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“Daryn…” I mutter, my knees feeling weak. I wobble slightly, and Knuckles rushes me. Putting my instincts on high alert, I fight back without questioning. They know better than to rush someone on high alert as it is. Taking a single swing, he grabs both my wrists and clamps them together before shoving me into a chair. His eyes level me and tell me not to go anywhere. I challenge him silently, but quickly give in. It’s not a battle I would win, and I don’t feel like fighting it.
“Your brother, yeah,” Prez mumbles, sitting heavily on the edge of the bed. Knuckles stands behind me, his hands landing heavily on my shoulders. Reaching up, I grasp one of his wrists in my hand tightly. He squeezes my shoulder gently, letting me know that he’s not going anywhere.
“How did he…” I trail off, unsure what to even say to that.
“Daryn wasn’t kidnapped, Leather. He had a bad run in with the gang when you guys were kids. When he realized it was going to come back to you, he left under the guise of being kidnapped. When he explained it to me, it was that he knew you were safe if he wasn’t around,” Tornado explains softly, taking a few more solid steps toward me. I don’t move, I hardly even breathe.
My jaw is definitely on the floor at this moment. The fight that was just in me has suddenly vanished as everything I have known is a lie. The training I went through, the ranks I pulled just to find him…I was lied to. He didn’t keep me safe from anything. I thought he knew me. If he did, he would have known that I would search the ends of the earth for him.
“It made sense to me, but to be frank, I didn’t care at the time. I wanted to get out and if going on a mission for Heckles meant leaving, I was going to hit the road.”
“How do I play into that?” I ask, though after it comes out of my mouth, I realize it’s slightly conceited.
“Funnily enough, Daryn asked me to keep an eye out for a girl named Blaine. He didn’t know how far you’d come, not even realizing that you surrounded yourself around a club. He just knew that you were interested and that was it. Little did I know coming into this, I would be looking at the same girl for both guys. Of course, the reasoning isn’t the same, but that didn’t matter.”
“How did you know I was Blaine? They never call me by my name.” I hate when people say my name. That innocent girl died when her brother was kidnapped, or so she thought, and she had to reinvent herself.
“I overheard a conversation between you and Prez. It wasn’t hard to figure it out and put two and two together,” he explains with a shrug, finally reaching me and squatting at my knees. He cautiously places his hands on my knees, and I don’t remove them. The weight of his body is somehow grounding.
I don’t think I was quick to jump to conclusions. They took their sweet time explaining things to me, and I have the right to be angry. Fucking boys.
Though, this still doesn’t explain one thing.
“Why did it take you guys so long to find me? Why the letter?” I question, looking between the guys. Prez stands from the bed, making his way toward the chair also. They surround me, my own circle of protection. It’s refreshing.
“Your receiver isn’t working. We tried to troubleshoot it from here, but we think they had the towers jammed. I tried to recruit the gang in Vancouver, who is a giant fucking dumpster fire and we will never do business with. Then we reached out to Daryn,” Prez says, glancing between the guys. Looking around cautiously, I realize they are not fully giving me all of the information.
“Why didn’t you reach out to him first?”
“The night you were taken?” Tornado starts, guilt evident in his face. “It was technically planned.” Taking a few deep breaths, I keep myself grounded and stable. I need to hear them out. We’ve come this far, and I refuse to put any bullets into any more heads without a proper explanation.
“Talk,” I demand, tired of the long and dramatic pausing.
“Daryn was actually supposed to meet us there. Prez and I talked it over, thinking it would be good for you two to reunite. I didn’t anticipate Heckles to intervene. Yet, he did, and I wasn’t prepared. He somehow managed to convince Daryn that it was a different day further in the week. Daryn hadn’t been alerted that some of the others had gone rogue,” Tornado continues. He sniffles, and that’s the moment I realize this whole thing is eating him up inside. Despite my own anger and resentment toward the situation, I place my free hand over one of his.
“Rogue from what?” I question softly, urging him for more.
“Daryn cut off the supply for trafficking. He released the ones we already had, but Heckles didn’t like that. There was a heavy cash flow in the business, and he just wasn’t ready to give that up. He kept it from Daryn until the night of the drop. Once he found out they went rogue, his own club started executing left and right,” Knuckles explains from above me. “He didn’t realize that Heckles took off with a few of his own and a ton of the crew until we called.”
“So, he’s not…” I trail off, relief flooding my system. I’m absolutely pissed off that they kept that shit from me, but I’m more grateful that he’s not engaging in that bullshit.
“No, he’s not,” Prez reassures, his hand resting on top of mine that’s over Tornados. “Like the rest of us, we had to get up the food chain somehow. That’s Daryn’s story to tell, though.”
“How can we be sure that they won’t go for them in the future? Like you said, the money is great. How are they going to supplement their income?” Curiosity overwhelms me, and I can’t hold back from the ‘what-if’s’.
“We have them on a tight leash right now,” Prez answers simply.
“Can’t be that tight of a leash if they didn’t know I was missing for a whole week,” I retort, rolling my eyes.
“They are on the leash, not us,” Prez sasses back, smirking just enough for me to realize he’s joking.
“Maybe you should all be on a leash. It would keep you from making dumb decisions,” I snort. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I would be able to whip you all into shape pretty quickly.”
“That’s the Leather we know and love,” Prez smiles. It takes him a minute to realize what he said. Tornado’s face doesn’t necessarily fall, but it also seems shocked. I can’t see Knuckles, but the squeeze on my shoulder is reassuring, as if he reciprocates the feeling.
“You love me?” I ask softly, my heart stuttering in my chest as I stare right at Prez. A blush creeps over my face, and I honestly don’t know how to react. I don’t think anyone has ever told me they love me. Not even when I was a kid.
He doesn’t back down from my gaze, reinforcing it with a reassuring smile. “I do. You’re the biggest pain in my ass, but I fell in love with you a while ago. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head, and being able to say it…I feel pretty free, actually.”
