Page 77 of Riding Dirty

He jerks his chin in the air as I close the distance between us. He tosses the keys at me wordlessly. Thankfully, I catch them. Shifting my gaze to the side, I see Coast’s bike parked not too far away.

I know it’s his, because his is the only one with a metallic black fuel tank. The others are matte black or shiny black, and some even have other colors, but Coast’s is the only metallic one.

When I look back at my car, at Alex, I wonder what this ride is going to entail.

I continue toward the car, unlocking it before I fold into the front seat. Pushing the button, I start the car as Alex sits down next to me. Gripping the steering wheel, I turn my head and look over at him.

“I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me,” I state.

He doesn’t even look at me. His focus is straight ahead and nowhere else. I open my mouth, but he speaks before I can say anything else.

“I’m telling you right now, I don’t like this,” he grinds out. “But I was told everything had changed. That we’re good.”

“I was told the same,” I whisper.

We sit in silence for a long moment. I’m not going anywhere, not until I find out why he said what he did about me being like my mother. Maybe he meant it. I hope he didn’t. I could say some hurtful things to him, too, but I wouldn’t do that.

Apparently, he would do that to me, though.

“You’re not your mother.”

“Why did you say it?” I demand.

My ears are met with complete silence because he doesn’t respond. I don’t know what I expect him to do, but when he speaks again, it breaks my heart a little. I love my cousin. Alex is my family, my only family, and we’ve never let anything get between us. It would be complete bullshit to let a man do that now. The only person I have at my back.

“I was pissed off.”

“Why?”

He shrugs a shoulder, turns his head, and finally looks at me. “Because you love him. And he loves you. I’m going to lose you.”

“You’ll never lose me, Alex.”

He shakes his head once, pinching his eyes closed before he opens them again. “I already have. You’ve fallen for him. Completely and totally fallen.”

“And yet I’m sitting here with you.”

He snorts. “Because you have to get ready for work.”

He’s not wrong there, but he’s also not right. Shifting my car into Reverse, I back away from the clubhouse before I turn the car around and head toward the exit driveway. It’s rocks and dirt, so I’m careful not to go too fast, but at the same time, I am ready to get out of here for now.

“We have to get ready for work, Alex.”

And that is that. We. It will always be we, because Alex is part of me. And he always will be.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-NINE

WRATH

Leaning back in my chair, I look at the ceiling and wonder what the fuck we’re going to do here now. It was all fine when we thought all we had to do was get rid of the original contact, but now we’ve got a fucking disaster in front of us.

“She’s got to die,” Hound grinds out.

He’s one of our most levelheaded brothers. He’s the secretary of the club. He got his name by being like a dog with a bone when he gets something in his head, but it doesn’t happen often, and when it does, he’s usually one hundred percent on point.

I agree with him, even if I don’t voice my opinion immediately. I’m trying not to be the one who is in the middle of this any more than I already am. I already fucked up enough with this entire fucking situation. I don’t want to add fuel to this fucked-up fire. Hound slams his palm on the table, clearly firm in his feelings on this. The bitch must die. But it’s Fantasy who speaks next.