“How much longer are you in town for?” he asked, as he retrieved his biker’s helmet from the table.
“Two weeks,” she replied. “I have more of my parents’ stuff to take care of.”
“And then you’ll be gone?”
Alyssa nodded.
“Will you come back again?”
The mere thought turned her stomach. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I ever will.”
Prince nodded again. “Can I come see you one more time before you leave?”
Alyssa shook her head. She couldn’t think of anything she would want more, and yet she also couldn’t think of anything more terrifying. “No,” she said with some effort. “I would really rather you wouldn’t.”
If that hurt him, he didn’t show it. He simply nodded once more. “It was good to see you again, Alyssa,” he said. “Will you take care?”
“Of course.” She hesitated. “Will you?”
Prince gifted her with a shadow of his old grin. “I’m a Devil’s Fighter. So of course not.”
She wanted to slap him. And she wanted to kiss him and pull him close and never, ever let him go again. She didn’t do any of these things.
“I’ll see myself out,” he said.
Alyssa nodded numbly. She listened to his footsteps down the corridor. She listened to the front door open and close. She listened to his Harley-Davidson roar to life and then run away. She listened to her heart break all over again.
She didn’t know how long she sat in the kitchen, her thoughts once again chasing each other in her head. Over the past eight years, she had sometimes tried to imagine what it would be like to see Prince again. She had come up with a number of different scenarios, and all of them had given her closure. She always thought if she was ever to see him again, she could finally archive the whole Prince Wheeler file.
But it didn’t feel like anything had been archived. She didn’t feel like she had gotten any closure. If anything, she felt like things had gotten even more complicated than they had been originally—which was really saying something. Only one thing was for certain: Alyssa couldn’t wait to leave Pinebrook again. This time for good.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Over the next few days, Alyssa didn’t have time to think—about Prince or anything else. Her waking hours were spent in a frenzy of appointments with lawyers, notaries, bankers, and real estate agents. Packing up her parents’ possessions took up the rest of her time, and she buried herself into the work and the memories that certain objects would bring up. It was a bittersweet process, but it helped her start the healing journey that she knew would eventually allow her to cope with her parents’ passing. By the time night rolled along, she was always so tired that she would be asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. There were no disturbing dreams, simply because even her subconscious was too tired to conjure them up.
The only moments Alyssa truly had to herself were the early mornings—when she would enjoy a cup of coffee on the swing on the front porch. Even then, however, she found that her mind did not wander in unwanted places. In the early hours of the day, the world was too peaceful to be marred with the negative feelings brought on by unwelcome thoughts. And so those were peaceful moments, spent thinking about absolutely nothing.
Still, even that small bliss was destined to be short-lived. The sun had only just come up on the fourth day after her parents’ funeral when the early morning silence was interrupted by the approaching roar of a motorcycle.
Alyssa groaned inwardly. What about the concept of “I would really like not to see you ever again” was so hard for Prince to wrap his mind around?
But once the motorcycle came into view, she quickly realized that it wasn’t Prince who was riding up towards her parents’ house. It was Benedict Lenday. Alyssa’s fingers tightened around the steaming mug in her hands, her insides growing cold with a mixture of fear and hatred. What could he possibly want from her?
Determined not to let the man see just how much he was unnerving her, she remained sitting as he pulled up and got off his bike. She didn’t move, as he walked up to the front porch.
“Good morning,” he called out, taking off his riding helmet and placing it under one arm as he walked. “Beautiful morning, isn’t it?”
“It was,” Alyssa said. Really, Alyssa? Shut up. It was beyond her why she couldn’t stop provoking one of the most dangerous men in the territory.
Benedict smirked. He leaned back against the porch railing in front of her. Alyssa was very grateful that he did not sit down next to her on the swing.
“So,” he said casually. “How are you holding up?”
Alyssa frowned. “I’m all right.”
“You’re a strong woman, dealing with everything so bravely.”
Alyssa stared at him.
“I’m just saying you’re not having an easy time of it, what with your folks’ death and your ex showing up again.”
If Alyssa’s insides had grown cold before, they felt downright glacial now. “What would you know about Prince coming to see me?”
“Oh, I know,” Bennie said. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t. I didn’t send him or anything.”
Alyssa frowned. “You’ve been spying on him?”
Bennie shrugged as if it were nothing. “On occasion.”
“Why? Don’t you trust him, after eight years?”
Bennie gave her a wolfish smile that chilled the marrow in her bones. “Honey, I don’t trust anyone. Particularly when there’s a woman involved.” His dark eyes stared at her intently.
“Well, you can sleep easy,” Alyssa said. “I’ve no intention of taking him away, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Good,” Bennie said. “Because, you know, he’s a valuable member. I’d hate for his talents to go to waste.”
Alyssa felt a shiver run down her spine. “Are you threatening to harm one of your own, Benedict?”
The man’s eyes flashed. “No one calls me Benedict.”
Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t like Bennie; it makes you sound like a mobster.”
He paused, taken aback, and then he burst out laughing. “You may have a point,” he admitted. “Anyway,” he said after a moment. “You’d best stay away from him, girlie.”
Alyssa felt her cheeks flush with hot fury. “You can’t threaten me. I’m not one of your fearful Pinebrook residents.”
“Exactly,” Bennie said. “You’re due to leave soon, aren’t you? Do you think anyone would notice if you disappeared somewhere between here and the airport?”
Alyssa forced herself to remain calm. She felt panic rise from her stomach all the way up to her throat, and it tasted like bile on her tongue. But she couldn’t let the man see it. If Bennie knew she was afraid of him, he would own her. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
“Like I said,” she began, willing herself to sound as cool and collected as possible, “you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’d be crazy to even try anything with Prince again. I’ve learned my lesson the first time.”
At the very least, that was the truth.
Bennie studied her carefully, trying to gauge whether she was indeed being sincere. Finally, he seemed satisfied and nodded. “Good,” he said. “I would hate for anything to happen to you. Or him, for that matter.”
“I got it, Bennie,” Alyssa said, firmly. She could hear the annoyance in her voice. “Really, I did.”
“Lucky for you, I believe you,” Bennie said. “Now, that coffee looks good. Think I could have a cup?”
Alyssa stared at him incredulously. He was testing her. He was provoking her. She thought about reacting, but then she told herself that, if she could only hold on for another two weeks, she would never have to deal with the likes of Benedict Lenday ever again.
She nodded. “Sure. Would you like to come in?”
He seemed taken aback for a moment, but then he smiled. “Why not?”
A few minutes later, Alyssa was sitting in her parents’ kitchen sipping co
ffee with the man she hated the most in the whole wide world. It was surreal and infuriating all at the same time.
“I really am sorry about your dad, you know?” Bennie said unexpected after a few minutes of tense silence. “He was a good man.”
Alyssa nodded curtly. “He was,” she said, because really, there was nothing else to say when it came to her father. He had been the best man she had ever known.
“You remind me of him a little.”
Alyssa frowned in confusion.
“You’ve got the same spark,” Bennie said. “He wouldn’t take any of my bullshit, either.”
Alyssa was surprised to hear real fondness in the man’s voice. It was the first time in all of her knowing him that Benedict Lenday looked like a human being. She looked at the streaks of gray in the man’s hair and wondered what he would be like as an old man. Would he ever soften?
She pushed the thought out of her head as soon as it entered it. The fact that the man was able to show some sort of human emotion did not suddenly make him a decent person. It sure did not make up for all the horrible deeds that he almost certainly had done in his lifetime.
“I’m sure you wish he had let me die instead of saving my ass.”
Alyssa looked up sharply. “What are you talking about?”
Bennie pulled up his shirt to reveal a scar right next to his heart. It had clearly been left by a bullet. “Your father operated on me when no one else would.”
Alyssa swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “Of course he did,” she said after a moment.
It was now Bennie’s turn to look confused.
“My father was a professional,” Alyssa said. “He was a surgeon. He was a medic. He would never turn his back on someone who needed his assistance, regardless of who they were.”
Bennie lowered his shirt slowly. “It’s that simple, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Alyssa said firmly, “it is.”
“For you, too?”
She shook her head. “I’m a veterinarian.”
“Right,” Bennie said, suddenly remembering. “How come you haven’t followed in your dad’s path?”
Alyssa shrugged. “Animals are more grateful than people.”
Bennie chuckled. “You got me there,” he said, toasting her with the mug. He drained the last of his coffee and stood. “Well, this has been lovely, but I’ve got to go now. I’ve got people to kill.”
Alyssa stared at him in shock, and he gave her an evil smirk.
“Relax, girlie, I’m kidding. I’ve got no killings scheduled for today.”
Alyssa took a deep breath. She stood and walked him to the front porch.
“Remember what I said, girlie,” Bennie said as he put his rider’s helmet back on.
“Remember what I said,” Alyssa retorted before she could stop herself.
“I will,” he said. “I just hope you won’t change your mind.”
“I won’t.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Bennie nodded again.
“I’ll see you,” he said.
“Fuck, I hope not,” Alyssa muttered under her breath, as he kicked off his Harley and disappeared down the street.
As soon as the motorcycle was out of sight, Alyssa’s knees buckled. She grabbed on to the railings of the porch with both hands, knuckles turning white. She allowed the tremors and the fear to take her over for a while, knowing that she had to ride it out if she wanted to have any hopes of appearing normal to the people she would have to see that day.
After the wave passed, she sat back down on the swing and tried to gather her thoughts and her emotions. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if she should have to tell Prince about what had just happened, but she reconsidered quickly. There was no need for him to know. In fact, she strongly suspected that telling him would only put him in serious danger.
It scared her that Bennie would “care” so much about Prince’s choices. She wondered what role the man she had once (still?) loved had acquired within the club over the years to be considered so important by the president himself. Just how deep had Prince been sucked in? And would he be stuck forever?
The thought saddened Alyssa deeply. It broke her heart to know that Prince may very well never have a future. Aside from Alyssa’s own broken heart, she always wanted a life for him—whether that life would be with her was almost irrelevant. Prince may have changed, but she had seen in him the same sharp mind and quick wit that she had fallen for so long ago. The smart boy she had known had turned into a brilliant man, she could feel it. She hated for his potential to go to waste.
Alyssa thought of the violence then. She thought of all that Prince must have seen over the past eight years, and she shuddered to try and imagine the details. She wondered if some of that violence had been delivered by Prince’s own hands, and as much as she hated to think about it, she knew that it must have been so. One didn’t become a valuable member of a motorcycle gang by delivering flowers.
Alyssa felt sick. Everything about the situation sickened her. She was sickened by her parents’ death. She was sickened by the Devil’s Fighters. She was sickened by Benedict Lenday. As much as she hated to admit it, she was sickened by Prince. She was sickened by his cowardice, his refusal to leave. She was sickened by whatever it was that he must have done, the deeds he must have committed.
She briefly considered calling Anna, but then she decided it would not be a good idea. What would she say to her, anyway?
Alyssa sighed. She really couldn’t wait to be out of Pinebrook.
CHAPTER NINE
When Prince showed up at her house again that very same night, Alyssa almost didn’t want to believe it. And when she realized that he wasn’t alone, she almost shut the door in his face. In fact, she would have done just that if he hadn’t stuck his foot between the door and the jamb, effectively preventing her from shutting him and the trouble he carried with him out of her life.
“Alyssa, please!”
“You’ve got to be shitting me, Prince—”
“Please, you have to help me!”
Alyssa wanted nothing more than to tell him she didn’t “have” to do anything, thank you very much, but something in his voice stopped her cold. It was laced with alarm and panic more intense than she had ever heard.
He must have caught her uncertainty, because he caught her gaze and held it, his green eyes burning with his cry for help.
“Please,” he said again.
Alyssa thought of her dad, who had saved Bennie Lenday’s life even though he must be one of the most horrible human beings on Earth. She sighed heavily.
“Fine,” she said, already regretting it. “Bring him in.”
Prince almost collapsed in relief. “Thank you,” he said sincerely.
Alyssa shook her head and opened the door wider.
The man was probably somewhere in his early thirties. At least, that’s what Alyssa could discern once she had finally managed to clean all the blood off his face. She could see there was a fresh face underneath the blood and the bruises, and Alyssa’s heart broke for him. Still, it was nothing compared to how she felt when she cut open his blood-soaked T-shirt and saw what was alarming Prince so much.
The man’s torso was a triumph of fresh bruises, cuts, and abrasions. He was breathing funny, and it didn’t take her long to assess that he had more than a few broken ribs.
She looked up at Prince. “He needs a hospital,” she said.
Prince was shaking his head even before she had finished her sentence. “I can’t bring him to a hospital; they won’t treat us.”
Alyssa frowned. “How did my dad do it?”
“He treated us privately.”
“You mean illegally.”
Prince shrugged.
Alyssa sighed. “I don’t have that kind of access to Pinebrook’s hospital.”
“I know,” Prince said. “That’s why I’m telling you we can’t bring him there.”
Alyssa’s brain was working
a mile a minute. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll need warm water and bandages.”
Prince acted immediately.
“Stay with him,” Alyssa told him when he returned with what she had asked.
“Where are you going?” he asked, alarmed.
“To ransack my father’s medical supplies.”
He relaxed a little when he realized she was not going to run out on them.
In her father’s cabinets, Alyssa found an oxygen tank, needles, syringes, and anesthesia. She figured they would work much better than whiskey once she reset the bones that could be reset.
Still, without the full arsenal of a hospital’s supplies at her disposal, it was slow-going work. Eventually, however, the man was resting more or less peacefully on the couch, with an oxygen mask to make the effort of breathing a little easier.
Alyssa brought everything to the kitchen and began to wash the blood off her hands. It wasn’t long before she felt Prince’s presence behind her—close, so close.
He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. His fingers were warm on her skin.
“Thank you,” he said, softly and heartedly.
Alyssa finished washing her hands and wiped them on a towel. She turned around slowly. Prince was really too close for comfort, but she refrained from saying anything about it.
Instead, she said, “What happened to him?”
“Are you sure he’s going to be fine?” Prince asked.
“Eventually,” Alyssa replied after a moment. “I don’t think either of his lungs were punctured.”
They were silent for a long, long moment.
“What happened to him, Prince?” Alyssa asked again.
His handsome features darkened. “I don’t think you’d want to know.”
“I want to know,” she said. “After treating him, I deserve to know.”
Prince stared at her for a while, uncertain. Eventually, he nodded. “He was in a fight.”
Alyssa blinked. “That’s it?” she said. “That’s what you didn’t want to tell me?”
“No, you don’t understand,” Prince said. “I don’t mean a brawl. I mean a fight.”
Alyssa frowned. Then, slowly, comprehension finally began to dawn on her. “You mean, like…an organized fight? Like some assholes do with dogs?”
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