by Eve R. Hart
“I, um, gave him something to calm his ass down. It’s been real fucking fun trying to clean him up.” Charming shrugged his shoulder like it wasn’t a big deal.
“Thanks, Charm. I’m gonna be in my office. Anyone need me, come get me,” Iron said, sounding as frustrated as I felt.
Then he was off, walking tall like he just hadn’t had a truckload of shit dumped on him in the last twenty-four hours.
After telling Charming to come get me if there were any changes with Sketch, I took my exhausted ass to my room.
Looking up at the ceiling, I hated everything about this room. The place that had once been my sanctuary, my peace, was now filled with memories and scents that taunted me for seconds on end. Her smell on my sheets. Her breathy pants echoing off the walls though she wasn’t there anymore. The look on her face as I came in the door. And then the look in her eyes when she saw me in nothing but a towel. The way her body felt underneath me, then on top of me as she slept wrapped in my arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Brand
“Hey, man,” Ky said walking up to me with hurried steps, his phone held out in his hand. “This Cami’s car?”
The question caught me off guard and I jerked to attention as I took the phone out of his outstretched hand.
“Fuck. Yeah.” I blew out a harsh breath as I looked at the screen, scrolling down to find out why a picture of Cami’s car was on his phone.
It was for sale. Something about that didn’t sit right. While Cami wasn’t overly crazy about cars, there was no denying that she loved hers. So it made no sense to me that she would be selling it.
“I called the number and some man answered. I’m headed over there to check it out now.” He paused and I could feel his eyes on me though I didn’t look up. My head was racing, trying to put the pieces together, but I honestly didn’t even know what pieces I was working with, let alone have the first clue how to figure it all out. “I, um, figured something was going on and if anything, the club can buy it and hold onto it for a bit.”
My head snapped up, hearing a softness mixed with concern in his voice maybe tugged at my heart a bit. He was ten steps ahead of me without me needing to ask him for help.
“Thanks, Ky,” I said as I handed him back his phone. “I want to come with, but it’s probably better if I don’t show my face.”
“Might be a good idea to leave the bike and cut behind,” Iron said and I shouldn’t have been surprised he was listening in. “How much they asking? I’ll get it outta the safe.”
As many times as I’d had my brothers’ backs, I never imagined I would need them to do the same for me. Maybe this was something small, but the fact that my club was right there behind me without me even having to ask just about did me in.
The last few days had sucked, to say the least. Cami ghosting me and having to deal with all the outside threats were heavy enough. Add on all the shit I had to fix at the shop to make it new again, I was beyond ready to pull out my hair.
Iron and Ky walked up to the office. I stayed rooted in place feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I was being pulled from all different directions and the only thing I wanted to do was find Cami and set shit straight. I wanted to actually hear the words that she didn’t want me in her life come out of her mouth. Something about the text left me with an uneasy feeling in my gut.
But maybe it just proved that she didn’t really care about me as much as I thought she did, or as much as I did about her. Ending things with a text showed me that what had happened that night in the shop had been too much for her. I couldn’t imagine being shot at then seeing me taken away in cuffs would have left a good lasting impression in her mind. I was so fucking stupid, yet again. I seemed to always fall for the wrong girl.
But I didn’t have time to beat myself up about it right now.
I was starting to think that Chris had been wrong. That it wasn’t time she needed, it was permanent space.
“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit,” Ky said with a slap on the back. He paused and his head turned to look at me, his eyes narrowing a bit like he was studying me for a beat. “So, you and Cami?”
“Yeah, I mean I thought it meant something. I wanted it to be something, I thought I’d made that much clear that night. But it just wasn’t meant to be.” I sighed, my fingers itching to check my phone, even knowing there wasn’t anything there from her. “I’m not even sure about anything anymore.”
“Oh,” he said scratching the back of his neck like he was confused about something. “But I thought…forget it, never mind.”
He may not have known extensively about what was going on in my head with the whole Cami thing, but the guy knew me well enough to know that she wasn’t just some girl off the street. If I’d had her in my room and talked about her like I had a few times around him, then she damn well meant something to me.
I opened my mouth to ask him what he was going to say, but he spoke before I had the chance to. If my mind hadn’t been a million miles away, I would have caught onto the fact that something was off with him a split second earlier.
“We’ll figure it out.”
And maybe it had been the shit mood I’d been in that was a dead give away. With the way his brows pinched tight in almost pity as he looked at me only made me fell like I had to hold back a wince. I imagined how fucking pathetic I seemed right now.
Then he was gone, Lake following him out the front door I imagined just in case they needed to drive the car back to the garage.
I flipped through the channels trying to distract myself. All the things that were going on with the club were honestly second in my mind to Cami. It was stupid, and I knew it. But it wasn’t like I could help it.
Things had calmed down a bit, but that didn’t mean we’d dropped our guard even a little. Sketch was on the mend but still looked like shit, though he played it off really well. I still couldn’t believe what had happened. I couldn’t figure out how everything had turned upside down so damn quickly.
“Dude,” Chris said a while later as he flopped down beside me and handed me an opened beer. “Let’s talk.”
I grunted like an asshole.
“B-ry wasn’t kidding when he said you looked like a sad, pathetic lump growing off of the couch.” He huffed a laugh and to be honest, I really wasn’t in the mood. “Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.” All playfulness had left his voice with that statement.
“Yes, I’m a mopey, pissy dick right now. I just don’t understand. She left here…she was happy, or at least she seemed that way. Why would she play me? And if she didn’t, then why hasn’t she answer me? And why did she send that text about not wanting to see me anymore?”
My head hurt. And my heart. Yeah, I could admit it.
“So, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong,” he said and my head rolled against the back of the couch to look at him. “I’ve been thinking. I saw the two of you together and I think I picked up on things before either of you realized it. There has to be something more to the text. I don’t believe it for one second. Think, man.”
I pulled out my phone, brought up her message and all but shoved it down his throat.
“Does this look like someone that wants me to go after them? Wants me to get down on my knees and beg for her to change her mind?”
“You know this text looks really formal, right?”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I pulled my phone back and read the words again, even if I already knew by heart because I may have looked at the text a time or two. Or twenty.
“Lake sent me a text filling me in about what’s going on with her car. What you don’t know, because you’re sitting here like an angry dickwad, is that they bought the car. Apparently, it’s her brother that was selling it. Cami wasn’t even around. Her dad was on the title and he’s the one that signed it over. Everything was pretty much taken care of by the time Ky and Lake showed up, like they were ready to get rid of the thing.”
“She wasn’t there?” I asked, but I didn’t think that really mattered because a rich girl like her let everyone else handle shit for them.
You know that’s not fair. She’s not like that.
Fuck my brain and all the thoughts screaming at me that something was off. It was like the inner me was shaking a pointed finger in my face, telling me what a dumbass I was.
“You need to find her, Brand,” Chris said, his eyes saying more than his words did.
“Fucking shit!” I barked as I shot forward, my arms resting on my knees as my fingers pulled at my hair.
“I didn’t want to accept this. But everyone kept saying that she just needed time. I wanted to track her adorable ass down and demand that she tell me to my face that she doesn’t want me anymore. But I held back because sometimes I fuck things up so bad because I lead with my heart and not my head. This one time, I was trying to be smart. Only the thing is, I just turned out to be a damn turd nugget and I could be letting her down right now by sitting around on my ass.”
“Great! So where do we start?”
“I’ve got her address back at the shop, but I should check with Cable before I drive all the way over there. I’m sure he has a folder on her already.” I jumped up. Chris, being the amazing guy that he was, followed suit.
“Brand,” B-ry’s voice called out from the propped open front door.
“Yeah?” I barked as I snapped to face him.
“There’s, ah, a chick here asking for you. Says her name is Laurel.”
My mind spun trying to think of whether or not I knew someone by that name. Something about it seemed familiar but it wasn’t ringing any huge bells at the moment.
With my mind made up about the Cami thing, my brain was in full mission mode and I didn’t want to stop to deal with some bullshit that would hold me up for even a second.
At the same time, I knew curiosity would only kill me. So, I nodded and walked out front to where B-ry had pointed. As soon as I stepped out into the mid-day sun, I saw a tall, willowy, blonde standing there, shading her eyes with her hand even though she had on the largest sunglasses I’d ever seen. And that hand held a humongous ring that caught the light and sparkled so much it nearly blinded me. Jesus, how the hell did her dainty hand even hold up such a big rock?
“You looking for me?” I asked and tried to hold the bark back from my question.
“Brand? Wow, I can see why…” Her words trailed off as she pulled her sunglasses off and shoved them into her hair.
That was when it hit me. Those eyes. There was no mistaking those eyes. The same as Cami’s only slightly less vivid. My eyes zipped around the other features of her face, cataloging other similarities. The lips had the same bow to them, but Cami’s tipped up a bit more in the corners. The nose was the same, only Cami had this cute little freckle on the left side.
“I’m Laurel, Cami’s sister.”
Yes, between the practically cut-out features and the huge rock, I’d figured out this was the one that had sent her those pictures of the bridesmaid’s dresses. Then it hit me, that was where I’d seen the name, in the top of the text box on Cami’s phone.
“Where is she?” I asked not trying to keep the gruff demand out of my tone.
“Okay, first,” she said, straightening as if her spine was suddenly made of steel and holding up a finger to me. “Lose the macho man stuff. I came here on her behalf, even if she is not aware of it. Take it down a notch and let me talk.”
I had to hold back my chuckle. I could admit, the fact that she had come here alone was respectable, but then to stand up to me like that, well I almost wanted to bow down in appreciation. If she was on Cami’s side then I was happy, because Cami deserved people like this in her corner. However, I wasn’t sure where this conversation was going to go and I feared for the worst.
B-ry, though, could not hold his laugh back. The sound behind me almost made me cringe and what was worse, Laurel heard it and leaned to the side slightly so she could glare at him with slitted eyes. His laughter quickly came to a halt.
“As I was about to say,” she went on, returning her attention to me. “I love my sister, I do, but I simply, cannot sit around and watch this sad, stressed-out mess that she is turning into. Our parents suck, for lack of a better word, and I will be the first to admit it. Cami doesn’t deserve the hassle she’s had to deal with all of her life. She’s different, I suspect you can see that, and my parents made her feel like that was a burden pretty much from day one. My point is, she needs you.”
I froze at her words. I was ready for a verbal face slap, but it was clear that was not the way this was going down.
“If you are the man that she’s talked to me about, then you must care about her deeply. And I have to be honest, I’m a little surprised it was me that had to come here to tell you all of this.”
“How did you even find here, princess?” B-ry said from behind me, amusement thick in his tone. But I didn’t have time for this tit-for-tat shit.
“Well, Mr. Chip-On-His-Shoulder-Too-Good-For-Me-Biker-Guy, I went to the tattoo shop because she told me everything and the scary guy in the vest told me to come here. And because I love my sister and hate to see her falling into the dark hole she’s been in the last few days, I put aside the fact that I might get my heels dirty and drove here.”
Um, okay. I definitely didn’t want to be in between the two of them right now, but I also needed more info about Cami, so I was stuck.
“Laurel,” I said in a gentle tone and as her eyes snapped back to look at me, the anger slightly left her eyes. “I was about to track her down. Can you help me with that?”
“Oh, gosh, yes!”
I let out a small sigh of relief feeling like the tension between her and B-ry had been defused for the moment.
“She’s been staying with me. But look, I need to let you know, the only reason she has not come to you is that she is afraid and wants to protect you. Our mother apparently threw some threats Cami’s way before she kicked her out. Cami is scared that our parents will cause problems for you and…this.” Her hand waved out at the clubhouse.
“Motorcycle club. Say it with me, princess, Motorcycle club.” B-ry said the words real slow the last time like he was breaking it down for a toddler.
I wanted to strangle him right then.
“B-ry, shut the fuck up,” Chris managed to say the words I couldn’t get out right then because I was too focused on what Laurel had told me.
“So, she cut me off because of your parents?”
“Yes,” Laurel replied, keeping her eyes locked on me. “You see, our parents are…well connected, if you catch my drift. Cami, well, she cares very, very much for you and she threw herself on the sword to save you, if you will.”
“You’re telling me that she sent me that text because she wanted to save me?”
“Text?”
“Yeah, got a text from her later that day after she left here, saying she didn’t…uh, here.”
I pulled out my phone and showed Laurel what I was talking about. Her eyes scanned the screen as she read it, then her head was shaking back and forth confirming my suspicions that something was off.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that she didn’t send that. Our mother took her keys and phone. I would guess it was her that sent that.”
“Fuck,” I mumbled, feeling like the world biggest asshole for not seeing it sooner. “Where am I going?”
She rattled off an address, then went through the explanation of telling me exactly how to get there. Then I was off without so much as a care what happened to her after I left. Hell, her and B-ry might have gone toe-to-toe, pulling out knives in the process, but I didn't care.
I needed to get to Cami.
I needed to make things right.
I was going to get her back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Cami
Life sucked. I wouldn’t even try to play it off differently. I missed Brand the most
. But I also missed Sketch and Blade. And Chris, as well. I had Laurel, but I still felt like a big part of me was missing.
To be honest, Laurel had surprised me. She’d been super supportive and there for me through every emotion. And let me tell you, there was a wide range of them. Sad. Depressed. Angry. And so on.
I didn’t know if my parents knew where I’d ended up or not and I honestly didn’t care. If Laurel had ratted me out, it was obvious that they could care less because they hadn’t shown up the four or so days I’d been here. I say ‘or so’ because I’d truly lost count of the days. I slept odd hours and when I was awake I had kind of been an out-of-it mess. I wasn’t really sure how many times the sunlight had graced the apartment then retreated again.
I was so moody that I couldn’t even enjoy the colors that started the day. I didn’t care that I had missed them. That was when I knew I was in bad shape. My mood was black. The walls around me simple white. The wine currently filling up half my glass was only red.
My heart no longer felt the joy in life and I wondered how I’d fallen this far. How I had managed to let one person fill my heart with warmth and how I was supposed to go on like none of it had happened. I knew I was in bad shape but I didn’t have the first clue how to pull myself out of this hole I was falling into.
Everything I had dealt with in life had never affected me like losing Brand had. Not even my parents and all their boxes that I had to fit into.
Pathetic.
I’d called myself that more time than I could count the last few days.
“This is so stupid,” I said to an empty room.
Laurel had left to have lunch with Brice and his mother. To talk wedding plans, I was sure. But I didn’t exactly know, because I was the world’s worst sister and hadn’t asked her about anything after that first night.
I sucked. Like big time. Here Laurel was, being a good sister and letting me crash here in her spare room and I was a bitch, not even seeming grateful for any of it.