The Biker's Fate Chapter 623

Teagan

I HID IN the bathroom for as long as I could, washing my face and doing my best to clean up my running mascara. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and slid it out to see a text from Cash. I rolled my eyes as I read it.

Cash: Come to my Dad's office. I promise it'll be quick.

Me: Suck my dick.

Cash: After.

Me: No.

Cash: Five minutes.

I scowled at my phone as I thought about all the ways I might murder him. But then he texted again, and I let out a quiet groan of frustration.

Cash: Please.

I took a deep breath and debated blowing him off, but the fact I was the nosiest bitch on the planet won out, so I squared my shoulders and headed that way. Pushing open the door, Cash went from head in his hands to standing in seconds, his expression guarded.

"Five minutes," I said.

"Take a seat," he said.

I sat in the seat across from the one he'd just left. "Four minutes."

He rolled his eyes and sat down again. "First, I want to apologize."

"For what?"

"For being shitty about you becoming a mechanic. If you want to be a mechanic, I know you'd be an amazing one."

"I'm highly aware of that, Cash. That's not what you should be apologizing for, and I'm pretty sure you know that." I crossed my arms. "What I don't know is why you felt the need to go low. And go low to me. The person you claim to love."

He sighed. "Yeah."

"Three minutes."

"I'm scared I'm gonna lose you."

"Yeah, well, you keep going the way you've been going, and you will."

He shook his head. "Not like that."

"Two minutes, forty seconds."

"Has Daisy ever told you about Chelsea?"

"Who's Chelsea?"

"She was my high school girlfriend."

I bristled, jealously rearing its ugly head. "I don't really want to know about any of your exes, Cash."

"Baby, this is important."

"No, Daisy has never mentioned any of your exes." I narrowed my eyes. "Two minutes."

"Well, she wasn't an ex," he said. "She was a class ahead of me in high school, way the fuck out of my league, and she went off to North Carolina on a full ride for volleyball. I was going to meet her there the following year."

"You went to college?"

"No."

I frowned. "Wait, I'm confused."

"Chelsea had gotten a partial scholarship to Harvard for volleyball but took the full ride to North Carolina because it was one that we both knew I could get into. My grades weren't nearly as good as hers, but math and science have always been my thing and my parents could afford pretty much anywhere, so we landed on North Carolina."

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. I did not want to hear about Cash and the love of his life.

"One minute, Cash."

He met my eyes. "I didn't end up going to North Carolina, Teagan, because while Chelsea was there during her freshman year, she went out with a few girls, and was raped."

I gasped. "What?"

Cash nodded. "It was off-campus, the guy was from a different university. He drugged her, and took video of the whole thing."

"Oh my god." I burst into tears. "When did this all happen?"

"A little over ten years ago. I had just turned eighteen, graduated high school two months before. She was nineteen and about to start her sophomore year at university. It was a mess. But she was strong. Jesus, she was so strong. She decided it wasn't going to break her, and she decided to come home. OHSU took her on, it was her second choice school, after Harvard, after all, and it meant I could be there to protect her. We had it planned. What we didn't realize, was the obsession this asshole had for her. He followed her. Stalked her for weeks. Waited until she was alone. Then he killed her." He shook his head. "Her dad was late picking her up by ten minutes. Ten fucking minutes. He died of a heart attack two months later."

I burst into tears. "Oh my god, Cash. I'm so sorry."

"One moment in time. One night when I had to work. Her parents and I had a tag team deal." He dragged his hands down his face. "But I have always felt like I should have been there. I couldn't protect her. Couldn't stop it from happening. I should have. I should have taken the night off. Should have known."

"How?" I asked. "How could you have known? You were practically a kid."

"Yeah, that's what everyone says." He ran his hands over his thighs. "I just feel like I could have done more."

"You can't do that, Cash. You can't do the coulda, shoulda, woulda. It'll drive you crazy."

"It did drive me crazy, Teagan. I attacked a kid—"

"You're not talking about Eric, are you?"

"You know about that?" he hissed.

"Of course I know about that," I said. "Daisy and I talk about everything. Well, except you and me. And believe me, it has killed me to keep that from her. Yes, I know about the dickhead who fucked her for cred, and no I have never told anyone about what you and Archer did, nor will I. As far as I'm concerned, you should have castrated him as well."

"I should have controlled my rage," he said.

"Or you stopped him from turning into another guy who raped another Chelsea." I shrugged. "Just a thought."

"Fuck. I have never looked at it that way."

"Maybe you should. Daisy and I have always seen you as no less than a hero. But just forget I said that. You don't need a bigger head." He gave me a sideways smile and I bit my lip. "What happened to the guy who killed Chelsea?"

"Life in prison, until he was shanked a year in by another inmate. No video, no one saw anything, so there was no one to pin it on." He shrugged. "Fine by me, and fine by Chelsea's mom. He can burn in hell."

"Definitely," I agreed. "Why didn't you go to college? Later, maybe?"

"I just couldn't function. I felt guilty, I was pissed, sad, all the colors of the fuckin' emotional rainbow. Focusing on medicine was not going to happen."

I gasped. "You were going to be a doctor?"

"That was the plan." He closed his eyes for a second. "Chelsea was slumming it for me, but we were in love, so we figured we owned the world. We'd finish out our prerequisites and then I'd sort out medical school after that. OHSU was a great compromise because Mom wanted me close."

"No wonder you had a visceral reaction to me giving up law school."

He cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"Let me ask you a question and you can correct me if I'm wrong, okay?"

He nodded.