Chapter Six

“No,” she said, trying to fight down her panic. “No, you haven’t because if you had, you’d have heard the part about how they told me to never make contact with you again. Donovan specifically told me to never tell you any of what I just told you.”

“So?”

“So?” Mirrie raised her voice. “So if they are still watching me, then they’ll notice that you’re hanging around, right? And they’re going to figure that I’ve told you everything.”

“Again, I say ‘so’?”

“So?” Mirrie repeated. “So… they’ll kill you. Both of us.”

“Maybe not,” Mac said. “Maybe this time we can stop that from happening.”

“How?”

Mac fell silent, his mind racing. He was thinking about his friend Aidan Carter, Gabriela Torres’ boyfriend and the bartender at Curves. Like Spider, Aidan had something on The Fallen Angels – or at least on one of them. Mac had no earthly clue what the hell it was, but it had been good enough to get the MC Vice-President to tell Aidan and Matt Kingston where Gabi had been buried alive. Maybe Mac could use it too, to get a second chance with Mirrie? To keep them both safe? But if Mac was going to go for the fucking jugular, and take on a bunch of MC dickheads, he had to make sure of one thing.

“Do you still love me?” he asked her abruptly.

“What?” she stammered. “Do I – Shane…”

“No.” He ground out the word, his voice low and almost angry again. “Just answer the fucking question. Do you still love me?”

“I – I –”

Her breath was coming too fast now, and worry flared in his chest as he reached for her hand once more.

“Breathe, babe,” he murmured. “Just breathe and answer my question. Do you? After all this time? Do you still?”

She pulled her hand away, stood up quickly. “I have to go.”

“No.” He stood too. “No, you stay here until you tell me the truth.”

“I told you the truth,” she said, her voice shaking. “I told you what happened to me. I told you my real name. I told you why I just disappeared from your life without a word. That was the deal, and I’ve honored it. We’re done now.”

“No, we’re not.” He grabbed her wrist maybe too roughly, pulled her closer. “Not until you tell me that you don’t love me anymore.”

“Is that what you need to hear? To make you leave me alone?”

“Yeah.” His blue eyes were hard again as he stared down at her. “Tell me.”

“Fine.” Mirrie gathered up her courage. “I don’t love you anymore.”

Mac studied her closely, really took in those eyes and lips. They weren’t anywhere close to steady: her eyes were darting away, her lips were trembling.

“You’re lying to me, Mirrie.”

“I am not.”

“You are. I know you.”

She drew herself up to her full height. “I think, Shane, we just spent the past hour determining that, in fact, you don’t fucking know me at all. You never did.”

And with that, she turned and walked out, leaving Mac staring after her. Completely lost about just what the hell to do now.

Fuck. I need to get some help with this one.