Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“If you kill me now, you’ll start a war with the two clubs. It will end in bloodshed.”
“No, it, won’t,” Colt said, stepping into the room. “Rosalie, give me the gun.”
“No. You’re going to let him live and I can’t let him live. He has to die. He has to … die.” She held tightly to the gun.
Colt already saw that Daemon had a weapon of his own and was already reaching for it.
“You do not want to do this,” Daemon said.
Colt already held the gun at his back and as Daemon went to make his move, he shot him in the knee. Rosalie gasped and in doing so, dropped the other gun to the floor.
“What happened here?” Colt asked.
Daemon howled in pain.
Colt reached for Rosalie and pulled her behind him, keeping her safe. She was shaking so damn badly.
“Your dad is going to kill you for this,” Daemon said. “Just like I killed my son, he’ll kill his.”
Colt froze. “You killed Bug?”
Daemon smiled. “Fuck, yeah. You don’t let any little shit get away with anything and let them think they can take your place. Fuck that and fuck them all. You’re all going to die. You, the traitors at the club. Every single one of you.”
Colt had heard enough. In his mind, he saw Nancy, his little sister’s smiling face, and then the pain as she died in his arms. The sound of Rosalie’s anguish as she held her dead mother in her arms. It all came to him, and he just pulled his finger, and as he did so, the gun went off and a single bullet went into Daemon’s head.
****
Rosalie stared at the ground. It had been a beautiful service. Kim had thought of everything. Petal grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly, and she felt numb. Her mother was gone. The priest had laid her to rest.
The club and several of the people Gabrielle had known from work were there to pay their respects. Kim was everywhere taking care of all the minor details.
Rosalie didn’t cry. She had no more tears to shed.
Colt was beside her, his hand gripping her other. Two weeks ago, she had watched him kill a man. She didn’t feel anything other than relief. All she had wanted was for her father to be gone, and now he finally was. After Colt shot him, his club had arrived.
Rosalie didn’t know everything that had gone down, but they had found several bodies in the basement, one of them Bug. Before they arrived, Daemon had gone on a killing spree. Colt had told her the men who shot at the gas station, along with Bug, a couple of the club men, and someone else, who they assumed was the man who’d been ordered to beat her up, were all found. Daemon had killed them all. In doing so, his club had turned their back on him, and that was why the clubhouse had been eerily silent.
As for Rosalie, she hadn’t been able to go back to her mother’s house, not yet. She had stayed at Colt’s house and then at Kim’s. Rosalie didn’t know what to do. She wished she could stay with Petal, but she lived with her parents. The plan was for them to find their own place.
Kim had organized a wake for after the funeral but Rosalie couldn’t do it. She couldn’t stand in a room full of people looking sad, when the truth was, none of them knew her mother. Just her and Petal.
Everyone walked away and Rosalie stayed by her mother’s side, staring at the casket. It was a beautiful one, white with gold trim around the edge. She had a feeling her mother would love that.
“Rosalie, I know you don’t want to go back there, but you’re going to need to eat something, to keep your strength up,” Kim said.
She turned toward Kim and nodded. “Can I just stay here for a little while?”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Kim pulled her into her arms and hugged her.
Petal and Colt let her go long enough to accept the hug, but there was no real strength in her body. She had given up. Completely.
Kim walked away and Warden surprised her by pulling her into a hug. “Everything is going to be all right,” he said.
She didn’t say anything back. They left. One by one, the men of the Satan’s Death Riders MC gave her a nod. Gabrielle had learned to like the club. She had loved Kim, saw her as a true friend. She looked at Petal.
“I know,” Petal said. “I get it. We’re going to stay here.”
Rosalie couldn’t allow Petal to stay out here on her feet for too long. Petal was still recovering from the attack that had cost her mother, her life. She pulled Petal in for a hug. “Go, I’ll be there soon. I promise.”