Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 80664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Someone screamed.
But it was too late.
It all went away.
Everything.
I was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Thia
Lights. Sounds.
Barking?
I woke up with a start like I’d been launched into consciousness from one world to the next. I sat up so quickly it was like an involuntary knee-jerk reaction to be able to pass air into my lungs again. Opening and closing my mouth I gulped for more air, which came much slower than I wanted.
But at least it came. My breaths were short and staccato.
I’d gone from the land of nothingness into a flurry of commotion. The room spun around me as each of my senses was shocked back to life like they’d just been struck by lightning.
My brief death had taken a toll on me. My neck was sore. My head throbbed. I reached for my throat. I swallowed and it felt as if I’d gargled with sand or broken glass, or a cocktail of both.
There was a crash.
Surprised by the sudden noise I stupidly craned my damaged neck around the side of the bed to see where the noise had come from, and was immediately rewarded with a severe stabbing sensation in and around my throat.
I pushed through the pain, dragging myself on the floor instead of causing further injury to my neck. When I’d moved far enough to see around the bed, my eyes landed on the scene playing out in front of me.
* * *
The spinning room began to slow until it thankfully came to a stop. When I was finally able to take a deep breath I coughed on the exhale, drawing the attention of Mr. Carson, who was on his knees beside the bed. His white shirt torn around his right arm, revealing an open and bloodied gash across his bicep. He pursed his lips and although he was the one on his knees he looked smug, like he’d somehow still won.
The Bear from that morning was not the same Bear who was now in that room, standing behind Mr. Carson with a gun to the back of his head.
Bear looked possessed. A vein throbbed in his temple. His chest heaving up and down. Even the veins running down his defined abdomen, disappearing into his low-slung jeans, looked as though they were pulsing with anger.
“Ti,” Bear said, calling me even further back to the land of the living. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, my voice hoarse and scratchy. It hurt to speak, but it was nowhere near the pain I’d felt just minutes before. I grabbed onto the bedpost, hoisting myself into a standing position. “Do you know who he is?” I asked, looking at the man on his knees.
Bear nodded, pushing the barrel of his gun against the back of the man’s head. “His name is Tretch. He’s a nomad Chop uses on occasion to carry out his dirty work. He’s less known than the crew at Logan’s Beach and when he’s not wearing a cut he looks like a fucking pussy so he’s believable as a civilian.”
“He’s Mr. Carson to me. The guy I shot. The Sunnlandio guy.” Bear laughed wickedly and smacked the butt of his gun against the back of Tretch’s head, who winced and swayed, but didn’t fall.
“This motherfucker is going to wish you killed him,” Bear seethed.
“Bear,” I started, leaning on the bed for support.
“No, Ti. Don’t try and talk me out of it,” Bear said, fire dancing in his eyes. He paced the floor, two steps one way and then two steps the other. His eyes didn’t meet mine. “This fucker laid his hands on you, Ti. His life ends now. The last fucker got away with a broken arm.” Bear leaned down next to Tretch and spoke directly into his ear. “Unfortunately for you, I’m all out of broken arms today.”
“Bear,” I said again, trying to get his attention.
“Ti, it’s not an option, he’s—”
“Bear!” I shouted past the pain, possibly tearing something in my throat. Bear’s eyes finally snapped to mine as if I’d temporarily brought him out of his murderous trance. “I’m not trying to stop you,” I coughed out. “I just don’t want you to shoot him.” I could see the light go off in Bear’s eyes. He knew what I meant, just like he always seemed to know what I meant without me having to explain it. “Tretch wrapped his hands around my throat and tried to choke the life from me. I think you need to repay the favor.” I pulled myself onto the bed, crawling up to where I could be closer to Bear and look down at the piece of shit who almost killed me.
Tretch may have never worked for the Sunnlandio Corporation, but it didn’t matter. The man on his knees in my parents’ old bedroom might as well have worked for them, because to me represented the evil of that company, the evil of the MC who’d tried at every turn to bring death to our doorstep, to rip Bear from me and me from Bear. The idea so absurd, I tossed my head back and started to laugh.
I was manic.
I was insane.
Maybe I’d inherited some of my mother’s crazy after all.
I wasn’t laughing because I was asking the man I love to strangle someone to death, but because I honestly didn’t think that even death could separate us.
“You sure?” Bear asked me warily. I abruptly stopped laughing.
Bear was a biker who didn’t need a scared little girl, he may not have been in a club anymore but he still needed an old lady.
He needed me.
I nodded, and not just because I thought that’s what Bear wanted from me, but because I’d never been so sure of anything before.
“No! No! Let’s talk about this!” Trench shouted. He tried to stand but Bear kicked out the back of his legs and sent him back down to the floor.
“Like this, baby?” Bear asked. There was a quiet reverence in his voice. He handed me his gun and I took over the job of keeping it aimed at Tretch. Bear wrapped his big strong hands around Tretch’s throat and started to squeeze, just as Tretch had done to me.