“Because it’s none of your fucking business. Stop being such a control freak, you don’t have to know everything about me. I’m no one to you,” she cries, her words filled with frustration. But she’s got nothing on me. She’s pushed me so far there is no coming back. She needs to see reason or I’m going to lock her up and throw away the key just so I know she’s safe.
“You’reeverythingto me,” I roar, my voice booming off the walls of the stairwell. “I would have gone to the end of the fucking earth to find you, but you and your dad disappeared without a trace. And now you’re back and still hiding from me.”
She laughs, and it’s bitter and icy, almost wicked, as her long nails dig into my bare chest. She tries to shove me off with as much force as she can muster. My grip on her hair tightens, my fingertips pressing into her hip a fresh warning for her. No way I’m letting her go until she talks and we all know exactly how much danger she’s in. “You expect me to believe that when all it took for you to kick me to the curb was a few racy images of me on my OnlyFans account?”
I crack my neck. She thinks we let her go because of what we saw on her phone. That’s just sad. But as I stare back at her, I know it is.She holds the shame in her eyes. She thinks we ditched her because of her OnlyFans account and the work she was doing for the Southern Breakers. “I don’t understand how you let yourself get caught up in that world, Dove. It fucking killed me to see those videos and know you didn’t come to me for help when you needed it. But I would never discard you for making a bad choice like that.”
She huffs out a laugh. “A bad choice.” Her eyes darken, anger radiating off her. “You have no fucking clue what you’re on about,” she spits, shoving at me so hard I falter for a second. She’s so angry. It gives her the space to take a step away from me. “I have no idea why I came back here,” she mutters almost to herself as she scurries down the stairs.
Sickness washes over me. Her walking away feels way too much like her leaving again, and I can’t go through that. I should ask her why she put herself in that dangerous situation. I know she must have been desperate. She’s a smart girl, she wouldn’t have done it otherwise, but I’m too angry to have a reasonable conversation with her. I follow her down the stairs and back into the main bar, but the faster I am, the faster she moves. Until her hand lands on the door.
“You leave, everything I know about you and the Southern Breakers will be sent to the cops.” The words shake out of my mouth. In every other situation I can be the one in charge. I know how to manipulate any fucker into giving me what I want, but Dove is different, and everything I have tried with her hasn’t worked. I know what I’m doing, I know the damage I might be causing with a threat like this. But I can’t have her just walking away from me. Not now. And trying to get her to see it my way wasn’t working, so a threat it is.
Chapter 22
Dove
Iturn on the spot, every muscle in my body so tense it feels as though a muscle is about to snap. Kasen stands there, the epitome of egotistical authority, his strong chest puffed out, his muscles taut. His chiseled jaw is set into a sharp uncaring line. The power has gone to his head. I would think it ridiculous if I didn’t know how deadly serious his threat is.
“What did you say?” I whisper cry. I almost can’t believe the words that came out of his mouth. I need him to say them again so I know it’s real. So I know what I’m truly up against. Would he really rat me out just so he can control me? Until the night my dad died, I thought the boy I knew would never, but then he was so willing to send me away all because it was what daddy wanted. He did it then, I know he would do it again.
His eyes darken, an evil flash in them that should scare me. “You heard me,” he growls.
Fresh pain radiates through my chest, an ache I can’t fight anymore. “I guess you did learn from the best, didn’t you, Kasen. I shouldn’t have expected anything less,” I spit back at him. He wants to hurt me? Well, fuck him, two can play at this game. I know his secrets, his pain, and I’m happy to use them against him if that’s what it takes.
In two large strides he closes the gap between us, his breathing ragged like a wild beast on the verge of going feral. “You’re right, birdie. I guess the choice is yours. Do you want to go to jail or are you ready to come home with me and accept my protection and everything that entails?”
I can see it in his deadly expression, the bossy asshole is serious. He knows he’s got all the power here, and there is nothing I can do to fight him on it. He took the murder weapon, dealt with the bodies, he has all the evidence and everything he would need to lock me up for life. But what he doesn’t realize is he just lost any chance of ever fixing things between us. I can see him for who he is now. It’s glaringly obvious. I stare back at him so hard I want to scream back, but what is the point? He has the control over the whole town, and I’m a nobody. No one will listen to me against him, he knows it.
“I will never let you control me,” I whisper.
“Who the fuck graffitied my van?” comes River’s voice from behind me, but I don’t turn to see him. I can’t take my glare off Kasen, too scared he will pounce on me and trap me.
“If we knew, he would already be in our custody.” Kasen glances behind me at River. His lips twitch up at the sides cruelly. “Birdie has decided to move back in with us, let us watch over her until we work out who is stalking her.”
Stalking me. In their custody. How does Kasen know what happened to the van? He was hinting at something when I first got here, but he couldn’t know what happened, unlike River he hadn’t seen the van. What the hell? I’m so confused now.
“Some asshole is stalking her? Like proper?” River asks, stepping closer to us. He looks me over with fresh fear in his eyes.
I shake my head, not sure what else to do. I’m sure that’s not what this is. It’s just a misunderstanding. “The message could have been for River for all we know.”
“A decapitated bird? Sorry, baby, that shit looks like it was for you.”
“He got away, K,” comes Bodhi’s voice. It sends a shiver over my skin.
I turn toward him. He’s all wet and sandy, his breathing harsh and face flushed like he’s been running or fighting, and the flash of dark I saw running from my van makes more sense—it was a Bodhi-size form. He was there with me at the beach. Fucker. That’s how Kasen knew what was going on. They didn’t let me go at all, they were watching me the whole time.
“Who got away, Slater?” His eyes dart to Kasen, widening with alarm, and I realize I’ve overheard something I wasn't supposed to.
Slater regains his composure and shakes his head as if he’s not going to answer me then walks right past, rounding the bar to pour himself a drink. He takes an expensive-looking bottle of whiskey and a tumbler and fills the thing to the brim, throwing back a large swig.
I swallow the lump in my throat. So many damn emotions are running through me right now I don’t know what to do. Kasen constantly says I’m keeping shit from them, but I know they are hiding more from me. And he just proved it. How fucking long was Slater watching me for? Watching me like a stalker himself. How do I know it’s not them messing with me to force me back here? It totally could be. And now his Instagram post makes more sense. With fresh rage flowing through my veins, I turn my glare back on Kasen. “You didn’t let me go. You had your guard dog tail me, didn’t you. That’s how you knew about the message on the van.”
“Harsh,” Slater snips.
“Threat, birdie, it wasn’t a message. And good thing I had the presence of mind to send Bodhi to watch over you. You clearly have a deranged stalker who knows you killed a couple of bikers. If he wasn’t there, you could be a dead girl right now.”
Sickness slithers through me, knowing he’s right. That message scared the shit out of me, especially after what I read from the safe with my mum getting threatening mail. “One,” I remind him. He killed the other biker. Has he forgotten that fact or is he just so far up the cops’ asses in this town it literally doesn’t matter that he killed someone, it will still come back on me somehow?
