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“Rosie, go inside,” Cade barked.
I turned my glare to him, who was directing his murderous stare at Luke, who, surprisingly, was mild-faced.
“Hello to you too, big brother,” I snapped.
He whipped his shades to me. “Rosie, I need to talk to your….”
“Boyfriend?” I finished for him.
Cade scowled and nodded once.
I squeezed Luke’s hand. “You’re not throwing your macho shit ordering me around and beating Luke up.” I moved forward, in front of Luke, shielding him from any blow that Cade might decide to land. “You’ll have to go through me first.”
Cade pushed his shades to the top of his head in frustration. “Really, Rosie? The dramatics necessary?”
I gaped. “Seriously? I’m not the one who was standing in the middle of the parking lot like Snake Plissken.”
There was gentle pressure at my hips as Luke turned me. “Babe, it’s okay,” he murmured.
“No it’s not. You don’t have to play this game. It’s a dumb dick-swinging contest. I have it on very good authority that you don’t need to do that.” I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see Cade’s glare at the comment, but the fury was hot on my back.
Luke kissed my head, smiling and shaking his own. “I appreciate you lookin’ out for me, babe, but this needs to happen. I can take care of myself. And no matter what, I’m in there, right behind you, okay?” he promised, nodding to the clubhouse.
I paused, frowning. “I don’t like this,” I grumbled, turning to scowl at Cade. “And you hurt him, I will shoot you,” I promised. My gun was in my purse.
Cade didn’t answer.
“Thought tensions might be high,” Luke said, putting his hand in his pocket and opening his palm to reveal a handful of bullets. “Took them out to make sure you don’t do something you’d regret.”
I would’ve had a lot to say about that had I not seen the corner of Cade’s mouth twitch. In Cade World, that was considered a smile.
I pointed between the two men who I loved immensely in different ways. “Play nice,” I ordered.
Luke grinned. “Always.”
Cade, again, didn’t answer.
I gave Luke one more lingering glance before I walked into the clubhouse.
I’d always felt easy, relaxed, walking in there.
But without Luke at my side, it didn’t feel right.
I prayed that he was true to his promise, that no matter what, he’d be right behind me.
Luke
He braced. Hard. For the hit—fuck, for the bullet. He was certain the former was coming; the latter was an educated guess. You didn’t just walk into the compound you’d been trying to burn to the ground for years, stand in front of the man you’d hated for your entire life, the man whose life you were trying to ruin, tell him you loved his baby sister and get a pat on the back. No. Even in a normal situation you wouldn’t get that. And this was so far from a normal situation he would laugh if he wasn’t so fucking nervous.
Not about the inevitable punch or the semi-inevitable bullet.
He’d experienced a lot of the former and a fair few of the latter in his years wearing the badge. He was used to them. He sure as fuck wasn’t afraid of them.
He was afraid of any life without Rosie. Fucked up, but he was finding it hard to remember that he had any life before her. It sounded ridiculous, like he was a character in some Nicholas Sparks book for even thinking it, but it was the truth. It was all murky, the before, like a half-remembered dream.
At least it was when he was with her.
Now that he was staring in the face of the man who could alter the course of his life, his past, that dream, was promising an ugly and stark reality of a future without her if this didn’t go well.
Rosie’s family were everything to her. Some women built their worth on things, on looks, money, the men they could bed, the fucking image they put on their social media. Not Rosie. Her worth, her life, her happiness were packaged into that clubhouse, gated off and secured with barbed wire. She’d let him in, but the man in front of him could kick him out.
He’d never thought he’d want to so badly be in there.
They stared at each other for a long time. The length of a lifetime he’d be promised if this went to shit. Cade had this way of staring at a man like he had all the time in the world to cut his guts out and show them to him. Just for fun. It didn’t scare Luke. At least not before.
“You love her?” Cade grunted finally, breaking the uneasy silence.
Luke was momentarily surprised it was words that broke the silence instead of the unmistakable sound of a fist on flesh or a bullet discharging, but he recovered quickly.
