Road to Passion (11 page)

T
WO MONTHS LATER, I hung up the phone with
a frustrated growl. For the last three weeks or so, Mack and I had been
bickering. I knew he was stressed and I knew it was because of things going on
with the Dogs, but it was at a level unusual for us. I was the lucky recipient
of the brunt of his frustration and since he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) share, I
was getting a little fed up.

I was also stressed, but outside
of Mack, my stress was good. I’d bought a house and I was closing in two days.
My sales had grown to the point that I could afford one. Nothing flashy, but a
sweet little historical home in downtown Vancouver, Washington. I chose
Vancouver, because living in Washington State was going to save me a butt-load
of money on my taxes, and since it was only a hop over the bridge, it was still
close to everything I loved.

Pauley was moving in with me and
we had been packing up the apartment for a month. Her OCD tendencies were
working in my favor because she was a champion at organizing. The boxes were
sorted and numbered, labeled in detail, and neatly stacked against the walls
from whence they came.

I was frantically trying to
finish up the second book in my series and had the idea for a third. I was
finding the ideas came faster, and not having a “real” job helped in the focus
part. I woke up when I wanted to, went to bed when I wanted to, which certainly
helped with my energy. I rarely felt tired during the day anymore, let alone
exhausted, and it was liberating.

I was, however, concerned about
my boyfriend. He was distant and quiet (unless we were making love), and we
barely had any time together. Something had to give, but since it wasn’t my
schedule and general mood that was the problem, I had no idea where to start.

As I sat down to eat the Chinese
takeout I’d picked up a little while ago, my cell phone rang. “Hey, Millie.”

“Are you sitting down?”

I frowned. “Yes, why?”

“I have something to tell...
well, show you, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. Millie had
been acting a little stranger than normal lately as well, but not
un-Millie-like, just more secretive than normal.

“I think Mack’s cheating on you.”

“What?” I snapped. Millie had
also become a little distant and she wasn’t a big fan of Mack, but wouldn’t or
couldn’t tell me why. Mack didn’t talk about Millie at all, but that didn’t
mean he didn’t like her, he just didn’t typically talk about anyone outside of
his club brothers. He didn’t even talk much about Kim, although they were still
close.

“This woman I work with, Katya. I
saw her and Mack together today,” she said. “I took a couple of photos. I’ll
forward them to you.”

“Millie, what’s going on with
you? Are you
trying
to break us up? Because I’m pretty sure Mack would
never cheat on me.”

“Pretty sure, but not one-hundred
percent, right?”

“Why do you hate him?”

“I don’t hate him,” she argued.
“But I’m also not going to sit back and watch him hurt you.”

I stamped down my sudden anger
towards my best friend and sighed. “Send them over, Mill. I have to go.”

I hung up and the photos showed
up a few seconds later. They didn’t look good, but I also knew my man, and I
knew he’d never cheat on me, so I called him immediately. It went to voicemail,
so I decided that since I knew where he was, I’d go there. In person was always
better in these sorts of matters anyway.

Pulling into Big Ernie’s parking
lot always intimidated me and today was no different. It didn’t matter how
often I’d been here, I still felt like I didn’t belong. But I soldiered on,
granted access through the first secure door and then the second, arriving in
the lobby where Train was sitting with his feet on the desk. I was a little
taken aback by his presence, considering I hadn’t seen him up close and
personal since the night at the club. Whether it was by design or not, he
seemed to keep his distance from me.

“Not a good time for you to be
here, Darien.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I really need
to talk to Mack, though. Can I wait for him?”

He dropped his feet to the floor.
“Fuckin’ pain in the ass, woman.”

“Well, I don’t see how that
language is necessary right now, Train,” I grumbled.

He scowled at me as he rose to
his feet and stalked out of the room. I had no idea if I was supposed to wait,
follow, or get out, so I decided to have a seat and hoped he’d give me some
direction when he returned. I dropped my head into my hands and squeezed in an
effort to ward off the rapidly approaching headache.

“What the fuck, Darien?”

I started at the sound of Mack’s
angry voice and stood as he stomped toward me. “I need to talk to you.”

“Then fuckin’ call me and I’ll
call you back when I can.”

“I
did
call you. You
didn’t answer.”

“You think there might have been
a reason for that?” he hissed.

“Okay, I get that you’re busy and
I get that you’re stressed, Logan, but if you’ve decided to dump me, could you
maybe do it before you start fucking someone else!” I snapped.

“What the fuck are you talking
about?” he bellowed.

My heart raced at his obvious
rage, but that just irked me more as I pulled up one of the photos Millie sent
me and shoved it in his face. “Who’s the whore with her lips all over you,
Mack?”

He snatched the phone out of my
hand with a scowl. “I don’t have time for this shit, Darien!”

Now, I was
pissed
! “You
don’t have time to take five minutes to explain to me why another woman is
kissing you on a public street?”

“No, I do not.”

“So, you’re not denying it?”

He shoved the phone back at me.
“Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?”

I realized in that second that he
still wasn’t denying it, and my heart shattered. I bit back tears and clamped
my mouth shut. “Ohmigod. You
are
cheating on me,” I whispered.

“Mack!” an angry voice came from
somewhere behind the wall.

“I’ll be right there,” he yelled
back. “I have to get back to this, Darien. We’ll talk later.”

“No,” I said, and took a deep
breath. “No we won’t.”

“Babe,” he ground out.

“Fuck you, Logan Reed,” I rasped,
and ran out of the building and to my car.

He didn’t follow, which further
drove home his infidelity, so I headed back to the apartment, locked myself in,
and dissolved into an ugly, sobbing mess on my bed. How did we get here? God,
we were so good! I really thought we could last forever.

Barney jumped up on the bed and
licked my tears, but even he couldn’t make me feel better.

“Dare?” my sister called, and
then I heard the front door closing. She pushed into my room and sat next to me
on the bed, gathering my hair away from my face. “Hey, sissy.”

“Did Millie call you?”

Pauley wiped my tears away. “No.
Mack called Kim.”

“How nice of him,” I spat out.
“He has time to call Kim, model goddess, and laugh about how he’s been fucking
some whore behind my back, but no time to tell me! Asshole!”

Pauley, squeezed my hand. “That’s
not exactly how it went.”

“How did I get it so wrong?”

“I don’t know if you did,” she
said.

“I have proof, Pauley!” I dropped
my phone into her lap.

She unlocked it and stared at the
photos. “Wow.”

“Right? He’s a fucking cheater
asshole.” I curled up in the fetal position again and squeezed my eyes shut.

Pauley wrapped herself around me
and pulled me close. For the next hour, my sister held me while I sobbed myself
to sleep. I didn’t wake up again until the morning, devastated to find that the
hurt was just as raw. Right now, I felt like my life was over.

* * *

Mack stormed back
to the conference room and slammed the door. “I want to know every fuckin’ word
Nika said, Hawk.”

“Brock wouldn’t give me
everything,” he countered.

“What the fuck is a wire tap good
for if he won’t tell us what was fuckin’ said?” Mack bellowed.

“I’ll see if I can get anything
from Jaxon,” Ace offered.

“Just find out if Nika knows
anything about Darien, other than her name,” Mack said.

“I will.” Ace grabbed his phone
and left the room.

“We’ve got recruits on her and
Pauley,” Crow said.

“Fuck!” Mack snapped.

His brothers continued to work on
the plan, but he couldn’t focus. He warred with his need to keep Darien safe
and her broken heart. He hated himself for letting her believe something that
wasn’t true, but he loved her too much to put her harm’s way.

“Mack,” Booker snapped.

“What?”

“What did you pull from the
Blush
records?”

Mack didn’t have time to focus on
Darien for the next few hours, as he was forced to stick to the plan at hand.
He’d do whatever he could to win her back once she was safe.

* * *

Two days later,
Mack paced his living room, his hands on his head. He hadn’t slept, he hadn’t
eaten, and he didn’t give a fuck. The bell pealed and he rushed to the door,
yanking it open. “Is she okay?”

Kim shook her head as she stepped
inside. “No, buddy, she’s not.”

He slammed the door and hit the
wall with a, “Fuck!”

“What’s going
on
, Mack?
The day you cheat on Darien is the day you cut off your own arm, so I know this
isn’t what it seems.”

“I can’t—”

“Seriously?” she snapped.

“I can’t tell you, Kim.”

“You called me here,” she pointed
out.

“Yeah. I need to know how she is.
You’re the only one who can find out.”

“And I did. She’s not good.” Kim
frowned. “So, tell me what’s going on and I can relay the message if you can’t
talk to her directly.”

“I can’t.”

“You know what, Mack? Fuck the
Dogs and your damn club business!
God
! If you can’t tell me what the
hell is going on, then wallow in the shit bed you’ve created.”

“God damn it, Kim!” he yelled.

“You gonna tell me what’s going
on?” she challenged.

He shook his head. He couldn’t.

“Well, then, you’re on your own,”
she said, and walked out the door.

He slammed the door behind her
and punched another hole in his wall before sliding to the ground and dropping
his head into his bruised and bloodied hands. When this was done, and if Darien
forgave him, he’d let Nika Kozlov off with a beating. If she didn’t forgive
him, then Nika was dead. But before he was dead, he would be screaming for
mercy.

* * *

The next
afternoon, I pulled open the door to find Kim Church with a weird grin on her
face. “He didn’t cheat.”

“What?” I asked, and stepped back
so she could come in.

“Mack didn’t cheat.”

“I have proof that he did, Kim.”
I closed the door and followed her into the kitchen.

“No you don’t.”

I sighed. I wasn’t in the mood. I
was emotionally and physically exhausted after two nights without sleep. I’d
finished signing all of the paperwork for the house an hour ago and arrived
home, barely awake, to grab a few things to take to the new house. I decided to
try to take a nap instead. I pulled the photo up in my phone and thrust it
toward her.

Kim took it and glanced at it,
then handed it back to me with a shake of her head. “It’s not real.”

I rolled my eyes and let out a
frustrated huff. “Ohmigod, Kim, you’re speaking in riddles.”

“Okay. Look, I get that those
look bad, but I know Mack and, outside of the fact that he loves you like
crazy, he does
not
cheat.”

“He
admitted
it,” I ground
out.

That brought her up short and she
frowned. “He did?”

“Yes.”

Kim huffed. “Actually admitted
it, or was too frazzled... or pissed... to respond?”

I threw my hands up in the air.
“It’s the same thing!”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Look, I don’t want to be rude,
but this isn’t really any of your business.” I squared my shoulders. “Mack has
not tried to call, he has not come by, he has done nothing to indicate that
things are not as they seem. We are done. He’s made his choice.”

“Ohmigod, the two of you are
perfect
for each other. You’re both pigheaded and as stubborn as fucking mules,” she
squeaked in frustration.

“Excuse me?”

“Darien, listen to me,” she said,
very slowly. “Something’s going on with the club. Something that means Mack has
to let you believe something that’s
not
true.”

My initial reaction was to think
Kim was up to something, especially considering she was so close to Mack, but
as she continued to stand there, I wondered.

“Lightbulb’s on now, right?” she
said.

I narrowed my eyes. “You really
don’t think he’s cheating?”