“You can’t keep me here against my will, Cain. What the hell is wrong with you? Good God, have you been doing the drugs you sell? Because you are fucked in the head if you think I’m staying here with you while all this shit happens right in front of me. Besides, my dad will come looking for me soon. I’m done talking to you. I’m leaving.”

He grabs my arm, bends, and hoists me into the air, his other hand planted firmly on my ass as he throws me over his shoulder.

“Put me down!” I shriek, kicking and doing my best to inflict damage with my stilettos while dangling upside down.

“Shut your mouth, Calla.”

He’s too strong for me. I still try and put up a fight as he retreats across the floor. His strides are quick as he takes us outside, the gravel crunching underneath his black boots.

“Cain, don’t do this. You have no right!”

I see the legs of several men and hear them calling out to him about getting some. He is getting nothing from me but a kick in his damn nuts when he puts me down. I’m getting tossed around like a rag doll.

“Help me, you fucking assholes!” I scream.

Cain chuckles.

“No one is going to help you. Now shut the hell up, or I will tape your mouth shut and tie you to my fucking bed until you do as you’re goddamn told.”

Before I can retort, he abruptly stops at the sound of a shrill voice behind us.

“Cain, what the hell are you doing?”

Emerald. Even though I am hanging upside down, I know it’s her by the desperation in her voice. I feel Cain swivel around.

“Can someone get this cunt the fuck away from here?”

“No!” she wails. “Damn it, Cain, what’s going on?”

“Don’t tell me what the fuck to do. It’s none of your goddamned business. Now fucking leave before I have you thrown out.”

Oh, my God, if I didn’t hate her so much, I just might feel sorry for the bitch. Without another word to her, Cain turns his back and strides away, leaving her standing there shouting and cursing the both of us.

I have no idea where we are going until I feel and then see him climb a few steps. Panic sets in. Memories flood my mind from the one and only time I was in this house. I start to pound on his back with everything I have to get him to release me.

He continues across the front porch, ignoring the beating I am inflicting on him. Once we’re inside, he stomps up the stairs. My heart is beating frantically. Finally, I cave and give in to my raw emotions, and I start to cry.

“Please, Cain, don’t do this. I’ll beg if I have to.”

Still nothing from him. I screech through my tears when he tosses me onto his bed. He pulls my shoes off, tossing them behind his back. My expensive Jimmy’s hit the wall with a little thwack. I’m sobbing now, and scared.

“Stop crying. I’m not going to hurt you.”

He’s gentle when he squats down in front of me. I refuse to look at him. My anger at myself for being so weak consumes me.

“Let me go, Cain. You don’t want me here any more than I want to be.”

The bed shifts when he sits down next to me. I stay still, for the first time admitting I’m scared of this Cain Bexley I do not know. All kinds of fucked up scenarios are invading my head. I should have brought my dad with me. No one knows where the hell I am.

“You’re shaking.”

A warm, rough, calloused hand settles on my knee. I flinch from the contact.

“Listen to me for just one minute. There are a few things you need to know.”

I keep my head bowed down, my hair shielding him from seeing my face as I watch my tears land on my skirt one by one.

“Fuck me. The last thing in this world I ever wanted to do was to hurt you again, baby. Before I tell you anything, I need you to know that.”

I close my eyes. Every bit of hurt from that horrible night comes rushing back. Him calling me baby is breaking me all over again.

“I had to do it, Calla. My dad left me no choice.”

My head snaps up at the mention of his father.

“What do you mean, you had no choice?”

He sighs, pulling his hand away from my knee. I avert my gaze from his down to the spot where I can still feel the warmth of his skin on mine.

“The day we got married, I came back here, and told my dad about us like I promised you I would. But it didn’t go as we’d hoped. He was pissed off, started saying shit I had no idea about. All this time I thought we were just a club... a group of people who liked to ride. I never knew the bullshit that really went down around here. The drugs. Any of it.”

He lets out a frustrated breath.

“He told me everything. Believe me, I was shocked as fuck. He had been lying to me for fucking years, leading me to believe he was legit. At the time I was blinded to it all. My mind was obsessed with you and me, with trying to find a way for us to be together in spite of the hatred our fathers had for one another. It wasn’t until after you were gone and my dad brought me in that I realized our parents were right all along. They were only trying to protect you from a life neither of us knew anything about.”

I sit here like a mummy wrapped so tightly that I’m unable to move any part of my body except my eyes. Cain stares straight ahead, breathing heavily. I almost feel sorry for him.

“Before I continue, I need you to tell me you believe me. When we were together I had no idea the kind of shit my dad was involved in. The entire club was a farce. He lied to me, too. Do you believe me?”

Tense silence fills the room until slowly my ire subsides. Cain never wanted this life for himself, he was born into it, and had obviously been trained to lead this club before his dad was killed.

Something you learn in law school is that when you study a person to distinguish whether they are lying or telling the truth, their voice is as telling as their face. Analyzing Cain right now, my gut instinct says he is speaking the truth.

My heart, on the other hand, wants to curl up and die. To stop beating. Losing him was by far the most traumatizing experience of my life. I felt meaningless without him. I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on my worst enemy. To top it all off, my parents knew? They knew this entire time and never once told me?

“I’m not sure if I believe you or not,” I say slowly. “That’s the best I’ve got for you right now. My mind is trying to absorb a lot here.”

I really don’t know if I believe him or not. What I do know is that my words must mollify him until I figure it out. I indicate with my hand for him to continue with his story.

“My dad told me I had to do whatever it would take to get you to stay away from me. He was being threatened Calla, by dangerous men. A rival MC called the Savages. We’re not talking your everyday ‘I’m going to kick your ass’ threats. We’re talking blood and murder. He tried to keep it from me, but they started threatening to get me, too.”

Cain hangs his head for a moment before looking back up at me.

“I can’t take back what I did, but at the time, I believed my father and understood that as my wife, your life was in danger, too. By the time I walked out of his office, I had less than fifteen minutes before you were supposed to be here. That’s when I saw Emerald. I knew the only way I could get you to walk away from me was by letting you see me with her.”

Whatever pain I went through, he went through it, too. His language, his posture, and the way he won’t look at me when he’s telling me this shows me enough to believe him. Our pain was shared, yet he chose to distance himself from me instead of fighting for our love, our four-hour marriage. Words to honor and protect spoken right before he screwed another woman.

“I believe you,” I tell him softly, which gets his attention. He turns to me with a wary smile on his lips, which fades at my next words.

“But... I don’t think I will ever forgive you. I just can’t wrap my head around any of it. You didn’t love me enough to fight for me. To tell your father to go to hell. To jump on your motorcycle and come and get me. You threw me away like the two years we spent together meant nothing to you. There isn’t a person in this entire world who deserved to see what I saw, to have that kind of pain to deal with. I never saw it coming. I’m beyond all that pain now. I’m coping. I have a life of my own now.”