Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
For the first time, I thought maybe she was right. Thought maybe I could see beyond the mistakes that had been committed.
My stomach twisted as I peered down at her gorgeous face. At those trusting, beautiful eyes. The cut of her jaw and the plush of her lips.
“Something you need to know about me, Daisy. Something you need to know about our family.”
She flinched, though her expression was open wide.
I reached out and set my hand on the sharp angle of her cheek, my thumb stroking slowly. “You can never repeat this or share it with anyone else. I’m trusting you with the ones I love most, just like you’ve trusted me with the ones you love most.”
Her nod was jerky. “You can trust me.”
Dread clamored through my being. The confines where I kept everything trapped creaking under the pressure. This was something I never thought I’d give another soul, but it was true that every part of me belonged to Daisy.
This part included.
“You know about LA. About us joining the MC and some of the things we did there.”
She barely dipped her chin, urging me to continue.
“The guys…told you our hearts were all fucked up. Each of us traumatized in our own way. Scared and alone. The MC was an easy affiliation to make when the only thing we were worried about was our own survival. But I don’t think it ever truly sat right for any of us…”
My mind traveled to those days. Disgust eating me up from the inside to think of myself out there on those streets, making them worse than they were before us. Our reign greedy and sick. Proliferating the crimes we’d been so afraid of falling prey to.
“You’re all so…intimidating…” She rolled her lips together as she contemplated. “Scary, even. And it’s really difficult to imagine you…involved in those things.”
She stammered through it, clearly not wanting to say it aloud. Maybe then, it would finally make it too real.
“But it didn’t take much for me to see the goodness underscoring all of you,” she added.
I skimmed my hand up and down her arm. “Seems a contradiction, but they’re truly the best guys you’ll ever meet. They’d give it all for anyone in trouble.”
Everything about me hardened, needing her to understand. “And I mean that literally, Daisy.”
Confusion fluttered through her features. “What are you saying?”
I inhaled a steadying breath before I fisted my left hand, drawing attention to it. “I know you’ve noticed this tattoo. Same one as the rest of my crew have.”
Her nod was timid. “I have.”
“It’s more than just a symbol of our brotherhood. It stands for Sovereign Sanctum.”
She blinked, having no clue what it meant.
A ball of razors rolled my throat.
I’d sworn to never share these details with anyone. Had fought it for my brothers, thinking they were only inviting grief into their lives with the treachery. We were supposed to go it alone.
But I recognized now we couldn’t.
There had always been someone meant for each of us. Someone carved from our spirits.
“When we realized we couldn’t go on the way we’d been with the MC, we knew it was time for a change. That we were destined for something different. It started with River. He came upon this woman one night, her husband threatening her with a knife. He took care of the guy…”
I phrased it carefully, not sure how much Daisy could handle in one night. She could ask for greater details later. I just needed her to see. Needed her to see the real me.
She winced, though she gave a slight nod, encouraging me to continue.
“The woman was afraid,” I told her. “Scared of what would happen when the police came in and found the guy on her floor. So River brought her to us. Said he was going to help her. Get her set up with a new life.”
Surprise flashed through Daisy’s expression, though there was an undercut of awareness. Like she might have a hunch exactly where I was going with this.
I kept running my hand up and down her arm. Trying to soothe her. To let her know, no matter what, she was safe with me.
“We all agreed to help, and Sovereign Sanctum was born that day.”
She shook her head a fraction.
“It’s what we do, Daisy. What we really do. We get women and children out of dire situations. Steal them away from their abusers, bring them to The Sanctuary to recover. Then we place them into homes with new identities.”
Uncertainty twisted across her brow. “You work for like…a secret shelter?”
“You could say that, except the shelter is us. We do everything and anything it takes to get those families to safety. We were already thieves. Liars. Killers. We figured, why don’t we take what we do best and make something good out of it?”