Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
But I wouldn’t be stopped.
I couldn’t be.
I had to find Dereck. Save him. I had to wonder if he’d even had his phone this whole time. If all my pleas had been met with silence because he’d never been given the chance to return them.
I slowed to a crawl when I finally made out the white stucco wall in the distance.
My nerves bucked like electric charges.
Trees grew right up against the barrier, and shrubs and vines crawled up over the sides and top.
I went covert as I slinked beneath the green, lush canopy.
Heart so freaking loud I didn’t know how it didn’t send the birds scattering for safety.
I slowed almost to a stop as I came up to the wall.
I looked in every direction.
Terrified.
Mortified.
Hurt.
No one was there to stop me.
A wave of relief pummeled me, or maybe it was just an exaggerated billow of grief.
The kind that drummed and churned and made you desperate to run, even though you were fully aware it was going to catch up to you at any moment and overthrow you.
I managed to get ahold of an overhead limb, and I hoisted myself up, using my feet for leverage as I hauled myself up on a branch and started to climb.
I reached the top, and a gasp of surprise that I’d actually done it escaped, before I fumbled back down the same way on the other side.
Free when it was the last thing I wanted to be.
FIFTY-EIGHT
SILAS
“This is it.”
I stood at the head of the worn table, my hands planted on the wood, eyes skating over every Crow in the dim, cavernous room.
Violence and determination buzzed through the air, and every breath was like sucking razors into my lungs.
Bare nicks that only added to the frenzy.
“Everyone has been given their assignments. If there are any questions or reservations, I need to hear them now.”
I glanced around again, gauging each of my men.
“Nay,” Cliff gritted, clearly speaking for all of them. “We are ready, Prez, and not one of us will stop until we bring these motherfuckers to their end.”
“World’s gonna burn tonight,” Regan added with a grim dip of his red beard.
My attention kept skating, meeting the nods and grunts of affirmation of every Crow in the room.
We’d been in meetings all day, hours spent going over plans in fine detail.
Final strategies.
Techniques.
Memorizing every entry point and guarded crevice within Kent Ellison’s compound.
The other jobs would be simple. Straightforward. Types that we undertook on the regular.
In and out without anyone knowing we were there.
It was the compound that loomed like a slaughterhouse.
For years, I’d believed if I died ridding the earth of that monster and his mob, it would be worth it, and on some level, that belief remained.
But now, everything had changed.
I’d promised to come home.
I needed to come home.
And I wasn’t a man who went back on his promises, and the truth was, the only thing I wanted was to come home to Brinley because I finally understood what home really meant.
“Good,” I ground out, then I swallowed around the nails in my throat.
“No matter what happens tonight, I’m fucking proud of every single one of you. Proud of what you do and who you are. The commitment and sacrifice you’ve made. The fact that you came into this MC thinking it was one thing and you stayed when you realized the true mission. You might be brutal. Wrought with rage. But you’ve proven who you really are, and I’m honored to get to be your leader.”
Fists pounded on the table and the walls, the low toll of their voices echoing through the hollow chamber of the room. “Born in chaos. Forged by iron. Sworn to vengeance.”
“Then let’s fucking do this,” I growled on a shout.
Everyone flew to their feet and piled out of Church and down the hall. The normal raucous they exuded was bated and contained. Saved up for the fight that was to come.
We poured out through the bar and into the fading light, darkness creeping in to consume the last vestiges of pinks and blues.
A single star blinked through a break in the trees.
My chest compressed and swelled. True hope hitting me for the very first time. A blossoming of faith and burgeoning of commitment.
I wanted to turn on my boots and hike a path back to the house so I could hug my family. Hold Kai and hug Elena and Meems and kiss the fuck out of Brinley before I went.
But I didn’t have time to get distracted right then. Only thing I could do was pull out my phone and shoot off a text to Fuse, one of my most skilled Crows who was heading the detail assigned to keeping our compound safe while we were away.
Me
Confirm that Brinley is back at the house with the rest of my family.