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“Dad, sorry I thought…”
“I don’t want to know.” He cleared his throat. “I’m calling to find out where you are? It’s family day at the club and you’re usually here before church even finishes.”
I threw the covers off with a groan and got out of bed. “I felt like a sleep in for a change. I’ll be there soon.”
“Whoever you thought I was…it needs to end if he’s making you forget about family.” His words where a demand not a suggestion and it pissed me off to no end.
“Me sleeping in has nothing to do with a guy, and even if it did? It’s my life and my decision. Nobody would make me forget my family, I’m not a doormat who takes orders from people. You of all people should know how stubborn I am, Dad,” I snapped as I pulled fresh clothes from my dresser.
“Oh, calm down, Jinx.” His voice was dismissive, and I could picture him rolling his eyes at what he thought was my overreaction. “You know I worry about you.”
I sighed in reply because yes, he worried but that still didn’t give him a reason to order me about telling me how to live my life. It was an argument we had on a daily basis, and I just couldn’t see it ever ending. Maybe when I’m married off to someone he approves of—which would be never because I can’t see him approving of anybody to marry his princess.
“I’ll see you soon, Princess.” He disconnected the call before I could grumble down the line at him anymore. It would have been a waste of breath anyway because he doesn’t ever see anything wrong in his actions. And that’s why I rebel as much as I do.
* * *
I pulled up to the gates of the compound that our clubhouse sat behind and felt the walls enclosing on me already. Gunner lifted his hand in a wave as he opened the gate sliding it open just enough for me to drive my bike through. We might run a genuine mechanic’s workshop behind the gates during the week but when it’s out of business hours, and family are in the compound nobody gets by the gates unless they are a Vulture.
I tugged my helmet off my head and flicked a hand through my short hair to give it a bit of life. I’m not an overly vain girl but nobody wants to walk around with helmet hair.
“Hey Jezzy.” A voice I hadn’t expected to ever hear again had my head turning towards the picnic table out front of the clubhouse and my eyes fell on the face of someone I worried my dad had killed a long time ago. Cole hadn’t changed much in the last seven years. His blond hair was still short and wild, I guess he never kicked the habit of running his hand over his head. His blue eyes were more serious, like they’d lost the sparkle they had when he was just a seventeen-year-old in love. Even though his shoulders were broader, and he’d grown a foot, he was still the boy I once loved. Even if he was wearing a Vultures cut. What the fuck happened?
“Cole…” I whispered his name wide eyed.
“I go by Chains now.” He flicked his cigarette butt on the floor. “It’s been a long time, Jezzy,” he admitted as he took a swig from a bottle of Great Northern before trailing his gaze up and down my body.
My body heated at the attention he was giving me, but I had too many questions to focus on that. “What the fuck happened to you? I thought my dad had you killed.” I let out a strained laugh, unsure whether to feel angry or amused. “I fucking mourned you.”
Cole threw his head back and laughed. I marched over to him and swatted him on the arm. “Stop it. I’m being serious.” I sat beside him on the table with my feet resting on the bench seat.
“Sorry.” He shook his head and the laughter fell away and was replaced by a tension I could see in his stiff shoulders and straightened spine. “Maybe that would have been better for all of us.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned as I leaned away a little to allow my eyes to roam his face looking for any emotions I could read.
“Things were so simple back then. Two kids in love wanting nothing more than to spend the rest of their lives together.” My heart hurt at his description of us. The day he left my life was the day the loneliness started. “I asked your dad for his blessing… We should have just done a runner and eloped.”
“Dad told me. But then you left… You never came back to ask me.”
Cole reached out placing his hand on mine which had been resting on my knee, interlocking our fingers. “I never left, Jezzy. Your father sent me away to another Chapter and told me not to come back until I was a man worthy of his daughter. And here I am worthy in his eyes.” He shook his head and let go of my hand to thump at the patch on his chest. “But I feel less worthy than I did before I left.”
As his words registered something dropped in the pit of my stomach like a lead weight. All these years he’d been trying to prove himself worthy to my father and I knew nothing about it. I jumped off the table and charged through the doors of the clubhouse needing to find my father to find out what the fuck was thinking.
My eyes landed on him instantly, leaning against the bar a glass of whisky in his hand a pretty blonde not much older than me practically shoving her big fake tits in his face from the barstool beside him. I could feel Cole behind me tugging at my wrist trying to stop me, but I yanked my hand free and stormed up to my father.
“Princess…” His gaze lifted from my eyes to over my head and no doubt, Cole. “Oh, you’ve spoilt your surprise.”
The bimbo jumped off her stool and threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and crushing me with her tits. “Congratulations Jinx.”
I peeled her off me and took a step back crashing into a hard chest. Cole’s hand gripped my hip to steady me, and I shifted out of his hold. “What the fuck are congratulating me for?”
“Ah it’s part of your surprise.” My father said as he waved his arm around the room. “It’s your engagement party.” I flicked my gaze around the room and took in the balloons and ribbons, and felt the colour drain from my face as they landed on the big sign that read Congratulations Jinx and Chains.
The smile on my dad’s face told me he was expecting me to be happy about this turn of events. I was far from it. It was just yet another example of my dad trying to control my life. I wanted to live my own life. I didn’t want to live the life that he dictated.
“No fucking way!” I glared at my father as my nails bit into my palms. I could not believe my father would do this.
“Jinx, don’t be silly.” My father did something I’d never thought I’d see—He rolled his eyes. “Chains is the love of your life, now you are getting married.”
