Page 79 of Wild Ride

Her eyes widen before they shift to the side, and then she slowly brings them back to meet mine. She nods once, clearing her throat. “And you’re engaged now?” she asks in a whisper.

“I was,” I state.

I hate that I can’t answer that question without feeling like an idiot. Because I do. I feel stupid. Also, I’m going to have to admit to Briana that she was right in her hesitations, and just hours after I told her that I wasn’t making a mistake. That is such a big and embarrassing pill to swallow and the main reason why I didn’t just go back to her room but instead left the whole property.

Lainey looks at me with what I can only describe as pity, and again, I hate that and feel like a complete idiot at the same time. “You know, my brother is one of them,” she says in a whisper.

“What?” I practically screech.

That’s when she lets out the cutest freaking giggle on earth. She shakes her head a couple of times, then lets out a sigh. “Hegave me the startup capital for my bakery, but otherwise, we don’t really see one another too much.

“They call him Piggy,” she continues. “He’s a policeman in town, but he’s also one of the Vicious Reapers. I stay away from all of that. He’s older than me and never let me go around there. All my friends would try and go to parties there in high school, but I don’t know…” She shrugs her shoulders as her voice trails off. I don’t know what she’s thinking about, but it’s definitely got her mind shifting to a different place. Maybe even a different world.

“I’ve met him. He seems really nice,” I say.

It’s the truth, but also, I’m not sure what to say to her to bring her back. Thankfully, it works, and she shifts her attention to me. She gives me a small smile, still very much filled with pity, but I try to shake it off.

“Their world is different,” she says.

I nod because, boy is it different, but at the same time, it’s not so different from how I grew up, also something that I omit telling her.

“But just because it’s different doesn’t mean that he gets to cheat on you. He doesn’t.”

I chew on the corner of my bottom lip for a moment before I release it to speak. “No, he doesn’t get to,” I whisper.

“But you love him.”

Her words are definite. And they are true, too. I don’t verbalize them, though. Instead, I just dip my chin in a single nod. I don’t know what to say, how to say it, or how to feel.

“I think you should talk to him,” she whispers. “You don’t have to. But I think you should. Those guys are dumb as hell down there.”

They are. But then again, I’m not that smart myself, so I’m not sure if I should even judge them. Any of them.

“But for the day, you can hide out at the bakery while you think about it all.”

I thank her for that, and twenty minutes later, we’re headed downstairs to her bakery. Because, like any really cool young chick, Lainey lives in an apartment above her shop. I didn’t know these kinds of places existed, but I love it so much.

I’m glad I came to her.

She didn’t offer me advice other than to talk to Bishop. She didn’t make me feel bad for loving him. She just listened, and if she judged, I couldn’t tell. She is someone who I would love to call a friend, and hopefully, I will one day.

BULLET

The phone buzzes in my hand as I stand in the middle of the empty motel parking lot. I don’t want to fucking talk to anyone right now who isn’t Dakota. Pressing my lips together, I glance down, noticing that it’s Piggy.

I really don’t want to talk to him right now, but I don’t think I have much of a choice, either. If he’s calling me when he knows that I’m occupied with tracking Dakota down, then it must be important.

Sliding my thumb across the screen, I hold my phone to my ear before I greet him. “Piggy.”

“I know where Dakota is. She’s safe,” he murmurs.

Closing my eyes, I let out a heavy exhale. I want to freak the fuck out right now. I don’t, but I want to. However, I also know that it is not Piggy’s fault she bounced in the middle of the night after whatever the fuck happenedhappened.

I am not taking the full blame for this situation until I know what the fuck actually went on between me and Exorcist. Andeven then. I never said I was some saint, so shit fucking happens sometimes. This isn’t one of those cases, though, because I don’t remember a fucking thing, and I was not drunk enough to black out.

“Where is she?” I’m trying my hardest not to sound like a demanding asshole.

Iama demanding asshole, so I come off sounding exactly like that even if I don’t mean to. It is what it fucking is at this point. I need to know where the fuck Dakota is, and I need to get to the bottom of all this shit. Exorcist is locked in a room at the clubhouse, and I want to deal with her before we leave for Oregon, so I’m on a goddamn time crunch.

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