Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“Yes. He found us in town. He wanted to talk. I was with him for a while. He couldn’t have been on the road at the same time.”
I’m not protecting Gage, I’m just telling the truth, even though the truth won’t protect me.
Kael turns, then with a growl he too kicks his bike over, sending it crashing into another one. They go down like dominos, and everyone just stands there, their faces blank as the bikes crash to the ground. Mera is crying after hearing the news of the members who passed, and I’m left standing there, not knowing where to go.
“We’re not done with this conversation,” Wolfe mutters before turning and leaving me in the dust, alone.
I need to get away from all of these bikers, staring at me like I was the one to pull the trigger. I move past the club house, and toward the back sheds where it’s quiet. Stepping inside, Kael is there, leaning against the trunk of a ruined Mustang. He’s got a bottle of beer in his hands and his head is lowered.
He doesn’t look up, but I know he hears me because his whole body tenses.
“What do you want, Sable,” he grinds out.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I say, not stepping closer.
“About what? How you were with your fuckin’ man?”
“What do you want from me, Kael?”
He finally looks up, pinning me with his stare. “I want you to quit playing everyone. Especially me.”
“You know, I’m done being told I’m playing with anyone. I haven’t done a fucking thing. I haven’t once asked you for anything, Kael. You’re the one who came after me. Not the other way around. I never promised you shit.”
“You let me put my fuckin’ dick inside you.”
I slap him.
It comes as both a shock to me and him.
The sound radiates through the room.
He takes a step forward. Kael is six foot something of muscle, rage and pain, but I’m not backing up, not even when he gets close enough for me to smell the beer on his breath.
“Fuck you,” I hiss. “I am so fucking confused and messed up and broken, but I thought you were different. I thought you saw something in me that he never did. But here you are proving you are just like him. Let me do you a favor and get out of your hair.”
I turn and leave him there, alone with the ruined car and his asshole attitude.
I rush out of the compound, but the harsh reality is ... I have nowhere to go.
IT’S DARK BY THE TIME I find the little park near Main Street, the kind with equipment so ancient even the ghosts of children have abandoned it. A single streetlight flickers near the curb, and over the road, people are leaving their workplaces for the night. I find a swing and sit on it, praying it doesn’t break, because the squeaking sound it makes has me uneasy.
My hands shake. I press them flat between my thighs to keep them still, trying to calm my breathing. Today I learned something, a bitter truth that I always knew but never fully accepted until right now. I have no one. No one to come pick me up. No dad to ground me. No best friend to offer wine. The full weight of it slams into me.
I am completely alone.
I can’t help the tears that flow down my cheeks. I hiccup through them, not bothering to swipe them away.
At some point, the low growl of a motorcycle roars through the night. It parks on the curb before everything goes quiet again. It’s either someone from Kael’s club, or Gage. There are no other options. I guess it depends who felt like a little more fighting tonight.
As he approaches, I am shocked to see it is Kael.
I didn’t think he would come.
He takes the swing next to mine, the chains groaning under his weight. Neither of us speak. For a long time, he just sits, elbows propped on knees, eyes locked somewhere near the broken slides.
“I fucked up,” he finally says, so quiet I almost miss it. “You’re right. I got no claim. You don’t belong to me. Never did. Maybe never will.”
I wipe my face hard and sniff. “I get it, Kael, believe me I do. But the situation I’m in, it’s so god damned confusing. I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“Understand that, but I need you to know, you owe me nothin’.”
I wrap my hands around the chains, the night air giving me a chill. “You’re wrong. I owe you my life.”
The silence grows thick again, but it’s not heavy. It’s ... honest.
He shifts, and the swing moves as he angles himself slightly toward me. “Tell me about him.”
It takes me a second to realize he means Gage. But not the monster, not the biker, but the man who pulled me from a wreck and saved me from a life that would have killed me.