My feet stall, and I stare at the side of his stupidly handsome face while Fang continues to walk.The fuck?I get it: my father comes from an opposing club. The same club threatening to tear their town apart. Their state. But shit—can I get at least an ounce of compassion? Maybe a fleck of the benefit of the doubt.You killed someone, Jenna. You gave up the benefit of the doubt the moment you did that.Goddamn it.
I resume walking, catching up to Nibbles when he slows for me. “Leaving doesn’t solve my problem, though, does it?” I don’t look at him as I speak, choosing instead to stare across the road at Vanessa’s house.How does she put up with this shit?“You know that as well as I do.”
He presses his lips together.
“You said you wanted to keep me in your sights. That I’myourproblem now. Or were they just words to get me to open my legs for you?”
“I guess they must have been.”
I shove him. Hard. Both hands pressed against his outer arm, I throw my weight against the asshole.
He stumbles, righting himself and staring at me wide-eyed as though amazed I have the audacity.
“Fuck you,” I growl, fighting to keep my voice low for Molly’s sake. “Or maybe fuck me.” I laugh, stunted and bitter. “You handed me the red flag when you said it’d be fun to play with my jealousy, and yet, somehow between there and here I thought you’d changed the way you feel about me.”
“You should learn to read people better, Jenna.” His jaw is hard, lazy glare cruel. “Maybe then you wouldn’t find yourself on the losing end so often.”
Says the guy who can’t seem to do any better.“You’re just hurt,” I say. “Aren’t you? Acting like a fucking wounded animal and swiping your claws at me. I don’t buy this bullshit.”
“Why not?” Fang steps closer. “You bought the bullshit about us wanting you here.”
“You need me here,” I argue. “Chaos needs me to get my father here.”
“Does he?” He tilts his head, shrinking the space between us with a predatory step. “Or does he just want you where he can see you until you prove handy in getting the Blood Eagles on side?”
Blood drains from my head, first, and then my heart, the world tilting a little as a brief snap of vertigo claims me. I jolt my right foot wider to steady myself, and draw a deep breath. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Fang bends at the waist a fraction, hands to his knees to level our gazes. “Are you telling me that doesn’t seem like something a one-percent MC would do? Use a person’s worth to another club to barter their service?”
I open my mouth to say something yet snap it shut. Itisthe kind of shit they do. People are currency as much as they’reassets in the underworld. The Blood Eagles would be indebted to the Kings of Anarchy if they handed me over as Mary-Beth’s killer. Gave The Kid back safe and sound.Shit.
“You wouldn’t.” It’s all I can come up with. That a man so loving of his daughter would do this to another man’s child.
“I’ve done worse.” Fang straightens and turns for Molly.
An ear-piercing whistle sails across the field.
It takes me a moment to seek out the source of the sound, my brain still rattled with the raw possibility that everything Fang said is true. That he’s done nothing but lie and manipulate me to get me where he wanted.Then why finger me up against a goddamn tree?Why do something that onlyIgot satisfaction from?
Because he would have got what he wanted if Molly hadn’t shown up.
I bend double, heaving breaths to quell the rising nausea.
“Fang!” Loki hollers from the rear lawn of the house. “Reno’s here!”
I vomit, spitting out the paltry coffee I had earlier and not much else.Fuck.If I thought things couldn’t get any worse, he’s probably about to laugh about what an easy target I was with his prior conquest.
“Molly!” he hollers from my right. “We gotta go back. Your momma’s here.”
“No!” is the disappointed wail from even further away.
And yet, when I swing my head sideways, I see her run across the uneven ground to catch up to her father. He holds his hand out, and she takes it, completely trusting the man who, with a single sentence or two, destroyed what hope for humanity I had left.
I push myself to stand straight, turn my back to Molly, and use the hem of my shirt to clean my mouth. My world may fall totiny, burning pieces, but that doesn’t mean her childhood has to, too.
I’ve put on a brave face for this long; I can do it a bit longer for her sake.
“There’s no need for you to come too,” Fang grumbles as they pass by. “Might be better for everyone if you just stay out here a while.”
