Page 23 of Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC 1)
My muscles tensed. “There’s something you’re still not telling me. What are you so afraid of, Raven? What did they say?”
She whipped around. “The man accused me of still having feelings for you even though I married Gage and I told him it was a lie. I told him I left that life behind when this club got my husband killed and he said, and I quote, ‘Is that what you really believe?’”
Her words flooded my mind, and I didn't know which issue to tackle first. “Did you ever have feelings for me?”
She scoffed. “Are you kidding me right now? That’s what you took away from that?”
I shook my head. “Yes, sorry. Sorry, you’re right. Wait—did he say anything after that?”
“After what?”
“After he asked you if that’s what you really believed.”
She shrugged. “No. I asked him if what I knew was a lie, but he didn’t answer. That’s when guns started going off and he rushed out of my place like a bat out of hell.”
The tears that streaked her cheeks killed me inside. I placed a soft hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, trying to provide some comfort while keeping my cock at a distance. This wasn’t the time to give into carnal desires. This wasn't the time to start replaying some of the dreams I had that kept me afloat while in that dumbass little cell.
Then, Raven spoke with a question that made me pull away as if her words were literal fire.
“Why were they looking for you, Brooks?”
I slid my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket. “Probably to settle an old score. Those Black Flag bastards never do know how to let shit go.”
“What kind of score?”
She can’t get hurt because of me. “Just something that happened a long time ago.”
I backtracked toward the door, the tension between us dissipating at the drop of a hat. I needed to put distance between us, otherwise she’d get hurt because of me. And I couldn't lose someone else due to my own stupidity. In some ways, I blamed myself for Gage getting killed. Not because I knew what was happening that night, but because I hadn’t checked up on him in a while up to that night. After he got married, well, a lot of his outside friendships fell to the wayside. Not that it was a bad thing, just was what it was. But had I been checking in on him and keeping up with shit more than once a week, maybe I would’ve known.
Maybe I could’ve inserted myself more into that job instead of letting Gage do it himself.
“You should get some rest,” I said as I reached for the door.
Raven’s voice was flat and devoid of emotion. “Yeah. Good idea.”
I stepped out into the hallway. “You can sleep in here. You’ll be safe until we can figure out how to step next.”
“And where will you sleep?”
She didn’t turn to look at me, but her words hung as heavily as they would have had she been staring me straight in the face. But I decided that not answering her was better than giving her the actual answer.
“Get some rest. I’ll go find another room to bunk in, and tomorrow we can figure all of this out.”
She spun around quickly. “What about the cops? You know they’re going to show up at my complex.”
I slowly closed the door. “I’ll handle them, don’t worry.”
“But how? Won’t you get thrown back into—”
The door was nothing but cracked now. “Archer’s got friends on the force. Something this small will disappear into thin air. Get some rest, Raven.”
Then, I closed the door. Muting her voice, her presence, and her sadness.
But no matter what I did, I couldn’t mute the wondrous smell of her perfume that hung heavily around my body.
Twelve
Raven
I watched helplessly as he closed the door, locking me into a room by myself. And slowly, I turned back to the picture of Gage and him on the wall. My heart was torn in two different directions and I felt sick to my stomach with guilt. My trembling fingertips raised up to the glass encasement, fingering Gage’s face softly as tears slid down my cheeks and found their death against my bosom.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
Feeling Brooks’ body so tightly close to mine on that bike had given way to thoughts I hadn’t entertained in years. Being in his room like I had been all those years ago, just hanging out and shooting the shit, brought back so many memories that kicked up so many emotions that had never died out. But the second Brooks pulled away from me the way he had, Gage popped up into my mind.
And the guilt I felt almost made me sick.
My hand fell away from the picture and I covered my mouth. My lower lip quivered as sadness and frustration draped over me, weighing me down until I was laying on the bed. I soaked the pillow with silent tears as my heart tore itself into two.
