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Mason shot me a dark, furious glare. “No, I won’t fucking watch it, Knox. Did you already forget the awful shit she’s done to our club? What she did to my girl? She made Suzie bleed. Hell, she made all of us bleed, one way or another. In my eyes, she’s an accomplice to Will’s death.”
That struck a chord in my heart. Mason and Will were best friends. He wasn’t the same after his death. Still wasn’t, almost six years later. If anyone had reason to hate Bates and Caroline more than Jackson, it was Mason.
I sighed. “I know, man, but you gotta understand?—”
Mason jerked to his feet. “Understand what, Knox?”
Gabriel stood too, but more cautiously. “Everyone needs to take a fucking breath.”
“No,” Mason snapped. “I want to hear Knox’s reasoning why he should get away with fucking Bates’s demon spawn. She’s not redeemable, Knox. You can’t convince any of us. She deserves what she gets.”
The door banged open. The three of us whirled to see Caroline with the first-aid kit. Her expression was blank. There was no emotion in her eyes as she marched past Mason and Gabriel and to me.
Her voice was firm but gentle. “Don’t look so surprised, dumbass. I’m fixing you up. You did it for me yesterday, so I’m returning the favor. Sit.”
I sat.
Mason and Gabriel watched in tense silence as Caroline wiped alcohol-soaked cotton balls over my wounds. She patched me up with expert care. I wanted to speak to her multiple times but knew she would just ignore me. Maybe she actually cared about nursing me back to health, but we all knew it was a tactic to show the guys she wasn’t heartless and could care about a Devil.
It wouldn’t work, but maybe it would plant a seed.
When she was done, Caroline pulled a shocker: she leaned down at the waist and kissed me, long and lingering, like it was a goodbye.
Then she turned on her heel and stalked back to the trailer, again locking it behind her.
Stunned, I glanced at my brothers. Mason’s expression was stormy. Gabriel was grinning like a doofus.
“So she gives you tongue and flashes her tits,” Mason said, “and suddenly you’re on her side? It’s almost impressive how quickly you folded. All it took was one pussy for you to forget every drop of blood she helped spill.”
“I said, knock it off,” I snarled, ready to take a swing at another one of my brothers. “I fucking dare you to reduce her to a fuckin’ hole with a pulse. She’s more man than half the bastards we’ve buried.”
“Guys,” Gabriel damn near begged, raising both hands like he could smooth the tension over.
Mason just smirked, leaning back in his chair like my anger was exactly what he’d been digging for. “There it is. Knew it. She’s already got your balls in her back pocket like the snake she is. You’ve been a Devil for, what, ten years now? We took you in and?—”
“Exactly,” I interrupted. “You took me in from a shit situation. You know why I’m attracted to Caroline? Because she’s me.”
That made Mason’s grin fall off real quick. He knew exactly what I meant. All of my brothers knew the shit life I’d endured before joining the Devil’s Luck. They knew about my abusive father and the things I’d done, even as a kid, to help him.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah. Didn’t think about that, did you?”
Mason’s jaw clenched, grinding his teeth. He was busy thinking now. “Yeah, man, I get that part. I get wanting to connect like for like. But see real sense. No one can turn over a new leaf overnight. Now, I don’t know the full story of your stupidity in helping her, but you’re losing perspective. She’s crazy and will do anything to save her own skin. You can’t trust her, Knox. She’ll throw you to the wolves if it means saving herself.”
“She won’t,” I insisted. “This has been building for a long-ass time now. She hates Bates. She wants nothing to do with him. Pretty sure she wants to help us kill his psycho ass.”
That made them straighten and blink in surprise.
Gabriel leaned forward. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” I glanced at the trailer to see if she was peeking through the window. No sign of her.
“All right,” Gabriel said. “Tell us the full story.”
So I did. I made it brief, only including the most important details—the ones that would make them see sense that this Caroline wasn’t the one who blindly followed her father’s every order.
By the time I finished, they definitely weren’t convinced she was on our side, but they did seem to hate me a little less.
Gabriel leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head, and let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Well, glad that’s cleared up. Still, I didn’t think today’s biggest worry was gonna be about whether or not you’re fucking the enemy.”