“How can you love her after she aborted your baby? You said you hated each other.”
“Turns out, she lost the baby. She lied for reasons I don’t want to get into, but she’s the one I see in my future.”
Climbing off the bed, her hands shake and her eyes water.
“Apart from her knowing the club ways, what is it about her you love?”
This time, I can’t hide my smile, and I don’t bother trying.
“She gets me. Most of the time, she knows exactly what I’m thinking or planning to do. I’ve done some bad things, and with you, I’d never share the details because you wouldn’t be able to handle it, not deep down. But Victoria, she’d ask for every detail and be at my side. She excites me.”
Her disgust radiates out of her pores, and I see I’m failing to explain this properly. It’s so clear when she snaps, “So you want to be the next Bonnie and Clyde?”
Sighing, I stand and move in front of her. “Not at all, what I’m trying to say is, no matter the situation, I know Tor would be with me a hundred percent. She’s a ride or die.”
“And I’m not?” she chokes out.
“It’s not a bad thing, Sara. After everything you went through growing up, you deserve someone who’s going to treat you exactly how you want to be treated. I’m not that guy anymore, and I don’t want to pretend I am.”
Tears stream down her cheeks, and I pull her against me, holding her tight.
“I should’ve never come back.”
“Yeah, you should’ve. We both needed this, to say a proper goodbye.”
“I should pack. If I leave soon, I can be home before nightfall.”
Letting her go, I sit on the edge of the bed as she collects the few things she has here and shoves them into her case. We don’t say anything as I walk her down to her car, but after dumping her bag on the back seat, she turns to me and says, “You were always there for me. Even after I left, you were with me all the time. I can’t imagine my life without you in some way.”
Wiping her eyes, she continues. “Deep down, I know I couldn’t handle this life you have here, but I’ll always regret not running with you. We could’ve had something special, but I guess we were destined for different things all along.”
Wrapping her arms around me, I hug her back. It’s not like I hate her. I’ll always care for her, and want nothing but the best for her, but I just can’t be her guy, and she’ll never be my girl.
“I doubt I’ll return to Willow’s Peak,” she says, pulling away. “Take care of yourself, Luca.”
She climbs in behind the wheel, and before she can shut the door, I crouch down and tell her, “Don’t come back. This town was never a home for you. Be happy where you are now. Everything that happened here can’t get you anymore. You’re free.”
Standing, I close the door and return her smile. Watching her drive out the gates doesn’t cripple me like it did the day I woke up and found her gone. She’s not the only one who’s free from the past—I am too.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Victoria
I lean over the tub and pull the plug, keeping the towel wrapped tight around me. It’s been a long day, and I’ve done everything I can think of to keep my mind busy, as not to think about Luca and everything that happened earlier.
I can’t afford to believe him. He literally runs hot and cold, and just because he was hot today, tomorrow can be a different story. I’ve been burned by him so many times, and I’ve been frozen by him too. Neither are great to go through.
Drying off, I slip into a long flowing dress and head down to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. I plan on cleaning the pantry until I’m so tired, I can’t keep my eyes open. If I go to bed while I’m this pumped, I’ll spend hours going over everything Luca said and dissect it to death.
Hitting the bottom step, I see a dark blur in the front door window. Swinging the door open, I find Sara ready to bang her fist again.
She’s lucky I saw her, because she could’ve spent all night banging away and I wouldn’t have heard a thing.
Seeing the tear tracks staining her face, my heart pounds in my chest.
Her lips move, but they’re moving too fast, and I can’t work out what she’s ranting on about. The veins in her neck bulge, telling me she’s obviously not speaking at a normal level.
Holding my hand up to stop her, I grab the notepad and pen I keep by the door for visitors I don’t know and thrust them toward her.
She snatches them from hand, and I point to my ear and waggle my finger to remind her I can’t fucking hear.
I lean against the doorframe while she turns her back and uses the porch railing to lean the notebook on to write.
She’s clearly upset and gone to the trouble of finding out where I live. Luca must’ve held true to his promise and broken up with her.
Spinning on her heel, she whips around and storms across the porch, shoving the notebook at me.
Grasping it before it falls to the ground, I flip it over and start reading her chicken scratch handwriting.
Do you love Luca? If you do, tell me, and I’ll leave. If you don’t, and you don’t want to be with him, tell me now, because I’ll fight for him. But I won’t fight for someone if they could have the chance of happiness with someone they want.
I do love him. That has never been a question for me that I couldn’t answer. My problem was he was so hung up on Sara, I couldn’t even think about seriously fighting to be with me. It was the main reason I couldn’t, if I’d had the choice, have his baby.
But him, after leaving here, he’d gone straight to her and broke up with her, shows me he was serious earlier.
Maybe the shit we’ve been through can be worked out.
Looking up from the notebook, I nod, and hold my hand out for the pen.
Passing it over, I write…
I do love him, and given the opportunity, I’d be with him.
I turn the notebook around and watch her eyes scan my words. The fight she showed up here with vanishes, and she simply turns and walks over to her car.
Nausea rolls across my stomach, and I step outside to breathe in as much fresh air as I can.
Sara plagued my time with Luca. Now he’s asked her to leave, and she’s going.
Thinking of what this could possibly mean makes me dizzy. Closing the front door, I head around the side of the house and out back to my greenhouse.
I focus on the roses, losing track of time when I sense someone behind me. Inhaling, I smell a cologne I’ve not smelled before, and the shadow creeping over the potting table tells me whoever it is is right behind me, and it isn’t Luca.
Acting like I’m about to prune the roses to my left, I grab the secateurs and spin around. Sure enough, my senses were right. I don’t know the guy behind me. Anyone I know wouldn’t show up wearing a ski mask. His hands shoot out and grab my arms. He spins me around, my back clashing with his chest, and on instinct, I clench the secateurs and stab the guy in the top of his thigh. It doesn’t cause him to buckle or loosen his hold on me, but I do feel the vibrations in his chest. His roar is lost on me, but I certainly felt it.
Whoever has a hold of me backs up out of my greenhouse and throws me to the ground. My head connects, and black dots fill my vision. My dress strap snaps as he looms over me and yanks me up by the fabric. The last thing I see is his fist coming toward my face.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Luca
I pop my head into Dad’s office, but he’s not there. I find him in the bar, sitting at his usual table with Sparky and Pope, looking over plans for the renovations he wants to make around the club.
Stopping by the table, I ask him, “Do you have a minute?”
Nodding for Sparky and Pope to leave, I take a seat and clear my throat.
“What do you need, son?”
I don’t know where to start. Sitting forward, I hang my head and pull at my hair, hoping the sharp pain clears the fog in my mind.
He pulls my hands away and moves his chair closer. “What is it?”
“I’ve messed up so bad, and I’m not sure if I can put shit right. Apparently, it’s no secret Victoria and me have been close.”
“Tell me what we don’t know then, Luca.”
“I treated her like shit when she didn’t do anything to warrant it. I pushed her away, harder every time she wouldn’t stay gone. You’ve heard why she ran out and lost her hearing?”
“So you fucked some girl to drive her away? You couldn’t find a different way to get through to her?”
I admit, “I did it to break her as much as to keep her away from me.”
“Why?” His frown is so deep, I’m surprised the crease between his eyes doesn’t become permanent.
“Because she told me she had an abortion.”
The frown disappears, and so does his brows when they hit his hairline.
“Your baby?” I nod. “But she didn’t?” he guesses.
“No, she miscarried the night Ellis was here.”
“Why did she lie?”
“Her head was messed up. She thought Ellis had already taken so much from our family, and after everything we’d been through at the time, she wanted me to hate her.”
“It’s messy, that’s for sure. What do you want now?” he asks. Victoria asked me the same thing.
“Do you want to be with Victoria?” he pushes on. “Are you concerned about Pope, Rick, and the twins?”
“No, I have zero concerns regarding them. I want Tor.”
“Do you love her?”
“Yes.”
He sighs heavily. “From what you’ve said, all you can do is own your shit and fall on your knees for her.”
I was hoping he’d have some sort of magical advice that’d be more helpful than the shit I already know.
“What about Sara? Where does she fit into all this?”
“She’s gone, and she won’t be coming back. It’s Tor I want, no question about it.”
“Then I wish you luck, son.”
I reckon I’m going to need it, and more, but I’m willing to do anything to prove to her I’m sorry for everything, and it’s her that I want in the way she’s always wanted me.
Pushing my chair back to stand, Dad leans forward and lowers his voice.
“Before you run off, I want to ask you something.”
I sit back in my chair and tip my chin for him to get on with it.
“It’s been brought to my attention that Lily hasn’t been seen in a while. I know how you feel about her, so I’ll ask you once, are you the reason she’s gone?”
Without hesitation, I answer, “Yes.”
“What did you do?”
I’ve never outright lied to my father, and I won’t now. Opening my mouth to tell him, I’m distracted by Aspen and Emma rushing through the door, Emma’s eyes red and puffy, clutching Penelope to her side.
Dad’s on his feet without missing a beat, and I hang around to see what’s going down now.
“What is it?” he demands.
Aspen steps forward, panting. “Mason and Myles have been taken. These guys, six of the, kicked in the front door. They beat Mason and shoved him into a van. They did the same to Myles.”
Pope is the first one over. “They didn’t touch either of you?”
Both of them shake their heads. “They held guns on us. We were told to tell you Effie Rathbone says hello.”
“Fucking hell!” Dad roars.
I look to Pope, who’s deadly silent as he thinks.
“She wants our attention. She won’t kill them,” he murmurs.
Dad turns to Sparky, hollering, “Call Jamie Boy. This is their fucking mess, they can fucking help clean it up.” Then he turns to Slade across the bar. “Find out what you can on this Effie bitch.”
While Dad barks out his orders, I notice Aspen struggling to hold on to a holdall.
“What’s in the bag?”
She looks to Emma, and like the twins do, they seem to be holding a silent conversation.
“What’s in the fucking bag, Aspen?” Dad snaps.
“You know the strip club that got robbed the other week?”
Dad falls back on his chair and sighs. “Don’t say it.”
“Talk!” Pope barks.
“Mason found this surgery that could help Victoria regain some of hearing, but it costs a lot of money.” She dumps the bag onto the nearest table and unzips it. There are wads
of cash inside. “This is what they have so far.”
“What surgery?” I ask.
“The doctor layers over the damaged eardrum, and in most cases, a hearing aid is also needed, something like that,” Emma explains.
Sparky hands Dad a phone and presses it to his ear. Listening for a moment, he hangs up. “The Haywards will be here in an hour. Where’s Ricky?”
“He went home earlier. I’ll call him,” Pope says.
Dad tips his head back, his cheeks ballooning from exhaling a hard breath, while Pope makes the call.
Conversations hush when Pope speaks. “Where’s Ricky?”
He goes quiet while he listens. “This is Jimmy.” Obviously, he can’t use his real name. He’s supposed to be dead. “You’re Effie, I assume?”
Pope’s anger is palpable. I know the moves made tonight will change the club once again.
“Return them, now.”
This Effie bitch must hang up on him, because he launches his phone across the bar. A few brothers have to duck to avoid being hit by the damn thing.
“She has my entire family,” he tells Dad, and my body goes cold.
“Victoria?”
He nods. That’s all it takes for me to ready myself to fight with the club. I cannot lose her now.
A hand lands on my shoulder and squeezes roughly. Leo leans closer and whispers, “Keep your cool.”
“They went after my family because the fucking Haywards made me out to be the guy’s killer.”
Slade comes back with Zach, informing Dad, “There’s nothing on Effie Rathbone that shows red flags. In the public eye, she’s the owner of three high-end hair salons, and runs marathons for various charities.”
Zachery informs him, “We’re still waiting on a deeper search.”
Dad turns to Pope. “What does she want?”
He shrugs. “She didn’t say, just that she’ll be in touch.”
“Trying to make us sweat,” Sparky grunts.
Dad kicks the chair closest to him and barks out, “Luca! Get your ass in the back room.”
Wondering what he could want with me at a time like this, I walk into the back room with Dad slamming the door behind us.
“I have one question for you, and by God, you’d better tell me the truth. When trouble comes for this club nowadays, it comes fucking hard. Yet again, I have to make decisions on the lives of five people I call family. I’m going to call for the brothers to vote on whether Angel, Dion, and Grim will patch into our chapter. Depending on your answer, I’ll call for your patch too.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What did you do to Lily?”
“I made her believe I was going to shoot her in the head until she begged for her life.”
For a moment, he just stares at me. He doesn’t say a word while he silently tries to work me out.
“Where is she now?”
It’s like he’s almost afraid to ask me.
“She said something about a cousin. I didn’t care to listen after I made her pack her shit.” A second fucking time, which I don’t add.
Dad moves closer to me and holds my face in his hands. “For a moment, I thought you were going to tell me you’d killed her.”
“I wanted to. I came too close to going through with it.”
“What stopped you?”
“She’s Harper’s mom and Slade’s sister.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He smiles. “I’ve made no secret about wanting both of my sons to wear the patch.
I need your word that you understand this club is more than yourself.”
I do. Finally, I understand the brotherhood and the need to have one another’s backs in order to survive and live free. I understand when one goes down, we all go down. I understand it all. I see what my dad’s been banging on about for years now. I see in order to get Tor back, I need the club beside me, working as one.
“I understand.”
Slapping me on the arm, he leans around me to open the door. “Let’s go, and be ready for anything.”
Facing my dad is one thing, but having to face Pope is another. I don’t particularly give a shit what he thinks about Tor and me, but it does to her. And technically, it would make my life a lot easier if he weren’t going for his gun every time I walk into the same room as him.
He’s sitting with Emma and Aspen, leaning in to look at something on Aspen’s phone.
Emma’s stopped crying, and her hands have stopped shaking. Penelope plays on the floor next to her. She’s so focused on the kid, I don’t think she hears or sees anything going on around her.
“What do you want, Jackson?” Pope asks without having taken his eyes off the phone screen.
“I just want to say that I’m in love with your granddaughter, and when we bring her home, she’ll be my old lady.”
“Is that so?”
Nodding, I go to speak, but he cuts in.
“The last I heard, she walked in on you fucking some whore because you set her up to walk in on it. Now I don’t claim to know shit about women, but I do know they don’t like that sort of shit, and they don’t tend to forget or forgive. My granddaughter’s smart, and she’s worth the world. Why in the hell would she want you?”
Scratching the back of my neck, I stall for a second, trying to figure out how to do this. I’m not afraid of Pope, but I’m not stupid, either. I need him to give me his blessing.
“Victoria’s worth more than the world, and she’s done things to hurt me too. It wasn’t all one-sided. I know we’ve got shit to work out, and all I’m asking is that you won’t cause problems.”
Tearing his attention away from the phone, he rises from his seat.
His Twisted Heart : Sons of Lost Souls MC Series Book Nine Page 24