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I thought about Caroline’s warning that Bates would go after the Devils in retaliation for me helping her escape. Dread made my skin prickle. I shoved it aside. “I know. I promise, it’ll turn out fine. I trust you guys to cover my ass until then.”
Grant was silent for a second, then let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yeah, all right. It’s like I like you or something.”
“I should hope so after almost ten years.”
“Ah, fuck off.”
The line beeped and the call ended. I snorted. For all Grant and Gabriel’s teasing, I knew I could count on them to keep a secret—even one as big as this. So much had gone screwy in just two days, to say the least. Never in five years could I have imagined I would be helping a Wolverine. Almost six years ago, Bates killed William Black, and I swore, just like the rest of my brothers, to bring him to justice. To death. A life for a life.
I padded back to Caroline like it was meant to be. She scooted over to make room. Our knees were almost brushing.
“How’re you feeling?” I asked, catching a glimpse of her wrists when she rolled up her sleeves.
“That’s a complicated question,” she answered, hiding the rope burns. “You?”
I shrugged. “I don’t feel like a total giant bruise. Still a bit hungover, probably.”
Caroline offered a fleeting smile. “Yeah, same here.”
My next question, I approached carefully. “Can we talk about?—”
She held up a hand. Now she was anything but smiling. “No.”
I grinned and leaned back on my elbows. “Aw, come on. You wanted to raw dog me just a few hours ago, spitfire.”
“Will you be punished for not telling Black Jack what you’re doing?”
My jaw tightened at the perfect deflection question. She didn’t want to talk about our kiss or the fact that she wanted to have sex with me after going through one of her most traumatic experiences? Fine. I couldn’t expect her to open up like a clamshell.
“Don’t worry about me, spitfire,” I said. “Jackson won’t tie me to a chair and beat the shit out of me. I can handle anything.”
Caroline rolled her eyes. It was a theatrical eye roll, all show, no spite. “Sound more overconfident while we’re here.”
“Aw, you do care.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Royal Flush. I don’t want you getting in trouble over me. I still think you shouldn’t have saved me. It was a mistake.” Caroline’s voice was harsh, but the more she spoke, the softer she became. More distant. Her following words were a whisper. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful. I would rather be here than at that warehouse with… him.”
Vane. The name alone made my blood boil. The mention of him made me feel like I could finally ask the question that was burning a hole in the back of my mind ever since I found her in that shitty office. “What did he do to you? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I added quickly. “You’re as guarded as the Pentagon.”
She wrinkled her nose at me. It was adorable. “I’m not emotionally stunted. I can talk about my feelings. I just don’t want to.”
“All right, then. What?—”
“I was lucky.”
I blinked. She was plucking at a loose string on the hem of the shirt—my shirt—and looking at the muddy tile floor.
“You showed up before Vane had a chance to…” A shudder went through her. My hands tightened into fists. “The look in his eyes…” Her voice hardened. “I’ve met the eyes of many bad men in my life, but him? He’s a different breed. And my father left me alone with him.”
The betrayal in her tone was like a punch to the gut. Caroline Bates was a smart woman. She thought fast and hard. She might have allied with her psycho dad for her whole life, but she wasn’t fooled by his cruelty. And she was finally deciding she didn’t want to be his shadow anymore.
“Caroline…”
I felt the urge to take her hand, but I stopped short. If she didn’t like talking about her feelings, she definitely didn’t want to hold hands.
You’re just a stupid teenage boy, Knox, I thought.
She tucked her hands in her lap, pulling her legs in, still not looking up. “I’m not blind to my actions, either. I know I did terrible things to your club. And I never regretted them until my father killed Kyle. That was the turning point.”