“Fuck. You’re heartless.”
“I am. That’s what happens when your heart dies. When the one person you thought you could trust betrays you. I’m a cold-hearted bitch because of you.” I was about to lose my grit. If he didn’t leave or let me go, I’d fall on my knees and weep for all we’d lost, for all we could’ve had.
It was too late for us. The anger and hatred that had been feeding on my soul had made it so I could never trust him again, but dammit, I wanted to. I just didn’t know if I could.
“You’re not the only one who’d been walking around dead inside. Losing you destroyed me. Knowing you had my baby and I missed out on it hurts worse than you leaving me. I can’t understand how you could be so cruel to Nova. You hated me that much, you’d keep her from knowing her father?”
“Yes, and I’m not sorry.” I lifted my chin in defiance. “I felt it was better for her to not know you.” As the words left my lips, my chest ached. I didn’t mean it. I only wanted to hurt Abe more.
Even if what he’d said was true, he should’ve stood up to his brothers. Instead, he let them pressure him into a stupid, life-changing, heartbreaking dare.
“Wow. You gut me, baby.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I know you hate me.” He smashed me against the wall with his muscular body. “That’s okay. I hate you too. But I also still love you, Karma. I want you back. I want us to be a family.”
“You’re a fool if you think I’d ever be with you again.” A breath hung in my lungs. He was saying all the things I had dreamed of hearing. But could he be trusted?
“You’ve always been mine, Karma.” He lowered his lips to mine. “I’m not going to let you go. You shouldn’t have left. I should’ve been in Nova’s life since day one. I won’t miss another day.”
“Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve Abe.”
He snorted. “I’ll show you what I should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve been doing to you the years you stayed away.” He captured my lips and possessed them like a starving man.
I tingled down low and hated myself for giving in. Abe had been the only person to get my engine humming. No man I’d been with after I’d left Fargo had come close to lighting my fire.
But this wasn’t right.
“No.” I pushed him back out of principle.
“Baby, don’t be like that.” He circled my waist with his strong arms. “Give us a chance.”
“I can’t. I need to think of Nova.”
“Listen to you. You won’t even sayourdaughter.”
“For seven years, she’s beenmydaughter.”
“Not by my choice.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Abe. It was your choice.” I tried to slip out of his arms to no avail. “Your decisions and actions destroyed our future. What you did wasn’t the behavior of the kind of father Nova deserves.”
“Fuck!” He squeezed his head between his hands. “I didn’t know about her! I was trying to protect my position in the club, for Christ’s sake. Micah wanted to be prez. I couldn’t let him take what was rightfully mine.”
“Right. You made a decision and reaped the unpleasant benefits of it.” I had to hold firm. If he really wanted to start over and be a family, he had his work cut out for him. Because I didn’t trust that man as far as I could throw him.
“What do you want from me? I’m so fuckin’ sorry I made the wrong choice.”
“You fucking did! You chose your club over me and in turn over Nova.” How could he think faking he was fucking another woman wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass? That was how karma worked.
“Tell me what you want?” The determination in his voice put a lump in my throat.
“There’s nothing you can do. It’s too late,” I whispered, feeling as if my knees were about to buckle. “You have no idea what I’ve been through because of what you did!”
13
Cobra