by Blair Grey
I thought that over for a moment. Could that be what it was? An ex causing drama?
But then I thought about how Mia hadn’t wanted to report this to the police. How she had just wanted to get new glass put in and forget about the whole thing. What if the guy wasn’t her ex? What if the reason why she couldn’t be my girlfriend was because there was still something going on with this other guy?
Because I knew exactly who Landon was talking about. Couldn’t remember the guy’s name off the top of my head, but I remembered him. And as soon as I thought about him, I could picture him breaking Mia’s window in a fit of rage.
Maybe Mia hadn’t been at work when it had happened. Maybe the two of them had been talking, and the guy had gotten pissed off and had broken the window.
Maybe that was why Mia was so adamant that she couldn’t be my girlfriend.
“But there was another broken window, at one of the shops that’s loyal to Red Eyes,” I said slowly. Even as I said it, though, I knew that the two incidents didn’t have to be related. It could have been a copycat incident, or it could have been the boyfriend’s attempt at throwing us off his tracks. Mia might have told him that I had seen the hole in her window and been worried about her, and he might have thought that Red Eyes would come after him otherwise.
My hands clenched into fists.
Landon simply watched me as I processed all of this. “I’m not saying she for sure is still with the guy or that he is the problem behind all of this,” he finally said. “But I think you guys maybe need to have a talk about what you’re really doing here. I know that Sunshine has been loyal to Red Eyes for a long time, but it’s not like Ray to be this protective about someone who’s not Red Eyes.”
“Maybe she’s his daughter too,” I said, trying to joke. But I knew that with my current tone, it just fell flat. I shook my head. Landon was right; we were going to need to have a serious talk when I got back to the hotel. I needed to know the truth.
What would I do if I found out that she was, in fact, still dating this guy? I’d love to beat his fucking face in. But I knew that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t his fault that Mia was cheating on me with him. If she was still with him, I reminded myself. I didn’t know that for sure yet.
I should have asked her when she told me that she couldn’t be my girlfriend. The way she had said it made it seem like there was some reason. That it wasn’t that she didn’t want to be my girlfriend, but that she actually just couldn’t be my girlfriend. I hadn’t wanted to upset her by asking, but now I was kicking myself for staying quiet.
I finished up breakfast with Landon. Fortunately, he had the sense to change the topic of conversation to chatter about his business with the local Red Eyes chapter and the new members that they had managed to bring in. But the whole time, I kept thinking about Mia and wondering what it was that she wasn’t telling me.
I headed back to the hotel. Mia was still in bed when I walked in, but she was sitting up and doing something on her phone. “Good morning,” she said, smiling over at me. She stretched, letting me get a good look at her still-bare breasts. “You coming back to bed?”
I walked over toward the bed, wondering how to even approach this conversation. She was still smiling when I sat on the edge of the bed, though. “How was breakfast? Were you with Landon?”
I nodded at her. “Yeah, I was with Landon,” I said. Finally, I decided to just come out with it. “I need to know the truth. The entire truth.”
Mia’s eyes widened, and from the way she bit her lip and looked away, I knew that it was true. She had been hiding something from me this whole time. Bitterness welled up in my gut. This might never have been a relationship, but it still didn’t feel very good to realize that she’d been lying to me.
I pushed away the upset feelings and let anger take their place. Anger at her for not telling me the truth. Anger at myself for developing these stupid feelings for her. I should have known that she wasn’t going to reciprocate. This whole thing had just been about fucking, as far as she was concerned. And for some reason, that bothered me. It shouldn’t have bothered me. I wasn’t the relationship kind of guy.
She continued to hesitate, even though she had to realize that she had been found out. Was she trying to come up with some new lie? She obviously knew exactly what I wanted to know from her, so maybe she was trying to figure out some other way to cover it up. She must really be in a relationship with this other guy. Could I even trust anything that she said to me?
I had to at least hear her out, though. I cared about her, even though I knew that I shouldn’t. It was only fair that I let her try to explain herself.
“You’ve got five minutes,” I told her coldly. “Get talking.”
26
Mia
I was surprised at how bummed I was to wake up on Saturday morning and find that Braxton had already gotten up and disappeared. It didn’t take me long to find the note saying that he had gone for breakfast. At first, I wondered if I had done something wrong. Maybe he was angry with me for saying that I couldn’t be his girlfriend? Did he think I meant it as an insult, like I could never possibly want to be his girlfriend?
The truth was, I wanted it, in so many ways. I just actually couldn’t. I knew he couldn’t know my reasoning, not without me saying anything to him, but I had just hoped that he would somehow understand.
But then, as I thought about it, I realized that he had probably gone to breakfast with his brother so they could continue catching up. They were probably talking shop, talking about the Red Eyes chapter either here or in Las Cruces. Making plans for the future of the MC.
I grinned a little to myself. It wasn’t all about me.
Besides, I couldn’t be angry at him for not waking me up. I hadn’t slept all that well for most of the night, still thinking about Maggie and about loss. About Darren and the broken car window. About the fact that I still hadn’t told Braxton about Darren. Here he was, just trying to protect me, and I wasn’t being truthful with him. I felt guilty; I had to admit. It was well past when I should have told him that there was a reason Ray had wanted me out of town until this all blew over. I was the reason behind it all in the first place.
So when Braxton came back and sat on the edge of the bed asking me to tell him the truth, I felt a sickening feeling in my gut. “How much do you know?” I asked, not even sure where to begin.
Braxton narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked. “Right now. Is that why you can’t possibly be my girlfriend?”
I gaped at him for a long moment, shocked by the question. I reached out to take his hands, but he pulled them away from me, and my own hands fell back into my lap. “No,” I said. “Of course not. Why would you even think that?”
“I know there was that guy, the one who used to hang around you at the bar all the time. Whatever his name was, Derrick or Dylan or something.”
“Darren,” I said quietly. “His name is Darren.” I rubbed at my face, wishing wildly that I had told him about this sooner, before he had lost all his trust in me. “We broke up a while ago, but he is part of the reason that I can’t be your girlfriend.”
“Because you’ve still got feelings for him?” Braxton asked.
“Definitely not,” I said vehemently, shaking my head. “Look, he was an asshole. I mean, things started out great between us, but then they just got worse and worse the longer we were together. I finally caught him cheating on me, and I broke it off with him. But he doesn’t want to take no for an answer. He doesn’t like being told that he can’t have me.”
“Is he the one who broke your car window?” Braxton asked slowly.
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “Candice thinks so, and Ray seemed to think it might have been him as well. That’s why he wanted me out of town until this whole thing blows over.”
I had expected Braxton to get angry as I told him this, but instead, he seemed to turn in on himself, like he was really thinking this over. Like maybe he didn’t bel
ieve me.
“He comes by the bar still sometimes. To check up on me. To make sure that I’m not chatting with other guys,” I admitted. “Like, the guy is totally, one hundred percent crazy. And I’m not into him. At all. I started dating him not too long after my sister died, and I was pretty messed up. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I mean, at the time, I thought that I loved him, but looking back, I think it was just that he was the first person to make me feel like he cared about me afterward. He filled a certain void.”
I shrugged. “I should never have been with him in the first place. I know that now. But I don’t know what to do to get him to stop. He should have been over me by now.”
“Have you thought about getting a restraining order?” Braxton asked. He frowned. “I don’t know why Ray wouldn’t have suggested that if he knows about the Darren situation.”
“We talked about it,” I admitted. “But I’m afraid that would just make Darren even angrier, and I don’t know what he might do in that case. And I’m honestly afraid to find out.” I shook my head. “I don’t think he’s really violent per se. I don’t think that he would hurt me. But I just can’t figure out what he might do. It scares me.”
“You’re not just sleeping with me because you hoped that Darren would see us together at the bar and finally get over you, are you?” Braxton asked suspiciously.
“No! Of course not.” Couldn’t he realize how much I really liked him? But he didn’t seem to trust me at all anymore. I had totally fucked things up between us. I looked away, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes. “Like I said, he’s part of the reason I just can’t be your girlfriend. I know I’ve got enough drama in my life at the moment and I don’t need to add to that. I don’t need to cause Darren to do anything terrible. You’re the first person that I’ve even dared to sleep with since I broke up with him. I just couldn’t help it; I really wanted this.”
I looked at him through my lashes, and I thought I could see the faintest trace of a smile on Braxton’s face. But it was gone a moment later. Braxton sighed. “Okay,” he said. “But why didn’t you tell me? I could have punched his lights out, and we could have been done with it. You didn’t have to leave town. And if you thought that this guy might go off the rails and come after me or something, then you had no right not to tell me about him. What if he’d ambushed me and I’d gotten really hurt?”
I folded in on myself. “I know I should have told you,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “I know that. Please don’t make me feel worse about it than I already do.”
“But why didn’t you tell me?” This time, Braxton reached for my hand, and I was all too quick to give it to him. He lightly stroked my knuckles, and immediately I felt ten times calmer.
I shook my head, sighing. “What if it wasn’t him?” I asked. “I still think he deserves a punch or two just for being an asshole, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. And anyway, I was worried about what might happen afterward. Darren has a lot of money; he’s not rich, but he’s got enough to take you to trial for assault. And he’s got friends around the town too. I don’t know; I just need you here with me. Not in jail.”
I paused, staring down at our linked fingers. “I knew that I should tell you, and I kept trying to. But I didn’t want you to get mad and go after him. It seemed like it was easier to just let you think Ray was overreacting about the window incident.”
“Speaking of the window incident, what about the other window that got broken? How is that related to all of this?”
“I don’t know,” I said, frowning at him. “Like I said, all of this could have nothing to do with Darren. There’s no denying that he’s still been pretty creepy, coming to bother me at work and stuff. But he’s been pretty good about leaving when I’ve asked him to. It could be that he wasn’t the one to break the window, but I guess it’s still good to get out of town for a few days and forget about him.”
Not that I can really forget about him.
I shrugged. “Or maybe he broke my window and realized that doing something like that felt so good that he wanted to do it again. And maybe he had some other beef against someone else in town. I just don’t know.” I looked up at Braxton through my lashes, knowing that there were still tears clinging to them. “I just don’t know.” I wished I could be more helpful, but I had no way of knowing what kind of crazy things Darren might get up to. I just couldn’t predict him.
Braxton shook his head. “I’m going to fix this,” he said, balling up his fists in his lap. “You’re not going to have to worry about that guy ever again.”
“Braxton.” I sighed, shaking my head. “That’s not what I want. I’m already worried enough about what Darren might try to do to me. I don’t want to have to worry about what he might try to do to you as well.”
For a minute, I thought he was going to protest, but then he stared deep into my eyes, and I could tell that he was listening to me. “All right,” he finally said. “But we are going back to Las Cruces tomorrow. There’s no reason for you to be driven out of your home and away from work all because of some entitled asshole. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. And I can’t do anything from here.”
I gave him a small smile. “I have to admit; I was pretty upset when Ray and Candice wanted me to leave town for a little bit. But it hasn’t been all bad. Like you said, maybe I need to take time off work more often. Take time for myself.”
It was also the company, but I didn’t know how to tell him that. That if I was going to be exiled from my home, there was no one I would rather be with than him. That seemed a little too sappy to admit to him now, though. Especially since I still couldn’t tell just what he was thinking. Would he ever be able to trust me again? Were we still okay?
“Come here,” Braxton said, answering that question for me. He opened his arms, and I moved into the warm circle of them, closing my eyes and breathing in his scent. Again, I felt so much calmer, just with that basic contact with him. “I wish you had told me sooner,” he said quietly. “If nothing else then so that you didn’t have to go through all of this on your own. You could have talked to me about it at least.”
“I know,” I said. “I just didn’t want to be the girl with all the drama, you know? I wanted to have fun with you.”
“Well, once we get this solved once and for all, there won’t be any more drama,” Braxton said firmly.
I smiled up at him. “If we’re leaving tomorrow, I guess we should make the most of our last night here, huh?” I asked him.
Braxton laughed. “I guess we probably should,” he agreed. “Does this mean you’re not going to drag me off to the beach again today?”
“Oh no,” I said, shaking my head. “I think we need to make the most of this penthouse suite. Who knows when we’ll have a place like this again.” I paused, smirking at him. “We can order room service, and maybe I’ll take a bubble bath in a little while.”
Braxton groaned. “That better not be all that you have planned,” he said warningly.
In response, I just laughed. But then, I took pity on him. After the emotional conversation that we’d just had, I had to admit, I could use a good round of sex too. But first, I wanted to actually go out and explore Sarasota some more.
“How about we go out for a nice dinner tonight?” I suggested. “My treat. And then maybe afterward, we could go out for drinks or something? There’s got to be some sort of nightlife in this town, right?”
Braxton laughed. “All right, fine,” he said. “Yes, there is some pretty decent nightlife. It’s a beach haven after all. Leave the details to me.”
“Perfect,” I said. I could tell that there was something still slightly off with him, an introspective and thoughtful quality that hadn’t been there before. Something I wasn’t used to seeing from him.
The truth was, I still couldn’t help but worry about all of this. Now that Braxton knew about Darren, who knew what he might do? We’d have a long drive back to Las Cruces, and hopefully he would have cooled of
f by the time we got back. But what if he did something that Darren could have him thrown in jail for? He might not be my boyfriend, but I couldn’t bear the thought of him getting thrown in jail, especially not in a fight over me.
More than that, though, I was worried that things were going to be different between us now. Maybe he was still processing. Maybe he wouldn’t want to be friends anymore. I meant it when I said that I wanted to be friends with him, even beyond the sleeping together thing. He was the only person I had ever told about Maggie after all. There were things that I wanted to share with him that I had never wanted to share with anyone else.
I didn’t know how to handle it if he started to treat me differently after this. I had to admit; I was more scared of that than I was scared of Darren. I just didn’t want things to change between us. I didn’t know if I could handle that.
But I had made my bed, and now I had to lie in it. I hadn’t told Braxton the full story, not until he had sussed out parts of it on his own. Not until it became a problem. And if anything was changed between us, if our friendship was utterly ruined, I had no one to blame but myself.
27
Braxton
I made a couple calls while Mia was in the shower. I still wasn’t totally over the fact that she’d been hiding this business with her ex from me, but at the same time, it was our last night in Sarasota. Like she had said, we should make the most of it.
I wanted to show her a good time. I wanted to show her that I didn’t mind the little bit of drama with her ex, or that it shouldn’t be what was holding her back from agreeing to be my girlfriend. Because I was starting to realize that more than ever, I wanted her to be my girlfriend. I wanted to protect her from assholes like Darren. Show her how special she really was.
