Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Releasing her hair, he reaches into his cut, pulls out a gun, and fires it toward the passenger window, creating a small penny size hole right past Melanie’s face. Her horrified scream twists my insides. The gun isn’t stable in his grip. He could have easily hit her in the face. Jameson is going to take all his fingers for this. A ringing in my ears distorts my senses.
“Enough!” Idiot bellows, jarring his shoulders to shake Lily off.
“Okay. Okay.” I hold my hands up in surrender, not trusting his aim or mental state.
“Get back,” he orders, panting hard, trying to right the vehicle that’s now on the grass.
Lily continues to slap him before I pull her back, fear gripping my lungs, stealing my breath. My mother is still bent over, her head between her legs, hands trembling at her side.
“You bunch of crazy bitches! You could have killed us all!” He growls, smacking the gun against the side of Melanie’s head. “Try that shit again and I’ll have to hurt her.” He grits his teeth, smashing his fist into the steering wheel. The car jerks hard to the left, and he skids to straighten up, almost losing control. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he yells.
“What’s going on, Stephen?” Lily asks, her chest heaving.
His eyes cut to her in the rear-view mirror. “You know that’s not my name. I will shoot you,” he warns. My heart dips. Tears of anger mixed with fear build in my eyes, threatening to topple over. Taking a breath, I will them back. I’m not showing this little prick weakness.
“No one cares what your damn name is, asshole,” Lily spits out.
“Why?” he yells. “I’m a patched brother yet I’m still treated like a prospector—like I’m less than,” he whines. “I bet not one person other than PB knows my real name.”
“So, you betray them?” I scowl at him, acid burning my stomach. “Where’s your damn loyalty? Earn the respect you seem to think you’re entitled to,” I fume.
“I don’t have a choice,” he grinds out, his hand on the steering wheel tightening until the knuckle turns white.
“Why?” Melanie asks, her voice wavering, her gaze flitting between his face and the gun in his hand now resting on his thigh. “You can just pull over and let us out, take the car and get away from here,” she tells him.
“I can’t.” He skims his gaze to us through the mirror. “I need to trade you.”
The beating of my heart vibrates through every nerve in my body. “Trade for what? To whom?” I ask, already dreading the answer.
“Fisher,” he says, confirming my thoughts. “He has my kid brother.”
Blood rushes to my ears. My hands begin to shake as a phantom snake slithers up my spine. “He’s been looking for you. He will trade my brother for you,” he tells me, tracking me in the mirror.
“You don’t have to do this. You can tell Jameson and Animal the situation,” Melanie tries to reason with him.
“They’ll kill me,” he says matter-of-fact.
“No, not if you explain to them why.”
“Stop. You’re fucking saying the words but you know they’re not true. I betrayed the club, got brothers killed, there’s no coming back from this.”
“Let them go then,” I choke out, sitting forward and swiping an errant tear from my eye.
He turns briefly to see what I’m doing. “He wants me, right?” I point to my chest.
Frowning, he nods. “Then let them go. You don’t need them, and Fisher will kill them if you take them there. Do you really want more blood on your hands?” I plead, the hopelessness in my tone cracking my voice. “Melanie’s? She’s a doctor, no doubt helped you in the past. Lily is eighteen with her whole life to live. Please don’t take that away from her,” I beg, my voice breaking, the tears tipping over like a dam bursting. Jameson will never forgive himself if he loses us all in one go. My life, he will mourn, and Melanie will help him move on, but all three of us? Ezekiel’s face blossoms in my mind, and my heart dies a little inside.
Silence lingers for a few beats before he swerves the car over to a stretch of brush. “Doc and Lily can leave,” he says, leaning over the backrest, aiming his gun at me. “I’m sorry, but I need you.”
“What about me?” My mother suddenly comes alive, her hands tugging on the door handle to no avail.
“He wants you too,” Idiot informs her. We’re going to be made examples of.
“Please let me go.” She begins to panic, placing her palms together in a praying motion. “I’ll die. He’ll kill me. Please,” she cries.
“Shut up,” he orders, turning his gaze to Melanie. “Get out before I change my mind.” Melanie looks over her shoulder at me, indecision distorting her features. She doesn’t want to leave me but she has to. She knows she has to.