Brick just barked out a laugh. “Yeah, keep believing that.”
Anger burned through him. He remembered his mother’s treatment at the hands of this gang. His mother had been a bear shifter, and his father hadn’t even known. He’d simply seduced her and not cared about the consequences.
Even when those consequences were Cage, a half-human, half-bear who could shift right now and tear apart any of these assholes.
He wasn’t going to let a single one of them get their greasy hands on his mate.
But he had to be careful. If he approached too quickly, she’d probably reject him, and that would leave her free to be picked up by the worst elements in the gang.
He hated that she owned this bar now, making her a target. And in showing up to try and take the bar, they’d gotten ideas of wanting more.
Wanting her.
And who wouldn’t? She was sweetness personified, her good heart obvious to anyone who met her. The little freckles over her nose and cheeks, her heart-shaped face, and her wide blue eyes didn’t help.
Then there were her lips. Plump and pink and innocent. And then they would spread into this wide smile that just knocked you on your ass.
She was just as killer on his senses as she’d been as a teen. Hell, he’d even been in love with her when they were both just kids trying to make their way in the world.
She had the kind of heart that was one in a million, and he’d come here just to make sure that kind of goodness didn’t get wiped out by this group of malignant personalities.
Not that all of them were bad. Some were raised in the club; some simply had no other options, no education.
Cage had never wanted this life. He’d known the second he was eighteen he was out of there. And he only had one reason to come back someday—to take Carrie as his mate.
But maybe he’d waited too long, because she didn’t seem that happy or excited to see him. They hadn’t made any promises exactly, but she’d always been the only woman in his mind. It had never been a question of if, but when.
She’d saved his life as a kid, and he had to pay that back. But making her fall in love with him, telling her what she meant to him, hoping a woman like that could pick someone like him, someone broken from birth… he guessed that was a scary enough prospect that he hadn’t come back until he was forced to in order to protect her.
Harv glared at him across the table. “You know her? We don’t hang out with the normals.”
“Yeah, but you’d like to,” Brick said, elbowing the man next to him to laugh at his joke.
Harv was deadly quiet. His black eyes silent and piercing as he stared down Cage.
Cage kept his cool.
“Grew up together,” he said. “A lot of years together.” He raised an eyebrow mockingly as he leaned back in his chair, letting his considerable height and build speak for itself. “She looks even better than I remember. I’m thinking of trying it out.”
Harv’s expression tightened. “I’ve already called it.”
“Come on now, Harv,” Cage said. “Club rules. She gets to pick.”
Harv shoved his drink down on the table. “We’ll see about this. What the prez has to say.”#p#分页标题#e#
Cage sighed. This asshole was going to cause him to blow his cover early if he wasn’t careful. “Go ahead and ask him, Harv. See if he lets you keep your patch if you break club rules.”
Harv’s eyes flashed, but he sent a quick look to Carrie that made Cage’s blood go cold. No one should look at her but him. But then Harv calmed down, standing slowly, hands on the table.
“We should head out,” he said. “Some of us got a long ride tomorrow.”
Cage would make sure he wasn’t going. It would give him time to see Carrie. Talk to her and see if he could trust her with the information that everything wasn’t as it seemed.
That’s if she was willing to let him within three feet of her.
The look of contempt she gave him as he stood to leave with the rest of the men, bringing up the rear to make sure none stayed behind to bother her, struck him hard.
Almost as hard as the look of pain in her eyes and that tight little frown in one corner of her beautiful lips.
He tried to send her a look of reassurance, one that told her to trust him. Like his kiss had. But she simply folded her arms and shook her head slowly, her message plain.
Shame on you.
He stiffened his shoulders against the feel of her disapproval. A man had to do whatever he could to protect the woman of his dreams.
But a part of him was hurt she could really believe that about him, that he’d willingly be a part of this gang. And if he was, would she truly just abandon him for that? After everything they went through together as kids?