“Who is she to you?” Lynch clarifies when I glare at Hornet like he’s betrayed me. “You’ll fucking talk to me.”
He shoves his arm across the hallway when I try to walk past him.
“Lynch,” I warn, but he doesn’t budge. “She’s the girl that was in the room when Briar and I went to take care of Molly’s business in Andover.”
“What?” Hornet and Lynch snap their eyes at me. We all know the implication of this information.
“She witnessed you kill three men?” Concern laces my brother’s voice. “Do we have heat coming?”
“No,” I shake my head and push past his arm.
They follow me down the hallway, but don’t say another word as I lean against the bar and hold a finger up. Mac slides a beer across to me and then grabs one for the other two.
“She didn’t recognize me.” I tilt my beer back for a long pull before I lower it and tell them the truth. “I’ve been spending time with her. She was at the bar when we got back from the cartel run. She was here the night Hornet found that guy beating the hell out of her.”
“The bar was invite only,” Lynch says. He wasn’t in town that night, but he knows how we run things around here. He wouldn’t let his girl go out in an uncontrolled environment when he was so far away.
“I invited her.”
Lynch’s beer slams down on the bar top. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
I shrug, unable to fully deny it. “I think I may have.”
“Oh shit.” Lynch frowns first before a slow smile spreads across his face.
“What?”
“You’ve fallen for her.”
“Have fucking not,” I hiss without missing a beat. “She’s just determined to get herself killed.”
Lynch angles his head, and Hornet takes the hint. Mac disappears just as fast.
“I haven’t,” I repeat. “She’s fucking broken.”
Lynch just watches me. He tried this shit when I was younger, staring me down hoping the atmosphere around us got so uncomfortable that I would spill my guts just to relieve the tension. It didn’t work on me then and it sure as hell isn’t going to work now.
“Just because you and Briar fell down in some love hole doesn’t mean all of us are going to.”
He grins around the lip of his beer bottle.
“Will you need help getting rid of her body then?” Every muscle in my body stiffens. “I don’t really approve of killing females, but if she found out who you are, I guess there’s no other way around it. I can get Ronan to help you. Nothing seems to bother that fucker.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I grunt.
“So you can dispose of her on your own?” Lynch shakes his head, the devious glint in his eyes not matching his brutal words. “You’ll need help.”
“No one touches her but me.” My words come out on a growl, and the fucker beside me has the damn audacity to chuckle at my response before he stands up.
Leaning in close to my ear, his humor is suddenly gone.
“Better than anyone else, you should know that I won’t tolerate a snitch or someone bringing heat down on my club.”
He isn’t lying or exaggerating. He killed our father to protect the Ravens Ruin MC and was willing to kill Zoe when he thought she’d betrayed him. Kaci’s death wouldn’t even make him bat an eye, and I’m pretty sure if I became a complication, he’d take my life too.
“Just keep it in mind,” Lynch says after downing the last of his beer. The echo of him slapping it back down on the bar follows him out of the room.
Regret swims in my gut. I never should’ve brought her here, but one way to keep her from betraying us is to never let her leave. My smile stays on my face until the sun sets and I make my way to the basement door.
“Let me out,” she hisses the second I turn on the overhead light.
“No.”
“This isn’t right.” I don’t say anything. “You can’t just keep me down here.”
She sounds more scared than I expected her to. I’d anticipated anger and irritation, but the fear in her voice is a shock. It only proves how broken she is. I’ve spent hour after hour with her, and she still doesn’t trust me.
“TJ!” she yells when I merely stand a few feet away and stare down at her.
“Promise me you’ll stop going to those fucking parties.”
“No.”
I don’t know where she’s drawing her courage from now, but she should know this isn’t something I will negotiate on.
“You’re not getting out of that fucking cage until you agree to stop trying to get yourself killed.”
“I’m not going to lie to you.”
My lip twitches with her honesty even though that truth is the last damn thing I want to hear.
“You are so fucking stubborn,” I growl. “Why can’t you just stop getting yourself hurt?”