Page 31 of Bolt (Iron Thunder MC 1)
“We have to keep him here till we have the situation under control.”
She gulped and looked away. Neither of us spoke for a few moments, and then she looked up at me again.
“Can you tell me the truth, Bolt? What is the ultimate punishment your Club can declare on someone like Chip?”
I stared at her in silence. This was not an answer I wanted to give her.
“Your brother will not be receiving it because he confessed and gave us information to help us with our raid. He’s saved his ass,” I replied.
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to spare me the gory details. I want to know the truth. I feel like I deserve that much from you. I’m not even fighting you anymore. What was the ultimate punishment he was looking at? If he hadn’t given you guys this information.”
I wanted to look away from her, but that would’ve been cowardly. Cassie was right. She deserved to know the truth. She deserved to know what her brother had brought upon them. It was all his fuckin’ fault. He could’ve come to us, spoken to Drax or me or Flash about the money problems he was having. There were other options instead of doing what he did.
This was his choice. He was aware of the consequences, and yet, he made this decision.
“The ultimate punishment would have been death,” I said.
Cassie’s eyes grew wide and I saw them fill with tears. They streamed down her cheeks in a sudden gush. I thought she was going to fall to the floor, but instead, she fell on me.
I caught her. I wrapped my arms around her, and she rested her head on my chest. I stroked her hair as she sobbed gently. There was nothing more I could say to her. Her brother’s life was saved; he wouldn’t face our ultimate punishment, but he had come very close to it.
Maybe he wouldn’t have given us the information if Cassie wasn’t here. Maybe she was the one who saved his life. She was probably thinking the same thing I was, but neither of us spoke.12CassieSomething changed after that night when Bolt held me in his arms while I sobbed on his chest. Maybe it was because we’d kissed before that; there was a sudden shift in our relationship. I hoped he could feel it too, but I kept silently repeating how I was just kidding myself. Bolt wasn’t the kind of guy who felt these things, surely.
I worried about Chip, but was less worried now than I’d been before. I’d seen him. Those bruises looked bad, but he was still alive; he was in pretty good shape despite everything that happened. And Bolt made it clear to me he was going to stay that way. My brother had dodged the ultimate punishment and now I could breathe easy.
The truth was, I had no idea when this would all be over. I didn’t even know what we were waiting for. All I knew was that Bolt was keeping a close eye on me and we were spending a lot of time together. I stopped questioning it anymore.
If this meant Chip stayed alive and I stayed safe, the rest didn’t matter. In fact, spending so much time with Bolt and living this closely with him, actually felt good. I knew there was a physical attraction. It was why we ended up kissing. It was the reason why I always felt something warm and fuzzy when he looked at me. I had a crush on him, and it grew every hour.
The question was, how did he view me? What did I mean to him? Was I just a job?
The next morning, after spending another night in bed together and keeping our distance from each other, Bolt took me back to my cafe again. He insisted that I keep up appearances and go about leading my life as usual.
“Well, I’m not having you spending the whole day sitting at that table glaring at me,” I told him when we got there. “You’re going to scare all my customers away with that look on your face. Besides, my staff are going to start getting suspicious.”
Bolt shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere. I still need to keep an eye on you.”
“I’m not trying to weasel out of this. Maybe you can lend a hand. You know? Behind the counter.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Not at all. If you want to blend in and make this seem like just another regular day, you’ll have to learn how to make espressos.”
“I’m not exactly good with people,” he grunted. It made me smile.
I swerved over behind the counter and found a white apron for him. I held it up for him to see.
“Don’t worry, you won’t have to interact with any customers.”
“I’ve never made espressos before.”
