Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
She finally slows down and looks to me. “It’s bothering me a lot.”
“What is?” I ask, holding her gaze.
“That my father was planning on doing something so awful to me. I know he didn’t particularly like me, but I never thought he’d hurt me. It’s a shitty feeling when you suddenly realize that even your own family doesn’t give a shit about you.”
“They didn’t fuckin’ deserve you,” I tell her. “You’re a thousand times the person they were ...”
“Am I?” she laughs bitterly. “I was planning on taking this entire club down. I wanted to hurt you all. I wanted to see you suffer. How does that make me any better than them?”
“Because you didn’t do it,” I say, shocked at her plan.
Though I had a suspicion she was up to something.
“So?” she mutters, kicking the sand with her shoe. “I wanted to. God, I wanted to so badly it was all I could think about. Hell, part of me still does, just to get the bitter feeling out of my chest. Like if I hurt you all, then I won’t feel so much pain myself.”
“It won’t help, but you already know that. Deep down, you know that or you would have done somethin’ by now. What I did to you, what the club did, you have a right to be hurt about that but you don’t really want to hurt us, if you did you would have done it by now. You’re just lookin’ for a way to make yourself feel less pain, and you think that’s how you’re goin’ to do that.”
“Since when did you become a therapist?” she asks, her lips twitching.
I grunt. “Since I had to deal with all the shit this club throws around. We’re all fucked up, Avi, it’s how we control it that counts.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“We’ll find the men that want you and we’ll get them out of the picture. You’ll be able to go and live the free life you fuckin’ deserve and you’ll be able to do it with a fuck load of money and choices. If I can give you anything for what I did, I’ll give you that. I’ll make sure you’re safe. I’ll make sure you’re free.”
She stares over at me, small fingers curling around the chains of the swing. Her hair blows over her face, but she doesn’t reach up to move it, she just looks at me with those intense eyes. “You could get hurt going after them.”
“Chance I’m willing to take.”
“You’d do that, for me?”
I grin at her, because she’s asked me that very same question once before, and I answered her then the same way I’ll answer her now. “I’d do fuckin’ anything for you.”
She smiles, the first true smile she’s given me since she came back. “Well, I should hope so.”
There she is.
A glimmer of the girl we lost.
One way or another, I’m going to get her back.
I’m going to get Aviana back.
14
NOW – AVIANA
“I wasn’t entirely honest with you,” I tell Alarick and the group of bikers all glaring at me as I speak. “It’s not as safe as you thought, nor is it as easy to get to Benedict. It’s possible, but it’s dangerous. I’m not going to lie to you any further, so I will tell you that I wanted you to get hurt, I wanted you all to get caught out. I was angry, I was bitter, but I’m telling you the truth now.”
“You were goin’ to have my club ambushed?” Alarick growls.
“Yes,” I say honestly. “Yes, I was.”
“What makes me believe you’re tellin’ the truth now?”
I glance at Cohen. “Because I trust that you’ll have my back and make sure nothing bad happens to me. In exchange, I’m coming clean. I didn’t have to, but I am. I’m choosing to try and leave the past behind and to do that, I have to be honest.”
Alarick stares at Cohen and then back at me. “You put her up to this?”
Cohen shrugs. “I gave her the truth, she gave me the truth. Fair deal.”
“So, we’re fucked then?” Kendric growls, clenching his fists. “We’re goin’ to walk into a fuckin’ battle with wooden swords.”
So dramatic.
“No, you’re not fucked,” I say, crossing my arms. “And wood can do a lot of damage.”
“Don’t be fuckin’ smart with me,” he warns.
I give him a grin to try and ease the anger flowing out of him, then I look back to Alarick. “I know where Benedict spends a lot of his time. I can get him alone. When I do that, you can take him. Once you’ve got him, the hardest part is over. As for where the rest of them are, that’ll be easy enough because they don’t allow a lot of people there so you’ll have more than enough men.”
“You’re goin’ to risk your life, so we can get Benedict?”