Page 44 of Ethan's Sky

“She may have just wanted a vehicle to get around town in, in case he was dealing with club shit.” He shrugs.

“She didn’t ask to be put in his room; in fact, she didn’t want to stay at the clubhouse at all.”

“Because they’re staying at the house. More privacy. Less drama. No club whores to deal with.” He smiles. He’s enjoying this. Enjoying my discomfort with this conversation.

“She’s not wearing his colors. No property patches.”

Hawk shrugs. “Colors are just a formality. Like I said, he could be waiting until after the funeral to make it official.”

“Would you wait?” I question. “If someone was after your woman, or you thought they were, would you be waiting to make your claim? Or would you put your patch on her back and make sure everyone knew damn well who she belonged too?”

Not taking the bait, Hawk pushes in another direction.

“All right. What if she’s not his? What if she belongs to more than one of them? It wouldn’t be the first time a couple of brothers shared a woman. The truck could be simply because you can’t ride two bikes with one ass.” He shrugs again, biting the corner of his lip as he continues to think this idiocy through. “We’ve all noticed how much she’s changed. Maybe she likes them two at a time.”

I’m around my desk, my hands grabbing the collar of his shirt putting me nose to nose with him.

“Ah, so you still have feelings for her. That’s what’s got you all fucked up. Needing answers to why she left isn’t the real issue. Therealissue is you still want her.”

I release his shirt, and move back to sit behind my desk, running my hand through my hair and down my face. I look to the computer screen, then back to Hawk.

“Admit it, Ethan. You still love her.”

“No. I don’t. I despise the woman. Having her here is bringing up old shit I don’t want to deal with.”

“Maybe now is the perfect time you should. Get it out in the open. Ask your questions. Get some peace and move on. Emily wouldn’t want you still tied up in knots over this shit. She’d want you out living and having adventures.”

I smile to myself at his last comment because it’s true. Emily was all about adventure and would kick my ass if she knew I was still hanging on to the past and not moving forward. But how do you move forward and leave the best parts of yourself behind. I don’t know.

“If the woman I loved ripped my heart out and left me without a clue, and then suddenly popped up out of nowhere, with trouble on her heels…you bet your ass I wouldn’t let her leave again until I had some answers.”

I know he’s right. I do need to talk to her to get some answers, but I don’t know if I would trust her to tell me the truth. Hell, I don’t know if I can trust my own brothers to tell me the truth after hearing how Ghost hid her. I can’t help but think there’s more secrets to uncover. If there are, and I uncover them, will I ever be able to trust my club again?

The Kings saved me. Became my family when my own fell apart.

Maybe she’s not the only one who betrayed me.It’s a realization that guts me. One I’m not sure I want to know the truth about.

I see movement on the monitor. The cameras in the gym are open on my screen. A couple of women sparring in the cage.

“What do you think happened to make her want to learn to fight?”

“Maybe she just likes it for the exercise. A lot of people use boxing as cardio.” He leans forward watching the women on the screen. “I haven’t seen her fight other than to strike you in the nose though, so I don’t know what level of skill she really has other than that.” He chuckles. “Nice shiner by the way.” I reach across to sock him in his chest. He moves and I miss.

It’s not arealshiner. The palm to the face she gave me left a small black mark under my right eye. She didn’t hit hard enough to break my nose, but she pulled her punch. I could tell. She wasn’t aiming to hurt. She was issuing a warning.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing what Skyler could do. Xander says she’s a hell of a striker. Walker says her ground game is pretty deadly too, but neither of them said what her specific training is or who trained her.”

That gives me an idea. One that might get me some answers to whether she’s really been in Mountain Heights this whole time and where else she might have been in between.

Hawk taps a few keys on my keyboard turning the monitor to face him. When he zooms in, I catch a glimpse of what’s caught his eye, or rather who. Sadie’s in the cage sparring with Ana, one of my female trainers.

“What’s Sadie doing in town? Shouldn’t she be in Baron’s Edge by now? Funeral’s a few days away.”

He shrugs playing off his interest, but he’s not fooling anyone. “She came up to grab some shit from Mack’s place for a thing at her school and get a tune up on Loretta. Gave some bullshit story about their being a downed transformer at the school so they shut down until the power company can figure their shit out.”

Loretta is her car’s name. She was given a Dodge Challenger for her sixteenth birthday and takes immaculate care of the thing. You’d think it was her child the way she obsesses over it.

“They shut down? Wouldn’t a rich kid school like that have generators or some shit as a back-up?”

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