Page 217
Chapter 217 of "Desert Wind" starts the action: Callum’s voice went low. “Please tell me you didn’t. Women and children are off limits,... Find out what happens!
Callum’s voice went low. “Please tell me you didn’t. Women and children are off limits, and that girl was under Santa Fe protection. I’m not starting a war with another chapter over Edge’s daughter because you couldn’t keep your head straight.”
The fact that he thought he even had to ask put acid in my mouth.
“No,” I said. “Nothing like that.”
The room went quiet.
I looked Callum dead in the eye.
“I kissed her. Once. At her mother’s grave. She kissed me back. I stopped it there. In Cabo, I gave her a birthday gift and walked away. That is all.”
Callum stared.
Nate went softer beside the wall.
“Yeah,” Nate said quietly. “She just ripped his heart out, that’s all.”
I shot him a look. “She didn’t rip out anything.”
“Oh, my mistake. You’ve just been haunting the clubhouse like a Victorian widow for fun.”
Callum dragged a hand over his face. “Hell.”
“We’re good,” I said.
Neither of them believed me.
That was fair.
I didn’t believe me either.
“She’s in nursing school,” Callum said.
“I know.”
“In Malibu.”
“I know.”
“Close enough to be a problem.”
“I know.”
My voice cracked on that last one.
Just barely.
But Callum heard it.
He always heard it.
I exhaled and looked away, hating every word before I said it. “Lend me out.”
Callum’s brow lifted.
“Vegas,” I said. “Texas. Hell, send me to freezing New England if they’ll take me. Maine. Boston. I don’t care. I’ll shovel snow for a charter I’ve never met if that’s what it takes.”
Nate whistled. “That is one way to help your dick.”