Rough Justice (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #1)(97)
Jagger gave his friend a cool warning glare. “Don’t go there, Zane. It f*cking killed me to do what I had to do, but it was the only way to keep her safe. I had to make her hate me enough that she’d leave Conundrum and never look back. That picture T-Rex brought back did it for me. With the Black Jacks putting a mark on her, it was Christel all over again.”
Zane sat on the top step, resting his elbows on his thighs. “This situation is nothing like what you faced with Christel. She was a sweet girl, but she wasn’t cut out for this life. She didn’t have the edge or the street smarts to stay alive. She needed someone to take care of her, but you were already spread too thin. I’m sorry you lost her, but there was a reason you never made her an old lady, and that’s because you knew she wasn’t right for you.”
“Zane…” But the usually reticent Zane was on a roll and didn’t heed his warning.
“Arianne isn’t anything like her. She can take care of herself. Would Christel ever have tried to escape out a window, stand up to Viper, or shoot Leo when he busted up her party? Would she have hit you with a pool cue when she thought you’d crossed the line, and f*cking dare you to take her life? Arianne’s the kind of woman who will always have your back. If she thinks someone’s sneaking outside her house at night, she’s not gonna call you a hundred times, sobbing into the phone. She’s gonna pull out her gun and shoot the f*cker in the nuts. She’s an asset, not a liability. She’s probably the only woman I’ve met who is worthy of you. A woman to stand by your side instead of in your shadow. She makes you stronger, not weaker.”
Jagger sat heavily on the step beside his old friend. “I thought you didn’t like her. You accused her of being a spy. You’ve spent the last two months trying to push her out.”
Zane shrugged. “I changed my mind. Seeing her today, all bruised up, her arm bandaged, and she’s still telling you off, whacking you with a pool cue to knock some f*cking sense into you, doing everything she could to protect the people she loved—even you. She changed my mind.”
Max trotted over and settled beside Jagger, resting his head on Jagger’s shoe. He felt another tug on his heart. Loyalty. One of the fundamental tenets of biker culture. Arianne had it in spades. But he hadn’t been loyal to her. Yes, he’d wanted to protect her, but he hadn’t given her his faith or support. He hadn’t trusted her judgment or respected her wishes. Instead, he had pushed her away, long before this latest plan to keep her safe.
Just as his dad had done to his mother. He was his father’s son, after all. Ironic how history came full circle.
He rubbed Max’s back, brushing out the leaves and twigs with each long stroke of his hand. “The Jacks have marked her because of me and the choices I made. She’ll be safer if she leaves Conundrum.”
“Christ.” Zane gave an exasperated groan. “What does she have to do to prove herself to you?”
The opposite of what his mother had done.
Stay.
TWENTY-TWO
Members wishing to leave the club must have served five full years and turned their colors over to the president.
“So … you’re leaving Conundrum?”
“Yeah.” Arianne stared out the window of the Sinner SUV as Wheels pulled away from the curb outside Banks’s Bar. Banks waved from the doorway, and then disappeared inside, but she’d caught his slight wince as he raised his arm. He was injured because of her. If she’d just left when she’d planned, none of this would have happened.
But then she would never have met Jagger. And she wouldn’t have known the truth about Jeff.
“Hey.” Wheels reached over and squeezed her hand. “You okay? That wasn’t good-bye forever, was it?”
Her chin dropped to her chest, and she crumpled under his scrutiny. “I promised I’d stop by the bar and say good-bye to him and Dawn before I left. It’s just … when I look at him…”
Sympathy creased his face. “It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it’s my fault.” She wrenched her hand away. “I should have thought about what would happen if I got anyone else involved. Once Banks heard the whole story, what happened this morning was a foregone conclusion. And that’s what kills me. I understand why Jagger did what he did. It was a matter of honor for the club. That’s our … their way.”
“You don’t think of yourself as a biker?”
“Do I look like a biker?”
Sweat trickled down his forehead and he wiped it away. “Frankly, yes. You walk with the same confidence. You share the same attitude. You’ve got the same edge. You’ve got a kick-ass bike. You ride and shoot better than most of the guys. Everything about you gives your biker roots away, just like someone would know I was American if I went to France.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. Wheels sure didn’t talk like any biker or prospect she knew. He talked like someone who’d spent a lot of time in the biker world. Maybe he had biker roots, too. “Just because I was born into it and forced to live the life, doesn’t mean I have to embrace it.” She twisted her mother’s ring around her finger. “We have a choice. I chose to turn my back on biker life and find a place where I can be happy and not afraid. I just never thought I’d be going alone.”