Page 5 of Redemption

“That’s not true,” Colt snaps and reaches for her, but she backs away from his touch.

Her hands wipe at her eyes as she turns and looks away from them. “It is. I’ve tried, Colt. I’ve done everything I can think of. I’ve been understanding and flexible. Up until the point I caught you in a lie. You’ve been choosing to spend so much time away from us, but even then, I still tried. And you… you didn’t.”

“What the fuck did you do?” TK asks, his eyes wide.

“I didn’t do anything,” he says and runs his hands through his hair. “Lex, please, you left your phone at the house. I need a way to get in touch with you. To know you have a way to reach me if something happens. With you or the kids.”

“I have a way to get in touch with you if I need to. Karmen is our mutual point of contact if something happens with the kids. You stopped worrying about me a long time ago, so don’t bother yourself by starting now.”

VP steps forward and takes her by the shoulders, stopping her from shoving out of his grasp. “Where are you staying?”

“I’m not telling you that. You may be my dad, but your loyalty has always been to the club. And my soon-to-be ex-husband is the club. I need time. And I need space.”

“Baby, I’m loyal to you-”

“Fuck you!” she cries, pulling herself from his grasp. “I called you. I tried to get your help when my family started falling apart. Do you remember what you told me? Because I do. You said, ‘Lex, you know how the club life is. They need him out there.’ You didn’t even want to know why I called you. And this is exactly why I don’t ask for help.”

TK’s eyes widen as VP drops his hands to his sides and steps back with his mouth open. Colt tries to find words, but nothing comes to him. She talked to Psycho. She talked to her dad. She tried talking to him.

“I’ve never once come before the club with any of you. I get it. I really do. But I swore I’d never end up with a man who treated me the way you did when I was growing up. And that’s exactly what happened. I won’t do it. And I refuse to give my daughter the same childhood I had.”

VP looks like she just slapped him. As much as they’ve moved forward in their relationship, the pain from the past always finds a way to rear its ugly head again. No matter how much Lex says she’s past the pain of the past, Colt knows it’s not that easy. The feelings from her childhood creep in and hurt her all over again.

“Lex, you realize you’re threatening to push the club away because you’re mad at me, right? Do you hear how ridiculous this is?”

TK gives him a look that tells him the words may not have been the wisest choice. “Colt…”

“You’re the club. They’re the club. I need space from you. Real, defined space. I have to deal with everything that’s happened and figure out how to move forward with my life with the best interest of my kids in mind. For once, the club isn’t coming first. Not for me. It’s the most important thing to you, so you do you. I’ll do me.”

“You need the club, babe. Don’t act like you don’t,” he says with a chuckle. She’s lost her fucking mind.

“I don’t need the club,” she says with a laugh. “I needed you. And you weren’t there. You’ve had me running through everything that’s happened the past year on a loop and questioning everything. The shit with Diane is just the icing on the cake.”

He growls and lets out a deep breath to calm himself. This is fucking stupid. “Okay, I didn’t tell the whole truth about why I was out in Black Valley so much because I didn’t think you’d understand. I wasn’t messing around with Diane, and I didn’t stop caring about you or our family. Don’t blow things out of proportion.”

VP cracks his knuckles. “Watch your tone, Colton.”

“I don’t believe you,” she says, her voice even yet still quiet.

Her eyes still refuse to meet his, and he feels an uneasy feeling settle in his gut. This isn’t good. “Lex-”

“You don’t see me when you look at me anymore. I’ve become invisible, and it’s not a place I want to be. That’s not fair to me, Colt. For the first time, I understand exactly how Lily felt all those years ago. Except instead of it being my father and my cousin, it’s my father, my brother, and my husband.”

“And having you gone with no way to reach you or my kids is fair to me?”

Her hands shake as she crosses her arms under her chest and hugs her waist. “You don’t get to play the victim when you created this. You haven’t cared about us enough to call in days. I still have access to the phone bill to see there wasn’t a single attempt for almost thirty-six hours. You didn’t answer my calls, and even when I texted you that night, you ignored me. I could have been bleeding, dying on the ground, and you wouldn’t have known for three whole days.”

“Stop being dramatic, Alexis. You think this means you have the right to take my kids away without a way to get in touch with them?”

“You have them all weekend. You don’t need to contact me because they’ll be with you. The only reason you want communication now is because it’s not on your terms. I’m done being a doormat.”

“You’re not a doormat. Jesus, just come home with me so we can talk without everyone around. Let Karmen keep the kids, and we can have a conversation. You can yell and scream and hit me if you want. We’ll figure this out.”

“I don’t want to scream and yell and fight. All I’ve done for months is fight, and I’m done. It’s so damn exhausting, and I’m so tired. I’m tired, Colt, and I can’t do this anymore.”

His eyes lock with his father’s. Lex not wanting to fight speaks volumes she’ll never say. His girl is nothing but fight. “Lex, come on. Stop being like this. We’ve hit a rough patch, but it’s nothing we can’t come back from.”

“Yes, it is.”

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