The two outlaws collided together and ended up against a wall. I let out a scream and then watched as they started to hit each other! Trent punched Duke in the stomach and Duke punched Trent in the mouth. Trent grabbed Duke by his leather cut and swung, throwing him across the room.
“There’s nothing wrong!” I yelled. “We were talking!”
Trent ran at Duke and rammed his shoulder into Duke’s gut, lifting him and slamming him against another wall. Trent got a right punch to Duke’s jaw and then Duke backhanded Trent in the face. They were then separated by a few feet and then froze.
The only sound I heard was my heart pounding inside my chest.
Duke wiped the corner of his mouth. “You done, brother?”
“Stay away from her,” Trent warned. “It’s over, Duke. The entire situation. It was all bullshit and we’re fixing it.”
“I know that,” Duke said. “Doesn’t make it right, Trent. I came to hear it from her mouth. To hear the truth. She gave it. I’m done with this.”
“Good,” Trent said. “Now stay the fuck away from my woman and stay the fuck away from my room.”
Duke flexed his jaw. “I’m leaving then. And just for the record, Trent, she was asking about Allie. You might want to clear that up before you walk down the aisle.”
I gasped, realizing what Duke had just done. Allie must have been the woman in the picture. Duke collected up his gun off the bed and left the room without a care in the world and I was left with the angriest version of Trent I’d ever seen. This was the monster I had been hearing about. The way he stood, somehow looking two feet taller and twice as big with muscle.
“What did you do?” he asked me.
“Nothing,” I said. “He came and cornered me. I talked. That was it.”
“You were looking around my room while I was gone.”
“I’m curious, Trent. Okay? You gave me a diamond ring that you already had…”
Trent’s right hand grabbed my waist. He pulled me close. “We’re leaving.”
“What?”
“We’re going back to my apartment.”
“Why? Why can’t we stay here? I thought you said…”
“Harlee, I need you to do one thing for me.”
“What?”
“Trust me. When I say we need to leave, we leave. End of discussion. Understand?”
I nodded. “Trent, I didn’t mean to find anything.”
“Yes you did. That’s why you were looking.”
My face burned. “I do trust you. I want to know more about you. I know the engagement thing is fake but that doesn't mean everything has to be fake.”
Are you trying to romance an outlaw right now?
Trent leaned down and placed his lips to mine. An actual kiss. Lips to lips, lasting longer than a second. His lips parted and our tongues touched.
Then Trent pulled away. Both hands at my hips, keeping me away.
“You’re poison,” he said.
“So are you,” I said.
“I know, darling. And if you want to step into this world with me, I’m going to tear you apart… and you’ll never want anything or anyone else for the rest of your life.”
twenty-one.
(trent)
They want you to kill him… they want you to kill your own father.
I had to get out of the clubhouse again. I knew Trev and Jasper had more to say to me but I was done for the moment. The O’Nuall family were leaning on me because they found a weak link to exploit. That was my fault and my shame to carry. I was supposed to be the monster for the club, meaning nothing could break me down. But there I was, with an order to kill my own father and a woman I was engaged to.
Harlee was in the bedroom and I was in the living room.
In the back of my mind I thought about Allie. What the fuck was Harlee doing trying to dig around my past? And fuck Duke for spitting her name at me like that. It was way too much to carry, even for wide shoulders like mine. The past, the present, and the future all smashing together.
See, it wasn’t killing my father that was the problem, it was the notion of bending to the O’Nuall family’s orders. Because if I did that, then what? They’d put the MC in a corner and muscle us again and again and again. That was bullshit. We were supposed to be the muscle. We were supposed to be strong-arming people.
I walked to the kitchen and got two beers.
I found Harlee sitting on the edge of the bed, looking in a notebook.
“Have a drink,” I said.
She shut the notebook and took the beer. “Thanks.”
I backed up to the doorway, giving her space. “What’s in the notebook?”
“Just stuff,” Harlee said. “I don’t have any real friends and I don’t have any pictures, so I write stuff down. It’s nice to go back and read it. Or when I think of a memory, I write it down. Just so I don’t forget it again.”
“That’s smart,” I said.
“Yeah.” She looked at me. “You have pictures though.”
“Yeah I do. Lots of them. What the fuck were you doing digging through my drawers?”
“Trying to figure out who you are,” Harlee said. “I’m not ashamed to admit that. You saved me, Trent. You kept saving me. Then you offer me a diamond ring… to save me again. So what’s with this guy saving me over and over? Yet you won’t…” Her face turned red and she shrugged her shoulders.
“I won’t what?”
“You won’t fuck me.”