GET ON THE BIKE
1230 Words
MIA
“What…why are you…?”
His fingers free Cobra’s shirt, and the man falls back, hitting his head on the ground.
Xander rises, face, hands and shirt stained with blood.
Cobra’s blood.
Cobra was like a second son to him.
To hit him like this must have hurt.
There’s nothing but anger in his green orbs, simmering underneath and rising to the surface.
He doesn’t unclench his bloodied fist.
Seeing him like this dulls my senses. I can smell the blood all over him.
My mouth and throat run dry, I lick my lips to wet them, stop them from cracking.
Xander’s anger vanishes, leaving room for a look I cannot bring myself to name.
His gaze drops, just for a second, to my lips.
Then lower, to the rapid rise and fall of my chest. When his eyes snap back to mine, there’s something burning behind them that has nothing to do with Cobra.
“How can you hit me because of her?! She’s the reason your son is dead! She’s bad…”
“One more word from your mouth and I won’t hesitate to take your tongue out.” Xander growls, his gaze fixed on me.
He can’t seem to look away.
Why?
Cobra crawls on his knees until he’s in front of Xander. He takes hold of his leg, tearing my father-in-law’s gaze away from me.
Xander looks down at him with disdain.
“She’s an outsider. You know it. You avoided West after he married her. Why then do you pretend now, Xander? I was like a brother to West, why hit me over her?”
My fingers gather the sides of my dress, and I press tight.
So this is it? This is why he never came home after West and I got married?
He saw me as a leech. West had to go against his own father to marry me. How could he ever have been truly happy?
Xander grabs a fistful of Cobra’s hair and yanks it upward.
The sound of Cobra’s shrieking fills the air.
“You call yourself my son’s friend, my son’s brother, yet you say such filthy words to his old lady! His wife.”
His eyes glisten with rage, but I dare not step in, not even when blood trickles down Cobra’s forehead.
“I ought to bury you where you kneel, but the Dark Lords already have my son to mourn,”
He sucks in a deep breath.
“You’re out of the club.” In one swift move, he sends Cobra back to the ground again.
I gasp.
“Surrender your patch and your motorcycle immediately. Do not make me ask you again.”
Cobra cries and begs, but Xander doesn’t listen.
He walks over Cobra’s writhing body and grabs me by my right wrist, leading me away from the scene.
His fingers close around my wrist in a gentle grip.
It’s almost possessive, in a way that makes my breath hitch.
He pulls me into his side as we walk, and for a fleeting moment, his thumb strokes the inside of my wrist.
Once. Just once.
So subtle I almost convince myself I imagined it.
The crowd divides itself into two, making a path for the both of us to walk through.
Cobra’s words echo in my head over and over again.
He stops in front of his bike and hands me a helmet.
“Get on it.”
I stand still.
Xander looks around with a sigh, no doubt fighting the urge to roll his eyes.
“Don’t make me carry you myself, Mia. You’ve been desecrated enough today. Get. On. The. f*****g. Bike.”
I don’t move.
Something shifts in his expression. The hardness cracks, just barely, and before I can react, he closes the distance between us.
His hand comes up to my face, not gentle, not careful, and his thumb drags across my cheekbone, wiping away the coffee and tear stains in one rough stroke.
His breathing changes. I can hear it. Feel it against the skin of my cheeks.
“f**k, Mia,” he groans.
“Why don’t you ever…” he looks down at my lips, and his jaw hardens.
“Why don’t you ever listen?”
He’s close enough to kiss me.
The thought alone sends electricity crackling down my spine, and I hate myself for it.
I hate that my body doesn’t care that this is my husband’s father. I hate that Lily stirs inside me, purring at his proximity.
His eyes darken. His thumb stills on my cheek. For one terrifying, breathless second, I think he’s going to lean in.
Then I shove him. Both hands flat against his chest, hard enough to make him take a step back.
“Don’t touch me.”
The softness in his eyes disappear, making me almost sigh in relief.
There it is, there is the Xander I know.
“Is it true?” The question forces its way out of my lips.
Xander’s eyes narrow, his brows furrow into a tight thin line.
“What the f**k are you asking about?”
“Do you think I’m a jinx?” I fire at him. “Do you think I married West to get over my ex? Do you…do you think… that I… that I… killed him? Is that why you stayed away all these years? Why you deprived your son of the presence of his father? Because you believed me to be bad luck?”
I don’t know why I ask that. It’s obvious what the answer is.
But for a moment, there’s a tiny bit of hope that he’ll debunk it all, say it isn’t true, tell me that his distance had nothing to do with me.
His jaw tightens, and I watch his throat bob as he swallows hard. His hand twitches at his side, like he’s stopping himself from reaching for me.
But Xander… stays silent.
A strained laugh breaks through my sobs.
“Mia,” he reaches for me, but I take a step backwards.
“Are you really going to make me force you?”
I reach for my hair and take out the shiny red pin holding my hair up in a half up, half down style.
I press the sharp end to my jugular and shoot him a glare.
“Take one step towards me, and I’ll take my own life here and now.”
Xander’s eyes widen.
“Mia,”
I don’t want to die.
But I’m so tired of being dragged, carried, pushed, and pulled by everyone around me.
Cobra decided I’m a curse, and used me to entertain the crowd.
Xander decided I need saving, but then can’t even tell me if I was worth saving.
If no one is going to let me choose how I live, then I’ll choose how I leave.
He needs to know that I am not his to control. Not today, certainly not after everything I’ve fought hard to survive.
“Get on your bike and drive away, Xander.”
“If you think I’m going to leave you out here, all by yourself, you’ve got another thing coming.”
I press the pin even closer, slightly bruising my skin.
“I mean it!”
Concern flashes in his eyes before he surrenders.
Without saying another word, he gets on his bike.
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