Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
A minute later, I heard multiple pairs of boots pounding across the gravel lot. I opened my eyes. Hadn’t even realized I had closed them.
“Fuck!” River roared, rage coloring his features. He knelt beside me and pushed my hair back from my face. “Reina, sweetheart, can you hear me?”
“Axel,” I whispered, “they want Axel.”
He shook his head. “My son is safe,” he promised me. “Come on. Let’s get you inside. This is going to hurt like a bitch.”
I clenched my jaw, trying to brace myself for the pain, but a scream still left my lips as River rolled me and sat me up before lifting me into his arms. His sleeve couldn’t miss the cut on the back; it was impossible. The mark literally covered the entire expanse of it. I trembled, crying so hard I could barely breathe.
Adelaide’s eyes widened in horror, and she rushed down the hall to my room, shoving the door open. River laid me on the bed and eased me onto my stomach. “River—”
“Not now, darlin',” River told her, his voice soothing. “I need the fucking first aid kit!” River shouted at anyone who would listen. “And Adelaide, fucking call Joey.”
“Joey?” I mumbled. Why Joey?
“He’s going to want to know, Reina,” he gently reminded me. I weakly shook my head. “He saved you that first night.” I remembered all too well. Joey had walked out on me fucking bloody and beaten, completely naked and used. Raped. And he’d stayed with me until Adelaide took over. And he’d checked on me for weeks after that.
“No,” I mumbled. I didn’t want anyone else knowing about this mark.
“Yes,” River told me. “This could mean war, Reina. At the very least, I need him to know so he’s prepared if I call on him for help. Just trust me.”
Tank rushed back into the room with the kit. River set it on my nightstand and pulled out a syringe. “I’m going to put you to sleep for a little while, alright? You’ve been through enough. I don’t want you feeling what I’m about to do.”
Bravely, I nodded my head. I didn’t care what he did at this point, even if he killed me. I just wanted the goddamn pain to stop. I couldn’t fucking take it anymore.
He pricked my skin, and my eyelids fluttered shut, darkness pulling me under. And this time, no one was pulling me back out of it.
Silently, I thanked River. I needed a fucking moment of peace. I’d been through enough today to last me a lifetime.
5
Reina
I couldn’t stand to be there. I needed time away.
I was a marked woman. I didn’t even want to know what was cut into my back. I couldn’t stand to look at it. I just knew it had something to do with whatever club had fucking taken me, had kidnapped me from right under the Fathers of Mayhem’s noses.
And Sam . . . God, Sam. If he saw my back, saw I was a marked woman, he’d toss me aside. No man wanted to even potentially settle down with a marked woman, much less fuck one. And he was a VP. That kind of shit didn’t work.
Everything that we might have had between us was now over.
It was done. And it was my fault because I always let my fucking guard down.
So, after a couple of days of being holed up in my room, forcing myself to eat when Adelaide basically force-fed me, I asked River if he could call Joey, see if he had space for me at his club for a while. And Joey—bless his fucking soul—had ridden all the way up here himself to come get me. But somehow, I knew he would. Joey held a soft spot for me after the way he’d found me all those years ago.
He hadn’t said a word when I’d stepped out of the clubhouse wearing a dress three sizes too big for me, wincing in pain every time the material brushed my back even though it was bandaged. I couldn’t wear pants because the cuts went all the way down to right where my ass cheeks began.
They’d made sure I wouldn’t ever be able to resume my normal lifestyle again. Because the clothes I used to wear wouldn’t conceal what they’d done to me.
Joey had simply gotten out of his SUV, grabbed my bag from River, tossed it into his backseat, and helped me into his passenger seat. He’d put a pillow behind my neck so my back was off the seat, and he’d driven off without a word to anyone. He hadn’t even stopped long enough to hug Adelaide or spend a little bit of time with the boys like he normally did.
I could see the rage in his eyes. Joey looked at me as family—like a little sister. He’d been the one to find me behind the Fathers of Mayhem clubhouse the night I’d been raped numerous times. He’d been the one to hold me and promise me I would be okay. But had I ever really been okay?