AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But the moment I heard Badger say he’d found Anna and she was in Maryland, my heart had begun to break. And when he announced he had a location but he hadn’t made contact, thus he couldn’t confirm she was alone in the house she’d been staying at for days, my broken heart shattered.
She was close.
Had been for days.
That meant she knew where I was, knew the jig was up, yet she hadn’t attempted to make contact. There was no other reason she’d be thirty miles away. None.
That hurt.
Like a lot. So much, I couldn’t deal. So I left Easton to it and blanked my mind.
I felt a hand on my thigh, knew it was Easton’s but didn’t move. His hand squeezed and I blocked it out.
“Nebraska,” he called. “Need you to focus a minute, yeah?”
I shook my head.
“Just for a second.”
I gave him my eyes and he didn’t delay. “We’re headed out. If this is something you want in on, you need to be up to speed and focused. You coming or staying here?”
Was I coming?
I’d fully checked out and he was giving me the option to check back in and be a part of whatever they were planning.
If I hadn’t already confessed albeit mentally that I had feelings for him and those feelings were leaning on the side of loving him, snapping me out of my stupor to give me that option would’ve forced me to evaluate my feelings.
I hadn’t given a single person in the room any evidence to suggest I wouldn’t be a liability, yet Easton still had faith in me.
Oh yeah, I was getting a strange feeling in my belly. It wasn’t terrifying—it was ter-ri-fy-ing with the emphasis on the ing. Meaning that terrified feeling was ongoing and only getting stronger.
“Dove?” Badger’s voice came through Zane’s cellphone on the table.
“I’m here,” I answered.
That was, I was there physically. Mentally, I was closed for business.
“Sit this one out,” he suggested, though his tone said what his words didn’t, and that was he was ordering me to sit this one out.
“That’s not your call,” Easton returned, his tone also conveying what his words didn’t say, and that was back the fuck up.
“Actually, it is. Like it or not she’s still a part of Black. And with this I make the call. She’s sitting this out.”
I felt the vibration of hostility rolling off of Easton and filling the room. If I could feel it, his brothers could. This was not the way these two teams needed to be introduced. Not to mention, Easton was a badass but Badger was stone-cold. Not only would nothing good come of these two going head-to-head, it would end in bloodshed. The kind that lands you on a slab in the morgue.
“Actually, Zane fired me,” I told Badger, not caring I was throwing Zane under the bus and not giving the whole story. Badger wasn’t the kind of man who’d appreciate my thoughts on quit-fired and severance packages anyway. “So it’s not your call and it’s never been your call. I move where I need to move. And I want in.”
“I’ll be having words with Viper when this is done about what the fuck’s up with him firing you. But for now, I’m telling you, you coming isn’t smart.”
“Maybe not, but this my life and—”
“That right there is why this isn’t smart. Give us a chance to contain the situation and get a feel where Anna’s head’s at. She’s in the right place, we’ll bring her to you.”
It hit me then. Badger wasn’t shutting me out; he was trying to protect me from Anna.
I was torn. I wanted in, but my head was fucked up. My concentration could slip and I could put the team in danger.
I glanced at Easton, needing direction. He instantly read my dilemma and went to work giving me what I needed to put my mind at ease.
