Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
“You’re not fucking going.” Tanner looked to Styx and Ky, then all the brothers standing watching. “I’m not gonna let that cunt take her back. We need to think of something. A plan or some shit. Because I ain’t letting her go. I’ll fucking die in that ghost town before I let her go back to Mexico.”
My heart both broke and swelled as those words fell from his lips. But I knew it was futile. There was no plan to be made. This had to happen. I had to go.
“They have Ash!” Flame roared at Tanner.
Tanner shook with anger. He laughed, but there was no humor in his tone. He looked around the brothers. “She’s my fucking old lady!” Tanner pointed at Styx, then Ky, AK, then Sia’s men. “You wouldn’t let any of your bitches go. Mae, Lilah, Phebe, or Sia.” He next turned to Flame. “And I get your brother has been taken. I’m your Hangmen brother, and I’ll do anything to get him back, but I won’t let Adelita go.”
“Tanner . . .” I tried to say, but he shook his head, pulling away from me.
“You went to that cult to get Mae, razing the fucking place to the ground,” he said to Styx. Next he looked at Ky. “You went in to get Lilah.” He turned to Sia’s men. “Y’all went into Mexico to get Sia. I fucking came too! Helped y’all with every plan. And what? Now it’s my bitch y’all are ready to just send her back?”
“It ain’t as easy as our bitches,” Ky explained. “Adelita is Quintana’s kid.”
“So?” Tanner bit back. He reached for my hand. I gave it. He was fighting so hard for me. For us. “We just need to get more creative. We have to plan better.” Tanner looked at me, then back at Styx who was watching like a hawk. “We’re at war! We have brothers ready to fight. So we fucking fight!” His neck was so tense his veins showed under his skin. “Quintana was coming for us anyway. So fuck if it’s Adelita being here that’s made the threat worse. One day soon we’d be facing them regardless.” He slapped his chest. “I’m gonna fucking fight. For her, for me, for the prospects, for this fucking club.” Tanner’s voice dropped when he said, “Y’all are my brothers in arms. And I’m gonna marry Adelita one day. That’s supposed to mean something at this club, or am I mistaken?” Flame’s heavy breathing could be heard from beside us. Tanner looked at him. “The way you need Maddie is the way I need Lita. You would tear anyone apart to protect her. I’m doing the fucking same.”
Flame glanced down at Maddie, who was at his side, clutching his arm. His face seemed to soften for a split second. But my attention quickly went back to Styx. He was watching Tanner intently. His hazel eyes next moved to me. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but all I saw was Charon. All I saw was Mae looking down at her son like her heart had been taken from her chest and gently placed in her arms. I pictured Saffie holding onto Phebe. And I thought of all the women who had just welcomed me with no judgment into their circle. I considered what they had already been through. The cult, Sia in Mexico with Garcia . . . Saffie with my father.
And I knew I couldn’t let them be hurt further because of me.
I had to protect them now too.
Styx raised his hands, and all the men watched him. It was incredible the respect Styx garnered from his brothers. The silent, imposing man didn’t need loudly barked orders. The simple movement of his hands got his message through clearly enough.
“Church, in one hour,” Ky said, reading Styx’s hands for those, like me, who didn’t understand sign. Tanner exhaled a long, relieved breath beside me. And I understood what that meant. They were going to devise a plan so I could stay here with Tanner.
They were going to fight Diego.
Tanner pulled me from the bar and took me straight to his room. When the door was shut, he pushed me against the back of the door and put his hands on my face. “You’re not fucking leaving me. I’m not letting that happen. I have you now, and you’re not going back to that cunt, or your old man.” Tanner kissed my forehead, my cheeks, then my lips. He was worshipping me, cherishing me. Trying to convince me that I belonged with him.
I knew I did. But sometimes circumstances made it so soulmates couldn’t be together.
“Mi amor,” I whispered and held his face in my hands. I drank in his blue eyes and the light lashes that framed them. I felt the stubble on his cheeks under my hands, and his lips—features that I knew, in a hundred lifetimes, I would never tire of.