Unchain My Heart(3)

I groaned. There was no point in arguing. Mia knew me better than most people did. She’d seen right though me. I nodded, encouraging her to carry on, even though I was wondering where she was going with this conversation.

Mia blinked up at me. “All I’ve ever wanted for you was to be happy. There’s nothing better on this earth than to find your soul mate. The other half that makes you whole—I have that with Cobra . . . and I want that for you too.”

I sucked in a breath. Yeah, I wanted that also. I wanted what Mia and Cobra had. They would sacrifice everything to be together. They made each other a better person.

“I found that. With Jade. She’s the one.”

Worry flickered in her eyes for a split second. She sucked in a breath. “I was afraid you were going to say that,” she murmured, casting her gaze to the floor.

“Why?”

She bit down on her bottom lip, searching my face before she finally replied. “Ryder, you have been like a brother to me. I want you to be happy. Truly happy. And I like Jade. She’s got spunk and—”

“Cut to the chase. I feel a but coming on,” I rasped. I squinted; the dim lights were hurting my head. I didn’t want to hear what Mia’s “but” was, yet I knew she had me cornered and I’d have to hear her out.

“It can’t work,” she blurted out.

My head jerked up. But before I could retaliate, she laid her hand on my arm and squeezed it. “Not because I don’t think that Jade isn’t perfect for you. Actually, I know that she is—for the first time in your life you have met your match. But —” She hesitated, and I could see the sadness in her eyes. This was as hard for her as it was for me. “Her brother, Harrison? He’s hell-bent on bringing the club down. I can’t watch that happen, Ryder. I can’t see Cobra get hurt again. The last few months were hell—I never want that again.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but her eyes pleaded for my understanding.

I rubbed her back, soothing her. This was a motherfucker of a problem. I got where she was coming from. Hell, I’d lived with her all those months—I’d seen what a toll the shootout had taken on her.

I closed my eyes. This was turning into a fucking nightmare. I clenched my jaw, rubbing my temples. I knew one thing and one thing only: nothing and no one on this goddamn planet would make me give up Jade.

It was not negotiable. Not in a million years. I wanted Jade, and I’d die before I let her go. Was I fucking Romeo? Did I have to go to that length to prove my love for my woman? I had to get Harrison fucking Summers off the club’s back. How I’d achieve that, I had no idea.

Being with Jade was never going to be easy. I’d known that from day one. I just never imagined that our brothers would be the ones to stand in our way.

“Mia, don’t worry your pretty head about it. Summers won’t hurt Cobra. I promise you that. I’ll kill the fucker before I let him hurt my bothers or the club.”

I meant every word.





Chapter Three — Ryder


I stormed into Cobra’s office, pushing the door open without knocking. “We gotta talk,” I growled, pissed off as fuck. I’d been rolling around all night—thinking about Summers and Jade, and what Mia had said—it spun around my head till it drove me insane.

“What’s up, brother?” Cobra asked, his feet on his desk, and blowing rings into the air from the cigar he was smoking. “Why so cranky?”

“Shit. Don’t let Mia catch you with that thing.” I said, waving the smoke from my face. What I wouldn’t do for a drag of a cigar . . . but I had more important things on my mind.

“Well, close the fucking door then, dickhead.” He grinned and nodded toward the chair in front of his desk for me to sit down. “Anyway, I’ll just tell her it's you that was smoking now you’re here.”

“That’s real smart, fuckface, because she will smell the smoke on your clothes and breath. You should quit that shit. It's no good for your lungs. Didn’t think I'd have to remind you that half of one lung is now missing, thanks to the shootout.”

“Now see, I disagree. If I stopped smoking these Cuban babies it would mean the fuckers won. Never going to give them that satisfaction.” He inhaled the next draw deeply, as if to make his point.

I got it. This was Cobra’s way of giving them the finger—living as if nothing had changed. But it had. Nothing was the same as it had been before the shootout. Nothing.

Sinking into the chair, I closed my eyes. Max had always said I was the ideas man, but lately I’d run out of ways to make things work out. I rubbed at my temples, trying to find the right words before I spoke.