Thumper (Cerberus MC)

Pissed, Angel doesn’t bother to knock before shoving my office door open.

Lauren almost smiles until she notices Cara sitting quietly on the sofa. Her eyes suddenly find mine. We may not have seen each other for years, but this woman is one of the few that can read me. She knew me long before I was able to school my emotions and only show people what I want them to see, but none of that matters because the look on my face makes what I’m feeling perfectly clear.

My eyes beg with her. Please let me tell her.

She gives me the most imperceptible shake of her head.

Denied.

I plead again, my throat working on a swallow.

Another denial.

“Boss?” Angel asks, but I don’t feel the need to explain anything to him.

“Lola, why don’t you have a seat over there by Cara.”

Lauren complies, but she doesn’t look happy.

Angel doesn’t leave, and I’m grateful with his insistence to stay.

Lauren knows the truth. I want Cara to know the truth.

If he walked out of here, I know I’d open my mouth.

Since I don’t fully trust Angel, he prevents me from ruining two different missions.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the fact that although it’s pretty fucked up, there are a lot more lives at stake than just those in this room and the ones in the basement. Stopping Sevilla means taking out a huge chunk of the trafficking business. I just hate that we’re part of the sacrifice needed in order for that to happen.

The silence grows thick and heavy, becoming something toxic with Lauren in the room whereas it was calm and tranquil before I had her brought up.

Lauren is an expert in her aloofness, but I can feel anger and irritation rolling off her.

“Angel, please take Cara back downstairs,” I mutter.

Angel doesn’t move. He knows what I’ve done with Lola in the past. Hell, they all do.

Eventually, after looking between Lauren and my eyes twice, he nods and holds his hand out for Cara to take.

I bite back a smile when she walks toward the door, refusing to put her hand in his. She seems timid and broken most of the time, but it’s moments like that that I can still see a spark of the fire inside of her.

Chapter 13

Cara

I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to walk out of there with Lola left behind. It doesn’t seem fair. Javier hasn’t hurt me, but he has her, and the chance of him doing it again is greater than an initial assault on any of us. At least that’s what’s going through my head as I walk past Angel, refusing to take his hand.

Lola nods at me like everything is going to be okay when I give her one final look. Angel takes the time to close the office door, and a noise stops me in my tracks, Angel getting a few feet ahead of me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Lola snaps from the other side of the door.

I tilt my head in confusion because it doesn’t sound like a plea. There’s irritation in her voice, not fear.

“Cara. Let’s go,” Angel snaps, and I have to walk away.

Something doesn’t add up.

Or maybe this is her reaction to what he did to her. Megan is starving herself to death, and Lola is taking a quicker way to the same end goal.

As I follow Angel through the house and back down to the basement, I keep my eyes on him. He doesn’t seem to have heard what was said in there, but I also recall that she yelled at him, calling him an asshole and insisting that she be taken instead of me last time.

I tilt my head as I descend the stairs. Was she trying to martyr herself, or is there another reason she needed to be taken to Javier?

“I put some more jerky and nuts in there for you,” Angel says as he stands to the side so I can crawl inside. “But the meals I bring down have a hell of a lot more nutritional value than that shit.”

I turn to look at him, really taking in his features, his dark but kind-looking eyes, the stubborn set of his jaw.

“Check on Megan,” I urge him. “Please.”

His eyes cut in the direction of her cage, but they’re hard again when he looks back in my direction.

“Go.”

I move to obey him. I don’t know if the man just can’t keep the façade up that he’s mean and bad or if he has two different personalities. Either way, it makes him dangerous.

I climb into my cage, holding the beef jerky and nuts to my chest like a prized possession, but it doesn’t take long after Angel disappears up the stairs for my thoughts to go right back to Javier’s office.

Lola is still up there, and there’s no telling how long that will be.