Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
“Yeah. Why the fuck did you think they called her Cherry?”
Christ if I know. I don’t know anything. “I figured they gave her a hooker name.”
“No. It’s because her entire worth to them was in that cherry.” Handlebar’s voice roughens. “You’ll take good care of her, yeah? She might have brought you in, but she did right by Crash and me. Stuck her neck out for him again and again. So if you can’t protect her from Papa, I will.”
Burning steel hardens in my chest. Hand her over? Not a fucking chance.
Not to anyone. “I’ll keep her safe.”
Though I wouldn’t have. I’d been on the verge of plowing into that hot little cunt. She’d been wet and eager but that wouldn’t make a difference if I’d torn into a virgin pussy.
I’d have hurt her. Really fucking hurt her. If I’d done that, if I’d ripped her up… I can’t bear to think about it.
Just thinking about how near to it I came tears new jagged edges around the hole in my chest. The rot’s sitting thick and heavy in me as the call finishes up. But everyone else is real entertained by it, patchholders sporting a collection of bemused expressions around the table. Then Bull says, “A virgin is on Hellfire Rider property? Then it’s time to start prepping for the zombie apocalypse, my friends, because I’m fairly certain this is how the end times begin.”
That draws a laugh, and over the sound of it Blowback says flatly, “She’s not a virgin anymore.”
Saxon abruptly frowns, his steely gaze burning a path to me. “Are you fucking her?”
Not yet. But that’s a technicality, because I will be.
“She offered payback for luring me in. I took her up on that offer.” But because I know what’s putting that fierce look in his eyes, I add, “She said yes real clear.”
“All right.” His tension eases. “Did you get anything out of her yet?”
“Not yet. But I will.”
“Maybe not, if she’s scared of you.” Zoomie regards me with narrowed eyes. “You did threaten to pull a train on her.”
During the raid. “She knew damn well I wouldn’t let anyone touch her.”
“It’s still a bitch ass thing to threaten.”
Yeah, it is. “And you think I give a fuck?”
Her gaze hardens dangerously.
Since the sergeant at arms is supposed to keep the peace between patchholders, Gunner jumps right in. “Hold up. Zoomie’s got a point. You were pretty hard on this girl that night. So she might be afraid of you. So how about this? Let me go in and talk to her—”
Over my dead fucking body. “She thought you were Strawman.”
“Yeah, okay. Then send in Zoomie. She might respond better to a woman, anyway.”
The rot starts boiling. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s mine!” And I’m not handing her off to anyone. “Mine to protect. Mine to fuck. Mine to get answers from. Mine to do whatever the hell I want to do with her. She fucking owes me.”
“And you owe this club,” Saxon snaps, fury burning through each word like a whip. “First and foremost, you owe your fucking loyalty. Which means that whatever you do, you make sure it doesn’t bounce back on us in any way, and you’d better not let a fucking virgin or your fucking payback make you lose sight of that. You went through some shit. So I’ll give you some slack. But you better step real goddamn careful so I don’t have to snap it tight. And if I say she talks to Zoomie, she talks to Zoomie. If I say we turn her over to the feds, we turn her over to the feds. Until then, we’ll take care of her, keep Papa from touching her.”
Rot pours right off my tongue. “The way you took care of Anna?”
Everything goes real fucking quiet. Real fucking still. The prez stares at me, knuckles white, jaw clenched.
With lethal calm, he lifts his forefinger. “One minute to say your piece.”
Oh, I’ll say it. “They got to my sister,” I force out through clenched teeth. “My fucking sister. You want me to say my piece? First you explain to my satisfaction how that happened. The only thing I trusted while sitting in that stall was that Anna would be safe. That the Riders would look after her. That was the only fucking thing to hold onto. But they got to her, they made her bleed, and I killed a friend to protect her. To protect her, because you didn’t. I killed a man who was a brother to me because you let them get to her, and so I had to protect her from inside that fucking Cage. So don’t you talk to me about loyalty when I’ve got fifty brothers who should have been looking after her and not one of them did.”
By the end the rot has clogged up my throat so thick the words are barely getting through, each one sour and burning inside my chest.