Page 113 of Cain

“Are they mad at me?” she whispered back.

“No, babe. No. Trust me, this is some of the least amount of trouble one of the women has ever brought to the club. It’s fine. They just need to be informed.”

With that, she headed off.

Alone with the guys, I exhaled hard.

“Been there,” Rune said.

“Haven’t we all?” Repo said.

“Alright,” Fallon said. “You have a woman who needs you. So let’s get this part over with.”

So I launched into it—everything about the meeting with Fred, going to see Ethan Roseland, then everything that had gone down with Perry.

By the time I was done, it was nearly an hour later. But all questions were answered.

“Alright. That’s it. Go see your woman,” Fallon said.

“Just to clarify,” Duke said. “She is your woman.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, collect your bet money,” I said, waving them off as I made my way into the hallway.

Georgie was sitting on the side of the bed when I entered, her hair wet, the bruises on her neck looking darker than just an hour before. Not the worst I’d seen, but still horrible to see on the neck of a woman I had, yes, fallen for.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, and I hated how small and worried she sounded.

“Yeah, babe, everything is fine.”

“They’re not upset?”

“Not even a little. In fact, they were joking about collecting their bets when I walked away.”

“What bet?” she asked as I toed off my shoes and climbed onto the bed.

I reached to pull her up next to me.

“The one about us ending up a couple.”

She glanced over, something like hope dancing in her eyes. “Are we a couple?” she asked, voice a whisper.

“Well, that’s up to you. But for me, I’m all in on this. On you.”

“I’m all in, too.”

Georgie - 4 days

I kept expecting there to be fists pounding on the door and red and blue lights flashing at the clubhouse.

But they didn’t come.

As far as I could tell, no one had missed Perry yet. As someone who shared a life with him, that tracked.

I wasn’t sure how long it would last. But I figured it would be at least a week before someone was worried enough to call the police.

In the meantime, I was getting my training at the fancy offices of Quinton Baird & Associates. My time was split between Ethan “Rosie” Roseland, Amita “the spin artist” Puri, and the owner, Quin. Each of them came to me with different advice and different questions. So while the time I spent with them was anxiety-filled, I did feel like they were making me much more comfortable with the story we were crafting.

It wasn’t even a story.