Make Me Your Villain (Battle Crows MC 2)

“He called her name and disappeared down the hall. We heard a bottle break against the wall in the bedroom, then the diesel engine of the truck started up, and we heard it headed into town. The picture in the paper the next day was of my papa’s rig. It was buried in the motel where my mama was. Funny enough, the desk clerk said he saw it all. Papa never hit the brakes.”

That was it.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I started laughing, my stomach tightening and contracting as the guffaws left me.

Teller, who’d been in the middle of whatever explanation he was giving, gave me the weirdest look, threw up his hands, and got up to go to the bar for a drink.

I wouldn’t say I was happy or anything, but I was fuckin’ happy.

I all but ran toward the jukebox in the corner of the room and paid the extortionate cost of five dollars to play the fuckin’ song.

But, when “Papa Loved Mama” by Garth Brooks started playing through the speakers, the Thor look-alike jerked his head up and stared right at me.

There were literal tears rolling down my cheeks as I grinned a stupid fuckin’ grin at him.

When it got to the part where the man buried his truck in the motel, I sang it out loud to him, our eyes connected.

Thoralike grinned secretly at me and sat back in his seat, lifted his beer, and saluted me with it.

I was grinning like the loser I was until Teller arrived to stand in front of me, blocking off my view.

I sighed, the grin slipping off of my face.

“Teller.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Please, for the love of all that’s holy, leave me the fuck alone.”

Teller stared at me for so long that I began to feel uncomfortable.

I’d never been scared of Teller before.

At least, I hadn’t been scared until he started to fucking stalk me.

This would be the fourth time he’d just ‘arrived’ where I happened to be and acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

Meanwhile, I was doing my damndest to ignore everything about him.

Then, there was the fact that it’d been a freakin’ week since I’d moved into my old place, and in that week, I’d seen more of him than I had on a regular week when we’d been together.

“Why are you looking at me like you want to get up and run away?” he asked. “I’d never hurt you.”

I gritted my teeth and clenched them hard before I released the tension.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” I lied.

I didn’t know him anymore.

I thought, at one point in time, I had. But the last couple of months had made it painfully obvious that I didn’t.

“If you want to talk…”

I sighed. “Teller, if I wanted to talk, I would’ve talked to you already. Give it a freakin’ rest. You’re seriously beginning to really get on my nerves. How hard is it to comprehend that I gave you a chance? And, you know, you know, that what we had was already going south. You were working so much. I was working extra shifts just to spend time away… a healthy relationship doesn’t have that.”

I was right and he knew it.

He just didn’t want to admit it.

Teller worked his jaw, and when I went to step around him, he caught my arm with his large palm.

My eyes went over Teller’s shoulder to see Thoralike looking at the two of us, his eyes narrowed.

I yanked my hand away from Teller, and he cursed. “Swear to God. Just let me tell my side!”

“Do you have a good reason for kissing her?” I asked.

Teller shook his head, his mouth a grim line. “No.”

“Do you have a reason that you were working so much?” I pushed.

He hissed in a breath. “No.”

“Did you have to continuously take shift after shift for people that needed you to?” I continued, my eyes once again wandering over his shoulder to see Thoralike leaving, a motorcycle helmet underneath his arm.

Teller crossed his arms over his chest, once again bringing my eyes to his. “It’s not that simple.”

“Teller.” I pressed the heel of my palm against my eye.

There was a freakin’ massive headache heading my way.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize how fucked up it was until I saw your face. I will never do it again.”

I nearly rolled my eyes.

Jesus, the man wasn’t getting a clue.

I jerked to the side and started to push around him, only to have him try to grab my elbow again to keep me in place.

This time, I used a move he’d taught me and twisted out of his hold, heading toward the back door.

I ran past a man that was bigger than any man I’d ever seen, and darted behind him, using the bulk of his body to hide me darting into the women’s bathroom.