As I started for the back door, Alexandra came to my side. “Would you like some help?” she asked softly.

“No. I can get it myself.” When I looked over at her, I saw tears in her eyes.

“I don’t mind.”

I shook my head and reached over and hugged her. “Take care of yourself and the little man.”

She sniffled. “I will.” She pulled back to stare intently at me. “I don’t care what Rev did or how you feel about him. You do not have to go back with them. You would always have a home here.”

Her words touched me deeply because I knew they were sincere. Regardless of what Deacon or Rev might say, she would insist on having me stay. It was the truest example of a female friendship I had ever experienced. “I wish I could. But I can’t.”

After gently placing a hand on her belly, I kissed Alexandra’s cheek and walked out the door. The tremors that ricocheted through my body made it difficult to walk. I stumbled several times. I hadn’t made it halfway down the street before Rev chased me down. “Would you just stop for one minute to let me explain?”

“There’s nothing to say. You went behind my back when you explicitly knew I didn’t want my parents to know my location. How the hell can that possibly have a reasonable explanation?” I didn’t wait for his reply. Instead, I stomped up the front stairs and then growled in frustration when I had to wait on Rev to bring the key.

“I didn’t call them to come and get you. I just thought they had a right to know where you were. I thought they might come down for a visit or something. I didn’t think it was good for you to be away from them. It never crossed my mind that they were going to come down here right after I talked to them last night.”

I froze. “What did you say?”

He jerked a hand through his hair. “I said I called them last night.”

I momentarily fought to breathe. I didn’t know how things could get worse, but I was learning otherwise. “Last night after we kissed?”

Rev stared down at the rug. “I guess.”

Streaks of red-hot anger blurred my vision. “You fucking coward! You got so freaked out by kissing me that instead of acknowledging your potential feelings for me, you decided to get rid of me.”

Gone was the hard-core biker and my tough-as-nails rescuer. In his place was a broken man. When he still didn’t look up, I placed my hands on his chest and shoved him with all my might. “Dammit, at least have the nerve to look me in the face!” I demanded.

When he finally looked up, his eyes were haunted. “I thought it was for the best.”

“No, you only thought of what was best for you. I mean, God forbid you actually admit that you have feelings for me.”

“That’s not true.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please, Rev, like you could actually acknowledge the crazy, broken sex slave as your old lady. What would your brothers say?”

His expression darkened. “I don’t give a damn what they might have to say. That’s not what this is about.”

“Then please enlighten me. Because I find it extremely ironic that after being with you for a month, you just happen to call my parents on the night we kissed.”

“What I did last night was not fair to you with all you’ve been through.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re still recovering. I should’ve never made a move on you.”

I snatched up a pair of my shoes from the floor and spat, “In case you missed it, I was the one who made a move on you.”

Rev exhaled an agonized sigh. “Because you’re confused and mixed up. For Christ’s sake, Annabel, a month ago you were imprisoned and enslaved by a fucking maniac. You don’t get over that shit so quickly. You’ve been through too much to know what you really want.”

Anger and hurt flickered and flashed through me like lightning slicing across a troubled sky. Although I’d been raised to always temper my emotions, I couldn’t hold myself back. With all the strength I had within me, I threw one of the shoes at him.

Rev ducked just in time, and it narrowly missed his head. Closing the gap between us, I demanded, “How dare you tell me what I feel? I’m not crazy when it comes to how I feel about you!”

“I never said you were crazy,” Rev argued softly.

“You’re implying it, which is just as bad.”

“I didn’t want to do anything to hurt you.”

“Too. Fucking. Late,” I spat before I rushed past him and slammed the bedroom door. Hot tears streaked down my cheeks as I went to the closet and grabbed the small suitcase Rev had bought me on the way home from Texas. As I threw my clothes and toiletries inside, I expected him to come into the room and continue our argument.

But he didn’t.

It was like he had raised the white flag of defeat when it came to us. He wasn’t going to fight. He was going to do what he thought was the honorable thing and just let me go.

Once I finished packing, I threw open the bedroom door to find Rev standing in front of me. His mouth opened, but then he quickly closed it. When he reached for my suitcase, I jerked it away from him. “Please, Annabel. You’re still recuperating from surgery. You shouldn’t be carrying that.”

Angrily, I slammed it down at his feet. “Fine, then. Since you seem to still have concern for my physical state, you take it. I want to say good-bye to Poe.”

Without another word to him, I turned and fled to the back porch. At the sound of the back door opening, Poe was already standing up and waiting for me in his pen. I stepped off the porch and walked around to him. It was amazing how much he had grown since he had moved from the crate to an old dog run that had belonged to one of Rev’s MC brothers.