Page 7 of Drifter
“You think I don’t know that?” I say with an exasperated sigh.
Hawk turns to face me. “I don’t know how to help you. I’m supposed to know what to do,” he says.
“Hawk, you’re doing it. You’re listening to my shit. Day in and day out, you deal with my moods. You’re the best prez there is. Never doubt that.” I can’t deal with more guilt piled on my shoulders. Hawk has been a true friend and brother. This isn’t about him; it’s my problem. “Maybe I should take a break from the club.”
“Not a fucking chance!” Hawk stands in front of me, his expression fierce. “Brothers stick together. That’s the vow we made to one another. You leave, and I’ll follow you wherever you go. We made a commitment, and I’ll be damned if I let you go at this alone.”
I crack a smile because that’s the answer I expected. “Okay, Prez, I won’t leave.”
“You need to tell Sasha everything. If she’s the kind of woman I think she is, she’ll be the one to help you finally get to the other side.”
“I don’t want her pity.”
“It’s not pity I see in her eyes when she looks at you, man. As hard as it is to do, relationships mean trusting the person you’re with. Explaining the club, and what we do, to Etain was hard. I kept wondering why the hell a woman like Etain would want to be involved with the president of a club that has enemies circling, and knowing she could be in danger just by being my woman. But she had the right to make that decision,” Hawk says.
“Why do I have a feeling that if Etain had told you to get lost, you wouldn’t have given in so easily?” I respond with a grin.
“Etain is worth fighting for. Is Sasha?” he counters. “Let her know who Axel ‘Drifter’ Denville really is.”
Hawk is the one man I trust more than anyone. His advice is solid, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I have to lay my cards on the table. I also know that it will kill me if Sasha sends me away.
Chapter 4
Who Is Sasha?
Sasha
“Spill! What happened to finally get Drifter to pull his finger out of his ass and make his move?” Etain asks, tapping her foot, with her arms crossed over her chest as she gives me a curious look.
I shrug. I look back at her blankly, still reeling from this morning’s experience with Drifter. He literally knocked on my door, walked in, and became a bigger part of my life. In one sense, it’s absurd. We come from two different worlds, and I’m nothing like the girls I’ve seen him with. I don’t have big hair, big boobs, or a big personality.
I’ve heard about the club parties, and although I’ve not directly met the women who attend, they have no problem talking about their wild nights in the diner the next morning. These women go for a good time, and they seem to be more than satisfied the morning after.
Unfortunately, there’s always a lot of talk about Drifter. He seems to be the prize that the women go after, and the one who lands him for the night lives her fifteen minutes of fame. For the longest time, Hawk was the man the women were after, but since Hawk has made it clear that Etain is his old lady, Drifter has moved up in the ranks, and now the VP is the main prize.
“I have no idea,” I tell Etain. “He knocked on my door and told me he was tired of fighting what we were both feeling.”
“Oh my God!” She slaps her hands to her cheeks. “Just like that,” she says and snaps her fingers.
“Well, yeah. He said he wanted to bake cookies with me, and then rolled out dough and actually helped.” I quiet my voice. “It felt nice. Safe. Then he kissed me.” I touch my lips with my fingertips, remembering his warm, soft lips on mine.
“You like him,” Etain says with a Cheshire cat grin.
“Yeah,” I admit with a soft breath. “But every time Drifter was anywhere near me, he would take off. He always looked so angry. I thought for sure he hated me.”
“Not today, though,” she teases, and I blush.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, Etain. My family is a mess. You’ve seen firsthand that head case who is my father. The only one that matters to me is my brother, Simon. How long do you think Drifter will want to put up with that?”
“Drifter may not put up with it, but he may take matters into his own hands to resolve it,” Etain responds.
My stomach tightens at the prospect of Drifter trying to take on my father. Dad has many influential friends and a whole lot of money. “Drifter has no idea what he’s up against,” I murmur, then continue, “I can’t let him do that.”
Etain sees my panic-stricken expression. “Sasha, what is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
“He can’t go up against my dad. My father’s not a nice person. He has powerful friends, and they’d make Drifter’s life miserable. My father didn’t care that his best friend almost raped me. He took his side because his buddy is high society stock and opened doors to make my father richer than he already was,” I blurt out. I’m hyperventilating because this is the first time I’ve told anyone about the assault besides my family.
Etain’s eyes are wide, her jaw dropping open. “Sasha,” she says quietly, taking my hand and sitting me down on my sofa. She wraps her arms around me. “What kind of man does something so ugly?”
