He lifts his boot off my back and promptly offers a hand to help me up. The car nears the driveway when we break into asprint, his brothers in crime wrestling my sisters in strife toward their waiting motorbikes. The guy helps me over the fence that damn near killed me earlier, and shouts, “Far right!”
What the fuck does he mean, far—?Oh. It twigs as I watch the other men each claim a ride. Thebikeon the far right.
Pain is the least of my worries as I push my lungs to the limit and sprint for his ride. The goddamn car roars past the last field before the house as I launch myself onto the rear of the long seat, foot pegs be damned.
“You’re gonna need to hold on tight.” He lifts a leg to get on without kicking me as best he can.
“Be good if you could hurry the fuck up.” The car that skids to a halt at the end of the driveway is probably the younger of the two guys tasked with keeping watch over us, but he’s no less violent than the other fucker. If anything, he’s probably worse.
Hands shaking, I get a grip of the maned guy’s vest and shirt, mentally doing the math on whether we’re going to fucking make it or not.
I didn’t get myself this deep only to goddamn die on the way out the door.
I lean with my host, his bike struggling for purchase on the dirt road as we turn toward his brothers, the pop of a gun disturbing the night behind us.Fuck, fuck, fuck.Face buried against his back, I squeeze my eyes tight and pray.Please let them miss me.
Not that Jesus ever loved me.
Seconds pass without the telltale sting of a shot in my flesh.Holy fuck.Maybe it worked. Maybe today I’m somebody’s special child. Eyes cracked open, I struggle to make out the shadowy shapes in the fields that tear past us. Something warm touches my nose. Which is weird, considering the rider blocks the wind from my eyes. I touch fingers to the sensation to wipe away the tears anyway, and pause at the thicker constitution ofit.The hell?My fingertips walk up the biker’s back, tracing the damp trail in the dark, until it stops, an inch or so below the cap of his shoulder.
“Hey!” I slap the guy on the opposite side. “You’re bleeding!”
Maybe I should have prayed for the bullet to missus.
SIX
FANG
We need to talk.
I hitSend and then pocket my phone.Fuck this shit.I don’t expect Reno to answer; it’s almost three in the fucking morning. But at least it’ll be the first thing she sees when she does eventually wake up. Maybe after lunch, depending on how hard she went last night.
Fuck.I regret a lot, but giving that bitch a tiny life to ruin makes the rest of my shitty decisions pale in comparison. The guys warned me. More than once. But I was high on the attention she gave me and blind to her long game.
I had no intention of making her my old lady.
She had no intention of giving me a choice.
And now she paints me as the villain because she birthed my child and I made sure she had no place in the club anymore. Taking Molly for two weeks is the least I can do to make up for the shit that kid’s stuck in the middle of. But I fucking meant it when I said it: this is no place for a little girl; it’s far too dangerous.
What if the Breed show up? What if I’m called away? Injured? I can’t guarantee I can keep myself safe; it’s unfair to assume I can do that for her.
Head buried between my hands, I lean on the porch rail and draw a deep breath. Am I any different to the misogynistic assholes at the Devil’s Breed? Maybe I’m no fucker who tricked women into slavery, but I sure know how to wreck lives. Logic tells me, yes, I am different to those soulless fucks. But the guilt I carry for ruining Reno and Molly’s lives with my selfish, shitty choices says there’s a chance the answer could also be no.
I’d never fucking admit it to her, but Reno was right. I did choose to wet my dick without protection. It takes two to tango, and I was down to dance no matter the consequence.
I could have prevented this as easily as she could. But would I, given a second chance?
You fucking know the answer to that.I didn’t think I wanted kids, but the minute Molly was born I knew I’d never want it any other way. She reminds me there’s a chance to get things right, to change the generational pattern.
I want her to thrive. I want her to be better than I’ll ever be.
I shift a hand to my chest and sigh when I pat an empty pocket.Fuck.Just another shitty choice to add to my self-loathing. Seven years, I’d been smoke-free. And then I blew it all to hell when this mess with Reno started. Told myself I’d have one to take the edge off the stress that’d stolen my sleep. Promised myself it wouldn’t be a permanent habit when that cigarette became two, and then three. Before long I was counting packs, not cigarettes.
Yet another failure I don’t want Molly to witness.
“Fucked up that they had a kid there.” Darko steps out onto the porch with me and braces his hands on the rail to my right, oblivious to the turmoil twisting me up inside. “Don’t know what I expected to find, but I also don’t know why that surprised me.”
“Anyone find out how the blood on the floor came about?”
