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We complied, getting into the back seat. I helped Serelda with her seatbelt, then fastened my own. She was arguably the stronger of the two of us, but in some ways she was also the most fragile. She’d gone through so much. I’d vowed to protect her as viciously as she’d protected me. That included letting her retreat behind me from time to time. Now, she sat beside me. I had my arm around her, and she’d buried her face in my chest while she clung to me, trembling from the stress of being around so many unfamiliar people.
“You good?” Roman turned to regard us as he got in and shut the door. When I nodded, he started the vehicle. “Good. We’ll be home in another hour and a half. Ain’t as fancy as Black Reign’s setup, but it’s home. We’ll make sure you’ve got a place to yourself so you can have some privacy but still be in the middle of our protection.”
“Thank you.” My voice was soft. While I was intrigued with Roman, I was also intimidated by him. “We appreciate you letting us continue on with you.”
“Didn’t have much choice, sweetheart. Couldn’t very well leave you on the side of the road.”
“No. I guess not.” It was a shit thing to do to this club, but Rycks would never have allowed us to leave. Not because he held us prisoner. Because he tried his best to protect us. He had been since he and El Segador had rescued us in Las Vegas. Which was part of the problem. Sometimes, it felt like we were being smothered by the protection of Black Reign.
Leaving like we had had been a drastic move on our part. This club was an unknown. It was a stupid move, but my gut told me this was the right thing to do if we wanted a fresh start. After discussing it over several weeks with Serelda, we knew this was what we had to do.
“Gonna ask you one more time. Just us in here. I need to know. Did anyone from Black Reign hurt you? Are you runnin’ ‘cause you’re afraid of someone there?”
I shook my head. “No! They’ve been nothing but good to us. All of them.” I met his gaze in the rearview mirror before ducking my head. “It’s… They protect us too much sometimes. We’ve been there a very long time. While we needed to be there for the most part, it’s just time.”
We were silent for a long time. Serelda still had her head against my chest. Occasionally I’d meet Roman’s eyes in the mirror, but I couldn’t hold them.
“You didn’t think anyone in Black Reign would ever see you as anything but victims.” It wasn’t a statement. “Why not go to Salvation’s Bane? Or Bones? Y’all are sister clubs. Right?”
“Same reason.” I spoke softly, not really wanting to have this discussion in the car, but I knew he’d demand his answers one way or the other. Best to give in and get it over with. “Our stepsister is married to a man from Bones, and they know us at Salvation’s Bane, too. They might not know everything, but they know enough.”
“You know you can’t keep this a secret. If you’re gonna live alongside us, we have to know what your likely triggers are, and if there is anyone who might come lookin’ for you.”
“There’s no one to come for us.”
“Oh? El Diablo took care of your attackers?”
I shrugged. “No clue. At least, not the men who actually scarred us. There were more than one on multiple occasions. But the man who allowed it to happen, who facilitated it all and sold us out? Yeah. He’s dead.”
“You sure about that? We need to know so we can prepare for it.”
“I know he’s dead because I killed him.” I stuck my chin up, finally meeting his gaze and holding it. There weren’t many things in my life I was proud of, but this was one of them. Our father had sold us out. Allowed us to be raped and used in unspeakable ways. I hadn’t been able to do it by myself, but I’d struck the killing blow and had reveled in it.
Roman raised an eyebrow. “You?”
“You don’t think I could?” I dared him to say I couldn’t.
He shrugged. “Don’t know you that well, girl, but you don’t look like the type.”
“What type would that be?”
“The killin’ type.”
“Well, I did. Ask El Diablo or Rycks if you don’t believe me. I cut that bastard like they cut me, then I stabbed him in the neck.”
“I see.”
“They were interrogating him and our stepmom. Cain was. At Bones. But I hid a knife and brought it with me when they let us tell our story. I cut him. Then stabbed him. He might have been tied up, but I still did it myself.”
He grunted, taking his gaze from the mirror and continuing on. I had no idea what was going through his mind, but I wasn’t about to gloss over that part of my life. It might have been years ago, but I got the only revenge I could. That part of my life still haunted me, but I refused to let it master me. It was why Serelda and I were here. To take back our lives in a place where no one had any preconceived notions about what we were able to handle. There was no way to conceal our past, but we could control the narrative. No one got to see how broken we were. We were strong.
Well, I was. Serelda tried, but she’d been withdrawn most of her adult life. Sometimes she came out of her shell, but it never lasted long. And she was never able to form attachments other than me. I hoped a complete change of scenery would give her the strength she needed to reinvent herself. If not, I’d call Lyric or Darcy and have Rycks come get us. Darcy was our stepsister and was married to a guy at Bones MC. We’d formed a bond of sorts over the years. Though Bones was still several hours away, it was far closer than Black Reign. Lyric was Rycks’s woman. If we called both women, Darcy could get us away quickly and provide a safe place until Rycks came for us. At least, that was the plan.
“How old’re you, girl?”
“I’m not a girl.” I tried to put all the bravado and fierceness I could into my declaration. The last thing I wanted this man -- or his club -- to see was me and Serelda as two weak girls in need of protection. We weren’t damsels in distress. Not anymore. “I’m thirty-five.”
“How long you been at Black Reign?”
