Total pages in book: 8
Estimated words: 7625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 38(@200wpm)___ 31(@250wpm)___ 25(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 7625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 38(@200wpm)___ 31(@250wpm)___ 25(@300wpm)
Once I was standing, his gaze moved over me, a dark smirk toying with his lips.
“Love the unhinged serial killer look on you, babe, but you run up and get cleaned up a little. I’ll collect all the shit down here with either of our DNA on it. Wait,” he called when I went to do just that. “Take this. Just in case,” he said, handing me one of the guns from my bag. “And turn that music down so I can hear you.”
With that, he patted my ass, and I ran off to do just that, slipping into my heels before rushing into the bathroom.
Bear was right.
I looked like a final girl in a horror movie.
The blood was all over my hands, arms, chest, neck, and face. It was drying into my hair.
Turning on the tap, I scrubbed off as much as possible before wetting my hair.
“Here,” Bear said, making me jerk, not expecting him so quickly. “Some clubwhore must have left it hanging around,” he said, holding up a simple lightweight leather bomber jacket that looked close enough to my size to fit.
“Perfect,” I said, snatching it from him, then slipping it on. Reaching in the front pocket, I found a wrapped caramel candy and a hair tie. “Even more perfect,” I said, tying up my hair. “Ready?”
“Anything else you need to wipe down in here?” he asked. “I got all the knobs.”
“The windowsill and dresser in the room where the president’s body is,” I said, following him as he wiped everything down thoroughly.
“That it?”
“Yep. That’s it. My car is down the block a little.”
“We’ll take the long way. Circle to it from behind,” Bear said. “Just in case any of the other members are on their way home to find this.”
With that, we made our way out of the clubhouse and into the summer evening heat. I hadn’t realized how much the metallic scent of blood had been flooding my nose until I could breathe some fresh air in.
“We will drive around a little before heading back to the club—what?” he asked as I started vigorously shaking my head.
“No. We aren’t going back to the club.”
“We can hit your apartment after if you want. To sleep. But we gotta tell the guys what went down.”
“The guys don’t give a single fuck what went down tonight,” I said, voice hitching up, making him turn to look at me, brow raised.
“What’s going on?”
“I begged them to save you, Bear. Begged, demanded, insulted them about being pussies for not coming to get you. They didn’t give a shit. Not one of them.”
“Babe, it’s—“
“It’s not, though. It’s not complicated. They’re fucking selfish assholes who don’t deserve your loyalty. And even if you want to go back, I can’t.”
“Why? What happened?” he asked, his entire massive frame tensing.
“They kicked me out. And let’s just say that some guys had things to say about what they’d like to do to me since I wasn’t yours anymore.”
“Fucking bastards,” Bear hissed, jaw getting tight. “I don’t… they are all I know, Clyde.”
“Well, now you know me, too,” I said, placing a hand on his chest. “Let’s go back to my place, pack up some essentials, and get the hell out of here.”
“And go where?” he asked, shaking his head like none of this was making any sense.
I couldn’t even blame him. Ever since he was a little boy, all he knew was his club, his brothers, the life.
There was nothing else out there for him.
So he was having a hard time seeing a future without all of that.
And even if they were, in the end, disloyal assholes, they were all he had by way of family. Leaving family behind, however toxic they may have been, was not an easy thing to do.
Hell, it took me a decade or so longer than it should have to cut my own toxic ties.
I had to give him a little grace.
A lot was coming at him hard and fast.
For a man who was accustomed to a very predictable life, asking him to leave that behind for complete uncertainty, it was a lot.
“Babe,” I said, moving forward, flattening my hands to his chest, leaning into him a little. “Anywhere. I would go anywhere with you.”
Bear took a deep breath, leaning down to press his forehead to the top of my head.
“It might be a road to hell, but I’d blindly follow you into the flames,” I added, giving him a tight squeeze.
His arms went around me, giving me a squeeze, his intense gaze looking down at me.
And then he said it.
The words that would change our whole lives.
“Let’s do it,” he agreed.