Page 29 of Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC 1)
I closed my eyes. “I don’t really—”
“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “But I do. You have to know how sorry I am.”
“It’s okay. We don’t need to—”
“It is my fault.”
I blinked. “Brooks, really we don’t need to talk about this.”
He slid off his bike and turned to face me. “We do though. I—he was—”
For the first time in my life, I watched Brooks’ eyes flood with tears. He blinked them back and quickly turned around, but they had already been seen. I eased myself off the bike, being careful not to expose myself in my dress, then I went and stood beside him as we both gazed out toward the watery horizon.
“How do you believe it was your fault?” I asked softly.
He sniffled. “I tried telling you all of this while I was in prison. The calls and the letters.”
I sighed. “That would be my fault. It all just hurt so much that I couldn’t take any of those. Or stomach reading any of those letters. And by the time I got around to reading them and responding, I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to take them.”
His eyes peeked down at me. “You wrote back?”
I scoffed. “I was too chicken-shit to ever send them off to you, but yeah. I have a response to every letter you wrote me locked away in a lockbox beneath my bed.”
I looked up at him and found that his tears had cleared. “I would’ve read them, you know. Happily.”
It was time for my eyes to water and I looked away. “Anyway, tell me how you believe this is your fault.”
“Hyde had called us in to help with a job. I never had the chance to check out the job like I normally did. Everything was fucking shady from the start. And when the cops came Hyde panicked, making our situation even worse. Gage ran from the cops, and when he did that is when they fired. Raven, you have to believe me when I say that if I could have taken Gage’s place, I would have. I wish it was me that they killed, instead of him.”
My heart broke at his words. All these years, I had blamed Brooks for Gage’s death. But I realized now that Gage made his own choice. Brooks or the club didn’t force him to do anything. He made the decision to run when the cops arrived. I reached out for his hand to comfort him. “You need someone to blame, Brooks. I get that. But I know now that it wasn’t your fault. I know what happened that night. Gage ran from the cops that showed up when he shouldn’t have.”
His hand squeezed mine tightly. “I was the one that told Hyde to tell everyone to get the hell out of dodge.”
I sighed. “Because you were trying to save him from the cops before he showed up. But Gage was his own man. If they had him cornered, he needed to surrender. Not run off anyway.”
“I had no idea the cops would shoot, Raven. I’m so fucking sorry. All I ever wanted was to make sure you were happy, no matter what it took. All I ever wanted was to make sure Gage always came home to you so I could see you smile, even if the smile wasn’t for me. And I failed you. I failed the one promise I made to you when you married my best friend, and I refuse to fail my best friend now that he’s dead.”
I let go of the breath I had been holding. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it sounds like you loved me at one point.”
And when his eyes met mine, my suspicions were confirmed.
Which sent my heart leaping for joy.
“What if I am?” he asked.
I swallowed hard. “You mean what if you were?”
His face approached my own. “I said what I said.”
My breathing became ragged. “Brooks?”
“Raven.”
His lips hovered just beyond mine and I couldn’t take it anymore. “Kiss me, Brooks. Please.”
And that was exactly what he did.
Fifteen
Brooks
I claimed her lips as my own personal territory and the taste of her stabbed me in the gut. I knew what spit tasted like. And despite how people described it, spit just tasted like spit. This was different, though. This wasn’t just any spit from any woman. I enjoyed the taste of it.
The taste of her.
My hands gripped her hips, and I walked her back to my bike. I pressed her against it, bending her backward as her tits pressed against my chest. My tongue flooded her mouth as her lips swelled against our efforts. And as I raked my teeth across her plump lower lip, the soft whimper that fell from them stiffened my cock even harder.
And I growled at the sensation.
