Destroy For Her - R.B. Hilliard Page 0,30
she said Sledge was home with her all night.”
Damn. She’d known all this time. “Why didn’t you say something?”
She gave him an angry glare. “Why didn’t I say something? You knew he was cheating on me, and you’re asking me why I never said anything? Why didn’t you say something? Better yet, why didn’t you stop him?”
Shit. He’d walked right into that one. Shifting onto his back, he stared at the ceiling. “We wanted to protect you. We thought you didn’t know. And, for the record, I did try to stop him. We all did.”
She flopped down beside him. “I want to be angry with you.”
His head turned and he gave her a questioning look. “But?”
“It feels misplaced now as if it happened to someone else in another lifetime.”
He stroked his hand down her arm, then reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together. “Gibby was my brother. As much as I hated what he was doing—and believe me, I fucking hated it—that bond meant everything. It’s the code by which we live and die. You were his Ol’ lady. It wasn’t my place to interfere. That being said, I want you to know that we did what we could.”
She stared at him with those big blue eyes, and his heart squeezed at the sadness in their depths. “I was going to leave him. I had it all planned out, but then I found out I was pregnant. I felt so . . . trapped. I knew the club would never let me go, not with his baby, so I stayed.”
She was right. They would have fought to keep her here. Selfishly, he would have fought to keep her here. He dropped a gentle kiss onto her shoulder. “As awful as it sounds, I’m glad you stayed. Look, I know you’re scared. We failed you with Gibby, but this isn’t the same. You’re mine, now, and I need you to trust that I can and will keep you and Petal safe.”
“Alex.” It came out as a tortured moan. After a few deep breaths, she said, “Okay, promise you won’t freak out?”
He was about to say yes when the doorknob rattled. It was followed by Petal’s, “Mommy, are you in there?”
“Shit! She’s supposed to be sleeping in Montana’s room tonight. She can’t see us like this. Hang on, baby!” Sage shouted. She shot from the bed like a bat out of hell and dove for her clothes.
Ax tried not to laugh. “Babe, she’s going to figure it out eventually.”
Snagging her panty-pajama bottom combo from the floor, she speared him with a glare. “Well, eventually is not tonight. Hurry!” she motioned for him to get a move on.
Once they were dressed, he pulled her in for a kiss. “Come find me later?”
“I will if I can get away.”
At her insistence, he hid behind the door and waited until Petal was in the bathroom before escaping from the room. He got it. They were new. She still wasn’t convinced about him, and she didn’t want Petal to get hurt. Just because he understood, didn’t mean he liked it.
He found Buck and Arson in the game room playing darts. On his way past the bar, he grabbed a beer.
“Look what the cat dragged in. I saw you and Emma head out hours ago. I figured you two love birds would be gearing up for round three by now,” Buck commented.
Ax frowned. Somehow, telling Buck and Arson that he and Emma broke up and he’d been downstairs in bed with Sage didn’t exactly sit well with him, so he opted not to share. Instead, he turned the conversation back on Buck. “I’m surprised to find you here. Isn’t it like six hours after your bedtime?”
“Seven,” Arson muttered before landing a perfect bull’s eye.
“Fuck, man, that’s the third in a row,” Buck whined.
“Drink up,” Arson crowed, handing him a beer from his personal stash. Buck shot Ax a ‘save me’ look, and Ax tried not to laugh.
Arson considered himself a beer-making connoisseur. No one had the heart to tell him that his beer smelled like rotten pussy and tasted like cat piss.
“Want one?” Arson asked.
Ax held up his beer. “Maybe later; I just opened this one.”
Arson worked with explosives in the military until his mouth landed him in hot water with his commanding officer and on the wrong end of a discharge for insubordination. With fire engine, red hair, he was freakishly tall, built like a lumberjack, and had a hell of a temper. He was