Page 80 of Oblivion
21
STORM
Avoidance wasmy best friend these days, and ever since Ophelia blasted at Indigo, Atlas, and me, I’d been avoiding any places where she could possibly be. And it felt as if she was everywhere, even though I knew through Atlas that she only went for breakfast before everybody else and she took Kaiser out for a walk every morning, afternoon, and evening.
I had no idea who brought her food for Kaiser, I would guess Atlas, and I couldn’t bring myself to go to her.
She wanted me to let her go, and every single time that thought even entered my mind, it was as if a knife sliced over my heart, bleeding me dry, because I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I’d been placing all the blame on her, and she was right—I fucked up too. I knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t react well if she found out about our deal with Logan, and I still did it.
I still kept her in the dark, refusing to share all my secrets with her. I chased her, brought her here under the pretense of wanting to hurt her, but I was lying to myself, and if I kept this up, I would lose the woman I loved.
But I didn’t know how or where to start. I didn’t know how to approach her, because every time I did it seemed that we either ended up arguing, glaring at each other or fucking, and none of those were ingredients for a healthy relationship.
So instead of facing her and doing the healthy thing, I chose to sit here in my office, nursing this whiskey, trying to forget what I had agreed to do once she was here. And I knew she wouldn’t forgive me if I went ahead with it.
But what was I supposed to do? I had to think about the Club, about all those men and women depending on me. It wasn’t only our chapter anymore, the entire country was affected by the Outfit and The Albanians, and I hated that The Syndicate had gone quiet.
There was nothing on them. Not one single thing, and while I wanted to believe that they'd stopped chasing Ophelia, I knew her uncle was still here, and it was only a matter of time before he took the first step.
The door of my office suddenly opened, revealing Indigo.
My mood immediately went from bad to worse, and even the verbal lashing I gave him the other day didn’t help to suffocate my anger. The way he talked to her, the way he behaved was something I couldn’t condone.
His misplaced anger toward her because of what her father did many years ago had no place here now. And I didn’t appreciate the fact that he tried talking for me, ruining even the tiniest chance of me getting her back.
It was devastating, knowing that the woman you would die for lived just next to you, yet you couldn’t do anything about it because you needed to put your duty before your feelings.
“Yes,” I said when Indigo kept standing there, avoiding my eyes.
I understood his anger, I knew where it was coming from, but Ophelia wasn’t the one that destroyed his family, and it wasn’t fair toward her that he treated her like an enemy.
Atlas told me what she did during that month and a half while I was out of commission, trying to find the way to take them all down, and she did it by herself. She stayed by me, when she could have left as soon as they admitted me to the hospital. She could have gone back to The Syndicate, and I was sure that they would have taken her because she was the best at what she did.
But she'd stayed, she'd tried, and my men didn’t make it any easier on her.
And the fact that I'd fucked up even more afterward wasn’t sitting well with me.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Indigo started, clearing his throat. “Maxwell is here, and the others are slowly arriving for the gathering tomorrow.”
The fucking gathering. I tried not to think about it and the scene I was going to create, but I couldn’t back down now. I couldn’t show weakness in front of these men.
This chapter here in Santa Monica was my family, but the others—they wouldn’t think twice if they thought I was weak and incapable of leading the Club.
“I know we discussed the rooming plan and all of that, so I’m going to show them to their quarters, but you should know that they’re arranging a party.”
“Great,” I groaned, placing my elbows on top of the desk. I chugged down the remains of the whiskey in the glass and dropped it on the wooden surface. “Who’s arranging it?” I asked, knowing that the parties in other chapters were nothing like the ones here.
“Rip is doing it.” Indigo winced. I groaned and pressed my forehead against the desk.
“We need to make sure that the families aren’t here tonight. I don’t want small kids around once the party starts happening.”
“Got it,” Indigo answered, staring at me.
“Anything else?” I grunted.
“What about, you know…” he trailed off, squirming.
“Ophelia?” I asked, straightening up. He better not start with another one of his rants about her, because we would have a problem. “What about her?”
