by Stacey Lynn
“Fine,” I said as I rolled my eyes.
Mills grinned. A full set of yellowed teeth appeared. By the way the light bounced off of them, they looked rotten. Like his soul.
I spun around, needing to get away from Mills, and I was in such a hurry that I quit paying attention to the people in the room until I met another Black Death Member, Slick, standing with his back to me. His leather cut stretched across his back and I knew his arms were crossed over his chest. His feet were firmly planted as he refused to let our visitor walk around him.
And when I finally saw him, I wished Slick would have kicked the man out the door, directly onto his ass.
Ryker. Fiancé.
The vomit taste was back in my throat as I skipped over his face, my brain not allowing me to focus on the man I had wished for years would come back and save me.
Stupid idiot, I scolded myself. He wasn’t that anymore. He had taken off and left me alone to deal with the fallout of my dad turning on his own motorcycle club. The only opportunity to keep my mom alive was aligning with Death. Literally.
My eyes dropped to the floor and I saw his boots. I saw the jeans that fit him perfectly. I saw the wrinkly black t-shirt that stretched across his chest and biceps. I saw the black duffel bag in one hand, and his other hand rolling into a fist and releasing.
“Faith?” I couldn’t keep from looking at him when he said my name. I looked up and saw him blink several times, as if he thought I was an apparition.
His jaw dropped in shock.
I wanted to reach out and slap the shit out of him while at the same time throw myself into his arms and beg him to save me, to take me away from my hell. But it was too late. The Faith he knew was gone forever.
“You work here?”
I cocked my head to the side, trying to understand how he didn’t already know this. Had Daemon never told him what I had become? That thought was followed quickly by what in the hell was Ryker doing here?
The question was answered as it slipped through my mind. Olivia had been shot. Daemon probably called him. Black Death had put me on lockdown since I could be connected to her. It was the one freedom they’d given me weeks ago—allowing me to reconnect with my old friend.
Now, they wouldn’t let me visit her in the hospital or talk to her. Everywhere I went was accompanied by two Black Death members tracking my every move.
I blinked quickly several times as I remembered the night Ryker had promised to fix everything. And then instead of doing that, he had left me; he’d left my life a thousand times more screwed up than it already had been.
I was here, and it was his fault.
My lips curved into a smile. My back straightened. I would not fall back into his trap. He wouldn’t be here long, anyway. I knew he wouldn’t. There was no way in hell Ryker was sticking around town.
“I’m the best they have.” I watched him wince with a sick smile of satisfaction ghosting across my lips. “And you need to leave. Nordic Lords aren’t welcome here anymore.”
“I’m not a part of Nordic Lords.” I watched his hand curl into a fist again. His shoulders were tense and his eyes scanned the room like he was prepared to take out every man in the place. He looked like he wanted to throw me over his shoulder, haul my ass out of there, take me back to his rig off the coast of New Orleans, where I’d heard he was working and living, and never let me leave. My stomach flip-flopped at the thought.
Crap.
I leveled my eyes at him, hoping my expression was close to ambivalence in order to mask the pain searing through me.
“I’m not a part of Nordic Lords,” he repeated more firmly.
I shrugged. Close enough. I was about to tell him that when a warm hand came out and clasped me at the back of my neck. I moved closer to Slick, as if I enjoyed him touching me.
One side of Ryker’s lips twitched as he glared at the man pretending to be my guard. In a sense, I supposed he was, considering they owned my ass.
“You need go to. Like Diamond said, we don’t have a room for you.” Slick stressed the “we”, but we weren’t and never would be a “we”. I didn’t bother to correct him. The less Ryker knew of me, the better.
“It looks like a lot has changed around here.” Ryker still hadn’t taken his eyes off Slick’s hand on me. I wondered if it was jealousy. And then I wondered why I cared anymore. Ryker had been the one to leave me. If he was jealous, it was his own damn fault.
I smiled. It wasn’t genuine, and I saw a flash of rage in his eyes. “That can happen in five years.”
Ryker’s head dropped, and he took a deep breath before drawing his eyes slowly back to mine. He didn’t check me out, not the way most men did, but I still felt his gaze on every inch of my skin. It prickled with interest.
Shit.
“I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said, his lips twisting into a wicked grin. “You always did seem to prefer Black Death.”
I scowled. What in the hell did that mean?
He left without another word. Slick dropped his hand from my neck when Ryker was gone. I turned to him and glared.
“While that pissing match of yours was fun to watch, next time, do it without your hands on me.” I turned and stalked to the back office without waiting for his response. I wouldn’t get one anyway.
I climbed behind the wheel of the black SUV rental and exhaled a deep breath. What the fuck just happened? What in the hell had I seen? Faith? A prostitute at Penny’s, which was run by Black Death?
I growled and slammed my hand against the wheel. The back of my head pressed against the headrest, and I stared at the roof of the vehicle as if inspecting the grey fabric would calm the assault on my mind.
Faith was a whore. I shook my head back and forth repeatedly, probably looking insane to the people on the sidewalk who passed by me, but I didn’t give a shit.
Faith worked at Penny’s Boarding House. My head dropped toward my lap. My fiancée was a whore.
Ex-fiancée.
Did distinguishing the difference matter? She made that choice when she sucked face with a member of Black Death. She didn’t bother waiting for me to talk to my dad before she threw herself into the arms of another man for another club. And this was where she ended up?
Disgust over what her life had become and the life she had chosen over me combined with a slow boil of rage I felt building inside me.
She had chosen a life with her dad’s enemies over a life with me. If she wanted to earn their protection by spreading her legs, why should I give a shit about what happened to her?
I threw the SUV in reverse and hauled my ass to the hospital where I knew Daemon was waiting with Olivia. I had no desire to see Olivia sitting in a hospital bed. I pictured the eighteen-year-old tied to a kitchen chair with blood falling from her leg and resisted the urge to hurl my lunch all over the rental as I headed out of town.
Coming back was going to be a mistake.
It was going to fuck everything up.
The shrill sound of my ringing phone snapped me back to reality like a rubber band.
“Hey, Meg,” I answered, one hand on the wheel, elbow propped up on the side of the door, and the phone in my other hand.
“You weren’t here when Brayden woke up,” she started, and I caught the nervous hitch in her voice. I cursed myself silently.
“Shit, Meg… I’m sorry. I had to get out of town in a hurry.” I could picture the boy. The boy who still cried every night for his dad, even after two years. The boy who panicked when I didn’t show up within an hour of me telling him I would. I had been so fucked up after talking to Daemon that I had forgotten where my priorities were.
“It’s okay,” she said through the phone. Some of the pressure left me. Meg was sweet. Her voice floated through the phone like she didn’t have a care in the world. Like she didn’t miss the man she had always called her soul mate. She actually believed in all that girly shit like fate, destiny, soul mates, and claimed she had been blessed to find hers y
oung in life despite the abrupt and way too soon ending.
I pulled off the highway exit for the hospital and slowed my rented Tahoe on the dirt shoulder, throwing it into park. “Let me talk to him.”
“I know you’re busy. I don’t want to waste your time.”
“Meg,” I scolded her teasingly. It was our way. Somehow our friendship eased the pain in my chest. “Put Brayden on the phone.”
It was silent for a beat while I heard murmuring on the line and then the excited ear-piercing squeal of the four-year-old. “Rykie!”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. That boy’s high-pitched voice helped calm the storm raging inside me. “Hey, little man. Sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up.”
“You said you’d be here.” I could practically see his little chin wobble as he fought back tears. The little kid was messed up after his dad promised he’d be home after his two week stint on the rig but never made it.
“I know,” I told him soothingly, wishing I was fucking back in New Orleans teaching the kid how to build a Minecraft world on the computer. “I had something come up that I really needed to go do, but I’ll be home in a week. I promise I’ll see you before I head back to the rig.”
“Where are you?” He was still pouting, but hesitant. Sometimes I wondered if my voice soothed his fears as much as his voice soothed mine. I swore that taking care of Meg and Brayden helped me more than them sometimes.
I looked out the window to the never-ending evergreen pines lining the highway. Home. That wasn’t right. I tripped over my answer, so unsure of what I was feeling.
How did I explain it to a four-year-old?
“I’m in Minnesota, little man,” I finally answered.
I heard a smile in his voice. “Will you bring me something home with you?”
Chuckling, I asked, “What do you want?”
“Milk duds. A huge box.”
I laughed, my earlier rage melting away. “You got it, Brayden. I’ll bring you the largest box of Milk Duds I can find.”
I flinched when I heard his loud shout followed by another, equally loud, clunking sound.
“Sorry. He dropped the phone.” Meg’s voice came through the line and she was calmer, happier, than she had been only minutes before.
“No problem, Meg. I’ll see you guys in a week, okay?”
“Okay, thanks again… I know this is a lot for you.”
My hand tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s not a problem,” I gritted out. I wasn’t annoyed with her, but she always felt like an inconvenience, when in reality, if it wasn’t for Meg and Brayden, I might have jumped over the edge of the rig in the Gulf one night.
The guilt of knowing you’re responsible for taking innocent lives was a burden I wished on no one.
I promised her I’d call and check in on Brayden everyday while I was gone, knowing it would soothe his little mind.
By the time I reached the hospital, the calmness I had felt while talking to Brayden and Meg had evaporated. I walked the halls of the hospital, searching for Olivia’s room, trying to do everything I could think of to forget my run-in with Faith.
I found Olivia’s room, and from a small window next to her door, I spied Daemon standing over her bed, one hand on her cheek.
It’d been almost five years since I’d seen him. Or Olivia.
It felt like I was transported back in time to five years ago. Had I not left, I would have seen Olivia in a bed exactly like this.
Daemon spoke to her, and suddenly, something my mind had blanked on earlier rushed to the front of my mind.
Diamond. Those assholes called her Diamond. My nickname for Faith. Had she fucking chosen that as some sort of stage name?
Rage burst forth through my chest in a way I’d never experienced or felt before. My veins felt like they were going to explode as it coursed through my body, and before I knew what I was doing, I slammed open the door to Olivia’s hospital room and grabbed a handful of Daemon’s shirt.
My fist connected with his jaw right before he flew back into the wall.
It did nothing to stop the beast inside of me. I was panting. Noise rang in my ears like someone had pulled the fire alarms.
I heard shouting. I saw Daemon fling himself around.
I saw guns pointed at me.
Daemon screamed at me while I stood with my arms and feet braced for a return blow.
And then time stopped.
His jaw dropped. Olivia gasped. Daemon blinked, and slowly his gun disappeared behind his back while the one to my left slowly lowered, too.
“You’re such a son of a bitch, Daemon. How in the hell could you not tell me that Faith was working at Penny’s?” I was still panting, my rage not yet quenched. Daemon was thicker than me now, but I had four years in age on my shithead little brother. I could still take him.
He flinched and braced himself for another hit. “You never asked. Not once did you ask about her.”
My hands squeezed into fists. Every muscle in my arms trembled. Was he fucking kidding me? Why would I? What was left to say after watching Faith cheat on me?
Diamond. I closed my eyes. It fucking hurt. Her betrayal. The use of that damn name I had started calling her when we were young teenagers, long before I ever knew I was actually in love with her. How could she use that name? Did the men she fucked call her that? Why would she do that?
I shook my head and looked at my feet. My hands settled on my hips as I gasped for calming breaths that were taking too damn long to start working.
“Ryker?” The soft voice cut through. I raised my head and saw the fear and sadness plastered on Olivia’s pale face like a beacon of light. I blinked, my pain momentarily gone, and closed the space between us.
I had missed her. Olivia embodied goodness and had been like my little sister when we were growing up. Family. At one point, we had been family.
“How you doin’, baby girl? I heard you got yourself into some trouble again.” I smiled despite myself, and as I bent over her, Olivia’s head dropped against my shoulder. My arms went around her, holding her tightly.
She had been shot shortly after finding out she’d lost her baby. When Daemon had called me to come home, he had only told me that she and the cop, Travis, had broken up right after finding out she was pregnant, but I still didn’t know why they were together the day she ended up with bullet wounds grazing her shoulder and abdomen and he ended up bleeding out next to her.
Sounding annoyed, Daemon snapped, “We need to get out of here.”
I pulled away from Olivia, but kept one arm around her. If it was bugging the fuck out of my brother that I was touching his girl, I was going to keep doing it to mess with him. That’s what big brothers were for. Not that they were officially together yet, but I knew that’s what Daemon wanted. I also knew that since he’d lost her once, he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
“We aren’t done with our talk,” I said, watching his eyes slowly move from my hand on Olivia’s back to my glaring eyes.
He sighed and blew out a breath. “Thanks for coming.” He ran his hands through his light brown hair that hung to his shoulders. His goatee was a mess, and his eyes had purple circles under them. A bruise was forming on his cheek and under the other eye. Hadn’t I only hit him once?
The thought of Daemon getting his ass kicked made me smile. I’d deal with the rest of all the bullshit later, but damn it all if it didn’t feel good to be standing so close to my brother again after so many years away.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the man who had pulled a gun on me. He was almost as pretty as Pete, but he watched me with guarded caution.
“Ryker Knight,” I told him, taking in the Nordic Lord cut and the inked alligator down his forearm. The fucking thing looked real with the scales, blue glowing eyes, and bright red tongue.
“Finn, mate. Nice to meet ya’.”
His accent surprised me, but I couldn’t place it. There were Nordic Lords Charters all over the world, but the cl
ub rarely had contact with international ones. I flipped through my old memories of the club.
“English?” I asked, knowing there was a charter in Manchester.
“Australian.” Nordic Lords didn’t have a charter in Australia, at least not that I knew of. I nodded at him and killed my own curiosity. Wherever this guy came from, it wasn’t any of my business. I was only here for a week to help Daemon out.
I heard a soft sigh come from behind me and spun around, catching the eye of someone else who looked vaguely familiar. “Shit, J? You’re still here?”
I blinked again, taking in her tanned skin and sun-bleached blonde hair. Last I had heard, after her boyfriend Scratch died, Jules had taken off to Arizona
She started to shake her head like she was going to correct me, but then raised her hand and waved. Her voice and fingers shook a little bit. “Hey, Ryke.”
I glanced around the room. Besides Finn, the four of us had grown up together. Friends for a long time. It had never bothered me much to hang around Daemon or Liv. Even Faith was younger than me. They had all been my family, and they all looked the same and yet different at the same time.
I had to get out of the enclosed room before the weight of the past reared its vicious head again. Who knew what in the hell I’d do.
“We need to get out here,” Olivia said. “I hate being in hospitals.”
“Let’s go then, woman.” I smiled, thankful for the interruption. Then I grabbed a bag I saw lying on the floor in an effort to get everyone else moving.
The Mustang was one hell of a beautiful car. I couldn’t believe Daemon had actually finished the damn thing. I ran my hand slowly along the black paint job with its two white racing stripes and smiled. I remembered the shit our old man had given Daemon for hauling such a piece of crap out of the Club’s salvage yard. One wheel was missing, the underbelly looked like a giant pile of rust, and the engine was missing eighty percent of it.
This car, the one in his garage, was amazing.
The Mustang was something I’d asked about days ago. But between caring for Olivia, taking her to her ex-boyfriend’s funeral, and Club business Daemon had needed to take care of, this was the first time we’d been able to spend just hanging out.