End Game (Sinners MC Book 2)

by Jennifer Hanks

  “Not tellin’ you sets up you and this club for retaliation. Won’t have that shit on my conscience.”

  He started slowly toward the door, and Tank’s eyes met mine. What he was giving us, what he’d done for us didn’t make up for the breach in loyalty, but it was hard not to respect a man who’d just been beaten and still handed over information to save the ones throwing him out.

  He pulled open the door and glanced back over his shoulder. “Might not be worth much, but what you’re doin’ here, what you’re doin’ for the community and that kid, that shit matters. I respect the hell out of this club and the way you’re runnin’ it.”

  Walking out, he closed the door behind him and left me standing in the now quiet room facing Tank.

  “He was an asset,” Tank insisted.

  I nodded, but being an asset wasn’t enough. “Trust is everything, brother. You tellin’ me if I let him stay that you’d ever trust him again? Trust him to have your back?”

  “He’s already had my back and yours more times than we can count,” he reminded me, but he didn’t need to. I remembered that shit. “He’s also a bridge to the Widows that could benefit us.”

  That was true and something I’d considered, but it still wasn’t enough. I did away with the liars years ago when I began rebuilding, and I had no plans to bring them back.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  JOSIE

  Tapping “end call” on my phone, I sat down on the corner of my bed and laid my phone on my lap. I listened to the sounds of Bull moving around in my apartment, but I stayed where I was and stared down at my phone. Maggie had called me, obviously upset, and told me what she’d walked in on this afternoon. Apparently, Gunner told her that Skinner had done something disloyal to the club and would no longer be a member, but that Bear had shown him what happened to people who disrespected him and the club.

  She explained she understood it was club life, but it had forced her memory back to the days when she was involved with a member of the Widows, and they’d often been violent. I’d encouraged her to speak with the counselor she’d been seeing since she left the Widows, and she agreed. I couldn’t help her when I was in shock myself. I’d gotten to know the Sinners over the past few months, and my initial impression of them had been changing. They weren’t anything like the motorcycle clubs I’d read about.

  Except they were.

  Slowly, I got up and made my way out of my bedroom to head toward the kitchen. I had no idea why, but I felt betrayed, almost as if I’d been lied to or misled. There was no reason for it. They’d done everything they could to protect me from their enemy, but I couldn’t get the image out of my mind that Maggie had painted.

  “You plannin’ on eatin’ tonight or what?”

  My head snapped up when I heard Bull’s voice. He was grinning while he stood in the kitchen, but that grin dropped when he saw my face. “Everything okay?”

  How the hell was I supposed to answer that? Moving closer to where he stood, I stopped. “What do you do to your enemies?”

  His eyebrows drew together. “What?”

  “People who cross you? Do you harm them?”

  Bull seemed to consider that before answering. “Why you askin’ me that shit?”

  I held up my phone before laying it on the counter that separated us. “Because Maggie just called and told me what you guys did to Skinner, and I don’t want to believe it. I want to believe she just misunderstood what she saw.” When he only continued to stare at me, I added, “Did she misunderstand?”

  When his expression hardened, I knew she hadn’t. “That’s club business, Josie.”

  “So she didn’t,” I mumbled.

  “She shouldn’t have shared our shit with you.”

  My eyebrows rose. “Your shit”—I held up my fingers in quotation marks when I repeated the words—“has caused her to have flashbacks of her time in a violent club. This could cause her to question all kinds of things, including how safe she really is.”

  “Maggie knows she safe with us,” he defended.

  “Maybe,” I replied but realized I no longer felt that way, and I wasn’t sure I could condone a club that solved its problems with violence, so I made a decision for myself. For some reason, the decision made me feel sad, but with the job I held and to defend my own principles, it had to be done. “But I don’t.” I pointed at the door. “I want you to leave.” He watched me closely while I continued. “I no longer require your protection.”

  “Bear…”

  “Bear no longer has a say in my life or who I decide will offer me protection.” I straightened my shoulders. “I made a mistake in who I put my trust in. That’s on me. But I won’t continue to make the same mistake. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but you’re officially off duty, Bull.”

  Bull lowered his voice when he spoke, but he didn’t sound angry. He almost sounded like he was warning me of something. “You shouldn’t make decisions without all the facts, honey.”

  My eyes watered at the term of endearment, and I realized I would miss him. In a strange shift of circumstances, he’d become a friend, just as Becs and Maggie had, and I would miss his friendship, but I needed to distance myself from anyone who condoned violence.

  He walked out around the counter, as though he was heading for the door, but stopped briefly next to me. “There isn’t a person in our club who would hurt you or condone you being hurt. There are always two sides to a story, Josie. Maybe you should hear the other side before you cast judgment.”

  “I never want to be involved in a club that uses violence as the answer, Bull, no matter what.”

  I didn’t wait for his answer. I moved around him and headed back to my bedroom, where I waited until I heard my apartment door open and close, and only then did I go back into my kitchen. Turning on the coffee pot, I waited for it to warm and then made an entire pot of coffee. I had no doubt I would finish it myself by the end of the night.

  As I poured the first cup of coffee, I wasn’t surprised when there was a knock on my door. I’d expected him to show up. I was blatantly throwing his protection back in his face, which he wouldn’t like. I finished adding milk and sugar to my coffee before I slowly made my way across the small living room and pulled the door open.

  He stood with his hands braced on the frame above my door, and for the first time since I met him, I didn’t try to fight off the surge of arousal that flooded my body. We’d been together twice, but each time had felt bigger than anything else I’d ever done in my life. Over the past six weeks while he’d kept his distance, I realized I’d made the mistake of falling for him. I’d thought if he had any real feelings for me beyond the raw chemistry we had, that maybe we could make something work. It would be hard—we were very different and would need to keep things between us private—but some of the most difficult things in my life had also been the most rewarding.

  I’d gone over it again and again in my mind, trying to find a way to begin something with him privately. After the last time we’d been together, I’d been sure he wanted it too, no matter what he was telling me. But when I’d gone to visit Becs and Wyatt, and he’d purposely stayed away, I knew those deeper feelings were all one-sided. At that point, I decided to move on but would attempt to remain friendly because I didn’t want to lose Becs and Maggie. They became the friends I’d always wanted in my life but never really made time for. Lucy was fast becoming a part of that group as well.

  Although, tonight, it felt as though all of that had changed.

  I didn’t say anything, just stepped back and allowed him to enter. This would go much smoother if I just let him have his say instead of fighting him. Usually, I liked arguing with him, but I just didn’t seem to have the energy.

  Moving into the living room, I sat on the chair and pulled my legs up, tucking my feet under me. It was chilly tonight, but it made sense, considering it was the beginning of December. I had planned to stay here over the holidays, but the schools would be closed for three
weeks, and after what happened tonight, I would probably go to Boston to spend time with my mom. She would work during my visit, but maybe it would do me good to be back in my hometown.

  “Bull called me.”

  I took a drink from my coffee cup but didn’t answer. I didn’t need to; he already knew the conversation we’d had.

  He sat down on the couch and leaned his elbows on his knees but kept his eyes on me. “Maggie shouldn’t have shared that information with you.”

  “She needed to talk to someone.” I defended her.

  “She should’ve talked to Gunner.”

  I considered that. “Maybe she didn’t like his answer.”

  “She had no idea what she was looking at.”

  I raised my eyebrows and blew on my still-hot coffee. “What was she looking at?”

  He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck before once again facing me. “Can’t tell you that.”

  I took a sip of my coffee. “Then I’m not sure why you’re here.”

  “You need to trust me when I say I did what I had to do.”

  Watching him quietly for a moment, I admitted what he probably didn’t realize. “I did trust you, Bear. I’d been beaten in the parking lot of your club. I’d never been beaten or attacked in my life until I met the people in your club.” Holding my cup in only one hand, I balanced it on my thigh. “Then you offered me safety, and I put my trust in you, and over time, I began thinking that you guys, just as I’d been, were victims in this situation. I put aside my judgment and reservations and instead put my trust in you and your club.” Placing my feet on the floor, I leaned forward. “But then tonight, I found out that the people I trusted to protect me had beaten a man, and you know the first thing that came to my mind?” His eyes never left mine while I spoke. “I wasn’t safe. I’d trusted the wrong people.”

  Standing, I held my cup in one hand and pointed at the door with the other. “I’d like you to go. You can spend the rest of your life confident that you offered and provided me protection. I don’t need it anymore, so you’re free to go about your life, and I’m free to start mine over, here in this new town, but without you.”

  He stood slowly, towering over me as always, and for the first time since the day I came home from the hospital, I took a step back. He closed his eyes and ran his hand over his beard. There seemed to be hurt there when he opened them, but I couldn’t think about that. I just needed him to go so I could grieve the loss of this never-was relationship, wake up tomorrow, and start building my life again.

  He reached out and laid his hand along the side of my throat. “You were always safe with me, honey, and you always will be.” He leaned down and kissed me softly. “I’ll give you the time you need, but this isn’t over, Josie.”

  “This was never something that should’ve started, Bear.” I reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

  His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “You’re willing to throw it all away without considering I did what I did to make sure everyone was safe?”

  I straightened and took a step back. “I don’t care about your reasons, Bear. And I don’t want you in my life anymore. I just want to be free of you and your club.”

  He watched me closely for a moment, and the softness in his face when he arrived slowly disappeared, replaced by the hardness I hadn’t seen in months. “Then consider yourself free.”

  I didn’t respond. There were no words left to say.

  He turned and walked straight to my door without turning back.

  The demands he always made, the ones that almost defined who he was, were not made.

  He recognized the end as well as I did.

  The end of something that never really began should not have been so painful.

  But when the door clicked shut behind him, I sank to my knees, and agony washed over me.

  SIX MONTHS LATER

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  JOSIE

  I was driving this damn road again.

  I had a love-hate relationship with camp this summer, and it had nothing to do with the kids. It was hard to believe it was summer already. After Bear left my apartment six months ago, I threw myself into my work. I’d been living on pots of coffee and taking on extra projects with the school district to stay busy, but it hadn’t helped. I still thought about him almost every day, which made absolutely no sense, but I’d learned to live with it.

  I stayed true to my promise of distancing myself from the club members, but Becs and Maggie wouldn’t allow it. We texted and called each other frequently, and they’d both visited my apartment on a regular basis. I was glad I hadn’t lost them too, but when they tried to bring up Bear or the club, I quickly shut it down. It was just my luck that the first man I loved happened to run a club I couldn’t make amends with.

  I loved him.

  I figured that out when I couldn’t seem to get over the loss of him. It didn’t make sense that I could fall in love with someone that quickly, but I guess the old saying, the heart wants what the heart wants, is true. It didn’t matter that my mind knew better; my heart didn’t want to listen.

  Becs told me the club was safer than it had been in a long time. She said Bear and the Widow’s new president had come to some type of agreement and would leave each other alone as long as they stayed on their own sides of the street. She also said the men who had attacked me were no longer a threat to the club or me. However, I still saw prospects and even some members driving around my office or my apartment at various times of the day and night. I think Becs had been trying to prove that Bear did what was best for the club and maybe her way of asking me to come back, but I hadn’t responded. Nothing had changed for me, and I was sure nothing had changed for Bear. Not to mention, I hadn’t heard from him. At least not since Christmas.

  I’d gone home to visit my mom for almost the entire three weeks of the holiday break. When I came back, a gift bag was sitting on my counter. I’d set my suitcase down and opened the bag, only to find a picture frame inside holding a group photo of the kids at camp over the summer. On the bottom of the frame, etched into the glass, was the most beautiful statement I’d ever read.

  MY KIDS.

  It should’ve bothered me that he still had a key to my apartment or that he’d somehow gotten his hands on a picture that only the staff and kids had, but it hadn’t. I sat on the stool and cried for what felt like the millionth time over a man I’d only known for a short while but seemed to know me in a way few ever had.

  Shaking off the memory, I continued driving until it came time to turn onto the road I dreaded most. I was always concerned I would see Bear out, or he’d be coming or going when I passed. I still had no idea how I would handle that. Taking a deep breath, I turned and began down the long and quiet road. It really was a beautiful drive when all the trees and wildflowers were in bloom in the long-forgotten fields. This area had never been developed, so it had a very serene feel about it. It was also that time of the morning when the sun had just kissed the horizon and was lighting the road. I smiled when the heat from the sun warmed my skin through my open window.

  When the clubhouse came into sight, I blinked slowly. A large tow truck sat in the lot with a black truck hooked up to the tow, and then someone jumped out of the cab and walked around to the back. Just as I was passing, a man met him at the back and smiled.

  I could only stare.

  Slowing down, I stared at the two men until the one I recognized looked up, and his eyes met mine. Dominic had graduated this year, and it had been his best year in many. He’d followed through on his promise to meet with me weekly and always told me he liked his job at the garage, but he never told me the name of his employer.

  I could only imagine that was because he didn’t want me to know he was working for Bear.

  He lifted his hand in a wave, and I slowed the car enough that I could turn in. One glance around the parking lot told me no one else was around. I came to a stop and parked before gettin
g out and walking slowly to where he still stood. He finished talking to the driver and shook his hand before taking the few remaining steps to stand in front of me.

  “Hey, Ms. Carmichael.”

  He looked different. Definitely happier, but something else, something I couldn’t recognize. “Dominic.” I gestured behind him toward the clubhouse and garage. “Do you work here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you just start?”

  He shook his head. “No, Bear gave me a job back in the fall.”

  My eyes widened. “This was the job you talked about?”

  “Yeah.”

  I tilted my head. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Bear helped me out of a jam,” he admitted. “I was doin’ stuff I shouldn’t have been doing. He found me and brought me here to learn a trade and earn some money.”

  My stomach clenched at the mention of his name, and something Dominic said months ago suddenly occurred to me. “You told me you love this job.”

  He smiled. “I do, and I’m making good money.” He shrugged. “I’ve been trying to save enough so Kyla and Arie can live with me. Bear’s helping me figure that out too.”

  Bear had taken him in. Warmth flooded my chest at the realization he had stepped in and helped the kid who I’d been worried about, the kid I’d told him about, including my fears for him.

  Dominic pointed at the tow truck. “I need to help unload this.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said, still frazzled. “Of course.” I reached out and laid my hand on his forearm. “I’m proud of you, Dominic.”

  “Thanks, Ms. Carmichael.” He started walking backward. “By the way, Bear’s in his office if you want to thank him. The side door’s open.”

  I stayed right where he left me, almost as if I was stuck to the pavement. I watched the tow truck back up to the large bay doors, and almost without my permission, my feet started across the parking lot. I didn’t think about it. I just headed toward the side door that I knew would lead almost directly to his office without going through the clubhouse. Never even pausing, I pulled open the door and headed into the short hallway. I had a lot of questions, and the answers couldn’t come from Dominic.