Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
"You think that love is enough?" Chief's voice is soft, deadly. "You think love is a fucking song on the radio."
"I know it's more," Travis growls. “I’m not a fuckin’ idiot, Chief. You raised me, which means you know that I know the meaning of the word family.”
Chief goes silent, their eyes locked. "You broke her heart before. You lied. You did everything I taught you not to do.”
"I fucked up, you think I don’t know that?" Travis won't look away. "But I'd die before I did it again."
Jaq rolls her eyes, cigarette bobbing in her lips. "I got a twenty that says he caves in a year."
"Shut the fuck up," Chief says, barely audible.
She leans back, unbothered.
I find my voice. "We came here out of respect. I...we love you, Dad. I don’t want to lose you. I love him, and I don’t want to lose him. It’s just not a choice anymore.”
"It's always your choice, baby girl," Chief murmurs. "But you gotta make your own choices, and there isn’t a lot I can do to stop that. Doesn’t mean I like it.”
Travis reaches for my hand. Chief eyes the movement, expression unreadable.
"What if you catch him slipping? What if he goes dark again? Your mother, I fuckin’ broke her and she was never the same. This world fucks people up.”
“Mom is stronger than you think,” I say, pushing my chin out.
“You didn’t know the girl I knew. Maybe if you did, you would see just how much damage me being in her life created...”
“That’s on you, Dad,” I say, carefully. “You made those choices, but not everyone is you. He isn’t you.”
He flinches, and I know my words hurt. Travis' grip tightens. "I'll never hurt her, Caden."
Hearing him use my dad’s real name makes my chest tighten.
"You will," Chief says. "You won't mean it, but you will. That's life. You fight, you bleed, you fuck up.”
"I've bled before," I whisper. “And I have survived.”
"So have I," Chief murmurs. He finally looks me in the eye, and what I see there is love so big, it could bring him to his knees.
I soften, because I know what it must be like to fear what could happen to me.
Something incredibly powerful and unspoken passes between us. Me realizing how much it hurts him to fear for me, and him realizing how much Travis matters to me.
A beat of silence passes.
"I can’t stop either of you," Chief says, flicking his gaze to Travis. "But so long as you stand by her, you stand under the brotherhood. You act like a man, you get treated like one. But you break her, Phoenix, and I'll rip your heart out with my own hands. Clear?"
"As day," Travis says. His voice is steady, unwavering.
Jaq snorts, flicks her smoke. God, I hate her.
“While you’re here, got something else I want to talk to you about.”
“Mom?”
He nods.
Jaq laughs, a sharp little knife. “Don’t waste your energy, baby. That woman brings this shit on herself.”
My hands curl into fists. “Be careful what you say next, you ugly piece of...”
“Vi.” Chief says, carefully. “Enough.”
“No, it’s fine, baby,” Jaq interrupts, and there’s something gleaming in her eyes, something feral. She wants this fight. She has always wanted this fight. “It’s your fault for picking the wrong pussy all those years ago. Now look what you’ve done...”
My throat is a live wire. “Watch it.”
She sneers. “What is it you really don’t like about me, little girl? Scared I will steal your daddy?”
Chief runs a hand down his face.
“He’s my family, it’s you who should be worried.”
She straightens, her eyes narrowing. “Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you, bitch,” I snap, stepping up closer to her.
“Enough, both of you!” Chief slams his fist on the desk and the room vibrates. “Jaq, get out.”
She glances at him, then at me, and for a second, a thin crack of something almost human shows. Then her mask snaps back. “I don’t need to be scared of you, or your mother, because it’s me he comes home to every night. Don’t forget that.”
“You’ll never be her. Never.”
Jaq’s eyes go glassy, but she smiles. “What makes you think I fucking want to be? At least I got the balls to stick around, unlike your precious mother. She went running when things got hard, like a fucking weak bitch. It was my pussy he came to when things were hard, while she sat in her little room crying...”
I snap.
I reach into my purse and pull out the gun I always keep in my purse, even though I really shouldn’t. I point it at her, but she doesn’t even flinch. She truly doesn’t think anything of me.
Jaq raises her hands mockingly. “Oh, nooooo.”
Chief doesn’t move. “Vi. Put it down.”
“I want her out,” I say, my voice hollow.
“You gonna shoot me over a little snippet of truth?” Jaq says. “Look at you, daddy’s little princess, ready to throw yet another tantrum.”