“Because Pop wanted to send you out in the open to see if Benny would approach you.”
I feel like someone just punched me in the gut when the hurt in her eyes immediately floods them with tears. Not one tear falls though. She stubbornly reins them in.
“Oh,” is all she says before starting to pull away.
“Shit, Eve. I’m sorry.” I groan, trying to pull her back, but she doesn’t fold against me like she normally does.
“I get it,” she says coldly, stiff in my arms.
“No you don’t.”
I blow out a breath, wishing I had just ended this deal when I had the chance. Now Eve is lying here, bruised and hurt, and feeling betrayed.
“I was trying to shut Pop up for good. If he had everyone focused on you, and something else went down while our focus was strained, it would have come back on him. That and I have a reason for letting him win this one. I promise.”
She stares vacantly at the wall across from us, not acknowledging anything I’ve said.
“Eve? Talk to me,” I murmur, pressing a soft kiss to her neck. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have went along with it. I need to play a part right now. There’s shit going on that I can’t explain, but I will when I can. I promise.”
She doesn’t speak, but I’m pretty sure I get gut-punched again when I raise back up to see more tears teetering on the edges of her lids. One finally falls free, and her lips thin like the feeling of that solo drop sliding down her cheek is pissing her off.
“Eve?”
“Just stop,” she says in a rasp whisper.
This would be a great time to have Snake here. He could tell me what to do. He and Sarah have been together for months, so he probably has the best relationship advice out of anyone.
“I said I’m sor—”
The way she snaps her eyes at me has my words ending right there. No way do I want that glare to make me spontaneously combust.
“I don’t get you,” she finally says in a stronger voice, wiping away the tear that has fallen.
She sits up too fast, and she sways in the bed while gripping her head. I hiss out a breath, moving closer to steady her before she falls off the bed.
“Easy, babe. You have a mild concussion. Shit sucks. I know.”
My last one was a little worse, but I don’t think pointing that out will score me any points at the moment.
She mutters a curse while gripping her head, then wincing when she clutches the bruised area too hard. I. Feel. Helpless.
“You,” she growls, sliding her legs out from under the sheets and standing with a wobble. “You can’t possibly expect sorry to make everything better, can you? Ben was right. I’m just your fucking toy, and I’m delusional if I think anything any differently. I’m just a pawn who gets moved around and sacrificed when you need to keep the king happy.”
Ice chills my veins, and I slowly climb out of the bed as she takes a breath, trying to calm down.
“What was that?” I ask in a deceptively calm tone.
She cuts her eyes toward me, but the fear that was once there when she looked at me a month ago is gone.
“You really need me to repeat it? Or do you just want to see if I have the courage to do it? It’s all a game of intimidation and power with you, isn’t it? Me? This? Us? I’m an idiot. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re very fucking wrong,” I say without hesitation, feeling a tic form in my jaw.
She doesn’t back down. She doesn’t cower. She doesn’t even look afraid. She does, however, look ready to shred me.
“I was so happy that you trusted me to go into town by myself. I was so worried a fed would approach me. I was so freaking terrified I’d do something wrong, that I worked extra hard to do everything right. Eggshells. It’s all eggshells with you. If I step wrong, something crunches, and it could cost me my life, Drex. And you just let me go out to be bait? After I trusted you? You let me be excited to be freaking bait, Drex.”
I run a hand through my hair, back to feeling guilty instead of just pissed. Until she opens her mouth again.
“It’s always going to be this way. Your dad just tells you to play me like a cheap piano and you bang the keys the way he wants. Right? Like the good son.”
“Eve,” I warn, taking a step toward her as my eyes narrow.
She steps closer, putting us almost touching, and glares up at me. “What are you going to do, Drex? Hit me? End the charade and illusion that you truly care about me? Then fuck me when I’m begging you to stop touching me?”
I stumble back, shaking my head in disgust as she battles to restrain the tears in her glossy eyes, refusing to let them drop.
“Or are you going to promise me yet again that I won’t get hurt? That you’ll keep your father and his goons on a leash around me, then send me out to play bait at his request. Maybe next time I can run into someone who hates me because of my association with you and this fucking club, and they’ll slit my throat. That would just solve everyone’s problems, right?”
She shakes as she wipes away another stray tear that has leaked out, and her voice breaks on a sob when she tries to speak again.
“Eve,” I groan, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes. “It’s been a shitty, overwhelming day. And you have a head injury. Lie down.”
Sitting back down on the bed, she covers her mouth as one more tear slips free, and I sit down to wrap my arms around her. She shoves me off like I’m fire and burn her on contact.
Gut punched again.
“Day? An overwhelming day, Drex? It’s been an overwhelming month. Or two months. Or year. Or however long I’ve been here. No one can touch me, yet Jessie almost—”
She swallows the words and gags like they’re acid, and my fists ball up. “I handled Jessie. I’ll fucking kill him if he even steps within a hundred feet of you.”
“And then… then your friend has the intentions of getting rid of me. I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve me taking another breath.”
“Dash was misled and completely out of fucking line. It’s been handled. He wouldn’t have killed you, either. You’re being—”
“If you say I’m being dramatic or irrational or something like that, I will lose it.”
Pretty sure she’s already lost it. Again, I don’t fucking point that out.
“Then today, my best friend for years attacked me,” she whispers, wincing as though it’s painful to say the words.
That one hurts. Not sure why, but that one really hurts.
“And you were what? Just watching it happen until it got bad enough to stop it? Until you knew for sure I wasn’t the damn spy you all think I am? Gee, I’m a damn good master of manipulation, aren’t I? Went so far that I had him betray me after years of friendship. Had him hurt me after years of trust. Why? Because I told him I cared about you. Because I told him I wanted to be with you. Because I stupidly thought you cared about me too.”
“I do,” I growl, wishing she’d go back to being the sane, calm, rational girl I’ve gotten used to.
“Oh? Be honest. Did this club really have anything to do with my father’s death? Because I didn’t believe Ben when he said it. Then again, I trusted you at that moment.”
My eyebrows go up, and I sit back on the bed a little better.
“No, Eve. We didn’t. He killed himself. Ben is just a fucking jealous prick. And apparently he’s an abusive jealous prick.”
She laughs humorlessly while running her hands through her hair. “I don’t know what to think or who to trust anymore. Every step I take is wrong or scrutinized to the point where I worry it is wrong no matter how right it is. All because you want your father’s approval. I’m the daughter of the man you all hate. The man you probably killed. And now you’ve fucked me up just for fun. Feel better? Think Daddy will be proud yet?”
I explode off the bed, and my fist slams into the wall. She doesn’t even flinch as I pull my bloody knuckles out of the busted sheetrock and turn to glare at her. Fuck this.
Spinning around, I walk through the door, slamming it behind as I try to get my temper under control. If I don’t, I’ll end up finding Ben Highland and killing him in the open instead of doing it the smart way that won’t land me behind bars.
None of this would have happened if not for him. She’d be safe and happy with some new clothes. She could have kept the lie instead of hating the truth, while my father went on with the illusion I was abiding by his rules. Everyone would have been happy and oblivious, while I was secretly working with some of the others on a way to eliminate Benny and get in a new Prez we could all deal with. Even have actual peace.
Then… Then we’d have to deal with my father. But until then, I have a fucking part to play. Not that I can share that with Eve.
I clutch the metal railing in front of me, staring blankly down below at the concrete as I play her words over in my head. Her father? Why would Ben toss out some random shit like that?
An uneasy feeling prickles the back of my neck, and I turn to jog down the stairs. I’m not the only go-to guy to clean up a mess, and Pop knows my stand on that anyhow. I’ll kill any man who would pull the trigger on one of us. But I don’t ice a guy in cold blood if he doesn’t have it in him to attempt to kill one of us.