Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” the guy said.
Dinah looked up and frowned. “I can’t remember your name.”
“Tank,” he said.
“Dinah.” She held her hand out and watched as he hesitated, but then he took her hand in his.
She saw the scars on his hands. Tank was the one who was taken by Sergey. Faith had just told her. His words suddenly permeated her brain and she found herself frowning. “What?”
“You heard me. All of us at one time worked for Sergey Golubev. We all were loyal to that crazy son of a bitch, and then, one by one, we’ve all got a story to tell about why we ended up here.”
Dinah didn’t realize they had all worked for Sergey. Actually, no, that wasn’t accurate, she knew they had all worked for him, but she figured for most of them, it would have been reluctantly, seeing as they were now enemies of Sergey.
“Why did you form a club?” she asked.
“One goal—to take down the Golubev Bratva once and for all,” Tank said.
They were all being so open and honest with her, and she knew why. The life she had known was over. There was no freedom for her anymore. Sergey had made sure of that. She didn’t blame Road for this. She was starting to realize that with Nikki’s warning, and him telling her the truth, this was his way of setting her free. Or at least he had tried to set her free.
“And what happens when you succeed?” she asked.
“Simple. We make sure the Golubev Bratva doesn’t rise again.”
“Road shot Sergey,” Dinah said.
She’d watched the bullet enter Sergey.
“But we don’t know if it killed him,” Tank said. “And I know Sergey, trust me, unless he was dead on the ground, that evil fucker is coming back, and when he does, he is going to haunt everyone.”
Dinah didn’t like that. This was just another good sign that she was inside the clubhouse. Road had already been to her home and gathered up her belongings. She couldn’t believe it had come to this.
“Are you here to tell me to forgive Road?” she asked.
“No, I’m here to tell you that things are not always black and white. They’re grey. Some of us had to fall to see the truth. Sergey is a monster. All of us know that, and the reason we’ve banded together to take him on, is we’re the ones that all helped to put him on top. It’s our responsibility to remove him.”
“It’s not going to be easy.”
“Nothing in this world is, and trust me, as someone who has seen real darkness, you have to grasp onto anything light with both hands, and never let it go.”
****
“You’re moping,” Brute said.
“Fuck off.”
“You’re drowning your sorrows and you’ve been doing that every single night since Dinah came here. None of the women even want to offer you company anymore. You’re becoming the club leper.”
“I shower regularly.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“I know what you meant,” Road said.
“Why don’t you just go and talk to her? Would that be so hard?”
Road took a long drink of his beer. “Would you still want to talk to Faith after everything?”
“If I put the order in to hurt her mom?” Brute asked.
“Yes.”
“In case you’ve not been paying attention, I kidnapped Faith, which according to Tank, made Sergey torture her mother. He forced multiple men to rape her and then clean the mess up off the floor, before he slit her throat. That woman was tortured and it was because of me. I still talked to Faith. I still got her to fall in love with me, and now she is my wife, and she has given me a son. Trust me, these things have a way of working themselves out.”
Road had avoided Dinah.
He ran a hand down his face. Once again, he felt the memory of his own scars, and he’d kept his distance, all while making sure she had everything she needed.
The doctor had been back to check on her hand. It had all but healed up. Now it was up to Dinah to work it.
Her equipment was all in the basement. He knew several of the women had wanted to approach her about a new haircut or something, but he had told them to keep their distance.
Dinah was here for her safety, which he imagined was already a cage for her.
Road tapped his hand on the counter of the bar and asked for another beer from Igor. The brother gave him a second one, with all the judgment reflecting right back in his eyes. He didn’t give a fuck what the club brother thought of him.
Leaving the main clubhouse, he entered the corridor that would take him to the bedrooms. Dinah was on the ground floor, and he walked down, going toward the final door on the right. He took a deep breath.