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“You heard me.”
I stepped in closer. “You ruined my childhood, killed my mother, and yet you think I’ll help you? You’re lucky you’re still alive now, because I should’ve killed you years ago,” I gritted out in a deadly soft tone. We were now so close that my heated breath blew cloudy puffs in his face.
“It was an accident,” he tried to argue, but I scoffed as I stepped back.
“What exactly was an accident? What you did to me? Or her? You were drunk and you were beating the shit out of her. Was it an accident that she died? Maybe, but if you hadn’t laid your hands on her in the first place, it wouldn’t have happened. You’re a sorry sack of shit and you can fuck off,” I spat. The debts I’d paid for him already were enough to break a lesser man.
“If I die and they don’t get paid, they are taking their payment in the form of your sister.”
I froze. Then I lunged forward, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and hauling him into the bars of the fence. Voodoo was on me in a heartbeat, yelling in my ear to let go as I bashed my father’s face into the metal repeatedly. “Angel! Stop!”
The rest of the brothers were on me, prying my fingers off his jacket. When they got him free, he stumbled back. Blood ran from a cut above his eye, and his nose might’ve gotten broken. I simply didn’t care. Everyone but Voodoo let me go and stepped back.
When he was out of reach, I shook free of my brother’s hold.
Venom stared my father down. “I think you might wanna to leave.”
Chest heaving, I dropped my hands to my knees and leaned over. A primal roar escaped me as my inability to control the situation overwhelmed me. I wanted to lash out, break something, destroy anything in my path.
My father made one last plea. “Jude. Think about what I said. Jasmine won’t be safe if you don’t help me. They’re already threatening to hold her as collateral.” Casting a glare in his direction, I didn’t respond.
“I’ll be in touch after you’ve had time to process this,” he said, oblivious to my disgust and anger. That, or he didn’t care because he was too busy being the self-absorbed evil asshole he always was. Hate was a deceptively mild word for what I had for my father.
Once he got in his car and drove off, I stood upright and stared at Venom. Chest heaving, I drew in ragged breaths.
“Emergency church,” Venom rumbled.
We all returned to the warmth of the clubhouse and silently filed into the chapel. One by one our phones dropped in the basket outside the door. With finality, the click of the latch followed the last member entering the room.
The scrape of chairs as everyone sat was like nails on a chalkboard to me. My nerves were frayed and zinging.
“I’m sure after that display, you can all guess why I called this.” There was a chorus of affirmative replies and nodding heads at Venom. The few brothers who hadn’t followed us outside had quickly been informed of the gist of the situation on the way in.
“Angel, we’re gonna pick up Jasmine and keep her here at the clubhouse, but you know she isn’t gonna be happy about that.” Venom held my gaze with a questioning brow lifted as he waited for my response.
“Yeah, I know,” I muttered. Jasmine had never been keen on my joining the Royal Bastards. To say she’d been shocked was an understatement. Pissed would be a little more accurate. Especially after the last party she’d attended. It had gotten a pretty wild, and I’d been pissed that she’d been there.
“Anyone have a problem with that decision?” Venom asked the room at large. My gaze traced along those of the men I’d called brothers since leaving the army behind. Every single one of them was in agreement.
My gaze paused a moment on Chains where he sat staring at the table with a clenched jaw and my eyes narrowed. “You have a problem with it, brother?”
Startled, he looked up at me. Then he shook his head. “Nah, bro. It’s all good. Sorry, I was thinking about something else.”
“Well, if Jasmine is coming to the clubhouse, it would probably be a good idea to keep one of you here. Voodoo might be busy with his ol’ lady, so I can’t assign him.” Venom’s gaze flickered to each of us one by one.
“I can stay if you need me to,” I offered. Voodoo’s eyes widened in frustration, and I remembered I’d promised to deal with Lester for him. I knew he understood because it was my sister we were talking about, but it didn’t mean he liked it.
“I really want you to handle this one, Angel,” Venom replied. “Since I wasn’t sure Chains would be able to spare the time from the shop to go anyway, it makes sense that I have him stay behind. Then there’s no worry about coverage for the ink shop. Chains, you’ll be in charge of her while she’s here.”
Chains made a sound of protest, but when everyone looked at him in confusion and consternation, he ran a hand down his face, slouched in his chair, and nodded. There was something weird going on with him. We’d become close over the years, and he hadn’t said anything was going on, so I was part of the confused group.
“Angel, do you want to call her or go just pick her up and ask for forgiveness later?” Raptor asked with a hesitant wrinkle in his brow.
“I’ll call her. She already knows some of the shit our father is capable of, and she needs to know the shit storm he may have unleashed on her,” I said as I roughly ran a hand through my hair. Poor Jazzy. She’d worked so hard over the years to get past our mother’s death and develop her independence.
To find out our father had pulled all that from under her was not going to go over well.
“SendMeAnAngel”—TheScorpions
