“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” said Jase. “What the fuck has happened to you, Will? I’ve known you half my life, and you’ve never fucking talked to me like this. You’ve never bailed on a community event; hell you’ve never bailed on anything the MC has asked of you. Now it’s like you’re begging us to take your cut.”
Will finished his beer in a few chugs, wiping the spill from his scruff. “Yeah, well, maybe it’s fucking time.”
Jase fell silent. When Will looked over, he saw a hooded darkness over Jase’s eyes, and pain on his face. “You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t fucking tell me what I mean,” said Will. Some tiny voice was screaming out from deep in Will’s mind that Jase was trying to help him, begging him to take the hand being offered. Will smothered it with a wash of anger. “The club has made your life better. It fucking ruined mine.”
Jase shook his head and stared down into what was left of his beer. “Dude, I can’t even imagine the pain you’re feeling about what happened. I get that. But how is this the MC’s fault? You got your retribution—”
“Did I?” said Will, startled by the loudness of his own voice. “You know what real retribution would be? Taking down every single one of the fuckers who had anything to do with that fire, and then severing ties forever with that piece of shit cartel. Instead, Henry asks me to smile and shake their hands as they drive through my fucking town every day.”
“Will…”
“No, shut the fuck up, Jase,” said Will. “You wanted to know what my problem was, so now you’re going to hear it.”
Surprisingly, Jase remained silent, but his expression darkened.
Will leaned down close to Jase’s face. “You didn’t feel the heat of that fire on my skin as it burned everything I’ve ever loved down,” Will whispered bitterly. “You didn’t feel the emptiness that was supposed to be relief when I blew away the men who set that fire. And you didn’t feel the betrayal when the other family in my life asked me to put down my sword and swallow my pain.”
Will thought he saw Jase’s eyes growing wet, but the look on his face was pure anger. Somehow, though, it wasn’t at Will.
“I’ve given the club everything I had, and in the end it meant nothing.” Will could barely believe the venom in his own voice. He turned away from Jase and stared at the bottles lining the bar wall, trying to quiet the adrenaline rushing through his veins.
“It didn’t mean nothing,” said Jase. “And it’s shitty of you to blame all of this on Henry. We all tried to do what we thought was best for everyone—for the town.”
“We were all fucking wrong.”
“You voted for diplomacy too, Will, plenty of times,” said Jase. “You backed Henry’s decision every step of the way, or do you not remember that?”
Will felt a new darkness erupt from his gut. He turned to Jase with fire in his eyes. “Are you about to deliver the most ill-advised I told you so in history?”
“What am I, a fucking fortune-teller? I don’t know what would have worked. I’m only saying it’s bullshit for you to play this solo martyr act when the club followed the plan you yourself propped up all along. Blame the club, fine—but you were a part of it too, Will. You can’t just make us villains in your personal story.”
“Oh, don’t you fucking worry, Jase, I have plenty of blame for the club and myself,” said Will. “We can all burn together.”
Jase stood up from his stool in an angry huff. “You know what? Fuck this. I’m so goddamn tired of trying to pull you up out of the gutter and getting stabbed for my effort.” He pulled a handful of crimped dollar bills from his pocket and threw them carelessly on the bar. “You are on thin ice with Henry. You need to figure out what the fuck you want to do—man up and do something useful with your pain, or sit here and drink yourself to death on top of your grandmother’s funeral pyre. It’s your call.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Will growled.
Jase didn’t say another word to him, only grumbled underneath his breath and pulled his sunglasses from his cut. He stalked out of the bar, and Will heard the reckless revving of Jase’s bike as he pulled onto the highway.
Will stared down at his bruised and cut hands sitting on the bar, surprised to see them trembling with adrenaline. He thought he felt a panic rising in his throat.
Taking a long and steadying breath, he looked up to see Eva, standing and staring at him, half-out from behind the back room wall. The look on her face told him that his conversation with Jase wasn’t quite as private as he would have preferred. But exactly how much did she overhear?
~ TEN ~
Eva sighed heavily and tossed onto her back on the lumpy mattress. White lace curtains drifted in the cool night breeze, dancing in the dark.
I don’t even know why I came to bed, she thought to herself as she stared at the ceiling. I’m not even tired. The last couple days had been nothing but an adrenaline rush, something Eva had very little experience with. She also felt a lustful stirring that was unlike anything she had ever experienced, either. Together, the two sensations did an outstanding job of keeping her tossing and turning until she finally gave up and threw her feet over the side of the bed.
After that tall, dark-haired man in the biker vest had left the bar earlier in the day, Will had become very distant. She knew he sent her to the back room to keep her from hearing too much, but Eva couldn’t help herself and tried to listen anyway. She told herself it was practical—after all, Will clearly had secrets he wasn’t telling her. They didn’t know him at all, despite his offer to help them in a dangerous situation, an act which was suspicious itself. She still felt guilty, though. Especially when she saw the look on his face at spotting her.
He avoided her the entire rest of the afternoon.
Eva could barely keep her thoughts away from him: his gorgeous face, his lean and taut body. He was unlike any man she had ever met. Even though she knew deep down he was dangerous, more dangerous even than Rick had been, she also felt a strange intuition that the sharpened teeth Will bared were not truly his own. The softness in his eyes when he looked at her betrayed as much, and she felt drawn to it. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the way he had touched her in the kitchen.
Eva stood up and stretched her back as she looked out the bedroom window and into the meadow. Trees rustled lightly in the night air. Across the way, she could see a faint yellow light glowing in the blocky shadows of the bar. Will offered to take the night shift at the bar—to “keep watch,” he’d said. She thought about him in there, probably drinking by himself and staring at the wall, and her heart ached.
Eva grabbed her short bathrobe from the back of the bedroom door and threw it over her silk nightie before stepping into her slippers and creeping her way through the dark house. Charlie was snoring away in the smaller bedroom, but she had no wish to wake him and face his questions.
Outside, the night brushed the skin on her legs and face with dewy kisses. The smell on the air was divine and alive with singing crickets and the faraway rumble of bullfrogs near the river in the deep forest.
She picked her way slowly through the forest meadow path, her arms wrapped around her waist.
What are you doing, girly? You’re going to check on this man your nightie? You skank. The voice in her head sounded very much like Laura.
“Hush,” she muttered to herself as she approached the back door of the bar. Will had propped it open with a heavy round rock, so she moved soundlessly through the doorway. From the barroom she could hear the aching, lo-fi voice of Muddy Waters playing on the jukebox. A hazy veil of cigarette smoke floated softly through the air, parting around her as she passed.