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Not yet, at least.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jace
HE’D THROWN the leaflet out. He wasn’t risking Ronin seeing it. If he caught him with it… he’d lose his mind. He’d lock him up again. It was one of Ronin’s favorite punishments because he knew it fucked Jace up more than any broken bones ever could.
Two months ago, he’d been stupid enough to say no to Ronin. It cost him two broken fingers and a light concussion and that wasn’t the worst part.
Ronin had become more and more obvious with the abuse now that he was in charge. Today, it happened at the clubhouse in front of the others. He got a split eyebrow, a black eye, and one hell of a headache out of it.
Ares hadn’t been there, which he was grateful for. He saw the look in Ares’ eyes whenever Ronin did or said something awful to him. He saw the same thing from quite a few of the other guys. They hated what Ronin did to him, just not enough to stop him. He got it, though. Someone like Ronin? You tried your best to stay on his good side because you had no idea what he might do to you if you got on his bad side.
Gears had been way too lenient on Ronin. He’d let him run his own show. He knew that was what had given Ronin the idea to take over. He’d already been in control of about half the guys, so why not all of them?
Meghan was his only friend at the club. The only real one, at least. He wasn’t quite sure he could call Ares a friend. Not with the way Ares sometimes looked at him. He didn’t want to be presumptuous or read into things, but there were only so many times you could catch a guy staring at your mouth or ass before you had to consider he might be interested. He wasn’t brave enough to ask because even if Ares just said no instead of beating the shit out of him, he had a sneaking suspicion that that no would hurt a whole lot more than any broken bones could.
Two months ago, when Ronin broke his fingers, Meghan had taken him to the ER. She’d fought to get Ronin to let him go. She was strong as hell. Much stronger than he’d ever be. As much as he loved having her in his corner, he feared for her safety too much to let her get involved. That time, the concussion had him way too out of it to stop her, though.
At the hospital, the doctor had looked at his history of injuries and had contacted the police. It was a few years too late. There was nothing they could do except maybe get him killed.
He hadn’t been surprised when Mia showed up. They’d had band together in high school and while she was three years older than him, they’d always gotten along well. She’d been a cop for almost two years now and since the first time she’d been called to the hospital for him, she’d made it her mission to try and convince him to press charges.
He never did.
He couldn’t. Ronin would kill both of them before they’d even get a court date.
It wasn’t worth it.
His life wasn’t worth others losing theirs for.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ares
HE KNEW something was wrong when he saw the look on Diesel’s face as he walked into the clubhouse. Diesel cut his gaze away from him which only made him that much more uneasy. He headed toward Diesel who was sitting at the bar with Skinner and Griff. They all had this weird look on their faces.
“What?”
Diesel cleared his throat, then said, “He did it in front of everyone.”
Cold slithered down his spine. The fuck had Ronin done now?
“He’s okay. I checked on him,” Skinner said, confusing Ares further.
“Who?” he asked with a deep frown.
The three of them seemed to be holding their breaths as Skinner glanced toward the stairs.
Jace.
He clenched his hands into tight fists and ground his teeth together to keep from storming upstairs. That wouldn’t do Jace any good. They were surrounded by Ronin’s guys. They’d tell on him and then Jace would only be in more trouble. He would, too, but fuck that.
He gave his brothers a sharp nod and turned on his heels, telling himself to slow the fuck down as he headed upstairs. Going at a snail’s pace was fucking torture when he wanted to sprint up the stairs.
When he reached the door to Jace’s room, he took a deep breath to steel himself, then he raised a fist and knocked.
The door opened a few seconds later and he felt like someone had landed a hard punch to his gut when he saw the state of Jace’s face. He was blue and purple around his left eye and his eyebrow had a cut through it. He wanted to wrap his hands around Ronin’s neck and strangle the bastard.
