Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Even as the words leave me, I know it’ll never be what it once was. If that’s what I want, the family the club used to be, I might as well start over.
That very thought echoes in Reed’s eyes.
“They don’t want me in there and that’s fine. But I would never–” Seeing my hellcat give in, seeing her cower under the idea of going back … I fucking lose it.
“It’s not fine! Who the fuck said they don’t want you there? My uncle?”
“Calm down, Cillian.”
“It’s my fucking club,” I scream, my muscles coiling.
“My father’s,” I add and my voice splits with emotion I have no fucking intention of dealing with. “I should have been there,” I shout, each word emphasized with the slamming of my fist.
“How could they make you feel like you weren’t welcome?” I say and stare down Kat, my everything. Her eyes are glossy and I can’t fucking take it.
“Reed, how could you let this happen!” I’m met with nothing but silence, both of them staring at me like they would a wild, uncaged animal. “I should fucking kill him …”
“No one’s killing anyone right now, Cill. Man, you just got out,” Reed points out, attempting to temper my anger.
“I need you to calm down so I can tell you—” Kat does the same, although she doesn’t finish.
“Tell me what?”
“When I … when we stopped …” My hellcat grips the counter as if she needs it to hold her up. “I was with someone and your uncle found out, and that’s why.”
“So fucking what? So what if you slept with someone. That’s between us. It’s none of his fucking business.” I don’t care that she fucked someone. I care that he wasn’t good enough to keep her and that she’s mine now. That’s all that matters. My uncle can go to hell if he doesn’t like it.
“Cill … it’s who.”
“Who? Who was it?”
“I think you should calm down,” Reed offers, no longer sitting as he steps away from the table.
“I have to tell him. I have to, Reed,” she says and Kat’s shoulders crumple on his name. What the fuck is going on.
Who could make her break down? My hellcat. I only survived that first year because of her. What the hell is going on?
“Cillian, just sit down, man.” Reed glances to Kat, his agony in her pain … I finally put two and two together.
It’s a bullet to the chest. Shocking and paralyzing as I realize it was Reed.
“Was it you?” I manage, the words sounding heavy and deep as the room blurs and all I can see is my best friend’s face.
“You fucked her and dropped her,” I speak the reality out loud. It was him … and he let the club drop her? He let her turn into this weak version who’s more afraid than I’ve ever seen her.
“You did this to her?” My body’s heavy as I stand, the legs of the chair scraping against the floor as I straighten my back.
“No, it wasn’t like that,” Reed insists, taking a hesitant step away from both Kat and myself.
Kat’s apologies are drowned out by him telling me to calm down.
“You fucked her?” I ask although they’ve already admitted it. Denial and betrayal bring my hand to form a fist, the skin across my knuckles stretched so tight they turn white.
With a single glance down, Reed’s hands fall to his side, resigned to the fact he’s about to get the karma he’s had coming.
I get one in, one solid punch before he yells out something incoherent and as I go in for another, purely fueled by rage, he slams his fist into my jaw, the crack and blister of pain barely registers.
Just like I can hardly hear Kat’s scream.
Kat
* * *
“You don’t understand. It wasn’t like that,” Reed tries to explain as if Cill’s in any state to listen.
“She was mine! Mine and you were supposed to protect her.”
I beg him, “You’re scaring me Cillian, please! Please! Stop!” I can’t get out the words: they have to stop yelling.
The cops can’t come.
“Stop,” I cry out, watching the two of them barreling their fists at each other’s faces. Reed throws his weight into Cillian and the two of them slam into the kitchen table. It gives instantly, splintering between the two of them as they crash onto the floor.
Make it stop.
“Please! Cillian, let go!” Reed’s attempt to back away is denied. Cillian’s hell-bent on getting his anger out and as much as I can’t blame him, I can’t let it happen.
He can’t go to jail.
“Please, Cillian,” I cry out again and as they scream at each other, their voices getting louder and louder, I act without thinking. My body wraps around Cillian’s back, my arms over his shoulders and my legs around his waist, my face buried in his neck.