Atonement (Angel's Halo MC 5)

Good. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him again.

After throwing that last truth bomb at him about my sister Amanda, I had gotten the hell out of there. For one second—no, shorter than that, I tried to lie to myself—I had been about to melt against him. There had been a look on his sexy, scruffy face that had seemed to be begging me to give in and let him just hold me.

Good thing I was smarter than I had been four weeks ago. Otherwise, I might have done just that. Now I had seen the light, and I wasn’t going to let him pull me back into the shadows where my heart was just as blind as my head where that fucking biker was concerned.

Kelli jogged across the parking lot toward me, her own gym bag slung over her shoulder. Shooting Raider a nasty glare, she tossed the middle finger at him before continuing over to her own car parked beside mine.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Quinn? We can leave your car here and I’ll drive you home if you need me to.”

I shook my head as I opened the driver’s door of my Honda. “I’m okay,” I lied. I was far from being okay.

I wasn’t going to get to come back to the club. I wouldn’t get the chance to earn the last of the money I needed.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Raider get on his bike and start it, yet he didn’t move. Probably waiting to follow me home. Then he would go on his way, and I wouldn’t have to deal with him again.

That was fine with me. If I wasn’t going to get the last of the money I was determined to make, then I was going to pull up my stakes and make a break for it tomorrow.

I wasn’t running away like Flick had. She had been having an emotional meltdown after Jet had been thrown in prison and she had lost her precious baby. I was leaving because there just wasn’t anything left for me there.

And because I was sick and tired of being the ass-end of the joke when it came to how much I cared about Raider Fucking Hannigan. I wasn’t as blind as people thought I was. I knew they had always made fun of me for how I felt for a man who couldn’t have possibly cared about me. They still did it, especially my sisters.

It was time to find a new place to call home.

I climbed behind the wheel then smiled up at my roommate. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”

She didn’t look as if she believed me. “Colt is beyond pissed. I knew he would be mad, but not like this.”

I tried to make my smile brighter. “I can handle him. Honest.”

I was prepared for the yelling. Colt wouldn’t hurt me, even under fear of death, but that wouldn’t stop him from screaming and shouting my house down. It wouldn’t be the first time he threw a shitfit over something to do with me. Granted, the texts he was sending were a little more off the walls than I was used to from him, but I was still confident I could handle him.

As I pulled the door closed, Colt tried to call me again. I started the car and, after sucking in a calming breath, I hit connect on the Bluetooth.

“Hello?”

“It’s about damn time you picked up,” he snarled. “Matt and Tanner have both been texting me nonstop for the last twenty minutes. Tell me it’s not true, Quinnie. I have a dozen pictures here of some girl who looks like you, half-naked—”

I reversed and lifted my hand in a half-wave at Kelli before putting the car in gear and driving away.

“Quinn!”

“It was me.” There was no point in lying if someone had sent him pictures. Not that I would have lied to him, anyway. I didn’t do that with him. Omit the truth, sure. Flat out lie, never.

“Why?” he demanded, sounding both angry and oddly hurt. “Why would you even think about doing that?”

“I need the money,” I muttered.

The anger I could have dealt with no problem. The hurt I heard in his voice, that gutted me.

“If you needed money, all you had to do was say so. I have a damn fortune just sitting in my savings account, doing nothing but getting dusty.”

“It’s not your job to take care of me,” I snapped.

When I heard his sharp exhale, I bit my bottom lip.

“You are the only person who I want to take care of, Quinnie.” There was that old childhood nickname he had given me. That cutesy name that had been so endearing was now like a slap to the face, because I knew he only used it these days when he wasn’t thinking clearly. “My sister has Bash to take care of her. My brothers have their old ladies. And I have you.”

“You have Kelli,” I reminded him.