Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Diesel says nothing. Just moves three steps to stand at my back, arms crossed over his chest like steel beams. I feel the shift in the room's gravity.
Whatever else these men think about me bringing Savannah here, my sergeant at arms has just made his position clear.
Blood for blood, brother for brother.
My ribs throb with each heartbeat, a metronome of pain keeping time with my racing thoughts. The brand on my chest feels like it's burning all over again, the memory of the hot iron and pledged loyalty searing through skin and muscle.
But I start talking because everyone's nervous and no one needs that. In this room, fear is contagious, and right now, I need these men steady, not spooked. So I take a slow breath and let the pain keep me focused and present. I need that now more than ever—this sharp, relentless reminder that I'm still here, still standing despite everything this world has tried to do to break me.
"Let me spell out what happened." My voice stays level, quiet even. Not because I'm calm—because I'm so fucking far beyond rage that I've circled back to something that looks like peace. It's that dangerous stillness that comes when you've passed through the fire and emerged as something harder, colder, more focused than before.
"Savannah and I were having sex out at this silo where we always hook up. Cash, Wyatt, and Marcus White Jr.—Senator White’s son—showed up with ranch hands. They beat me until I couldn't stand, kidnapped me, and tied me to a support beam in a hunting cabin. Savannah—"
I have to stop, swallow the blood that's pooling under my tongue. The metallic taste floods my mouth, bringing back memories of The Pit, of fights where I learned to keep going even when my body begged to quit.
"Marcus took her to another cabin on the Ashby land. Kept her tied to a bed for three days. Drugged her. Did things I'm still putting together."
The room goes still.
Even Roach stops fidgeting.
The air changes, thickens with a tension I recognize—the collective rage of men who understand exactly what I'm not saying, who know what happens to women in cabins where no one can hear them scream.
"Colt Ashby broke ranks. Got me out. Brought horses." I press my palm against my side where something's definitely broken inside. Each breath sends jagged shards of pain through my ribs, but I keep my face blank, unreadable. "We rode to the cabin where Savannah was. Found Marcus standing over her with a syringe. I beat him until Colt pulled me off and shot him with a tranq gun."
Havoc nods once, his eyes meeting mine. He understands exactly what I'm not saying. He knows what I did to Marcus so far has nothing to do with what I will still do to him when this is all over.
"We didn’t have no phones on us. So no one tracked us that way. We didn’t have any vehicles, we crossed Ashby land on horseback. So they didn’t track us that way either. We went straight to the trailer and I made exactly one call on the landline." I point to the floor beneath us, to the clubhouse that's become more home than the trailer ever was. "I called here. Colt took the horses back to the ranch and told me he was gonna handle his brothers."
"And the senator's son?" Brick finally speaks, each word measured like expensive whiskey, poured with deliberate precision. His steel eyes track every twitch of my face, reading the truth beneath my words.
"Alive." The word tastes like failure. "No bodies. No murder charges. No federal spotlight on Badlands before the next gun run."
Ledger snorts, tapping his pen against the desk. The rhythmic click-click-click counts down the seconds until my fate is decided. "Alive doesn't mean whole. What's the tangible cost to us? Hard numbers."
I reach into my pocket, fingers finding the rubber-banded stack that Brick handed me just weeks ago. Prison payout. New life money. The cash that was meant to give me and Mercy a fresh start away from everything we came from.
I peel the rubber band off and place the stack on the desk with steady hands that don't betray how much this costs me.
"You guys can take whatever's left of my stack. Dock whatever you need for security costs, additional men, whatever fines the club sees fit." I don't blink, don't hesitate. Nothing matters except keeping Savannah here, under my protection. "This buys her safety until we figure out the next steps."
The pounding in my head intensifies, matching the throbbing in my ribs. My mouth is blood and the edges of my vision are starting to blur, darkness creeping in like the shadows that always seem to find me.
I really need a drink right now. Something strong enough to dull this fire burning through my side, to quiet the screaming demon in my head.