Page 8 of Eight Years Later

Bang!

My bedroom door swung open hard, hitting the wall behind it. I reached for the gun stashed between my bed and the nightstand, and my fingers wrapped around it as Kit’s voice broke through my sleepy haze. “Get up and get outside,” he ordered. “You’re gonna wanna see this.”

With the threat gone, I slumped back onto my pillow and took a breath, trying to slow my racing heart. “What the actual fuck, Kit?” I mumbled to myself a few seconds later, tossing back the blankets and getting to my feet. I pulled on my jeans, followed by my hoodie—and caught sight of the digital clock on my side table.

2:09 a.m.

What the hell was going on?

My cut was the last thing I shrugged on as I made my way down the hall to the main area, rubbing at my eyes when I spotted bright lights through the open door. Two silhouettes were outlined in the headlights of a car—one was Kit, but I didn’t recognize the other.

It was a woman.

I stepped outside, blinking a few times as I got closer to where they were speaking in hushed tones. “… doctor?”

The woman shook her head, holding her hands up. “It’s not mine, I’m fine.”

The voice.

I knew that fucking voice.

“Kat?”

“Hey Tally,” Sophie greeted, almost sadly, as I stood outside the apartment door. “She’s not here.”

I frowned, looking past her to the clock on the wall. “She usually finishes at eleven on a Thursday. She change shifts?” We rode into town later than expected and still had to get the goods unloaded and shit at the clubhouse. But it was almost twelve now and X-Rated was closed when I went by on my way here.

“She moved.”

I paused, shaking my head as though it was going to stop those two words going into my ears. “To another apartment?”

Soph swallowed hard. “To another state.”

I braced my hands against the door frame, leaning into it to keep myself steady while it felt like someone was pulling the floor out from under my feet. “What the fuc—”

“She was meant to tell you last time she saw you. She got accepted to college. She’s gonna start nursing, follow her dream.” The emotion in Sophie’s voice was thick, she was obviously missing her friend. “I told her to tell you.”

“But she fucking didn’t,” I snapped. The new information transformed my feeling of sadness into one of anger. “She knew she wasn’t going to be here next time I was in town and just decided the best option was to disappear without a trace.”

Why would she do that?

Sure, shit between us wasn’t perfect, the long-distance thing, the way she didn’t want me around Dylan. I figured we’d grow past that eventually as we took things further. As she got to trust me and see the effort I was making to be around.

I tried to get up here once a month, even if it was only for the night. I rode over three hours each way so I could bewith her for maybe a couple of hours, sometimes even less. I couldn’t be here all the time because I had commitments to the club and my brothers in Troy.

But I had been trying in the best way I knew how.

Obviously, she didn’t see it that way.

Or maybe she didn’t give a flying fuck about us at all.

Why the hell else would she just up and leave?

“You don’t get it. Her feelings—”

“Her feelings? What about mine!” I shoved away from the door and took a couple of steps back. “Fucking hell, I’m out of here.”

“Tally!” Sophie called after me. “Call her. Tell her how you feel.”

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