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Unlocking my door, I open it and relock it. I don’t want anyone barging in here.
Setting my stuff down, I slump down into my computer chair, resting my elbows on my knees and cradling my head in my hands.
I need to calm down, but I’m fucking struggling to. Thor’s words keep bouncing around my skull. That I’m acting no better than Preston right now toward Mae.
Fuck.
I never, and I mean never, want to be compared to that fat fuck.
Part of the reason why I’m struggling to calm down is that today’s letter wasn’t the first I’d received. I should have told everyone in Church about it, but for some reason, I couldn’t.
Opening a drawer, I pull out the first letter. I don’t know who gave it to me, but it was slid under my door during the party yesterday. I checked the cameras, but the guy was wearing a hoodie and didn’t show his face. At least it looked like a guy from the build. I have no fucking idea who it was.
Sighing, I take a pull from my beer and open the letter, setting aside the pictures.
Her mother taught her well, don’t you think? Mae isn’t worth protecting. Once a whore and druggie, always a whore and druggie. She has a purpose to fulfill and that purpose is not with you and that pussy-ass club. If she isn’t returned by midnight on the 2nd, you and your club will suffer the consequences.
Anger burns in my veins once again, but I tamp it down. Suddenly, Mae’s words pop into my head. That the woman in the picture isn’t her.
Spreading out the pictures, I pull out the second set of pictures and compare them. The track marks are still there. Same with the birthmark. Same with how thin she is. Same with her hair.
Fuck.
Mae was right.
Flipping them over, my gaze snaps to the time stamp Mae pointed out to me. Doing the math in my head, in the pictures tied to the first note, Mae would have been either fifteen or sixteen, depending on the picture. There’s no way she would have been developed enough to have as big of breasts as the woman in the picture has. Not that they’re big, they’re just bigger than a sixteen-year-old’s would be.
Why the hell didn’t I notice the time stamps before?
Scoffing, I shake my head and run my hands through my hair, pulling on it slightly.
I already know the answer.
I allowed my anger and hurt at what Lillian had done to blind me to what was going on with Mae.
Levi’s words come back to me, and I pull up my camera feed, rewinding it to when Mae showed up at the front gate.
Surprisingly, I’m pissed as fuck at the fact that Ethan pulled a gun on her, but thankfully, he never fired at her. But the sheer look of terror on her face when he pulled it on her is like a sucker punch to my gut.
Taking a drink, I settle in to watch the video feed from yesterday, only fast-forwarding when no one’s talking to Mae, which is surprisingly very little.
I also see the point in which everyone’s drawn to Mae. I know a part of that is because of what I’d done and said yesterday.
However, the more they talk to her, things switch with each person from ‘protecting her because she’s my daughter’ to ‘protecting her because of who she is as a person’.
The pit that’s been growing in my gut tightens after watching each time that I’d spewed that shit at her yesterday. Seeing her light fading more and more in her eyes with each interaction.
When I reach the end of the feed for the party, I switch and pull up the feed at Timber’s house. My chest warms at how my sisters were taking care of her.
It’s honestly not surprising that Susie declared Mae her sister around the firepit at Timber’s house. Axe must have soon followed suit. I have no idea when Punisher made his claim, but I’m sure I’ll find out as I keep watching.
When everyone goes to bed, I lean back in my chair. I could pull up the feed from Timber’s house to see more, but with how much of an ass I’ve already been, I decide not to. Plus, I don’t know if I could take it if I saw them getting busy.
I scrub my hands over my face in frustration and look at the clock. Fuck, I’ve been at this for hours.
My mind replays how Timber treated her all day yesterday. I knew right away, seeing the look on his face when they were at the gate, that he was gone for her. Everything he did since then cemented it, too.
Switching the feed back to the clubhouse, I fast forward until this morning when Drae brought in the letter that had been sent to me.
