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“You are trespassing, outlaws,” he reminds them, turning his back and making his way back through the small crowd around him.
“You can’t defeat these men with your bows and arrows, they fight with money and power. I doubt you have enough livestock and corn to sell for the price of lawyer fees. We could help you if you let us,” their leader calls after him.
“We do not accept help from soulless men,” my uncle tells him without turning around.
“Wait,” I chase after him, blocking him from making his next step. “Supposing what they say is true, Uncle. These men claim our land is threatened, maybe we should hear them out.”
“Road warriors do not care about our people, Shaniya, only themselves,” he hisses before moving on. And when I look back at Troj, I see a disappointment that matches my own. When Tawk takes my hand, I notice how that disappointment quickly flips to anger.
Tawk pulls me away from the dispersing crowd, and I take one last look over my shoulder at Troj as I’m dragged further away from him.
The rage in his eyes and the tensity in his jaw threatens war. But when his leader pats his shoulder, he backs away slowly and follows them back toward the tree line.
“Tawk, they may be right. Speak to my uncle, ask him to make peace with the outlaws, even if it’s just until the threat is over,” I tell him once we’re alone.
“Shaniya, you have nothing to fear. There is no threat, and if there were I would protect you from it.” His promise doesn’t bring me the ease it should. The emptiness inside me is back again, a black hole feasting on my insides that seems to hurt more now I know his name.
Troj.
He’s the man whose comfort I crave. His arms are the ones I want wrapped around me, and it’s his promise of protection I want to hear.
“Thanks, Tawk.” I shrug myself from his grip and smile before I return to Tayen.
All I can do now is hope that the road warrior comes back to me, because if he does, I promise myself I won’t run this time.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Jessie growls under his breath as we walk away from them. “Stubborn old man couldn’t even read the fucking words on the document.” He kicks his boot into one of the fallen trees when we make it back up to the border.
“He might come round when he’s had time to think.” I try keeping the anger out of my voice, though the punching bag at the gym is gonna be feeling my full wrath when I get there. Seeing that guy with his hands on her has got me fuckin’ furious.
‘Shaniya’ that’s what the chief had called her, and I got the loud message from the son of a bitch standing beside her…
She fuckin’ belongs to him.
What pissed me off most, is the fact he felt he had to protect her from me. That ice-cold stare of his glaring at me as if I was a fuckin’ threat to her.
“We’ll just have to prove the land belongs to them, without them.” I keep marching forward toward the clubhouse, wishing we'd rode our bikes up the track instead of walking.
“Get Maddy working on building up a case,” Prez instructs Jessie, before leaving us and heading off in the direction of Nyx and Ella’s cabin. The old man has softened since becoming a grandpa. Spending time with Dylan can always pull him out of a vile mood.
Jessie continues to walk with me toward the clubhouse, offering me a smoke which I decline. The sooner I can grab my kit bag from the club and get back up to the gym, the better.
Something's kicking off by the entrance when we get there. Abby’s having trouble with some older guy in a suit. There's a hella lot of finger-pointing and shouting going on, and me and Jess look at each other before wading on in.
“This guy troubling you, darlin’?” I check, while Jess flicks his smoke away and steps right up in the stranger's face, staring down his nose at him threateningly.
“It’s fine, he’s just leaving.” The fiery little redhead crosses her arms over her chest and scowls at the guy in front of her. Ella’s best friend has been with us a while now. She's even got her own cabin here. The poor girl’s had a lot of shit to get over these past few months. Addiction, abandonment and the death of someone she loves. I was there that night Roswell told her Danny had been murdered, and the girl was broken. But every day, she’s getting better, and this mother fucker right here ain’t gonna drag her back down.
“I’m not leaving here without you, Abby. I told your mother—”
“I don’t give a shit what you told Mother. This place is my home now and I’m staying here,” she interrupts him, standing strong.
“You heard her.” I step in front of Abby.
“You can’t really expect me to leave you here.” He laughs smugly. And the way I’m feeling, I could tear open his fuckin’ jaw for it.
“You left me to travel Europe. I don't recall you giving a shit about me when you were drinking wine in France.”
“Here we go,” Jess tips his head toward the bike that skids to a halt in the yard.
