the years.
Dash leans forward slightly, wincing as his side pulls. “I do have a question for you. When I was in the hospital, I got a call to say Diesel had kidnapped someone.”
Oh.
My lips twitch, just a fraction. “Yeah, well, what can I say? He’s always had a flair for the dramatic.”
Maylie’s eyes go wide. “Hekidnappedyou?”
“Technically.” I wrinkle my nose.
“Okay, we’re going to need a story time right now,” Dayna says, sitting straighter. “Because I’m not sure if we should be swooning or spraying him with water like he’s a naughty kitten.”
I snort. That image is now seared into my brain. But then my smile fades, because how do I convince them I’m loyal to Zane when I was planning on leaving him? How do I explain the complexities of our relationship when most of our issues were caused by the club?
I fold my hands in my lap.
“Hey,” Maylie says. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”
I sigh. “I tried to leave him.”
Dayna blinks, then leans toward me, like I’m harbouring a state secret. “You tried to leave him, and he kidnapped you?”
The memory of him carrying me out of that hotel room is emblazoned in my brain.
“He wasn’t very keen on the idea,” I said dryly.
“Why were you trying to leave?” Ivy asks, shifting a sleeping Seren in her arms. The little girl is snoring, her lips parted a fraction, dark lashes and messy curls.
“We had a difference of opinion,” I say eventually.
Before they can interrogate me more, Terror speaks. “Someone’s here.”
Dash stiffens, and the temperature in the room drops. I stand, realising I might be the only able-bodied person in the room other than Terror.
Then he adds, “It’s Nic and the others.”
“Fuck,” Dash mutters, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Maybe lead with that next time.”
I hold my breath until I hear the door open and the sound of voices. Every part of me wants to run to Zane, but I plant my feet. I’m not sure he’ll want me to make a big show of it.
Mace and Riot come through first, then Nic. I ignore them and listen. Heavy boots are the first thing I hear, that deliberate, steady rhythm I know is him. Not rushed, not slow. Just measured, controlled, like everything he does.
Then he’s filling the doorway with his broad shoulders. He looks too big for this room, and for whatever he’s dragged back with him. His eyes cut straight to mine, like he mapped the room in advance and knew where I’d be standing. There’s a second where his breath seems to catch in his chest, just a fraction of a second, but enough.
