Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“You’re leaving?” LD asks.
“He’s moving to Kentucky,” Diesel answers.
“What about Nora?” LD asks. “Are you just planning on leaving her?”
That’s it. That’s what severs the control I had. I turn back to face him and before he can do much more than blink, I draw my fist back and slam it into his face. The crunch of bone against bone is fucking satisfying—almost as much as the way the blood spurts from his broken nose. I probably would have laid a few more on the asshole if that one hadn’t knocked him on his ass. “I warned you,” I snap.
“LD are you okay?” Diesel’s girl Avery asks, clearly distressed. I heard they’d been seen out together by some of the brothers. I doubt Diesel knows. I wonder if Avery knows that LD’s still nailing every woman that he sees. Maybe I should make sure.
“I’m fine,” he says, wiping the blood away from his mouth. “What the fuck, Pez? Brother, listen, I don’t know what that bitch told you, but—”
I haul back and kick him. “She didn’t have to tell me shit, motherfucker. I walked into the house I’ve paid for, went into the bedroom I provided for me and my old lady, and saw you balls deep inside her, while slapping her ass and promising to fill her cunt with your load.”
The hands that had latched onto me to hold me back, dropped at once.
“LD? Is that true?” Avery asks.
“Ave,” he whines. She gets up and gives him one last look and then runs away. A couple of the girls around us follow her.
“Did you do that, LD?” Devil asks, who stands on one side of me and the other side Diesel is there. I didn’t want this shit. Still don’t. I’m done here. Maybe I saved Avery some heartache though, so I’m good with that. She’s too good for this piece of shit.
“Dad, Nora’s one of the club girls. She called. You know how it is.”
“Wrong, asshole. She was a club girl. The minute she became Pez’s old lady, that ended,” Diesel says.
“She called me. It’s not like I went looking for her,” he explains like that’s a fucking defense. He knew she was mine. It’s my patch she wears when she comes to club parties.
“Then you call your fucking brother,” Devil growls. “What you don’t do is touch an old lady without her man giving the all clear or being there. I taught you better than this shit.”
“We all have,” Diesel says. “I’m tempted to ask for your cut, but because you’re Devil’s son, I won’t.”
“I’ve earned my—”
Before he can keep talking, Devil pulls him up—using a rough hold on LD’s arm. “Shut the fuck up,” he growls at him.
“So, you can keep your prospect status, but you’re on probation. One more fuck-up, and it’s gone. For now, you can forget becoming a full member and until me and the rest of the boys are convinced you know what brotherhood means, you won’t be moving up. Get him out of my face Ryan,” Diesel says, telling his son—and LD’s best friend—to get him out of there.
“You can take a piece out of him if you want, Pez. It’s your right,” Diesel says, looking at me, before they leave.
“I’m good. If he hadn’t been Devil’s son, I would have killed him, but it’s just another sign that I need a new beginning. I don’t belong here.”
“Take him away, Ryan,” Diesel instructs again, before turning his gaze on LD. “And if I ever see you around Avery, I won’t take it easy on you like Pez did. You won’t have a club and it’s a toss-up as to if I’ll leave you breathing,” he snarls.
Devil slaps my shoulder. We share a look. He knows I spared his son’s life. Some things words just can’t encompass. So, I gave him a nod. Devil slaps hand grasping it and pulling me in or a hug. “I owe you, Pez. I owe you,” he says, then walks away without another word.
I watch him go and suddenly just feel exhaustion. I say the rest of my goodbyes in a haze. When I jump in my truck, I only have one thought and that’s to leave Tennessee in my rearview mirror.
I’m good if I never step foot back in this damn place again.
Chapter 3
Daphne
One Year Later
“Drew! What are you doing here?” I ask, hoping I keep the panic out of my voice, as I look at my brother on the front step.
Drew’s been stationed in California. I don’t see him that often. He entered the military when he graduated high school and hasn’t looked back. Sure, he comes back for holidays here and there, but he’s got a woman out west and with our parents being so screwed up, he doesn’t come home much.
“I’m here because I called Dane and heard that he and my baby sister are getting divorced. He told me you filed and blindsided him. So, I thought I’d take some leave and figure out why my little sister, who I talk to more than anyone else in my life, didn’t bother to tell me that she was going through a divorce,” he says at once. That’s Drew. He doesn’t beat around the bush. Nope, no softening his words. He’s direct and to the point, even when it’s fucking painful, and it is. It’s horribly, insanely painful.