Page 8

Chapter Eight

Adelaide

I bounced on the balls of my feet as I swung my fist forward, connecting it with the punching bag in front of me. I quickly swung my other fist forward, bringing my leg up right after.

I was aggravated beyond belief.

After everything that happened yesterday with Vin, I was on lockdown. To say that I was already going stir crazy in less than twenty-four hours was a bit of an understatement.

Joey had even left me behind this morning when he went on his run. We woke up everyone in the clubhouse during our shouting match because usually, he took me with him. Now, he was going to be gone for three days, and the last words I’d said to him were that I fucking hated him.

I was sorely regretting my words now. I knew he wasn’t ever guaranteed to come back from a run, and if something were to happen to him, I would hate myself. Because no matter how much we fought, Joey was one of my rocks. He kept me grounded. Fuck, he kept me alive .

After I’d shouted at him that I hated him, he had simply left me with strict instructions to not leave the clubhouse. And to ensure that I followed the rules that Joey set, Tristan had set up one of his men at each entrance and exit of the clubhouse, which included the fucking windows so that I couldn’t escape like last time.

I’d sent Joey a text to apologize since I knew he wouldn’t answer his phone while he was on a run, but he hadn’t responded to me yet.

“Beating the hell of that punching bag isn’t going to make you feel any better, love,” Jesup stated as he stepped into the workout room, a beer held loosely in his grip as he watched me take out my aggression on the swinging bag in front of me.

I clenched my jaw, hating that he was disturbing me when all I wanted was to just be alone. “It’s better than punching some people in the fucking face,” I retorted, swinging at the bag again.

“You tried talking to anyone instead of just letting all of that aggression simmer inside of you?” Jesup asked as he took a seat on the bench across from me while I continued hitting the bag.

I shook my head. “All I want to do is beat Joey’s face in until he’s not so fucking handsome anymore for locking me in here, but I want him to fucking talk to me as well. We left shit on a bad note.” I swung again as Jesup grunted. “And I also want to beat the hell out of your perfect fucking president and boot him and the rest of you mother fuckers back to where you came from.”

Jesup took a swig from his beer, unbothered by my words. “You mean that?”

I clenched my jaw, grabbing the punching back as it swung back toward me. I turned my head to glare at him. “I was handling myself just fine before Tristan dropped back into my life and snatched me up,” I told him. “Tristan did all of his damage three years ago. He me know how he fucking felt the night of my eighteenth birthday. He should have fucking stayed gone.”

“Tristan has always loved you, Adelaide,” Jesup told me. I snorted. That was fucking laughable. “He never stopped.”

I narrowed my eyes at the VP, clenching my jaw so hard that my teeth audibly ground together. Three years later and that wound was still raw as hell. Tristan had sent me on a downward spiral. The only fucking reason that I was still standing there was because of Joey.

“Could have fucking fooled me when he told me that he was tired of the relationship, that he couldn’t fucking deal with my neediness anymore,” I snarled at him. Jesup sighed as he shook his head. I threw my hands up into the air in exasperation, glaring at Jesup. “Jesup, he fucking kissed some random whore right afterward. I fucking begged him not to do that shit to me, and he fucking did it anyway.”

“He did what he needed to do to keep you safe, Adelaide.”

I released a humorless laugh, throwing my arms out to the sides. “Obviously, I could fucking do that myself if he had just stopped fucking babying me.” Jesup rolled his eyes. “I’ve been taking care of myself since the moment he dumped me and I met Joey. So, don’t you dare try that fucking shit on me.”

“When he broke up with you, Adelaide, you were still young and na?ve,” Jesup told me bluntly. I narrowed my eyes at him in a warning. Jesup knew the kind of shit that I grew up in. I wasn’t fucking na?ve. I grew up in a goddamn trap house. “You still needed emotional support. You have to admit that. Tristan needed to protect you, and he did what he needed to do for that to happen,” Jesup tried to reason with me.

“From what?!” I finally yelled at him, losing my cool. “What the fuck did he need to protect me from so badly that he had to fucking break me like that?!”

“Vin.” Tristan’s voice rang through the workout room, making my heart trip in my chest. I swung my angry gaze to his. “I was trying to protect you from Vin.”

My eyes widened in shock as I looked up at him, but then, I glared, clenching and unclenching my fists at my sides. “Obviously, you didn’t do a good enough fucking job,” I snarled at him. “Because guess who the fuck is still after me? Fucking Vin .”

Anger flashed in Tristan’s eyes as he narrowed his dark, gleaming eyes at me. “Oh, I did,” he corrected me. “Your precious Joey got you in this fucking situation all by himself. I owed Vin a shit ton of money, and he was threatening those close to me to get what was owed to him.” Tristan stepped further into the room, and Jesup slipped out, leaving me alone with the man who’d broken me. “Remember that day that I didn’t show up to school?” he asked. I swallowed thickly. I remembered it well. I had been panicking all day because Tristan always showed up to school, even if he was so sick that he could barely stand, just to make sure that he was there to protect me from assholes. “When you finally saw me that night when I came home, my face was bruised and bloody.”

I nodded my head, my heart clenching in my chest as I remembered him collapsing in the foyer of his house as soon as he shut the door behind him, giving in to the pain when he was finally safe. “Vin had finally gotten his hands on me that day, and he threatened to hurt you.”

That had happened a week before my eighteenth birthday.

“I did what I had to do to protect you from him, Addy,” Tristan told me quietly, his dark eyes swirling with protectiveness. He stepped closer to me. “I never stopped loving you, Addy baby. Everything I said to you was to protect you from my shit.”

I shook my head at him, my heart beating so fast in my chest that it physically hurt. Everything he was telling me… fuck, it was so overwhelming. “How—what?” I started, unable to actually complete a sentence. I was shocked as hell.

He really had done all of that to protect me.

And I had been such a fucking bitch to him when he finally came back.

But dammit, I’d been hurt. I had buried all of that pain that he had caused me for years .

Tears filled my eyes, and I squeezed my eyes shut, turning away from him as I drew in a deep, shaky breath, desperately trying to calm myself down. I didn’t want him to see me cry, to see me break down like this.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that to begin with?” I asked him, hating that my voice came out weak and shaky.

Tristan’s large, calloused hands settled over my shoulders. Warmth slid through my veins, thawing the ice around the part of my heart that had always been his. He slowly turned me around to face him. A tear trickled from my eye as I looked up at him, unable to keep it from sliding down my cheek.

He had never stopped loving me. Why did that hurt?

His face fell as he watched the tear trickle down. With gentle hands, he quickly reached up and wiped it away but kept his hand on my cheek afterward. “Because if I had told you what was going on, Addy, you would have never let me let you go,” he told me honestly, and I knew he was right. I hated that he was right. “I had to break your heart in the worst way possible to keep you safe.”

Another tear slid down my cheek, and my bottom lip trembled as I stared up at the man that had once held my entire heart. With a soft sigh, Tristan pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to my hair. I quickly wound my own arms around him, pressing my body close to his, the steady thud of his heart keeping me calm and grounded.

“Did Helene know?” I asked him quietly.

Tristan shook his head. “No one but Jesup knew,” he told me. I breathed a little easier now that I knew that my best friend hadn’t kept such a huge secret from me. “I couldn’t risk you finding out and trying to play the hero. I needed you to hate me. It fucking hurt like hell to let you go, to let you down, but it had to happen.”

I pulled myself tighter against him, tightening my arms around his torso. I took in all of the warmth, strength, and comfort he was giving me, soaking it up. He slid his hand down my back, his other arm flexing around me in response.

I looked up at him, and his dark eyes met mine. “So, what are you going to do now?” I asked him. “Are you going to break my heart all over again, destroy me for good this time?” Since Vin was still around, I assumed that was Tristan’s plan again. Sure, I had fought him every step of the way on this shit, but if he walked away again, I wouldn’t recover.

Tristan shook his head. “I’m older, and I’m stronger,” Tristan assured me. “I’ve got the right men to back me, and my club is strong.” His warm hand cupped my cheek, his eyes tender as he kept them locked with mine. “And we all protect our club women, especially our queen, Addy.” My cheeks warmed at his words, and my stomach swooped. “Vin won’t get close to you ever again, not if I have anything to do with it. He’s crossed me wrong for the last fucking time. I’m a hell of a lot meaner than I was when we were kids, and fucking with you has deadly consequences.”

My heart warmed at his words, my soul lighting up the slightest bit with hope—hope that he really wanted this with me, that he wouldn’t fucking destroy me again.

And this time, when Tristan bent his head and pressed his lips to mine, I didn’t want to pull away. I didn’t want to fight him on it.

I succumbed to him. I let him have me.

With one hand on my lower back, Tristan pressed me closer to him, and his other hand slid up into my hair, holding my lips to his. I gripped his shirt in my fists, obediently opening my lips beneath his when he licked along my bottom lip. A shiver ran down my spine as his tongue slid against mine, and I moaned softly. I slid my hands under his cut, feeling the rippling power of his muscular frame.

The door crashing open ripped us apart, both of us breathing a bit heavy as we looked to see who had intruded on our moment.

“Sorry, Grim,” Jesup apologized, not looking sorry at all. Tristan grunted. “I know you guys were having a real heart to heart in here, but we’ve got a fucking problem.” I pulled back from Tristan, my attention now fully on Jesup. My stomach twisted, a gut feeling that something was wrong spreading through my body like ice. “Joey has been shot, and he’s being rushed to the emergency room,” Jesup informed us.

My heart dropped to my feet, pure panic rushing through my veins.

I couldn’t fucking lose him. Not Joey. Anyone but fucking Joey.

I moved past Tristan and ran out of the room, heading for the clubhouse exit before anyone could stop me, my heart in my fucking throat. Jessie met up with me at the door, tears rushing down her face. I was still panicking, too shocked and terrified of losing Joey to cry yet.

“I’ve got my car keys,” she croaked as she desperately tried to hold herself together, but I knew she was freaking out as much as I was. “Ink and York are riding with us for protection.”

I was shaking. All I could do was rush after her to her car, praying that I wasn’t losing Joey.

I heard Tristan barking orders behind us at all of his men, but I was already rushing out of the door toward Jessie’s car, not paying him any mind. Once my ass hit the passenger seat, she took off for the hospital, barely giving me time to close the door.

My heart was painfully pounding in my chest, stealing my breath, making it extremely hard to breathe.

God, I know I’m a shitty person, but please don’t make me lose him. I won’t survive it.