And my anger breached the surface.
“Cole,” she hissed, noticing. Fuck, she knew me way too well. “We have bigger fish.”
Movement from one of the three guys I’d put down refocused me. I made a show to Rick of fingering my gun. “Your choice,” I warned.
“Well, I’m sure you’re gonna have a shitload to talk about now,” he tossed at me. “I’ll let you get on that then.” With one last infuriating smirk, he pushed off his bike and started gathering his boys up to finally make his goddamn retreat.
I eased Tasha way out of their paths and stood rigidly still, my attention fully focused on the enemy until they roared away and disappeared completely from my line of sight.
Only then did I move on to deal with the next shitty situation.
“So, what the hell is going on? What does that sick fuck want from you?”
Her fingers were clamped around the cell phone Rick had given her in a white-knuckle grip, her face paled as she stared at the screen.
“Tasha?” I pressed.
She raised her troubled gaze to mine and croaked out, “We have a serious problem.”
6
~Natasha~
“HERE,” COLE SAID, shrugging off his leather jacket and draping it over my shoulders. “You’re shaking. Let’s just go back inside the diner. It’s too cold out here for you.” His gaze dropped to my belly and he smiled sweetly. “And for the baby.”
“It’s best if no one is around for this. You know what that temper of yours is like.”
He tensed at my ominous words. I could see him fighting himself as he ground out, “All right.”
I braced myself and drew in a soothing breath before telling him, “I have to take this job.”
“What?” he barked, folding his arms across his chest and shifting his weight, all signs I recognized as him trying to hold his temper in check.
“I don’t have a choice, Cole.”
“Of course, you do.” He reached out with shaking hands, courtesy of the adrenaline from his fight with the Strikers not twenty minutes ago still coursing through his veins. I recognized it well, because he was always in the same state after his underground fights. It took him several hours to fully come down from it. He cupped my cheek, his eyes burning into mine with intensity, as he said, “I’m here with you now. I’m not going anywhere this time. I swear it. So, I’ve got your back. I won’t let him force you into anything. We’ve just finished cutting all ties to the illegitimate aspects of your business, I’m not about to let that all end up being for nothing because of that motherfucker.”
“Cole, I—”
He jerked back from me and threw his hands up in the air, his temper finally getting the better of him. He’d been holding it in for too long during all of the Strikers’ provocations. And talking about Nik had sent any chance of him being able to swallow it straight to hell. “You’re not his! Why do you let him do this? After all this time, why can’t you just shake him, woman? He’s not a part of your life anymore! He’s nothing! Why the fuck are you letting him have a hold on you?” He thrust his foot into a nearby bollard and roared at the top of his lungs, “Fuck! I’ll kill him! He’s dead! Dead! I can’t stand hearing you speak his goddamn name! I’ll wipe him out of your life! I’ll end this sick and twisted shit between you two once and for fucking all!”
“Cole,” I spoke calmly, walking to him. Slowly, I held out my hand. The second my fingers brushed his shoulder, he spun around, making me jump.
Hs eyes blazed with fury.
But there was no aggression in his touch as he took my hand.
He was being very careful with me, very gentle, even in the heat of his temper explosion.
I knew he’d never hurt me. It wasn’t even a question.
But I wanted him to calm down and I hated seeing him in such a state. It was because I knew his rage was just a mask. A mask of extreme pain and anguish. And I didn’t want him so upset, so hurt. Ever.
“Why?” he asked, desperately, his voice a strained growl, as he held my hand up between us. “Tell me why you’re letting this happen?”
“Because, I really don’t have a choice, Cole,” I reiterated as gently as possible.
“Argh!” he fumed, releasing me quickly and spinning around, tugging at his chestnut-brown hair wildly. “You do! There’s always a fucking choice and I’m gonna make damned sure you always get one, no matter who tries to fuck with that and back us into a corner! Nik! Slade! You’re carrying our kid and nobody’s gonna jeopardize that! Nobody!”
“Wait a second. Slade?”
He stilled.
“Cole? Tell me now. You still haven’t said. What exactly did Slade send you down here to get from me?” Judging by the way he’d just tied them together during his outburst, I had a pretty good idea now. I just hoped I was wrong. “Tell me it’s not what I’m starting to think it is. Tell me it has nothing to do with Nik.”
He turned back around, breathing heavily. His eyes were filled with pain as he revealed, “Slade wants to use your connection with Nik to draw him out from his heavily-fortified compound.”
“To what end?”
“So we can end him.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped. “That’s why you came here? To push me back into that, so your club can use me for their own vengeful ends?”
“That’s not—”
“You know the lengths I went to in order to escape him, what it took, how long it took, for me to finally escape that demon! And you were all for putting me right back in his line of fire?”
“You wouldn’t be in his line of fire. The club would protect you.”
“Unbelievable,” I said, shaking my head with disbelief. “After all your talk about how much you hate him for everything he did to me, for everything he did to us.
