“Hey, whoa!” he said, grabbing my arms. “What’s wrong?”
“Let me go!” I screamed at him. And acting on instinct, I slammed my foot down on his boot so he would let me go because no one was going to stop me from fleeing the clubhouse.
“Hold up!” He came after me, but I didn’t listen, I kept running, pushing through the doors and bursting into the afternoon sunlight.
I knew Cade’s car would have the keys in it, so I ran straight to it and climbed in. Just as I’d thought, the keys were in the sun visor. They dropped into my hand and I shoved them into the ignition, and then gunned out of the MC compound, narrowly missing Cade and Caleb as they ran out of the clubhouse just in time to see me flee.
Out on the street, I didn’t fare much different. After nearly running into a streetlight because I was blinded by my tears and crazed by my emotions, I pulled over. I needed to collect my thoughts. I had just committed assault and grand theft auto. But fuck it. I had just caught my lying, cheating husband in bed with another woman.
A tornado swirled in my mind and I couldn’t stop my brain from rehashing walking in and seeing the gorgeous blonde in his bed. I gripped the steering wheel and squeezed my eyes shut with the pain. Random conversations and memories rushed at me. He had fought so hard for me. He had me in his every breath, in every beat of his heart, in every thought. Last night he had tenderly and lovingly made love to me, moaning into my neck about how much he loved me.
Seriously, it made no sense at all.
“I’m so in love with you.”
He had pursued me with ferocious ambition only months ago when I’d came back for my father’s funeral. He loved me like no man could ever love a woman unless he worshipped her with every beat of his heart. How could he just throw it away as easy as he did? I just didn’t get it.
“I’m all yours. All of me. Forever.”
He had really said that…
I played with the crown pendant around my neck. I was his queen. He was my king.
Why could he just throw it away?
He would have known I would catch him…leave him…
I looked up.
Fuck. Me.
My breathing evened out and I exhaled angrily. My hands squeezed tighter on the steering wheel until I was white-knuckled.
I’d been had.
CADE
It took every ounce of my being to not react. My heart was already broken, but as I watched her burn with heartache in front of me, it broke all over again. I longed to take her in my arms, to kiss away her tears, to gather up her broken heart and piece it back together again. To tell her it wasn’t true. To tell her that I loved her, and her only. That I didn’t want or need another woman. Ever. But to keep her safe, I had to break my heart and then break hers.
But then she tore out of the clubhouse and away from the compound before I could stop her, and my plan began to unravel. It put her in harm’s way, which was the very thing I was trying to protect her from. Without a security detail. Without me or the club to protect her. She was in danger. I shredded out of the compound on my bike. She hated me and didn’t want me around her, but I had to make sure she was safe while she was leaving me. I didn’t have to go far. A couple of streets away, she was pulled over on the side of the road and I could see her sitting in the driver’s seat, her hands gripping the steering wheel, her eyes squeezed shut. I pulled up in front of her. She saw me and climbed out, and stormed up the sidewalk towards me, her face tight with fierce determination. When she reached me, she lunged at me shoved me in the chest.
“You didn’t lay one hand on that girl!” she yelled. And then she shoved me in the chest again. Hard. “You asshole. You set me up!”
I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. The relief that ran through me was inebriating.
“Stop being an asshole!” she cried, shoving me again. “I know why you did it. You think you’re protecting me. You’re worried something is going to happen to me. So you make me believe you did something unforgivable so I will leave. I get it.”
“Indy—”
“Stop!” Her hands fisted at her side. “This is my choice. Don’t you get it? You’re worried about me. But I’m just as worried about you. Stop treating me like I’m so damn fragile. I’m not delicate! I’m your queen. Let me stand next to my king.”