Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
She hadn’t really told Mayhem the full details of why she wanted to leave only that things hadn’t worked out. There were things with Big she couldn’t deal with. After she’d assured him Big hadn’t hurt her, because Patch or not, she was Mayhem’s sister, and if Big had laid a hand on her, Mayhem would have gone ballistic, her brother had let it go.
He didn’t pry, didn’t question what happened, and she’d been thankful for that. He’d accepted what she’d said, and that was the end of it.
“I know, and I will, but I don’t think right now is the right time. I need a minute to process this before I jump into that.”
“You know this is your home. You stay here as long as you want, Claire.”
“Thank you, Mayhem.” She’d known she’d be welcome, and aside from the Steven issue, the main issue on her mind was Big and how she was going to deal with him.
Given the circumstance, Mayhem thought he’d done one hell of a job keeping his shit together. He waited until Claire was out of the room, the door shut, and he could no longer hear her footsteps moving down the hall before he turned toward the wall.
Curling his hand into a fist, he reared his arm back and slammed it against the plaster, pieces of it falling away. The pain in his knuckles wasn’t anything compared to the rage he felt.
“Fuck,” he said to himself and shook off the discomfort in his hand. He was going to fucking kill that bastard. He knew, even after the shit that had gone down with her and Big—a situation neither of had talked about— that Big would be all up in this, too.
Yeah, things were going to get dark where that bastard Steven was concerned. Claire should have never left the club, never left her life, especially not because of Big, but Mayhem hadn’t stopped her.
She was an adult, able to handle herself, and he wasn’t her father no matter how much Mayhem wanted to protect her.
But he’d get revenge on her behalf, and it would be sweet fucking destruction.
5
Claire sat in one of the spare rooms at the club. She’d never been one to have friendships with the sweet-butts, not because she thought she was better than they were but more like they hadn’t wanted anything to do with her.
Maybe they saw her as some kind of threat, or maybe they were jealous because she had a relationship with the club they’d never be able to experience. The guys didn’t want sluts as old ladies. They wanted women that had their backs, that were just as strong as they were.
Maybe that’s why Big had never made Claire an old lady? Maybe she wasn’t strong enough.
She rubbed a hand over her face but immediately dropped it to the bed and winced. Her face was sore, felt swollen, and she knew it was bruised. She hadn’t looked at herself in anything more than her small mirror in her bag, and it had been bad enough that she hadn’t wanted to see any more.
She should have killed Steven when she had the chance, because she wouldn’t have had to worry about him tracking her down. Claire supposed she’d be in a different kind of shitty situation.
Breathing out, her body exhausted but her mind still running a mile a minute, she lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She thought about her reaction when she’d seen Big, about how much she still wanted him.
That wasn’t a surprise, though, not when she loved him still. God, yeah, she loved him, even after all this time. Leaving had been a dumb move, but at the time, it had seemed right, like it would solve her problems. It hadn’t, not in any way.
Claire had thought about Big daily. When he hadn’t come for her, hadn’t told her he was in love with her, too, that he wanted her as something more than a piece of ass, she’d told herself moving on was right. It still hurt like hell, though.
His reaction today as he stood there and just stared at her, no emotion on his face, told her nothing had changed where he was concerned.
“You’re here for one reason and one reason only. Big doesn’t have anything to do with it.” She closed her eyes and tried to get some rest, because she knew the next sequence of events would be pretty intense.
6
Everyone was in the meeting room, no one sitting, all the patches watching their VP as he clenched and relaxed his hands at his sides. Their president, Fury, stood by the wall, his arms crossed, a mean motherfucking look on his face.
Fury usually wore that expression, and unless you knew him personally and were on his good side, it was best not to cross him. That was how he got his nickname because fuck with Fury and that’s what you got from him.