I watched as he leaned in, going for a kiss, watched as Everly placed her hand on his chest, holding him off, and shook her head.
That was all I needed to see.
Some fucker had tried to move in on what was mine. On my girl. My Everly.
Anger pumped through me, darkness filling my head, red rage clouding my vision. I tore into the lot, shut off my bike, kicked down the stand, and made straight for the asshole with his hand on my woman’s hip. His head was turned, watching me come at him.
No one was touching her again. No one was going to try and force themselves on her again and walk away. First in that house of horrors we’d lived in, then Clayton, fucking Tanner, and now this motherfucker.
If I hadn’t been there all those times, if I hadn’t protected her—
Suddenly, I was a terrified fourteen-year-old boy holding on to Everly as tight as I could so no one could snatch her away, with a steak knife down the side of my mattress, ready to do anything to make sure no one scared her again or made her cry.
I roared and went for the guy in front of me, the guy crowding Everly, and he came at me as well. I easily deflected him and laughed as I grabbed the fucker by the throat and shoved him against the side of his truck.
I knew I looked as twisted as I felt. Knew it by the look on this asshole’s face. He looked ready to piss himself, actually feared for his life, even as he struggled against my hold and got a few punches in to the parts of my body he could reach.
“You touched her,” I said, my face right in his. “You touched her and she’s mine. You think you can take her from me? You think I’ll let you fucking do that?”
The guy’s mouth was working but nothing was coming out, probably because his vocal cords were being crushed.
“She doesn’t want your filthy fucking mouth on her. She doesn’t want you touching her,” I roared in his face.
He was changing color, and I couldn’t make my hand loosen. I couldn’t. The sound of my blood rushing filled my head. That’s all I could hear, nothing else until someone grabbed my jaw and forced my head to the right.
Everly.
Her brown eyes locked with mine, pleading and filled with fear, so much fear. “Let him go,” she yelled at me. “For God’s sake, let him go!”
That fear in her eyes jolted me and brought me back. Christ, it was like I had been somewhere else, another time, another place. I let the guy go, and he doubled over, coughing and spitting and wheezing.
Everly was back in front of me. She pressed both hands to my chest and shoved me back a step. I was too stunned to even attempt to hold my ground. She shoved again, pushing me toward my bike.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she said, horror, sadness, anger, and, yeah, fear, that fucking fear of me right there front and center. “Leave now. Go back to Rocktown and stay there.”
I felt like she’d buried a knife in my chest, and I staggered back another step. Martin had straightened and moved up behind her, looking pale but like he was ready to try and protect her if he needed to. Protect her from me.
I would never hurt Everly. Never.
You just did, asshole. Again.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” I said to her, my eyes slicing to him. “I didn’t mean to…I don’t know what—”
“Leave, Dane, now,” Everly said, lower lip quivering.
The knife in my chest twisted.
But I gave her what she wanted. I had to. I got on my bike and I left.
* * *
She called late that night. I’d been calling and texting her since I left, but up until then she’d ignored me. I didn’t blame her.
I put the phone to my ear, trying and failing to say a damn thing when I heard her breathing down the line.
“Stop,” she whispered, voice broken and filled with sadness. “You need to stop calling.”
“Eves…baby…” I choked.
She was quiet several beats. “I convinced Martin not to press charges. If I think about…” She drew in a shaky breath.
“Eves—”
“No. You need to give me a minute, do you understand? What happened today…” Her voice cracked. “I need…I need some space. I’m so…I’m so angry with you, Dane. I don’t ever think I’ve been this angry. You didn’t think I actually wanted Martin? You didn’t honestly think I would cheat on you, did you?”
I felt like I was drowning, dying, fucking suffocating. “No…I just—I saw you with him and I…” I didn’t know how to finish.
“You acted—reacted—like you always do, like you did with Tanner at the lake, with those guys at the bar. You let your anger take over and you risked everything…God, everything, Dane.”
I curled my fingers tighter around my phone and paced to the other side of my apartment, staring down at the street below. She was right. I wanted to bang my head against the damn window frame. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Baby girl—”
“Don’t.”
We both stayed quiet a long time, her disappointment loud and clear.
Finally, she said, “I’ll come home when I’m ready. You need to give me some time, some space.”
She wanted space, from me. I was in physical agony at not having her close, and she wanted space. That hurt, despite the way I’d fucked up, despite the way I’d ruined everything. I was smothering her all over again, only this time she recognized it first and was going to kick my needy ass to the curb, like I always knew she would.
“Yeah,” I rasped. “I get it.” I was surprised I got out the fucking words without breaking down.
“I need to go,” she said. “I’ll call you.”
In other words, leave her the fuck alone until she was ready to deal with my dumb ass.
“Goodbye, Dane,” she whispered.
And disconnected.
* * *
“You punch like my grandmother,” Grifter bit out, holding the bag in place while I slammed my fist into it. “Then again, bitch had a mean right hook, so maybe not her. Jesus, you need to focus. You want your ass handed to you this weekend?”
I plowed my taped-up fists into the leather with more force, grunting from my gut, releasing the anger still so volatile and deep inside me. It was always there. Always. Boxing helped me fight it back, helped me regain the control I needed, release that rage that I’d had for most of my life.
Everly still wasn’t home. Almost another week had passed and nothing. Not one fucking thing. I was losing her.
I threw two more punches as hard as I could, teeth gritted, bone and muscle jarring.
Her aunt’s words echoed through my head. “You’re selfish and violent and untrustworthy. You will never be good enough for her.” I’d always known it, of course I did.
But I thought I was done hurting her. Apparently not. It seemed there was no low where I was concerned. I kept finding another level. Fuck, deep down I knew that my protectiveness—shit, my obsession—with Everly was a problem.
There was something wrong inside me. I was wrong in every way I could be.
Wrong for her.
Somehow I’d fought the driving need to go to her, to call her and text her nonstop. It was easier with Grifter here. He’d called to shoot the shit and had worked out instantly that something was up. He showed up a couple of hours later and had barely left me the fuck alone.
He could only stay a few nights, and I knew something was up with him and the club. He’d buzzed off his hair and by the looks was growing a beard, but he wasn’t talking.
“Returning the favor,” he’d said when he knocked on my door. He’d been through a lot in his life and went to some seriously dark places at times. I’d been there for him more than once.
“You’re done,” Riff said as I continued to smash my fists into the bag.
“No,” I bit out and got in another bone-jarring hit.
“Dane. You’re done,” he said again.
I shook my head and hit the bag again.
“Yeah, motherfucker, yo
u are,” he said, shoved the bag aside, and tackled me to the floor.
I tried to shove him away before delivering a blow to the side of his head, and he returned the favor, making my fucking ears ring.
Panting, he grabbed my hand and lifted it, showing me my split, bleeding knuckles. “You’re fucking done.”
I shoved him off, climbed to my feet, and started toward the locker room, but stopped when I realized Grifter was right behind me. “Don’t need you to scrub my back, asshole.”
Grifter scowled. “Not leaving you on your own, fuckhead, so shut the fuck up and get in the shower. You stink.”
I planted my hands on my hips and stared at the floor, taking a steadying breath. “I’m not gonna do anything stupid. Just having a shower.”
His jaw worked. “Why don’t you come back to Black Stone for a bit, if Cal can spare you here? We’ve got shit to sort at the club, Ramblers from all over coming for a get-together, and the shop’ll be busy. Could use the help.”
“Maybe.” There was nothing keeping me there. Cal and Bull had their own shit going on, and as much as I loved where they were with their lives and what they had, I wasn’t much in the mood to be around the happy families crew. Cal would be glad to see the back of me. He surprisingly hadn’t given me shit over Everly. I’d fucked up. I’d chased her away, like he was worried I would when I first moved back. His words had been echoing through my head all week.
“We kept her up at the house for as long as we could…didn’t want to leave her on her own. Eves was broken.”
Nausea gripped my gut when I thought about her like that. That I’d fucking hurt her again.
Grifter eyed me for several long seconds, and I realized his worry over me doing something stupid told me exactly how messed up he’d been when I’d been in Black Stone with him, where his head had been when I’d been there for him when he’d damn near self-destructed.
Riff shrugged. “Whatever. But you’re not the only one who smells like shit, so am I allowed to shower as well? Or are you gonna buff the banana and need some privacy?”
Christ. I shook my head and headed to the locker room, with Grifter dogging my heels.
As I washed the sweat and blood from my body, ignoring the idiot in the next stall singing a medley of Britney Spears classics at the top of his lungs, I wondered how I was going to carry on with my life without Everly in it.
Because I was pretty sure I’d lost her.
For good this time.
Chapter Nineteen
Everly
I walked into Rocktown Ink, and Trix came out of the room she used to create her beautiful tattoos at the sound of the bell above the door.
“Girl, you’re back.” She walked straight to me, pulling me in for a hug. “Lila and I missed you. You okay?” She pulled back, her eyes meeting mine, concern clear to see.
We’d had a few group messaging sessions the last week, my friends talking me down when I was freaking out. “I will be,” I said, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Is he here?”
She bit the side of her lip and shook her head. “He’s been gone a few days. No one said where, and with the mood Cal and Bull have been in, I didn’t ask.”
I fought the sting behind my eyes as emotion welled inside me. I wanted so badly to see him. I hadn’t called because I couldn’t get through talking to him without crying. I was so angry, first at him, then my aunt when she admitted what she’d said to him.
Yes, I’d needed time, and I’d taken it.
I’d felt helpless when Dane had gone after Martin in that parking lot, like I had the last time he attacked someone on my behalf. Like I had no control over what happened to me and my life all over again. That the people I loved could be taken from me again, like my parents, like Dane, and there was nothing I could do.
I hated that feeling, and I didn’t want to feel that way ever again.
Dane was everything to me, and I refused to lose him again, which meant we needed to talk about what had happened and what we were going to do moving forward, because I couldn’t live like this. Worried he’d snap and do what he did last week again, that I wouldn’t be there to stop him and he’d do something he’d regret, terrified he’d be taken from me.
So I’d called the day before I came home, finally ready to talk this through, desperate to hear his voice because I missed him so much I physically hurt, but he hadn’t answered.
I’d called so many times since I couldn’t count. Left messages. Texted.
He’d locked me out. Dammit, he was trying to lock me out all over again.
Now to come home and learn he’d left town without telling me? It cut me deeply. I had a sick feeling that history was about to repeat itself. Dane was going to try and pull away from me like he had before, believing it was the right thing to do for me.
That I was better off without him.
I wasn’t. I never would be. How could he not know that?
The bell above the door jingled again, and I turned to find Cal standing there, dark-as-night eyes on me, and an expression on his face I couldn’t read.
Back when Dane had first vanished, Cal, Cassy, and Bull, had all kept Dane’s whereabouts a closely guarded secret at his request. Dane had been a troublemaker, had been troubled, especially after what had happened with me. They knew as well as I did that when it came to me, Dane took risks, would do anything, go to any lengths, if he thought he was protecting me. Which, I was sure, was why they’d agreed with him that the best thing he could do was let me go, at least at the beginning.
That wasn’t happening this time. I wouldn’t let him retreat.
“Tell me,” I said, voice as strong as I could make it. “Tell me where he is.”
Cal took two big strides and pulled me into his arms, giving me a bone-crushing hug.
“You’re back,” he growled out. “Thank fuck…you came back for him.”
He released me, and I stared up at Cal in shock. “You’re not angry with me?”
His brows lowered. “Why the fuck…would I be angry at you?”
“Because I sent him away, because of what happened.”
“You did the right thing, Eves…” He took a breath, and I knew he was trying to get his emotions in check with the way he was stumbling over his words. He was getting them straight in his head before he spoke again. “But, shit, he’s been a fucking mess since he came back from Rutherford.”
“He’s going to try and shut me out again, isn’t he?”
Cal’s jaw clenched. “Don’t know.” He rubbed a hand over his head. “He’s been avoiding my calls. But when he went back with Grifter, the way he was acting…” He shook his head. “It’s possible.”
“He’s in Black Stone?”
He dipped his chin.
That’s all I needed to hear. I turned to Trix. “You coming?”
“You know it,” she said, pulling her phone from the back pocket of her jeans. “Texting Lila now.”
I turned back to Cal. “Don’t tell him you’ve seen me.” I didn’t want him having any warning, in case I was right. He wasn’t getting away from me. Not this time.
Cal dipped his chin. “You’re the only one who can get through to him now. Bring him home.”
“I will,” I said, because failure wasn’t an option.
Dane said I was his. Well, he was mine, and I wasn’t letting him go.
* * *
We went to Bunker’s Tattoo and Piercing first, the parlor Dane had worked at with Grifter when he lived in Black Stone. Neither of them were there. The smiling Rambler who was there, who looked us up and down way too long, was all too happy to give us Grifter’s address.
Unfortunately, they weren’t there either.
“How are we going to find them?” I said, near out of my mind. I kept thinking of Dane taking off on his bike, leaving for good and never coming back.
That if I didn’t find him now, I would lose him forever.
“Do you have Riff’s number?” I said
to Lila when the thought popped into my mind.
She winced. “I deleted it.”
“Hold on,” Trix said. She was driving, and she did a tight U-turn and pulled up outside a garage across the street behind two guys in Ramblers vests.
“You can’t just talk to them,” Lila said, sliding her glasses higher on her nose.
“Watch me.” Trix opened her door and climbed out.
Lila and I shoved our doors open as well and quickly followed her. Trix walked right up to them like she was six foot four not a pint-sized woman who kind of looked like an inked-up Betty Boop.
“We’re looking for Grifter,” she said. “You know where he is?”
Because wherever Grifter was, Dane would more than likely be, and if not, I knew Riff would know where to find him.
One of the guys lifted his chin. “You his woman?”
Trix shook her head. “No, but she is,” she said and tugged Lila forward.
“Huh,” the guy said. “Now aren’t you a pretty little thing? Class. Not Riff’s usual type, but I see the appeal.”
Who said things like that?
“Can you help us? We’ve been trying to call him but he’s not answering,” I lied, ready to wring the guy’s neck if he didn’t give us the information we needed.
“He’s not answering, maybe he’s done with this one,” he said, motioning to Lila, who colored because that was kind of the truth. Whatever had been going on between them was now not, and though she wouldn’t talk about it, I knew she was hurt.
“It’s an emergency,” I bit out.
“She’s pregnant,” Trix blurted. “And he has a right to know.”
The guy jerked back. “Fuck me.”
No, thank you. I could tell Trix and Lila were mentally thinking the same thing.
“Tell her,” said the other guy standing beside the chatty one. “He knocked her up, he should know.”
Meant For You: Rocktown Ink, Book 3 Page 19