Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
To the men, family came first, whether family by blood or by Fury. And it hit home what Whip had said. They were going to do what they had to do to protect their own.
No matter what.
Even if they had to die doing it.
Fallon hoped to hell that never happened. Now that the biggest threat to the Fury was gone, it hopefully never would.
As she pushed open the side door and stepped out from The Barn, she glanced across the courtyard. The late afternoon sun blinded her for a moment, forcing her to shade her eyes with her hand. Her heart squeezed as she spotted him.
Alone and waiting.
Whip’s eyes locked on Fallon while he ground the end of his joint out on the picnic table. Her expression was unreadable as she trekked across the grassy courtyard once she spotted him sitting on top of the table under the pavilion.
He realized he’d been holding his breath since the second she stepped outside. She’d been in The Barn with the women for fucking hours.
Hours.
Every fucking minute of those hours had been pure torture.
Too many times he wanted to go inside and check to see what was going on. What was being said. To witness Fallon’s reaction to it all.
He had to force himself to sit back down. To wait it out.
To try his fucking best to be patient.
To not claw out his heart, burst into The Barn and hand it to her.
It was difficult.
What the women said could change everything. His future… Hell, his and Fallon’s future relied on it.
He had left it in the sisterhood’s hands.
And that was fucking terrifying.
Unfortunately, he had no idea if she was coming over to say goodbye.
Or if after everything she heard, she was willing to give them a chance.
He’d seen some of his brothers struggle at the thought of losing their women forever. He never thought he’d be in their boots.
But here he was.
Waiting impatiently to find out if this was the end or the beginning.
He climbed off the picnic table and turned to face her as she stopped in front of him. He studied her face closely, trying to get a read on her. To prepare for the worst.
When her blue eyes hit his, they locked and held for a few silent moments.
In his head he heard the same ticking as he had while on the mountain before the blasts.
“It was a lot,” she said softly.
“Yeah,” he breathed.
“Those women are amazing. I said they were strong but they are so much more. The sacrifices they made. Jemma raising a daughter that wasn’t hers. Chelle taking on Jude. Autumn taking on three young ones. Reese, at only eleven, taking on the very adult responsibility of raising her baby sister. Syn and Reilly and…” She shook her head. “So many stories bond those women together. That bond them to their men. This might not be what’s considered a typical lifestyle but it works for all of you. You all support each other, love each other, protect each other and help raise the children as one big family.”
When she paused he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to respond or not.
“But it isn’t all light, Whip. Darkness also lurks beneath the surface. I know the stories I heard in there aren’t the only ones. Secrets swirl around you all whether they’re personal or involve the whole club. But I’m an outsider and I understand they went against the club’s ‘code’ to tell me as much as they did. I’m thankful that they were as open as they were.”
He closed his eyes for a second because he was waiting for the other fucking boot to drop and the tightness in his chest had become unbearable. “Fallon…”
When she reached up and cupped his face, he opened his eyes. “They love you, Whip. They want you to be happy.”
“Fallon…” She needed to know what he was truly capable of before she made any decisions, even if admitting it hurt him in the end. Because if he didn’t tell her now, she might find out in the future and he didn’t want to hurt her again. “I stabbed our prospect in the fuckin’ throat.”
“I know and I also know why. You do what you have to do to protect your own,” she said, repeating his own explanation from the other night on the phone. “But you also do what you have to do to protect the vulnerable. Gabi’s proof of that. Ezrah, Noah and Cyrus are, as well.”
“What I did don’t bother you?”
“Of course it does. But what Scar was doing to Gabi disturbs me more. There was a consequence for his depravity. You just served him that consequence.”
“Got there too late to save her from what he did.”
“But you stopped it. You also saved her from what would’ve continued if she remained with that clan. You gave her a chance to heal and finish growing up. If she had remained with them, she would’ve been forced to become a mother by men who would’ve continued doing what Scar did. She would’ve had the same fate as Autumn.”