I stepped toward her to tell her to mind her mouth, but Indy put a hand to my chest to stop me. “We’re going for a ride, remember?”
I wasn’t doing a very good job at hiding my wrath. My fists curled at my side as I tried to calm my temper. When I lost my mind to my rage, I was like a fucking freight train. Indy was trying to stop me before I reached that point.
“Let’s not waste any more time on this,” she said.
I fired a dark look at Davey. “You take care of this mess.” I gestured to Indy’s bullet-riddled rental car. “Get it fixed and let me know when it’s done.”
“Come on,” Indy said, taking my hand and leading me over to my bike.
Climbing on, I helped her onto the back and secured her arms around my waist and roared out of the compound. It was the best fucking feeling in the world. My girl. On the back of my bike. With her arms wrapped around me.
Fuck the craziness happening at the clubhouse.
Nothing mattered but this.
CADE
Now
It was late afternoon so the traffic was light. I took it easy, not wanting to rush our time together, and if I was honest, being out on the road with my girl on the back of my bike was pretty much my idea of heaven.
As we made our way up Calvary Hill to the lookout, we left the world behind us.
There was a space for parking at the top and I pulled my bike up near the edge, overlooking Destiny in the distance. Streetlights twinkled like diamonds in the dying light of dusk and stars started to appear in the indigo sky.
Indy slid off my bike and walked over to the edge, taking in the glittering view below. As I joined her, her subtle scent engulfed me.
“You okay?” I asked.
She smiled. “Let’s see, I’ve been back in town for three days and I’ve already had a gun pointed at me twice. I’ve performed crude surgery on the side of the road to save the life of a guy who may or may not have been deliberately run off the road. And I’ve managed to alienate an entire motorcycle club because I’m a nasty drunk. Hmmm . . . let’s see, I guess my rental being riddled with bullets by a psycho ex-old lady seems . . . expected?”
When she put it like that, I couldn’t help but grin. The old Indy was back. And she seemed more relaxed. She was smiling and goddamn it was beautiful.
“I really am sorry,” I said.
“For what? You didn’t make Genevieve crazy.” She gave me another smile before turning away to take in the view of Destiny sparkling below us. I watched her stretch her arms up and inhale the twilight air, fascinated by the way her face looked in the fading light. She was more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen. “I always loved this view,” she said. “I used to love coming up here. With you.”
She looked at me and something shimmered between us. I felt a pull so strong toward her that all I wanted to do was take her in my arms and kiss her. But I wouldn’t. I couldn’t scare her away from me now. If I had to, I would take all the time she needed.
“I haven’t been up here in years,” I admitted.
“Really? I thought this would be the perfect spot to bring all your girls.”
I hated that she thought I was some kind of biker man whore.
“Indy…”
“I often thought about this place.” She cut me off. “The twinkle of the city lights. The smell of the wild lavender.” She turned away from the sunset, her brown eyes gleaming like dark stone in the dusk light. “You really don’t come up here?”
I shook my head. “Not since … this is where I read your letter.”
At the mention of the letter, she cringed.
“It’s okay,” I said quietly.
Indy took a cautious step toward me, nervously shoving her hands in her back pockets. “About that—”
“It’s okay.” I cut her off. “I understand why you wrote it. I was crazy. I had lost my mind.”
When Indy had taken off for college without me, I had followed her. Despite her demands to stay away. I had ridden two days to get to Seattle and then proceeded to terrify her with my craziness. I mean, I really lost my shit. I turned into a real emotional psycho. For the first time in my life, I was out of control and desperate, and completely unsure of what to do.
I was so in love with her and terrified because she didn’t want me anymore. I begged her. Stalked her. Pleaded with her. I didn’t sleep. Drank too much. And combined with my extreme emotional state, I became a desperate wreck who did crazy shit that frightened her. Like begging on my knees on her front stoop, with my fists pounding against her door.