AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I say nothing. The only sounds I make are sniffles and quiet sobs. Ten minutes go by before I realize he didn’t take the turn to my house.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
It hits me that I don’t know who this man is. He’s in a motorcycle club that’s constantly under suspicion for drugs and murder. They’ve avoided jail time, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t guilty. If Colin has any of his father in him, then he could be every bit the devil I know.
“Take me home, Colin.”
He doesn’t look at me. “I’m not Colin anymore. I go by Rigger now.”
“I don’t care what you go by. I want to go home.”
“I’m not taking you back there until we get a few things straight, so sit back and shut up, Vivi.”
I settle back, all the surging adrenaline from minutes ago rushing away and leaving me defeated and drained. I’m so tired of fighting to survive. Life shouldn’t be this hard for anyone. If he’s taking me somewhere to kill me, so be it. I don’t have it in me to care anymore.
“I’m not Vivi anymore. That nickname was another person. My real name is Navy,” I whisper into the night.
CHAPTERFIVE
RIGGER
My mind is racing as fast as the car. The only time I’ve ever seen someone freak out like this is when we have men in our kill shed. Vivi was breathing like she had a hundred-pound weight on her chest and shivering like she was sitting in a snowstorm. She panicked, and I’m pretty sure I know why.
Fucking Ray. He has to be the reason behind this.
I was shocked as shit to learn she’s still living with him. I thought she’d take after me and leave the day she turned eighteen, but I had hoped her mom would come to her senses and leave him long before that. I should’ve known better, though. Ray has a way of making you believe you’d never make it without him. I saw him do it firsthand with my mom, so why wouldn’t he do it with hers?
Anger pulses through me as I remember all the times he told Mom she’d be living on the streets or dead without him. He called her ugly, stupid, boring, and every other negative thing in the book, projections of what he thought about himself. He knew he wasn’t shit, and the only way he could make someone stay was by making them believe they weren’t shit, either.
I did everything I could to make sure Vivi was safe. When I was living at home, I kept her as far away from Ray as possible. I took her to the shop with me when I worked, and let her hang out with my friends and me on days I didn’t. That all ended the night Ray and I came to blows. Even then, I did what I could to make sure he didn’t go near her.
My blood boils as I wonder if Ray went back on that deal.
“Where are we?” Vivi asks as I pull into the clubhouse.
“My home.”
She looks questioningly out the window. “It looks like a warehouse.”
“It is.” I park and undo my seatbelt. “Of sorts.”
“Am I safe here?”
“This is the only place in the world I can guarantee nothing bad’ll happen to you.”
She nods subtly and unbuckles her seatbelt, trusting me completely. “Okay.”
The rush of pride I felt the first day I met Vivi floods back in, and suddenly, she’s six and I’m sixteen, and she’s putting her hand in mine, looking at me like I hung the moon. I fucking missed her, and I suddenly wish I could hold her hand again. It’s been a long damn time since I’ve felt the love we shared.
Yeah, my brothers love me, but in the way brothers do, hard and deep. Mom and Vivi loved me differently. They were caring and gentle. I’d never admit to missing something like that, but I do.
“This is my place,” I say, typing in the code to unlock the door.
“You live here?” she asks as she looks around.
“Yeah.” I hold the door open, motioning for her to go in first.
