Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 115186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
“Stop,” Maddie whispered, not finding this situation as entertaining as her sister.
“How’d you get injured?” Jude asked.
The kid had to be in his late teens or early twenties by now. He’d grown like a fucking weed since he first arrived in Manning Grove.
“From not mindin’ my own business.”
Jude chuckled and stabbed the last potato wedge on his plate with his fork. “I’m assuming you killed them for what they did.”
Maddie’s fork clattered to her plate, and she dropped her head in her hands with a groan.
Shade’s expression remained unreadable.
Josie’s eyes grew as wide as her plate before she burst out in a peel of laughter.
And Chelle scolded, “Jude! Not at the dinner table!”
But on the couch would be perfectly okay?
Jude shrugged and grinned. “That’s how we’d handle it in the Fury.”
Romeo frowned. “You a member now?”
The kid’s chest puffed out. “Prospect.”
Romeo grunted and glanced at Maddie again. She rolled her eyes at her younger brother’s boasting.
Apparently, Shade hadn’t schooled his “son” on how club business should remain within the club. That meant patched members only. “Guessin’ you haven’t learned yet, you don’t mention that kinda shit in mixed company.”
“Like they don’t know what—”
“Jude!” Shade barked.
Jude pressed his lips together.
“He’s right,” Shade murmured. “Runnin’ your mouth’s a good way to get your cut pulled.”
Romeo got whiplash when Jude quickly switched topics. “You eatin’ your potatoes?”
He slid his plate over to Jude. “All yours.” He watched Jude shovel the crispy potato wedges into his gullet as fast as he could.
“Sorry that you didn’t enjoy your meal,” Chelle apologized softly.
Shit. “Ain’t that. The pain’s fuckin’ up my stomach.” And, of course, his pain right now was a level ten out of ten because of being manhandled by Shade and Easy. But he took his own advice and wouldn’t mention that shit in mixed company.
It wasn’t only the pain that made him lose his appetite. It was the fact he had no idea about the point of this dinner. He really needed to get Maddie by herself later and have another convo. Let her know he wasn’t blowing smoke up her ass about wanting her to wear his cut.
Maybe she believed it as much as he did.
He definitely lost his goddamn mind.
When he looked over at her, she was smiling at him behind her glass of water.
Had she forgiven him or was that some evil smile because she knew this was to be his last meal?
Was this her idea of revenge for him fucking up her future?
A buzz had his heart jumping out of his chest.
Everyone at the table checked their phones except for Chelle.
And Romeo. Because he wasn’t taking his eyes off anyone.
With his phone in hand, Shade slid his chair back. He turned his dark eyes to Romeo. “They’re waitin’ for us.”
Say what? “Who?”
“Let’s go,” was Shade’s response, along with a jerk of his head toward the front of the house.
For fuck’s sake. This day was turning out to be all kinds of fucked. “I got a choice?”
“No.”
“Can I go?” Jude asked.
“No,” Shade repeated.
Maddie’s expression told him nothing.
Shade’s face told him shit.
The taste of dread in his mouth was bitter. “You know what this is?” he asked Maddie.
She shook her head. “No. But you’re in good hands.”
She wouldn’t be saying that shit if she knew what game her stepdaddy played with him in the middle of the night.
He grabbed the crutch leaning against the table and used it to help himself stand.
“Bye, Romeo!” Josie yelled as he followed the long-haired Fury member to the front door.
He paused when he heard Chelle call out, “Good luck!”
Romeo had no idea what the fuck was going on, but he was damn sure he could use all the luck he could get.
Limping his way up the stairs to the second floor at The Barn, the Fury’s church, had sucked. When he stepped inside the Blood Fury’s meeting room, he found the officers already sitting around the solid wood table with the club logo carved in it dead center.
Shade hadn’t been shitting him when he said “they” were waiting.
Trip was leaning back in the chair at the head of the table at the opposite end of where Romeo stood leaning on his crutch.
He damn sure didn’t like being in the hot seat. Though, he wasn’t invited to actually sit, despite having two obvious broken limbs.
“Came to claim Maddie, huh?” Sig, Trip’s brother and the club’s VP, asked.
“Doin’ this backward, ain’t ya?” Cage, their road captain, asked next.
“Didn’t have to do it at all,” Romeo told them.
Trip cocked an eyebrow. “That right?”
It wasn’t, but the fuck if he was changing his answer. He had the utmost respect for Trip and the rest of the Fury members, but he wasn’t some damn chump. He was the goddamn president of the Dark Knights MC. He didn’t answer to them. He was only here out of respect.