Page 15 of Kaz (Salvation Kings MC: New Freedom Chapter #2)

Miles

KAZ WAS agitated. Most of the bikers were. He returned with Kian in tow, thunderous expressions on both their faces. He said one word, and everyone dropped what they were doing to follow him inside. Miles knew better than to follow.

It was nearly an hour before the bikers returned from their secret meeting, grave faces and tense bodies all around.

Kaz looked like a raging inferno as he took off toward the garage.

No one followed him. The others split up, some going back to working on the house while some got on their bikes.

He wasn’t sure what to think, but… he didn’t like that look on Kaz’s face.

Something was wrong, and it looked like Kaz was blaming himself. He wanted desperately not to give a shit, but there was something inside him that wouldn’t allow it. There was a tether between them, and it was drawing him toward Kaz.

He went through the side door of the garage, and after a glance around, he headed up the stairs to the second floor, which they would be making into offices once they finished with the house.

The space was unfinished, but that just meant he didn’t have a hundred things to repair.

They only needed electrical, insulation, drywall, and flooring.

It would be the least amount of work compared to everything else.

He took the last step on the staircase and found Kaz looking out the window at the other end of the long room. His arms were crossed, his jaw clenched tight. He knew there’d be a storm brewing in those gray eyes.

“Kaz?”

He walked closer, every single part of him aptly aware that they were alone. Kaz took a breath, and then he turned, their gazes clashing.

“Not right now, Miles,” Kaz ground out, tension radiating off him.

He stepped further into the room, a frown marring his forehead as he regarded Kaz for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

Something dark flashed across Kaz’s face, and he narrowed his eyes, his words clipped as he spoke. “I told you to stop asking questions.”

“That’s not what―” He shook his head. Why did he care? Why did he give a shit that Kaz was clearly upset? Why had he followed him instead of staying the fuck away as he should?

Kaz raised a brow at him, looking ever the cocky bastard he knew him to be.

He gritted his teeth. “You’re a condescending, ungrateful asshole.”

Kaz’s low laugh had his jaw ticking. He should leave, and yet he stood his ground as Kaz rounded on him, his expression shuttered.

“What does that make you?” Kaz drawled.

“An idiot for thinking you could be anything else.”

His words brought Kaz up short, and they stared at each other for a few very long seconds, the silence stretching between them making him want to fucking scream. To yell at Kaz for hurting him. For making him believe they stood a chance, only for him to tear everything apart.

“You’re probably right.”

There was so much pain and regret wrapped around those words, and Miles found his heart desperately tugging at something he tried to keep buried deep inside himself. That part of him that would always love Kaz.

He thought it might be the first time he’d seen or heard any kind of remorse from Kaz about what happened between them.

“Do you regret it?” he found himself asking, even though he feared the answer. Feared how it might change things he needed to remain unchanged.

“Yes.” Kaz’s dark gaze was searing, leaving him breathless. “And no.”

Kaz stepped closer, and Miles fought for every breath he drew into his lungs. Kaz slid a hand to the back of Miles’s neck, thumb brushing the underside of Miles’s jaw.

“I could never regret you,” Kaz said, his voice low but his words so fucking loud and clear.

“Kaz,” he breathed.

His eyes fell shut, his lips parting as Kaz lowered his head.

“When I have you again,” Kaz said, his breath skirting across the overheated skin on Miles’s face. “It will be without you regretting it the next day.”

His eyes snapped open, pain lancing through his chest.

“That’ll never happen.”

He hated that the conviction in his voice wavered. That Kaz noticed.

Kaz moved back, a fire blazing in his eyes as his thumb brushed across the pounding vein in Miles’s neck.

“Never say never, Miley.”

He jerked free of Kaz’s hold, hating how fast that name brought him right back in time. To those conversations he’d thought were real. To the secrets they’d shared. To the stolen looks across a crowded room. To the way Kaz said his name in the throes of pleasure with such reverence.

He wanted to believe that it’d been real. That Kaz had loved him. But how could he? He felt desperation clawing at him. Trying to convince him there was a chance. That there was hope.

That desperation was the reason he turned and walked away without another word. Kaz had broken him once before, and somewhere inside him, he knew he wouldn’t survive another time.