Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 52851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
I had said it a million fucking times already, but I said it again. “You need to tell her.”
Preacher snapped. “Now isn’t the time!” he barked, spinning on his heel, his hands fisting at his sides.
My control slipped. If not now, then when?
Duke exhaled sharply from where he stood nearby. “He’s right.” His voice was steely. Final.
Preacher’s frustration exploded. “Look, I know you fuckers think you know everything, but now isn’t—”
“It’s never been the time!” I roared, cutting him off as I stepped closer. I’d had it. “You’ve had so many chances to come clean, but instead, here we are, sitting around like assholes while this eats away at us, day after day, waiting for the right moment that never fucking comes.” My chest rose and fell hard, my pulse hammering in my ears. “Just tell Kyle the truth.”
A voice cut through the haze of anger and tension like a gunshot. “What truth?”
Everything stopped as our heads snapped in unison toward the doorway.
Kyle stood just inside the room, her stance deceptively relaxed, and her face an unreadable mask of indifference. But her eyes—her eyes were sharp. Unforgiving.
“What truth?” she repeated slowly.
A deadly quiet settled over the room. Duke and I didn’t answer, this was Preacher’s mess to clean up.
I turned to look at him, and for the first time in my life, I saw the fear in his eyes. He swallowed hard, hesitating. “Kyle, I—”
I lost my patience. “Preacher hasn’t been honest with you, have you, Preacher?” My voice was sharp as a blade, slicing through the silence.
Kyle’s gaze flicked to me, unblinking.
“The shit your mother told you? It was bullshit.” I let it all spill out because Preacher didn’t look like he was going to do it quickly enough. “When she killed herself, it wasn’t because she was running from him. It was because he’d threatened to make her disappear if she touched you again, because she told him she was going to kill you.”
Kyle’s expression didn’t change, at least, not on the outside. But I saw it—that quick flicker in her eyes, there and gone before she turned her full focus on Preacher. She wasn’t going to ask me for more, she was waiting for him.
Preacher moved slowly, sinking down into a chair like his own body was too heavy to carry. “Your mother—” his voice cracked, and he had to clear his throat before continuing. “She was…difficult. She used drugs and it made it impossible to be reasonable with her. She tried to start a war between us and another MC.” His voice faltered as he realized he was getting off track. “I didn’t know what she was doing to you.” His eyes lifted to hers, pleading. “If I had, I would have stopped it. I would have made sure she never touched you again. I swear it.”
Kyle’s eyes flicked back to me, and this time, I saw something I never wanted to see in them. Betrayal.
Fuck.
I had broken her trust. I could feel it.
Preacher kept talking, his voice rough, but I barely heard it. Because for the first time since meeting Kyle, I realized something, I might have just lost her.
“The day she killed herself, she told me she was going to kill you.”
Kyle didn’t flinch but I fucking did.
“I told her that if she touched you, I’d make sure she disappeared. And then… she did it anyway.” Preacher exhaled shakily, rubbing a hand over his jaw, his voice raw with something that sounded like regret. “You were my world, Kyle. You still are. I would have never let anyone—anything—hurt you.”
Silence settled over the room, stretching too long, pressing down like a weight. Kyle’s expression was unreadable, her face carefully composed, revealing nothing. And that was what scared the shit out of me.
I waited and I hoped. I begged in my own fucking head for her to say anything that would tell me we hadn’t just lost her.
Then, she finally spoke, but it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “Don’t contact me.” Her voice was even, controlled. “Don’t come near me.” She looked at all three of us—me, Duke, Preacher—her gaze unwavering, final. “And for all of your sakes, heed me on this.”
Flat. Unyielding.
She turned and slammed the door behind her.
For a second, I couldn’t move. The sound of the door closing echoed in my head, a finality I wasn’t ready to accept. Then instinct kicked in, and I went to go after her, but before my fingers could wrap around the handle, Duke caught my arm, his grip like iron.
“Give her time.” His voice was hard, but his eyes held the same pain I felt in my chest, the same ache I knew was clawing at both of us, Kyle was his family. He had been the one to keep her safe all these years. And now, he had lost her trust too.