Her dad would go ape if he knew she was mixing with another club in any form of business. Even knowing she’d walked away with Renegade Souls money.
It was one of those stupiddon’t play in my sandboxkind of rules all MC’s held up to.
Roux found it absurd and pointless.
It was like saying all doctors avoided being civil to each other because they were in the same career. That would be some massacre in an operating room.
MC’s ran on their own laws and for the most part, Roux stood by them. She didn’t know any other life. She hadn’t grown up playing with Barbie’s dream house. She had her own mini trike she’d follow her dad and uncles around the courtyard on. she didn’t go to school dances alone; she had a convoy of watchmen parked outside on their hogs ready to break a boy’s legs.
Life for Roux had never been normal.
And falling for a man out of her reach, forbidden by MC law was not normal either.
She felt the pulse of his aura from feet away and resisted moving closer.
He wasn’t looking at her like he was pleased to see her. Those green eyes narrowed accusatory slits made sure she was put on the back foot right away. She lifted her chin, challenging him to antagonize her.
She didn’t quite hear what Reaper whispered to Tad, but it sounded something like “You got this handled here, brother?”
Like she neededhandling…
Fucking men.
She’d lived almost twenty-two years with outdated misogyny and overprotective gorillas who loved her a whole lot. It didn’t mean she’d stand for it. She rarely let her family get away with bossing her around, let alone gettinghandledby a man she once thought the world of.
Still did.
Whatever.
She’d let him handle her in only one aspect of her life and he wasn’t falling over himself to do that.
Reaper took off and that left her on the sidewalk with Tad. Butcher to everyone else, but she’d only ever called him by his given name. His full name when they were in bed.
Eight months was a long time to wait for a man to show he gave a fuck.
Four years was even longer and stupidly she kept on hoping things would change.
She didn’t want him killed, far from it, and she knew it would bring trouble if they announced they were together.
For Roux it was worth it. If anyone asked her a while back … eight months to be exact when he followed her to that motel room and spent hours stamping his claim on her, she would have said she’d give up anything for him.
Her family included.
Even her club, and she bled Diablo Disciples down to her soul.
For Tad she would have walked away.
But now?
He’d shown her he didn’t give a fuck, so she did what she did best by pasting on her fake face and didn’t give a bigger fuck.
Her motto was fuck the world first before it can fuck you up.
Her closest girlfriend, Poppy, was married to Texas, Tad’s friend, and even she didn’t know how messed up Roux was over him.
She kept that stupid secret to herself.
It was only as Tad opened his mouth and gave her that whiskey-soaked drowsy slow and sexy voice of his that she knew she hadn’t mentally prepared herself for this meeting.