Silence.
“One looks new.”
“It is.” Again, he sipped his drink. He didn’t make eye contact with her.
“So, what made you get it done, the new one?” she pressed, not knowing why a nervous knot was forming in her belly.
“You really want to know, Tammy?”
“Yes.” She sensed it was important, a part of him. Wyatt had told her as much.
“It means something different from that cross you wear around your neck, you know that, right?”
“I gathered as much.” She knotted her fingers, notwanting to let her imagination run riot. “You can tell me.”
He seemed to think about it for a moment, then finally, he looked straight at her. “They symbolize lives I’ve taken.”
She swallowed, her mouth drying. Yet she wasn’t surprised. He carried a damn gun after all, and was part of the club her father had always called a murdering, lawless scourge on society. “So … how new is the new one?”
“A month or so.”
“And who was he? I’m guessing it was a man.”
“Yeah, ’course, and he was a rat who had it coming. Betrayed several clubs, turned information over to the police that got a bunch of bikers thrown behind bars, including Belle’s father for that matter.”
She touched her necklace. The truth was out there now. Spoken. He had committed murder.
“Don’t sweat it, babe. He was going straight to hell anyway. He’d killed more than his fair share of people and not all had deserved it.”
“But … I mean … did you shoot him?”
“You really want details?”
It was her turn to be quiet.
He half sighed. “No, I turned a knife on him, one he was about to shove into my guts as it happened.” He paused. “It was at the Pierce rally. It all went down, went to shit too. A big fucking fight in a bar, it was kill or be killed, and I ain’t done the damage he has, so it was gonna be him not me. Carter got hauled in for it ’cause he was next to the body when the police stormed. It’s how he met Leah actually, got himself an attorney and a new chick at the same time.”
All Tammy could think about was how close Jayden had been to being stabbed … killed. “I’m … I’m glad it wasn’t you. To get stabbed, that is.”
He drained his coffee and set it on the table.
“So two crosses means you’ve…” she said quietly.
He sat forward, elbows on his knees. “Given two mean bastards exactly what they deserved. Yeah, I have.” His eyebrows pulled together. “Want me to make it three? Seems you know a mean bastard who is owed some of his own medicine.”
A shiver went up her spine. But it wasn’t unpleasant. Jayden was a man who would follow through, whatever the cost, whatever needed to be done. That much was clear. “I don’t… I mean, I…”
“Gary will kill some poor woman one day,” he said. “You’ve gotten away, but he’ll dupe and charm his way into someone else’s life and then carry on throwing his fists around. I wouldn’t have a problem taking him down for what he’s done or what he’ll do in the future.”
“I know you wouldn’t.”
“Do you? Really?”
“Yes.”
“And how does that make you feel? That you’ve had sex with a killer.”
She pulled in a deep breath.