Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
THIRTY-ONE
SILAS
The fire curled and licked toward the underbelly of the trees. Shooting sparks that danced higher before they turned to ash and fluttered to the ground.
I sat rocked back in a chair, entranced by the flames while my crew joked around me.
“Did you see me in action?” Brody gestured at himself. Amped after today’s unfortunate incident.
“What I saw was you ducking for cover,” Trevan razzed behind a sip of his beer.
Brody gasped in mock offense. “Are you kidding me? I went straight hero today.”
Brody stretched out his arms like he was the prize.
Phoenix grunted the way he always did. Seldom amused.
“Hero, huh?” Trevan’s brow lifted with the tease.
“Don’t you know not all heroes wear capes?” Brody tossed out.
Trevan cracked up. “Nah, heroes wear cuts.”
I fought a chuckle, but my words were serious as I told Brody, “You did good today.”
He looked my way, seriousness taking over him too. “Wouldn’t have let that bastard get away with what he planned. This club’s mission is my mission.”
“I know,” I affirmed.
Meaning it.
He might have messed around nonstop, but when it came down to it, Brody knew what was important.
The same as the rest of my MC.
This mismatched family that fought for what was right.
It was me who’d gone askew. The one who’d fucked up. Fucked up so bad, letting myself get lost in her.
She was abso-fucking-lutely off-limits.
A job.
A woman under my protection who was basically being used as a pawn.
And I’d let that purpose spiral.
Splinter as she not so slowly seeped beneath my skin.
I mean, fuck, she might as well have been a drug injected directly into my veins.
Whittling her way through muscle and bone and getting to the marrow.
Casting a glow somewhere at the center of my being.
She was this riotous light that I was drawn to. As hot as the sparks that flitted from the flames.
Wildfire.
Kindling that had lit something deep.
Warming my long-dead spirit.
I needed to put out that fucking fire stat.
Extinguish it before it destroyed the oath that I had made.
But I was only getting struck by another lash of severity.
Awareness crawled across my flesh and piqued every cell in my body in keen, desperate attention.
My guts tangled in a fit of greed as I watched her come stumbling out from the cover of trees with my baby sister in tow.
What the ever-lovin’ fuck did they think they were doing?
And what the fuck was she wearing?
Brinley dressed up in one of those tempting short dresses. This one black with capped sleeves and a plunging neckline, flowy skirt to match.
Thighs that I’d had my hands all over earlier exposed, legs for a fucking week.
Waltzing in like a conquering queen on those black peep-toe sky-high heels that could make even a good man commit obscene things.
And I was not a good man.
A swell of possessiveness rushed in, something that verged on irate as every last Crow standing around the fire took note.
It wasn’t like I could blame them.
She was a flash of lightning striking on parched land. A storm rolling in to quench a ten-year drought.
Trevan’s attention cut to Elena, exactly the way it was supposed to, and he stood, already lumbering her way.
He wasn’t only my second in command when it came to the MC. He was second in command at watching over my sister.
Charged with her safety in the moments I couldn’t be near her, an obligation I’d given him after she’d been rescued from Kent Ellison’s clutches.
One he took fucking seriously. Always watching and hovering close.
Elena pulled away from where she was tacked to Brinley’s side and instead grabbed her hand and pulled her into the fray of men and women already devolving into depravity.
The party slanting toward unruly.
Styx fingering some chick where he sat at a picnic table while another was on her knees sucking his dick.
A few others were scattered about clearly deteriorating in that direction.
My cock hardened at the thought of Brinley doing the same.
Getting on her knees right out in front of everyone so they would know she was mine, all while I wanted to gouge out their goddamn eyes if they caught sight of her doing it.
No one could say I was being rational.
From over the fire, I watched as a few of my men moved up to Brinley, checking on her, gruff assholes still exerting their care.
“Thank fuck she’s okay,” Brody rumbled before he moved in her direction, ducking into a cooler on his way and extending it to her like a peace offering.
Something heavy clouded him, even though I could see him trying to front his easy, arrogant smile.
She accepted the bottle, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Brinley’s gorgeous face was all pinched up in gratitude.
I hated that Brody’d had to draw blood, but I knew full well that venom already pumped through Brody’s veins.
It was coming.
Inevitable.
They say you can leave, but you are always where you came from.