Page 29 of Stone
Is he here?
I can feel my breathing pick up as I pick at my fingers with worry. I’m not ready to see him, to hear his pathetic excuses that are all just lies.
“You can stop panicking, he isn’t here,” Dirty says as we walk across the parking lot, and I look at him and ask, “Am I that transparent?”
He snorts, “Very,” before he sighs, “He isn’t really talking to me at the moment.”
I frown as I take a seat, and I ask, “Why?”
Dirty sits beside me and confesses, “I’m not just the club's treasurer and mechanic, I’m really good with computers.” he looks at me, our eyes connecting and he shocks me, “I found you within two days of you leaving and him begging me to trace your whereabouts.”
I tilt my head and confirm, “But you haven’t told Cage?”
I’m mean it’s obvious he hasn’t because something deep down inside me is telling me he would have been here already.
Dirty shakes his head as he looks at the pond and admits, “I knew you needed to do this, so does Doc. And after your supervisor, Sally, cracked and explained how long she’s been trying to get you on this course he relented and decided not to speak up. Though Sally thought this was a yearlong course in New York.”
I hum and admit, “I know. She hadn’t read the contract fully. I do four months here, then eight months at Wincher Hospital.”
“Doc came to the conclusion this was the right path for you,” he admits, and I look at him with a raised brow, and he grins, “He also thought he owed you one.”
Ha, owed me one. He set me up with his married freaking brother, kept it from me, then encouraged me to stay, even knowing I was putting my life on hold for a taken man. A man who even lied about being in the club.
“Stone,” Dirty says, and I frown at him, and he reminds me, “The brother that Caleb wanted you so desperately to get with, to dump your boyfriend for, my vice president…”
“You mean the brother in a bad marriage that a six-year-old was very transparent over?” I ask.
He confirms, “That’s the one, it’s Cage, sweetheart.”
My mouth parts a little. I told Cage the story with Caleb and what he wanted, yet he never said anything, never spoke up, and told me the truth, just mentioned he needed to have words with the kid having big ears.
He had the chance then and there, and he said nothing.
I look at the pond, disappointment and heartbreak filling and Dirty admits, “I know he hurt you, I know he should have told you the truth but Rose, he didn’t know how. His marriage, it isn’t what you think, and it isn’t my place to say, it’s his. Which I know isn’t fair to you, and for that I am sorry, but he is in love with you, Rose, he misses you.”
I swallow hard, not knowing what to say in return.
I know he misses me, my sister tells me every two days when she speaks to me. Turns out, whatever he said to her the day he got my letter, she’s been meeting up with him at least three times a week. He’s been helping her with her homework, acting like a big brother, something I wished for, something I would have been jumping for joy for but now I hate it.
He’s married, he lied to me.
“We’re not bad men, Rose. We do bad things to bad people, but we’re not bad men. Surely, since you’ve been gone, you can see the love Stone holds for you. I mean, why else has he been there for Kimberly? Helping her whenever she needs it?” Dirty speak when I don’t, “He felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. Yes, he married Elsie, but he doesn’t love her, he loves you.”
I look at him and ask, “Do you know how bad that sounds? That he doesn’t love his own wife?”
Dirty sighs, “Rose, like I said, there are some things you don’t know that I can’t tell you. Fuck, he’s going to be pissed as it isthat I came to see you along with Caleb, who will most likely gloat seeing his favorite nurse.”
“Then why did you? Why come knowing it will upset him?” I ask.
Dirty raises a brow and says, “Mark,” and I physically feel like I’m about to pass out.
How on earth does he know about Mark?
Crap, is Cage going to…
“And by how pale you’ve gone, you’ve heard the rumors about the club and the lengths we go for the people we love. He would kill him, knowing you’ve been entertaining the man's flirtations,” Dirty comments and I scowl.
“He would have no right. I’m single, he’s the married one,” I snap, and he smirks and asks, “Do you want Mark?”
