tossed it onto her lap. “Make it easier and send a picture of that.”
“It’s probably fake,” she muttered as she snapped the picture.
“It’s not, but it wouldn’t matter if it was. Luca knows where to find me. Hell, everyone knows where to find me. I’m the Vice President of the Blackwings MC. That’s not a hidden fact, sugar. Now, where are we going?”
After giving me directions to a twenty-four-hour waffle and pancake diner, we rode the rest of the way in silence. I thought she was taking time to compose herself, but she continued giving me the silent treatment while we took our seats and placed our order. We almost went on to eat our food in silence, but she had to ask me for something.
“Will you please pass the ketchup?”
“Maybe. Are you going to put it on your eggs?”
Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Eww, that’s gross.”
“It is,” I agreed and handed her the bottle. Then, I watched as the little she-devil squirted ketchup all over her scrambled eggs and took a huge bite. I wanted to vomit. Instead, I focused on my food and tried to ignore her.
“I thought you wanted to talk,” she said.
“I do, but not until you’re finished with your bloody eggs.”
“Mmm,” she moaned obnoxiously and started making smacking noises with her mouth. “So good.”
I reminded myself I’d been covered in piss, barium shit, and formula vomit many times over the past few months; I could handle the grossest combination in the history of food for a few minutes.
I looked up to see Sloane scraping the eggs off of her plate and into a napkin with a look of utter disgust on her face. “Okay, fine. You’re right. That’s gross. Moving on.”
I shook my head. She was something else. And I needed her to start talking because I honestly didn’t know what to make of her at that point.
She must have felt me studying her while she picked at her food because she looked up suddenly and locked eyes with me. “What?”
I sat back and gave it to her straight. “Two things you said stood out to me, and I was trying to decide which one I wanted to ask about first.”
She was good. She kept her face a mask of steel, but I could see the hurt in her eyes when she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me they were dead?”
“Why did you disappear when you found out they were?” I countered.
“Because your brother told me to!” she said loudly and then lowered her voice. “He came to the hotel the day after you ghosted me and told me in no uncertain terms to leave.”
“Who was it?”
“He said he was your brother.”
“It couldn’t have been Copper, so who the hell was it?”
“I don’t know! He didn’t tell me his name when he told me he would make sure I left Devil Springs that day if I didn’t go willingly.”
If she was lying to me, she deserved an award for her performance. I found a picture of Copper on my phone and held it up to show her. “This him?”
Her eyes narrowed when she looked at the screen. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“That’s Copper,” I said and looked at the picture on my phone. “What exactly did he say to you?”
She held up one finger and reached for her own phone. “It’s hard to hear, so put the speaker next to your ear and listen.”
I did as she said and listened to the encounter between Sloane and my asshole brother. I replayed it two more times before I passed her phone back to her. “That motherfucker,” I grumbled. He’d never meddled in my business before, and I was going to make damn sure he never did again.
I took a moment to rein in my anger, but I was still irate when I spoke. “I did not ask him to do that. And I’m going to kick his ass when I get back home.”
“Glad we got that settled,” she said dryly.
“We haven’t gotten shit settled,” I countered.
“Please, continue telling me how your brother took things into his own hands without your consent. I can’t wait to hear the bullshit you’ve come up with to fill—”
“Sloane,” I interrupted.
“You had my fucking phone number!” she yelled.
“I had a fucking baby!” I yelled back.
Her mouth dropped open in shock. Seconds later, her shock morphed into an anger so sharp it bordered on rage. “You motherfucker! You cheated on someone with me!”
A different waitress candidly interrupted our beautiful moment. “Pay up, and leave