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“Hard to when you have to live with seeing it every day,” I scoff, smacking his hand away when he moves my hair to look at my scar.
“I was an asshole back then, but I’m different now. And this doesn’t make you ugly—quite the opposite.”
“I don’t have time for scar bonding, Kai. You going to turn me over to Prez or let me go?”
Holding his hands up in surrender, he backs away.
“Would be a waste to let him have you. He wouldn’t let me watch.”
Swallowing my disgust, I turn slowly and open the door, peering out. “You were wrong too,” I tell him over my shoulder.
“How so?”
“You haven’t changed, you’re still an asshole.” When I see the coast is clear, I count to three in my head and chance a run for the back exit not risking returning to Alec’s room in case his dad comes back. Bursting through the doors, I get two feet and smack into the meaty wall of Viking and fall back onto my ass with a grunt of pain.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” he drawls as I get to my feet. “I see everything in my club.” He reaches out, snatching me up by the throat, making me gasp and choke for breath. I hit my fists down on his arms, struggling and failing. I know now where Jackie’s bruises came from.
“Sins of the father,” he growls in my face, and darkness creeps in from the corners of my eyes, my lungs ablaze desperate for air, then Viking jolts sideways, and suddenly I’m released and falling to the ground in a heap. My lungs gobble down much needed air as Alec rams his dad, wrapping his arms around his waist and taking him to the asphalt. They grapple and shout, and I scramble to my feet and dart off running. Tears bleeding from my eyes, blurring everything around me. I push my legs forward, heaving from exhaustion, my feet burning and sore, my boots still in Alec’s room. Alec…
Nothing feels real. Thoughts plague me, splintering into shards of pain. I should be floating on a cloud of bliss right now. Instead, my kingdom is falling to ash around me, suffocating me in the dust.
The club house gets farther from view, but in the back of my mind, I know Viking could easily be on his bike looking for me by now. Sorrow soaks my heart. I’ve known this man almost my entire life. Felt like we were a family, and so quickly, he attacks me…for what?
Hiccups jolt my body as sobs consume me. Every molecule inside me wants to turn around and run back to Alec, to the safety of his embrace. Instead, terror has me sticking out a thumb until someone eventually pulls over. It’s a truck with a young guy inside. Nerves eat away at me. “Hey. You okay?” he asks, rolling down his window, giving me a once over. “You need a ride?”
This is dangerous, and I don’t have my knife on me. Shit. “If you try anything, I’ll gouge your eyeballs out with my thumbs,” I warn. His eyes widen. Taking off his cap, he uses his forearm to wipe the sweat there. “Sounds fair.” He bows his head, slipping it back on.
How did everything turn so bad so fast?
Nine
Alec
Twenty years old
A few minutes later…
Animalistic growls rumble from my chest as I rain down blows on my old man. The cold barrel of a gun pinned against my temple brings my movements to a halt. I’m shoved from straddling my old man’s waist, Jimmy’s weapon still pointed at me.
My old man gets to his feet and taps Jimmy’s hand, making him lower his weapon. “Damn, kid, you have bigger balls than most.” He swipes, smearing off the blood from his nose, grinning like a crazy fucker. “You’ve grown strong, tough. I’m proud of you.” He offers his hand out to me and pulls me to my feet.
Pulling me in close, he spins me until I’m in a chokehold. His laughter and praise was only meant to knock me off-kilter. I batter his arm, trying to get him to let me go. “If you attack another brother, you get to wear his scar,” he growls in my ear. Un-sheaving his blade, he slices through my eyebrow. It stings like a bitch, but I endure it. I know the rules: son or not, brotherhood comes first.
I’m released from his hold, gagging, trying to pull air into my lungs.
“We need to talk.”
Every instinct tells me to go after Drew, to check she’s okay. When I saw the way he treated her, I saw red. I heard a bedroom door slam closed and her mass of curls flying behind her like a cape as she darted through the back exit with enough steam anyone would think she was running from a murderer.
