Free Pursuit: Blood Bandits MC by Cora Black Page B

happened. Beginning to end. She told me to go to hell, and I left, and there you were, and we came here. End of story.” I sat back in my chair, shrugging. “So, doctor. Tell me what my problem is.”
     
    He grinned, shaking his head, but the grin disappeared pretty fast. “Okay, here’s the thing. I didn’t think I was gonna be able to help you—not really. I mean, I could give you a little advice, tell you there were plenty of fish in the sea, yadda, yadda, whatever. That ain’t the case here, though. Not after what you just told me.”
     
    I leaned forward, arms crossed on the table. “Well?” I asked, waiting for him to go on.
     
    “You might not like what I’m gonna say. I don’t need you getting all pissed with me or anything.” His old, weathered fingers tapped on the table. He had the same callouses I did, except the hair on the backs of his fingers was white, while mine was still dark.
     
    “I think I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” I braced myself and reminded myself he was only trying to help.
     
    “Okay, here it is. It’s natural that you can’t stop thinking about her. There’s nothing weird about it. You wanna save her. Plain and simple.”
     
    “That’s it?” I asked once he had stopped talking. “That’s your big wisdom? I wanna save her? What, I have some hero complex?”
     
    “I don’t know nothin’ about hero complexes. You got further along in school than I did. All I know is she’s in trouble. You wanna help her. Any of us would wanna help her, I think, if we walked in on her shithead ex hurting her like that. Shit, I wasn’t even there and I wanna shove the bastard’s head through a wall.” Chase’s fists clenched.
     
    “I know. You have no idea how bad I wanted to do it, too. I kept thinking, if I could only tighten my arm around his throat…”
     
    Chase grinned. “Yeah, I can see how you’d wanna. A stronger man than me for not doing it. So you’re worried about her. Hell, I’m a little worried myself. How’s she gonna get out of it? How’s she gonna move on with her life with him threatening her? You said it sounded like he was serious.”
     
    “Oh yeah. Real serious.” I could hear his voice in my head like he was standing in front of me. Telling her she would be sorry. You’ll get what’s coming to you .
     
    “So, yeah, you’re worried. Okay. Even more reason for you to go back there, find out what’s up. Maybe even see if you can help somehow. I’m not sure how…though we have our ways…”
     
    “Don’t think I didn’t already think about that.” I had been thinking about ways to kill him all week. We knew people who specialized in things like that. Real professionals. In and out in no time, with no evidence left behind. “The only thing is the owner of the diner saw the whole thing between us in the kitchen. So there’s a witness who could testify that I once met him.”
     
    “Well, hell.”
     
    “I know.” We both sighed, thinking.
     
    “You should go,” Chase decided. “Even if you think she’s gonna spit in your face, you’ll know she’s safe and still able to spit in your face. Sometimes that’s all a man’s got in the world.”
     
    I had to laugh. “Spoken like a man who’s had a lot of women spit at him.”
     
    “And I deserved it every time.”
     
    I laughed again, standing. Then I stopped laughing when I remembered something she said to me. “Remember when I told you it was trouble that happened back in the kitchen that night? I never told you what I mean. She thinks he’ll make trouble for us. He’s super connected or something. Eric Cantrell.”
     
    “Oh shit.” Chase sat back down with a heavy thud. “Yeah, he could be a real pain in the ass. Oh shit. You had to go picking a fight with him.”
     
    “Me? I didn’t pick a fight. Besides, you just say here saying you wished you could put his head through a wall.”
     
    “I still do, only now I’d make sure there were no witnesses when I