Atonement (Angel's Halo MC 5)

“Who?” I bit out, trying and succeeding at keeping my voice neutral. I needed her to confirm the suspicion that was starting to eat at my sanity.

Raider had come by the night before. He had wanted to talk to her. Since when did he do that? He avoided her like she had the plague or some shit.

“That doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t want it, anyway.” She grimaced, her lips twisting. “He wouldn’t care; trust me.”

“Who?” I repeated, already imagining myself pounding the motherfucker—my goddamn brother, for fuck’s sake—into a bloody pile of broken flesh and bones at my feet.

“Can we not talk about this right now?” she mumbled, her face turning a sickly shade of green as she fought back another wave of nausea. “I’m trying to concentrate on not throwing up again.”

I wanted to press the issue, wanted to hear it from her own lips that it was, or wasn’t, my brother’s baby growing in her belly right then. She deserved so much better than Raider as her baby’s father. My brother only cared about getting his dick we

t in a new piece of strange … or one of his favorite sheep.

“Quinn, I’m going to ask you this once, and then I’ll drop it, okay?” I waited for her to nod, which she did after a slight hesitation. “Is it Raider’s?”

The truth flashed across her face before she could mask it and try to hide her reaction to my simple, yet loaded question.

Everything inside of me went completely cold. I turned off every emotion that tried to rear its head. Love for my brother. Respect for the man who I had grown up beside then rode with in the MC for years. He’d had my back, and I’d had his. We shared the same blood, the same last name. But right then, he was dead to me. He had done the one thing that would make me consider him as good as dead.

Quinn was everything to me, something he had always known, yet he had fucked her behind my back.

“It doesn’t matter,” she tried to say again. “I’m leaving, anyway.”

Leaving? She was leaving …

Goddammit. So that was why she had been dancing. That was why she was so desperate for money. She was going to pack up and leave. Get as far away from my brother as she possibly could.

She was going to leave me.

Somehow, I found the strength to stay calm as I leaned over my best friend, pressing a kiss to the center of her forehead. “I’m sorry.” My voice wasn’t normal to my own ears, but when I saw the fear in her blue orbs, I knew I wasn’t hearing things. The last thing I wanted to do was frighten her more, so I straightened and headed for the door.

“Colt,” she cried after me. “Colt, please don’t do anything stupid.”

I didn’t stop, didn’t make her any promises I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep. She wouldn’t leave if Raider was dead.

“Don’t tell him!” she screamed. Still, I kept walking. “You can’t tell him.” She was sobbing now, making my heart clench with each gut-wrenching sound that left her. “Please, don’t tell him.”

Chapter 19

Raider

The smell of bacon frying woke me from a restless sleep. Groaning, I climbed out of bed and threw on the first pair of jeans I found. Pulling a Hannigans T-shirt over my head, I stomped downstairs to find my sister fixing breakfast in the kitchen.

Thankfully, my nephew wasn’t screaming his displeasure at not being in his mother’s arms. It was almost peaceful with him so interested in the cheerios Raven had put on the little tray on his highchair. Beside him, Lexa was coloring a picture that looked like a family portrait of stick figures.

Flick was sitting at the table with the kids, a mug of coffee in her hands, but her eyes were half-closed and she was still in her robe.

Raven’s eyes widened when she saw me entering the kitchen. “You look like crap.”

Two years ago, Raven would have used an entirely different word than crap. These days, however, my potty-mouthed sister watched every word that left her mouth. At least when she was around the kids.

“Then I look how I feel,” I grumbled and took my usual place at the table.

Our house had always been big, but now it was ridiculously huge since we had added a few extra bedrooms. I wasn’t sure how we all co-existed under the same roof, but somehow, we made it work. I couldn’t honestly imagine not living in the house I had grown up in.

For a minute, I wondered how Quinn would feel about moving in with me. She could have been sitting right there with my sister and Flick, spending her morning catching up with her two friends, helping with the kids and making breakfast for everyone.

I liked the idea … a lot.