Page 17 of When It Reins (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #5)

Juniper leans on the table with her elbow, propping her head up with her hand, and stares at me. Normally this would make me self-conscious, but considering all I’ve been doing since she got here is stare at her, I can’t exactly complain.

“How’d you get involved in the club?” Her brows crinkle with her softly spoken question, and I clear my throat.

“It’s kind of a long story.” I wipe my mouth with my napkin and set it on my plate, getting up and taking the plates to the kitchen.

“Well, I’m kind of stuck here, so unless you want to drive me home, I have plenty of time,” Juniper says from her seat, watching me clean up.

I clear my throat and say, “I’m not sure your place is safe right now.”

Juniper’s eyebrow arches, and I shut off the water, moving back toward the table and holding out a hand. She places hers in mine with so much ease that I physically feel my chest unlock.

We move over to the couch, and she sits in the middle, leaving me two options. I try not to think too hard when I sit beside her, close enough that her thigh is touching mine, and I rest an arm on the back of the couch.

This is new territory for us, and I am having to physically restrain myself from doing something that she isn’t ready for.

I take a breath and gloss over my last comment about her safety and launch into a story that no one knows outside of the club.

“It was a deal I made for my family’s safety.” Juniper turns. Her eyes latch onto mine, and I stare at her gold-flecked eyes. “When I was nineteen, I decided to get out of town and join a group of guys on the rodeo circuit.”

“And Jax too?”

I nod my head, licking my lips. “Yeah, he ended up coming with me too.” I remember him begging me to let him come, not that I could have stopped him, but when he had, he’d been recently heartbroken by Felicity.

“But what they don’t know is right before we were leaving, our dad was coming around, started trying to threaten me and my family. ”

Juniper looks at me in confusion. “Your dad? I thought he only started coming around when Jax was back?”

I shake my head. Guilt and fear for what she might think of me when she finds out the truth tell me to keep my mouth shut. But then there is the other part of me that says I need to get this out in the open.

“No.” I sigh and look away from her. “He started coming around when Jax and Stetson were still in high school, and Logan was raising Luella, and I was the loner.” I remember him coming around, starting to try to form a connection with me.

I let him, for a while, until he started mentioning my family.

Getting the family back together and loving my mom again is what he used to say.

“He told me all sorts of things. Made promises I foolishly thought he might keep.”

“But he didn’t?”

“I didn’t let him. He started saying stuff about my family, about how he wanted me to be a bridge to connecting them again, and I got a weird vibe.” I take a breath, not used to talking so much. “I backed off, and he started threatening me and my family.”

“Oh, Mitch.” Juniper reaches over and lays her hand on my leg. “What happened?”

“I decided maybe if I left, he wouldn’t have leverage. But I also knew I couldn’t leave them unprotected, so I went to the club and asked for help.”

She sighs and twists her body to face me more fully. “How did you know to go to them?”

I shrug. “You hear rumors of them doing shady shit, but we knew Mick because he went to school with Logan, and I knew his reputation was always protecting the little guy. So I thought they might be willing to help out.”

“And?”

I sigh. “And the last president who I made the deal with said they would keep my family safe while I was gone, so long as I sent part of my earnings and promised to join the club as soon as I was home again.”

Juniper is quiet, and I let her process all the new information. Hell, I’m processing it all from finally saying it out loud. Everything happened so fast when I got home, and I felt as though I’d gotten caught in a riptide, unable to find my next breath above water.

“Mitch.” Juniper lays her hand on mine, and I look into her eyes. They’re full of worry and sympathy. “Who else knows about this?”

“The whole club knows. They’ve been watching the Cash family’s back for a while.”

“No, I mean, outside of them. Your mom? Your brothers?”

Our eyes stay latched, and I shake my head. “You.”

“You’ve never told anyone?”

I don’t exactly chitchat with my brothers, and they never asked, so I figure it was better to just keep to myself. “No. I never told anyone.”

“Honey, you should. They would understand why you did that.”

I’m still hung up on the fact that she just called me honey—I want to hear that all the fucking time—when she stands and grabs my guitar.

I watch her, realizing that she took my story at face value, that she trusts the words that I’m saying, and I’m grateful that she not only knows, but does trust me.

She sits beside me and starts strumming the guitar. “What are you doing?” I ask.

Juniper smiles and says, “I’m singing you a love song.”

She’s kidding, but I smile anyway and spend the rest of my night listening to her soothing voice. For the first time since I came home, I feel a weight I’ve been carrying ease off of my shoulders.