He didn’t want to go into the distrust that had seeped into his blood and bones during all of his time inside. She already had that running through her body, too. He’d seen it the first night she walked into Crazy Pete’s. Now that he knew some of the backstory, he didn’t blame her for keeping her guard up.
He’d lived that life for a long time himself. He’d only started dropping his walls once he found his home in Manning Grove among the Fury brotherhood. But he’d kept that guard up with every woman that had crossed his path.
Until Syn.
The second he dropped it he knew it had been a mistake because she had gotten under his skin and he was unable to escape her hold.
Maybe it had been a mistake at first, but now? He no longer wanted to scrape her free.
That was the reason he spilled his fucking guts to her outside earlier and in front of The Barn.
That was the reason she was now in his truck heading back to his apartment.
That was the reason she would be in his bed for good, if he had any say in the matter.
That was also the reason he would give up the endless parade of women in exchange for only one. Something he never expected to ever do. He’d been ducking and dodging any serious relationships his whole life.
Many of his brothers had also given up that pussy parade when they found their ol’ ladies. That one person worth giving up everything else for. The one they didn’t want to risk losing. The one that…
Just. Fucking. Fit.
But telling that to Syn at this point would overwhelm her. Because, for fuck’s sake, it overwhelmed him.
Who would have thought a very young, moody, petite woman wearing a cat-eared hoodie with a spellbinding voice would walk into his life and change it forever as if it was fucking witchcraft.
Certainly not him.
He had dragged himself back to their conversation. “You were eighteen when you last saw her.”
That thought got his blood boiling. Those assholes cutting off a child from her mother pissed him the fuck off. Her adoptive “parents” were just as much pieces of shit as the man whose unwelcome sperm created Maya.
His fingers strangled the truck’s steering wheel with the urge to do the same to those motherfuckers’ throats.
Every goddamn one of them.
He couldn’t imagine being a thirteen-year-old girl and not only dealing with some thirty-something motherfucker forcing himself on her but having to bear the child of her very own goddamn rapist. That alone caused an unhealthy fury to burn inside him. Then add on that the family, who was supposed to love her and treat her like their own daughter, steals that very fucking child.
He blew out a breath and had to unclench his teeth before he ground them to the roots. He forced himself to contain his simmering rage since he didn’t want to stress Syn out more than she already was.
But, if it was up to him, they’d all breathe their last breath soon. Every single fucking one of them. Syn had mentioned an older brother. How much older than her, Dodge didn’t know or care, but he had to be at least in his mid-twenties.
He might be an adult but did they want to leave him without both parents? Did Dodge or Sig give a fuck enough to allow the mother to live? Sig wouldn’t. Dodge shouldn’t, either.
Syn’s adoptive “mother,” Cara, had been evil enough to go along with keeping Syn from Maya. She really deserved no pass.
“It’s been five years,” she whispered. “I’m sure she’s grown so much since I last saw her.”
He had taken his eyes off the road for a split second to stare at the woman on the far side of the bench seat, staring out the passenger window. Her cat-eared hood was again pulled up over her head. She wore that damn thing as if it was a shield. Like it had magical powers and when she wore it up, she became invisible.
At that very fucking moment, he realized she would never be invisible to him. No matter how hard she tried to retreat into herself. To hide that mix of emotions that had to be swirling around inside her.
He also decided right then and there that they’d take two vehicles to West Virginia. He didn’t want Maya or Syn riding in the same van along with the dead body of a child rapist. One body at the minimum. Again, if it was up to him, there would be three piled in that van.
While they waited for the storm to move on, Deacon would do a little digging to find Sam Danzig’s address and they’d hit that fucker’s place first. Then they’d go retrieve Maya and deal with Syn’s adoptive parents.
But they still had a couple of days before they could head out. In that time, they could solidify their plan. Of course, Trip wanted this extraction to be neat and not messy. He also made it clear he did not want whatever they did in West Virginia splashing on the Fury in any way.