Page 87 of Deception
“Wait,” he says with a chuckle. “You think Autumn’s the rat? Seriously?” He looks at his girlfriend and expects her to laugh in their face. Instead, she’s as pale as Lex as she stares at the blonde. “No, tell them it’s not true. You’d never do that to me.”
Autumn swallows. “So, what? You’re here to beat me up? Put me in the hospital? It’s not going to stop Julian.”
It’s not the answer Rocco wanted, and he steps backwards. “It’s true? You’re talking to the cops?”
“I told you I wanted out,” she says, finally looking at him. Her eyes plead with him, and he feels like she just punched him in the nuts. “You couldn’t marry me, and I understood. But the club makes you the worst version of yourself. The cheating and the strippers… If we got away from the club, I could finally be happy.”
“That’s not getting out. That’s locking my ass up behind bars.”
Her red hair hits her face as she shakes her head furiously. “No, Julian promised he’d spare you. Leave you out of it if I gave him the information he needed to lock everyone else up. Wecould be free,” she says. “I just wanted us to be free. All of our issues always tie back to this damn club.”
“Our issues?” He feels stupid asking, but he never once believed the club was the root cause of anything between them. Except when it comes to club bunnies, it seems.
“You won’t be as tempted to stray when you’re working a real job and making honest money. You’d come home to me every night, and you’d learn how it feels to be proud of what you’re doing. Not running guns for this fucking club. The bad influence of everyone around you would be gone.”
Rocco just stares at her. “He’d never leave me out of it—”
“He promised me!”
How can you be so fucking stupid, baby?
“Then you’d have put a target on Rocco’s back because he’d look like a rat,” Colt says. “And we’d have to kill him.”
“You may have been free from the club, but you’d have freed me from life,” Rocco says.
“No… I would have gotten us away before anything could come back to you,” Autumn cries.
Closing his eyes, he tries to remember to breathe.This can’t be happening. How could I miss this?“Who’s doing it?”
“Me,” Lex says. “It’s my job now.”
“Can I talk to you for a second?”
He opens his eyes, and she nods. The tears in her eyes makes him feel a little better because it means she doesn’t want to do this. Just like he doesn’t want her to.
They walk into the office, and he pauses, his back to Lex. How did they get there? To the point where his girl has to die because he’s selfish?
Bending down, he punches the code into the safe under the desk. “This is my fault,” he says, pulling out his untraceable gun and twisting on the silencer. “I did this.”
“She made the decision.”
“He knew she was weak. Of course she’d—”
“She approached him with the offer, Rocco. She’s the one who put all of this into motion.”
Staring at the gun in his hand, he shakes his head. “You were right. I allowed her to settle instead of setting her free, and this is what happened. I just loved her too damn much to let her go, but I didn’t love her enough to give her what she needed.”
“I’m not sure she was ever really made for the club. She loved you, so she learned to deal with it, but I don’t think she ever understood what it meant to be truly in it.”
“I’m sorry, Lex.”
Her hand reaches for her gun in the back of her waistband, and he holds his free hand up. It never occurred to him that this would look like he planned to harm her. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted. I’ve made so many mistakes.”
“What are you doing, Rocco? You’re making me nervous.”
He looks up into her blue eyes. “You don’t trust me.”
“No, I don’t.”
