The Biker's Fate Chapter 196

"What? I love you, you're my other sister, you know you are, but you've shut him out." She grabbed my arm when I tried to walk away. "Ever since that night you went to the club without me, you've gone out of your way to be cruel to him. Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you two?"

I blinked back tears as I pulled away from her and walked Fozzie into the stall. After removing his bridle, I faced Dani and took a deep breath. "He turned me down."

"What do you mean?" I gave her a pointed look and her eyes widened. "Oh. Really? When?"

"Dani, I don't want to tell you."

"Wow," she whispered. "There's something you won't tell me? It must be pretty bad."

It was the only thing I'd ever kept from her.

"It is," I admitted.

"Kimmie, I love you. I don't understand why you forget that sometimes."

With just those few important words, I spilled everything that happened with Knight the night I was attacked, particularly the sweetness he'd shown.

"Knight refused to leave, so I went to bed, but I had another nightmare and went to get some water." I busied myself with unwrapping Fozzie's legs and then began to brush him down. "Knight was asleep on my sofa and ohmigod, Dani, he was so beautiful. I couldn't help myself and I kind of went in, you know?"

Dani frowned. "Sure, I think."

"He woke up, told me I was beautiful, and shut me down."

"Kim," she whispered.

"Proof positive he wants nothing to do with me."

"But he kissed you at the club, honey. How is that wanting nothing to do with you?"

"That was him staking his claim. He doesn't want me... he just doesn't want anyone else to have me. But I took care of it."

Dani narrowed her eyes. "How exactly did you 'take care of it'?"

I shrugged. "I told him he made me feel unsafe."

She gasped. "You didn't."

"I did."

"Does he?"

"Yes."

Dani frowned, but then quickly pulled me in for a hug. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. I didn't know he was abusive."

"What? He's not!"

I tried to pull away, but she held me tighter. "But he makes you feel unsafe. I can understand that, considering everything you've been through. Those triggers are hard to ignore, and he apparently sets them off," she continued, patting my back.

"He doesn't do anything to trigger me," I rushed to defend. "Besides you, he's the only one I feel one-hundred percent safe with." Dani pulled back so I could see her face (which was totally smug and covered with a snarky smile) and I hissed out a quiet, "Damn it, Dani!" I shook my head. She'd been playing me the whole time with the sympathy. "I take it back. I no longer feel one-hundred percent safe with you," I lied.

Dani crossed her arms. "I can't believe you'd say something so reprehensible to him. You know he loves you, he'd cut off his arm rather than hurt you."

"I know. I just needed space."

"I get it, honey, but what you did was mean. And, Kimmie, you are a lot of things, but mean isn't one of them."

"I have never been turned down." I dropped the brush in the bucket. "Ever."

"Now you're justifying being mean because your pride was hurt? You've loved that man forever, Kim, I don't understand why you'd want to hurt him."

It was true. I was an awful human being.

"Because I'm a bitch," I whispered. "Obviously."

"No you're not," she said. "You weren't very nice, but you're not a bitch. You had a moment of insanity."

"You're being very kind, Dani," I pointed out. "You usually are, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's not interested in me in the very general sense of the word."

"Kim, stop it."

"What? It's fine. He's way too young for me anyway." I turned back to Fozzie and his care.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall when I'm talking to you," Dani complained.

"Well, feel free to stop anytime, I'd hate for you to get brain damage."

"I will say one thing and then I'll leave you to your delusions. I know Knight, probably better than most of the other guys, well, outside of Mack of course, because he's been working closely with Austin on this super secret whatever it is I'm not allowed to know about."

I raised an eyebrow... Dani tended to ramble when she was excited, agitated, bored, sad, lonely, tired, etcetera.

"All that to say," she continued, "regardless of the whopping five year age difference, he's exactly what you need and he knows it, I know it, we all know it... it's just taking you a little while to figure it out. But lucky for you, he's on top of it, so I'm going to just sit back and watch the show."

"Ohmigod, Dani, bite me."

"I'll let Knight do that."

"I just don't know if I can open up to him, you know? He scares the crap out of me."

"I know, Kimmie. I get it. But you've already opened yourself up to him! You haven't even looked at another man since you met him...not in any real sense of the word anyway. So you're just driving yourself crazy by pining for him without telling him how you feel."

I groaned. She was right, but I didn't really want to hash out the subject anymore. Luckily, Dani left it alone, mostly because Mack and Darien arrived to congratulate me and say goodbye. Once they left, Dani and I packed up, loaded Fozzie into his trailer, and followed Isaac (one of our barn's hands) who was on hauling duty, back to the barn.

By the time I arrived home, I took a long bath and fell into bed, managing a full night's sleep without dreaming. It was a nice reprieve for once.