The Switch, Debra Kayn [best books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

in front of him, hurrying to clean up her mess. "You lied to me."

"I fell in love with you."

"You don't even know what that means." Picking up the last bundle of cash, she shoved it in the bag and zipped the compartment closed. "I don't even know what anything means anymore. I have this money, and I don't even know if it's safe to take my boys home or if someone is going to kill me in my sleep."

"Nobody is going to hurt you."

"Do you know that for sure?"

"I wouldn't let anyone near you." He straightened, tossing the notebook on the couch. "I wanted you to live here with me. You and the boys, so I could keep you safe, but things have changed since we had that conversation."

"So, I am in danger."

"I was." He grimaced. "But, I'm not anymore. Do you think I'd let anyone hurt you or the boys?"

She shook her head. "It's not up to you to keep me safe because we shouldn't be in any kind of danger. I haven't done anything."

"Bonnie." He exhaled. "I'm out and no longer involved."

As if slapped, her head went back. "Isn't that convenient, considering I just found out what was going on?"

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Are you still a member of Avery Falls Motorcycle Club?"

His silence told her what he couldn't tell her. She stood, hefting the backpack. The hope that he would confess to everything and let her in his life, then promise to help her pack and run away with her and the boys wasn't going to happen, no matter how much she wished it.

"May I go and get my boys?" She shifted the pack and looped the strap over her shoulder. "It's time to go home."

His gaze intensified. "No."

Chapter Thirty Six

He couldn't let Bonnie leave.

The handlers had told him to make sure Bonnie never found out what happens in the cave, but they were unaware that Gene Durham knew more than they realized, and he'd passed that information on to his granddaughter.

As leery as he was that Alpha Bio Project released him, he was dedicated to never allowing them to find out Bonnie held enough information to bring down the mountain on all of them.

"Don't use my boys to get back at me." She raised her chin. "I'm leaving with them."

"Fuck it all, Bonnie. I'm not keeping you from Zach and Kenny. I want to talk to you, and I can't do it if you leave." He reached for her and put his hands up without touching her when she flinched. "Sit down. Please."

"Are you going to deny everything?"

"No."

She sidestepped him and sat in the chair, making it impossible for him to sit beside her and make her stay and listen.

He paced in front of her. "I don't know where to start."

"At the beginning."

He stopped. "I don't know the beginning, Bonnie. I don't know where I came from or where I belonged before finding myself in Avery Falls enrolled in the...program."

There were things she might not know, and he wouldn't hurt her more by giving her unnecessary information.

"What if you had a family?"

"It wouldn't matter because it's not a part of me."

"Do you feel like you're missing them?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. It's like asking if you remember the time before you were born, I imagine."

She pursed her lips. "Go on."

"What do you know?" He wanted to fill in the cracks, nothing more.

"I'm not going to do that with you." Her left foot nervously bounced against the floor, making her voice shake. "I want to hear what you have to say."

He could feel her slipping away from him. He didn't like the feeling.

She pushed him to the wall, demanded answers, and wouldn't let him get away with not telling her everything. But he couldn't.

His arms trembled. He was caught between reacting the way he'd been trained and wanting to be the man Bonnie needed. Confident in his ability to make her doubts about him disappear, he needed to work on making her put what she learned about the Alpha Bio Project behind her.

And he could do it if she let him.

What she was dealing with at the moment would become insignificant in the future. It wouldn't mean shit compared to what he could give her, and he wanted that time with her.

He wanted forever with her.

Forcing himself to sit down, he faced her. "They—I can't tell you who programmed me to be different. They changed my DNA and trained me under extreme pressure, eliminating the...human side of me until I was a killing machine. Their goal was to manipulate what I was born with to become stronger, faster, more skilled than humanly possible. And, they succeeded."

"You're not the only one." She swallowed. "Speeder?"

He nodded.

"The rest of the bikers?"

He inhaled. The more she knew, the more it would become normal. Maybe not normal but accepted. Then, he could work on making sure the information went away.

"Yes. We set up a community, built Avery Falls from the ground up, and fully support ourselves with the locals in the area."

Her eyes narrowed. "Have you killed anyone?"

"Yes."

She never flinched. "For the club or for the people who did this to you?"

"Both. We're one and the same."

Bonnie rocked in the solid chair. Though out of the program, he wasn't leaving the club. Avery Falls Motorcycle Club was the only thing he had. He wanted her to be a part of what he'd created here.

"We could have a good life, Bonnie. You, me, the boys. The community, they're like you. You've seen us all at the get-togethers and while working together. No one is in danger," he said quietly. "The club tried to keep you from living in Gene's house because of the location of the house, and you own the side of the mountain that is used for training. But, I...we worked around our schedules to only do training on Fridays."

"When I'm at the get-together," she mumbled.

"If you're with me, they won't bother you."

She rubbed her