“The fuck you say? And that was rhetorical—you repeat yourself and I’m thinking I’m gonna need my gun.” JP made a slow show of shrugging his cut back on, like wearing it gave him the strength and courage he needed to follow through with his threat.
“I need you to trust me, JP. One of my club’s business arrangements has suffered a serious setback. The Mexicans are behind it and Rosie is under threat.
Vix dropped the glass she was moving from the table to the sink, but managed to catch it and pull herself together. When she finally moved, it was to take Rosie’s flank.
“Firstly,” JP growled, pointing a finger in my face, “she’s Angel to you, motherfucker, and secondly, we protect our own.”
This was getting us nowhere. The longer he dragged this shit out, the likelihood Rosie would come out of her shocked stupor and make my job twice as hard.
“JP, full respect man but they’ll crush you to the ground. Intel suggest they’ve already taken notice because she’s linked to Davis.” Hearing her boss’s name caused a jolt of awareness, and all this pointless arguing was distracting me and causing me to lose focus. I had a job to do and I needed her safe. “My club is heading for war and you’re in no way prepared to deal with that. The Sentinels will be bait they’ll eat up in their quest to get to Davis, and you know, they’ll use her to do it. I can make it known she’s mine and they’ll think again. She’d be safe. Otherwise, they’ll just ride in here and take her.”
“No.” He was steely in his determination, but I knew I could get through to him because he loved her and wanted her safe.
“Listen to me,” I pleaded. “I protect what is mine. They will never get to her if she’s with me. My club is more prepared for this than you’ll ever be.”
“You’re not hearing me. She’s not yours to protect, Wolf, she’s ours. She’s our Angel.”
That was when I finally saw red. He was not going to pull that shit with me. We knew she’d been mine first. “Wake the fuck up. She’s always been mine. We all knew that and I was just waiting for the right time to come and actually claim her, for real.”
This had always been on the cards. It was my condition for doing what JP wanted, what his club needed. They needed my father to pay for killing Chopper and I offered to do it. I was more than happy to do it for them. They weren’t the type of club to get blood on their hands, but without the other clubs seeing they’d exacted revenge they would have been bowled over, sucked up and taken over by a worse club years ago. JP’s club might have been a nice version of the rest of us, but they still had an image to maintain and a reputation to protect.
No justice for Chopper meant no Sentinels.
It was that simple.
JP tracked down Chopper’s killer and found me with him. He found my dad beating the shit out of me, and at sixteen years old, I struck a deal. I’d end him, I’d do my time, and the Sentinels would continue to care for Rosie. But we all knew that when the time was right, I was coming for the one person I’d loved my whole life. She was my family, my heart, her, Rosie Grace Collins.
And now was that time.
I felt Rosie’s hand begin to tremble a little before full on shaking took hold and I knew it was when everything had clicked into place for her. She’d assumed that I’d found her by accident, but I hadn’t. I’d always known where she was.
She turned to me with tears in her eyes. “They know, don’t they? They know it was my fault.”
“They do.” I hadn’t meant to say it so bluntly, but I was done with this farce, I needed her safe and her immediate reaction was to drop the hand that kept us connected.
“Dad? Mom? You always knew?”
“Angel, you forget about that now. It’s okay.”
Rosie’s face changed. The shock progressed to guilt and I could see her begin to withdraw.
“Baby, don’t do that. Everything is okay.” I turned to her, giving her all my focus, but all I could see were her tear streaked eyes flitting wildly from side to side.
“Get away from me!” I attempted to grab her hand again and Rosie slapped it away like it burned to touch me. “Dad, forgive me. It was all my fault your friend was murdered. I’m no angel. I was never your angel. I should have told the truth and not carried on living here, lying to you every day.”
The tears leaked freely from her pained eyes as she remembered the pendant around her neck. She grabbed at it violently and pulled it from her neck, snapping the chain in two.
“Angel.” The pain on JP’s face now matched that of the girl he loved and thought of as flesh and blood. That pendant was important to both of them and he felt the rejection of her actions as deeply as she did. Before he could swallow past his sorrow and answer her, she chucked the delicate silver angel wings onto the floor and fled.
I spun on my heels to follow, but JP grabbed my shoulder and held me back. “Let me go after her, JP.”
“No, motherfucker.”
“I need to make it right. Get your fucking hands off me!”
He pushed me roughly, causing me to stumble back a step. “You were supposed to give me time,” he shouted. “Time to tell her that we never blamed her.” I watched as he reached for the pendant and clasped it in his palm like it was feeding him oxygen. When he opened it, the shape and outline of the design was imprinted on his skin. Quick as a snake, he scrunched his fist up again and launched it in my direction, connecting with my jaw. “Get out of my fucking house. If anything happens to her, I won’t rest until you’ve suffered for it.”
Rubbing my jaw and cheekbone, I remembered she’d fled and I bolted, too, following her out of the door and praying I could catch her before she made it to a car.
My day had gone from the best of my life to a complete clusterfuck. I should’ve told her that they’d always known. I’d kept dismissing the conversation about the past to give them time to do it. I should’ve told her that I had our future mapped out and always had.
I’d killed to keep her safe.
I couldn’t give her a life then; I had nothing.
And with war licking my club’s heels like fire, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to give her the life she deserved now.
“Rosie, fucking wait!!
Damn, that girl was fast. All I could see was her hair bobbing up and down as she dodged and weaved around obstacles I couldn’t see. My plan was simple: sprint in a straight line and intercept her before she got to a motor.
“Ah, fuck!” I hit the ground after stumbling through an unseen hollow and understood why she was running zig zag like she was being chased by a gator. That pretty girl had been making this run, tweaking her best route for fucking years. She’d been running it in the dead of night and I couldn’t even manage it in the day.
I was frantic by the time I hit the tarmac forecourt of the compound and what I saw pissed me off beyond belief.
Rosie stood behind Throttle, using him as a shield.
He was trying to keep me from what was mine.
“Rosie, baby, you’ve got this all wrong.” I’d raised my hands in a gesture of surrender, safety, and all she did was glare at me through wild eyes. Anyone with half an ounce of sense could tell she was on the verge of a mental explosion.
“How… how could you do that to me?”
“Come with me, we can talk and I’ll explain.”
“What’s this fucker done to you, Angel?”
His intervention was not helping the situation or my mood. “Walk the fuck away, Throttle.” I gave him that courtesy and he’d get it once and once only. My only concern was for her and maintaining my cool. Right now, I was thinking rationally but Throttle had the capacity to change that if he continued to insert himself into a situation that was not his business.
“I’ve spent years living with that guilt, thinking I’d deceived good people, and they knew all along.” Rosie was crying again.
“And look, it didn’t matter. They loved you all along.”
“Who knew what, Angel?” Throttle
asked her gently.
“I’m not going to tell you again. And while you’re at it, stop barricading her in. Rosie knows I won’t hurt her. Come here, baby.”
“You acted like you didn’t know me that first night.”
“I’ve always known you, known exactly where you were and I was always coming for you, Rosie.”
“Ignore him, Angel. He’s scum.”
“Shut it, Throttle. You’re mine, Rosie. I claimed you as mine long before today. I didn’t plan on things happening this way. I had it all figured out, but sometimes events take over and even the best laid plans get escalated.”
I was starting to panic that my words weren’t sinking in. She wasn’t calming down and taking on board what I was saying.
“So, you had it all planned out? Come here, play with me, use me and make me want you. Then what? You’d swoop in after I was already in love with you? I bet you had a great laugh about how stupid I was.”
“It was never like that.” The fact she thought I could do that to her gutted me.
“What did you do? Sit having a beer, laughing about how gullible poor Rosie is? Discuss a handover like I’m some fucking slave you were taking delivery of? I’ve been so fucking stupid. I always knew my life was too good to be true. I should have let Chopper fuck around with me, too. It was the path my life was on.”
“Do not say that.” Rosie was clutching the back of Throttle’s cut and he froze as she spat her venomous words out. Every man on the workshop forecourt could feel the anger careering through her body. Seeing him enjoy his role of protector, a fucking Sentinel lording it over a Carnal, was beginning to erode the last of my patience. “You ended up with the life you deserved, baby, just like I will.”
“You got the life you deserved alright, you fucking murderer,” Throttle said with an evil and hatred.
“Watch your fucking mouth, prospect.”
We were gathering quite an audience and one by one, the rest of the Sentinels appeared from the workshop, watching and waiting. They sensed things going from bad to worse and were preparing to protect both their brother and their angel.
“Does she know the real you? How you killed your dad in cold blood? How you ended his life and stood watching him as he took his last breath?”
“None of your fucking business, but I’ve paid my dues and a lot more to society.”
Rosie took a step to the side of him now, noticing her family around her. “What the fuck is going on? Why does no one else look shocked? Look at you all.” She flung her arms around, desperate for one of them to react and dispel the truth that they’d known all along. “You guys were my family. I trusted you all. I thought our club was different, but I guess not. You’re all about the brotherhood, so much so that you stuck together and fooled the shit out of me. I guess the truth always comes out. I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back. I thought we stood together and protected each other like true sentinels, but you all just stood united to keep me on the outside.”
Rosie was sobbing. Her disappointment kept hitting new lows and I knew she’d break apart completely soon. I could sense it was coming and I had to be the one to put her pieces back together. If I could be the one to do that, we could let our hurt bleed out together then we could rebuild ourselves stronger, together.
That had always been my plan. Let her have a family, a real life knowing what nurturing love felt like. Show her what we both missed out on, so she could help teach me. I wanted us to be a family, to have a family, and finish our lives the way they started. Together.
None of the men answered her pleas for confirmation. They were focused on the whole scene in front of them. And the only danger they could see, the only one who wasn’t part of their family, was me. Even though their prospect was acting up and worsening the situation, he was still theirs to back up. JP still hadn’t arrived and that surprised me. Our discourse at the house had altered the nature of his relationship with Rosie, and he was probably licking his own wounds. But still, he was the president of the Sentinels and I expected him to be here, calling things to order and if nothing else, taking care of his Angel like he’d always done.
“I… I need to get out of here. I need away from this fucked up circus.” Rosie’s hands were frantically raking through her hair, her messy up do unraveling, just like her.
“That’s great baby,” I told her relieved. “We can go somewhere to talk and sort this shit out.”
“Not with you! You caused this. My life has exploded because of you.”
“Come with me, Angel. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. I’ll get you away from this toxic asshole. We’ll get on the back of my bike and just ride until we feel like stopping.”
My heart thumped wildly. I was losing control, losing her, and that could not happen. There was no way on this fucking Earth I was going to let my woman get on the back of another man’s bike and ride off. “Over my dead body.”
“If that’s what it takes, President, I’m down with that option.” His tone was loaded with derision and my body reacted naturally. The wolf inside me took a step forward and started to stalk its prey. As I progressed in Throttle’s direction, so did his brothers, but that fucker held firm, baiting me and challenging me to make good on my threat. He wanted me to become Wolf, President of Carnals M.C.—the loner who never backed down. The cold hearted man who would front up to any situation, in a pack or hunting alone. Throttle wanted me to show Rosie the man inside I was trying to leave behind.
The minute I saw her tug on the back of his cut to leave, I knew I was done for. He was counting on my anger and his brothers intervening to help him. I was really done for. The slim hope I had that she would see reason evaporated when he followed her lead and took a step back with her.
I was losing control.
I was losing her.
Throttle’s brothers were getting ready to do their job, be true sentinels. They were going to make his play possible and completely kill mine. They were going to protect their brother because they knew he was protecting their angel. They were going to defend them both against the club’s enemy: me.
With the blood rushing to my head and pumping energy to my muscles, it surged forward on impulse, reaching out, roaring in its quest for her, for Rosie, the missing piece of my life’s puzzle.
“Don’t fucking do this, baby,” I pleaded. When I was ten feet away from them, I looked at her through the fog of my anger and saw him smiling. He was going to be victorious even though he was the villain who had played me perfectly. I’d handed him the gift he’d always desired.
When I finally reached out, I felt hands reach for me. I fought off the shock of the first pair, but it was quickly replaced by another set. Rosie sensed the urgency and panic engulfing me as I kept my gaze focused on her. She was my goal, my end game, and when I saw her put her hand in his, I thought my heart and head would explode.
The more the wolf wanted freedom, the more he pushed forward, and more sentinels joined the melee to contain me.
“You take her from me and I will make you pay, motherfucker. You’re taking what’s mine. She’s mine! I’ve claimed her!”
Rosie intensified her need to get him to leave, pulling Throttle who was too busy relishing his moment. He was a prospect being backed up by his brothers against the president of one of the most revered clubs in the country. He had a woman on his arm who, under normal circumstances, was off limits and even though every sensible thought in his body was telling him to leave, his ego was keeping him there so he could enjoy the spectacle.
“If she was truly yours, she wouldn’t be leaving with me. She wouldn’t be crying because of you. And I’d never let another man walk away with what’s mine.”
That was the red flag the wolf needed. I picked up my fight against the sentinels restraining me and was met by words and pleas from the sentinel brothers, begging me to calm down. As I ground my teeth and put all my effort into it, one of them warned me that they were running out of options. I knew what tha
t meant. I was pushing them into something more physical, into violence. If I didn’t back down from Throttle’s challenge, they’d force me to.
When I watched Throttle throw a leg over his motorcycle, I lashed out and pushed forward. When I heard the throaty grumble of his Harley roaring, I kicked out and pushed harder. And when Rosie wiped the tears from her eyes and straddled the bike behind him, throwing her arms and that stupid pink bandage around his waist, I managed to overcome a couple of the brothers.
I was winning. I was beating them back and I was going to get to her.
As he kicked his motorcycle off its stand and revved the throttle to confirm my time was up, a fist hit the side of my head, surprising the shit out of me and taking me off my feet.
The brothers piled on top of me and when I looked up to see who had delivered the progress-halting blow, I was met with JP’s face. “Let her go, Wolf.”
“Never.” More determined than ever to fight for what was mine.
I watched as he pulled his fist back again and leaned over a couple of his men to stop me completely. The brothers had done their job. They’d foiled my advance until their president had arrived. They’d let one of their own take her to safety.
JP knew I was going to keep fighting until my last breath. I was never going to lie back and be bested by any of them. The only way to stop me was to end my struggle.
Another punch connected and as my vision blurred and turned hazy, the last thing I heard was a distinctive sound—the thump-thump-thump of a Harley Davidson engine picking up speed and getting further away.
Taking away the only thing I’d ever truly loved.
My heart was broken. Simple as that.
Cracked into a million smithereens, drifting around my insides making it so difficult to breathe.
I cried for some time, but after being on the bike for a while it became physically painful. The wind dried the salty tears to my face and my eyes just hurt.
Everything hurt.
We rode for a couple of hours until Throttle decided to stop. When the wind was no longer battering my face, I knew I looked a mess. I could feel how puffy my face was, and my makeup, if there was any left, must have looked like a bad version of Alice Cooper. Dirt and dust had stuck to my damp cheeks and ironically, the mess on the outside reflected how I was feeling on the inside.
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