Biker Stepbrother - Part Three Read Free Page B

asked, as I felt the bed shift. The warm spot next to me where Gray had been napping next to me the last couple hours was replaced with cool air. In the impending darkness of the afternoon, I watched as he slipped his pants back on. The clink of his buckles filled the silence between us.
    “You know I have that meeting.”
    “You’re really going?”
    “Mmhm.”
    I sat up and kicked my feet out from the covers, rushing to his side. “Please, Gray. Don’t do this.”
    “I have to clear my name. I won’t live the rest of my life paying for the sins of another man.” His jaw clenched as he spoke through gritted teeth. I knew he was a man who stood up for himself and those he cared about, but I couldn’t allow it when his life was at risk.
    My stomach twisted in a million tiny knots as I thought about the sinister eyes of Little Nash Daughtry who wasn’t so little anymore. He was a grown man with a blackened heart and a ruthless agenda. I just knew it.
    “I won’t let you.” I dug my heels firmly into the dingy carpet and crossed my arms, cocking my head up to meet his determined gaze with mine.
    We locked eyes, but we may have been locking horns. We were both determined to get what we wanted, but only one of us was going to.
    “You saved my life once,” I said. “Let me save yours.”
    He shook his head and smiled.
    “I’m not trying to be cute, Gray,” I said. “I mean it. Let’s leave town. Let’s ride away together and never come back.”
    “We will.” He forced a heavy sigh. “As soon as I get back.”
    My lip trembled and my eyes watered. “But what if you don’t come back?”
    He tilted his head to the side and cupped the side of my face with his hand. “I’ll come back. I promise.”
    “Would you lie to me, Gray?”
    “Never.”
    “You just did.” I stepped away, letting his hand fall. “You can’t promise me you’ll come back and you know it.”
    For a man who’d done all right defending himself his entire life, he must’ve let it get to his head. I knew he didn’t intentionally lie to me, but it still pissed me off.
    “You really need to pull your head out of your ass, you know that?” I huffed. “You are not invincible.”
    “You’re just being…” he began to say before he stopped.
    “What? I’m just being a woman?” I said. “Man, you sound just like your daddy. Big Nash would be so proud of you right now.”
    I watched as his face contorted into an angry expression, like I’d pressed a hot button. But I didn’t care in that moment. I knew I was right. I wasn’t backing down.
    “Take that back,” he seethed.
    “I’ll take it back the second you stop acting like Big Nash,” I shrugged, crossing my arms tight.
    Gray rushed up on me, backing me against the wall behind us, his face mere centimeters from mine. My heart pounded rapidly in my chest as I’d never seen this side of him directed at me before. I peered up at him through my eyelashes and forced ice water through my veins. He could yell at me all he wanted, but I refused to let him walk out that door and into the hands of a gang of men who’d been led to believe he murdered their leader.
    “The second you walk out of here, you’re as good as dead,” I said.
    “I will not be a coward,” he said, enunciating each syllable. “I will not run.”
    “If you leave, you’re a coward to me,” I said. “You’re afraid to be with me. You’re afraid to be happy. You’re afraid to live a life different than the only one you’ve known.”
    “So we’re making this about you now?” He backed up a bit, placing his hands wide on his hips as he looked me square in the face.
    “It’s not about me, Gray. It’s about us. Our future. The life we both want to live. The one we can only live with each other,” I said. “You’re afraid you’re going to be happy with me and that someday, out of the blue, I’ll be gone. Every woman you’ve ever loved has left you in some way.”
    He pursed his lips,