Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
The sudden lurch as we take off doesn’t even faze me anymore. I lean with Colt, enjoy the wind in my face, and by the time we’re pulling up in front of my apartment, if anything, the ride has helped clear my head.
“You okay?” Colt looks at me over his shoulder, his fingers stroking the back of my hand that’s still around him. I know we should go inside, but it’s just so comforting to be wrapped around him on the back of the bike.
“Physically? Yes. Mentally? I have no idea.”
28
Chapter 28 - Quinn
Priest looks at me like I’m absolutely batshit insane. “You’re gonna have to go over this with me one more time. You saw who? Because I know for sure you didn’t just tell me Axel.”
Sinner and Priest must’ve broken every speed limit on their way here.
“It was him. I’m sure. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but he’s alive, and for some reason he chose to show up now.” I shake my head in disbelief. I can hardly believe it myself, but I know I wasn’t dreaming.
“But the cops… and he never… Why would he hide for ten years, if that’s true? I don’t fucking understand it.” Priest paces in a circle around the couch as he thinks. He looks about like I felt earlier. And then as he starts punching his palm, angry. Angrier and angrier. “How fucking dare he?”
He passes a little too close, and the new chair gets in his way, so he kicks it.
“Priest…” I try. “Here, throw this.” I pluck the roses out of the vase and hand them to him. “They were from Mom’s boyfriend, and right now? I don’t want to see the reminder.”
“Fuck!” I thought he’d throw one flower. Instead, he pulls the whole vase out of my hand and throws it out the balcony door that’s open to let in the breeze. It hits the parking lot with a crash, way down there. Hopefully, he didn’t hit a car. “Goddamn it!”
“Heath!” The snap of my voice draws his attention to me. “Stop.”
“How the fuck can I stop? How are you so goddamn calm?” He finally takes the last flower from my hand and throws it after the vase.
It’s my turn to stare at him like he’s the crazy one. “Calm? I almost passed out when I saw him. I practically had a nervous breakdown. Your best friend? He’s my freaking brother, but destroying the furniture Paige and the others brought me isn’t going to fix it.”
It takes a moment, but he nods and pulls himself together with a shuddering breath. “I know. I’m just… so fucking frustrated. And I think I want to kill him, for real this time.”
As much as I hate separating myself from Colt’s hug, I get to my feet and come around the couch to where Priest is standing uselessly. Like he wants to do something, anything, but doesn’t know what. I cup his face in my hands and try to pull him down to me. After a brief resistance, he does, wrapping me in his strong arms and kissing me softly. I’m not sure who is comforting who, me or Priest.
“He’s coming to the club tomorrow morning,” Colt says. “We’ll let him speak his piece then. If we don’t like what he says, we can shove him into a cell and see what Ghost can pull out of him.”
I shiver. “God, I don’t know how I’m going to wait until tomorrow.”
“Sorry, honey, but no way I was allowing that situation to continue.” Colt reaches over the back of the couch, having just enough reach to stroke my side. “You were obviously fucked up, and I couldn’t protect you by myself with so many people and variables. At the club it’ll be just us, him and a controlled environment.”
I nod. I don’t have to like it, but he makes sense. “I think I need a minute.”
I go into my bedroom and swing the door mostly closed. Crawling up onto the bed, I pull my knees to my chest and stare out the massive windows at the twinkling lights of the city below. After a few minutes, there’s a soft rap at the door. It’s Priest.
“Come in.”
He gets on the bed, sitting behind me with his legs on either side of mine, and pulls me into his chest. “For a while after he was gone, I used to pretend he was coming back. That the whole thing had been a mistake.”
“Me too.”
“If it’s really him, I don’t think he would’ve stayed away for no reason.”
I nod and wiggle even closer. “I know. But is his reason enough?”
“I don’t know.”
I turn my head to look at him, and he leans in to kiss me. It’s not an urgent kiss, more like the two of us making sure we aren’t alone in this. That whatever we’re feeling, it’s shared. Colt and Sinner come in after a while, stretching out on either side of me without saying a word. If you didn’t know them, you’d never imagine they could be so gentle.