AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He owes me a favor,” she says vaguely, but I’m as sure as I can be that she’s lying. Or not telling me the whole truth.
“Last I saw him, he was down in LA, hanging out at the Rogue Angels MC clubhouse,” I say, thinking that sending her and her guesses as to what Edge and I are doing far away from here is the best course of action. I don’t owe Unholy anything and he’s the type of guy who can defend himself just fine.
Her whole face brightens and she’s very pretty when she smiles.
“Thanks for telling me that,” she says. “We’ve been looking for him for ages.”
She dumps the rest of her coffee in the sink. “Now for the tat… “
“I’m all ears.”
“Joker and his MC, the Lost Sons, are staying in a compound in the forest about five miles out of town,” she says. “I have no idea why he’s staying here and hiding his club color, but I know they’re out for Devil’s Nightmare MC blood. So, watch your back.”
She strides out before I even have time to process all that.
“Wait,” I call after her, but she doesn’t.
I catch up to her in the parking lot. “Tell me everything you know.”
She smiles again. “That is everything I know.”
I’m inclined to believe her, I just wish there was more. Because I doubt she’s told me anything that Cross doesn’t already know.
“I’ll see you around,” she says and heads for the building. “Try to stay alive.”
I’m still clutching my cup of coffee and I drink the rest of it. I must get this info to Rook and Hawk. But that’s not something I can do over the phone. And I don’t want to leave Joker and the other three unattended.
Karma’s tit for tat upended everything. As soon as Edge got here today, I was very much looking forward to taking Ariel for another meal, after which I planned on showing her some more hands-on methods of defending herself. I like having her in my arms even if she won’t let me kiss her.
But those were the plans I fell asleep to.
Now I gotta make some new ones.
Ones that will really paint me as a traitor to my club. At least long enough for Joker to reveal all his cards.
20
Ariel
I stayed up until dawn, leafing through the books Eden had given me and forcing myself to face the shadows that blackened the edges of my thoughts every time I tried to imagine myself as the heroine in the books in the spicy scenes. Nauseous anxiety gave way to curious elation only about one percent of the time. The rest of the time my mind was flooded with memories of all that had been done to me and how much I hated it.
I hated the principal of the thing. Of being captive, of being taken against my will, of having men touch me that had no business touching me. Men I didn’t want touching me.
Would it be different if I was touched by a man I wanted to touch me?
No other way to find out but to give it a try.
Maybe the blackness of my memories grew a couple of shades grayer when I came up with that idea. I certainly fell asleep to it easily—a fitful sleep full of the faces and touches of all those men that defiled me, but still. I brought up the nightmares by remembering it. But maybe it needs to be faced to be cleared up. Maybe the only way forward is through.
One of my psychiatrists suggested this way in the beginning, when I could hardly look at myself in the mirror, let alone leave the house. Just like that girl in one of Eden’s books. But that girl found love. Maybe I can too.
All that is still whirling in my head as I take a cold shower in an effort to rid myself of all thoughts and start the day clear. It doesn’t work.
But what works is seeing Ruin’s text when I finally check my phone.
Breakfast?
And some training?
