Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“He saved me,” I say, softly. “My life wasn’t great, and my mother died at my hand. Gage somehow got me out of it. I never bothered to ask how; I didn’t want to know. He lived up the street, and although I don’t remember it, he told me he met me when I was younger and after that, he used to keep an eye on me. When he saw the flashing police lights that night, he knew he had to help. I guess it’s safe to say he probably heard more than one fight in the time we lived there. My mother was an addict, and a very violent woman.”
“He good to you?”
I breathe slow, because I don’t honestly know the answer to that. “Gage isn’t the kind of man to do love, but he kept me safe and he gave me a home. Until the club started eating parts of him that I fell in love with. The rage. The violence.” I rub my upper arm, trying to warm it up. “It changed him, and slowly, the love I was so desperately seeking got further and further away. It broke parts of me.”
Kael goes silent for a while. “You love him?”
I pause, it’s the same question the girls asked. “I don’t know if I ever truly loved him, not in the way I should have, but I will always owe so much to Gage and for that, yeah, I have love for him.”
“Gotta know,” Kael murmurs. “You want this, with us?”
I push out of my swing, standing so my legs don’t go to jelly. I turn to him, holding his gaze. “You’re the first thing in so long that has reminded me that there is good out there, Kael. I can’t help the way I feel for you. I have tried, believe me. So yeah, I do want it, because I want to see what life with you would be like. It’s complicated, though. Gage isn’t going to step back, not without a fight.”
“You willin’ to fight that war?”
I exhale, my body humming with a new feeling. Determination. “Yes. But I don’t want to see him hurt. I couldn’t live with that. I truly believe there is someone out there for Gage, someone who will love him for every single thing he is, and in return, he will give the best of himself. That person isn’t me.”
He leans back, lets the swing take him half an inch. “If you wanna do this, I’ll get you out. No strings. I want your freedom, not for me, but for you.”
I study his face, and I know he means it.
"Are you willing to fight the war for me?" I whisper, afraid of his answers.
He grins, the slow, dangerous kind that breaks over his face with the promise of disaster. “In a heartbeat. The minute I saw you, darlin’, I knew I’d burn the world down for you.”
My heart skips a beat.
I take a step, then another, until I’m crowding into his space and the swing bumps my knees. Kael doesn’t make any move to stand—he just plants his boots wide and opens his hands, accepting whatever I plan to give him. I drag my fingers through his tangle of hair. He tilts his head back, blue eyes devouring every inch of my face.
“I’m in,” I whisper, surprise tripping through me like it’s my first truth in years. “I want out, Kael, I want to be free, and I want this, whatever the hell it is.”
His arm slides around my waist, rough palm burning through the thin cotton of my shirt. He pulls me close and his other hand curls around the back of my neck, pulling my mouth down to his. He kisses me long and deep, sucking the air from my lungs and turning my legs to jelly.
“You sure you want to go from one club to another?” he murmurs, pulling back.
“It was never the club life I didn’t love,” I whisper.
“Then welcome to the Fallen Sons MC, baby.”
And just like that, I feel like I am finally home.
11
“Need a favor,” Kael murmurs, leaning down and running his thumb over my bottom lip, cigarette in his other hand.
I am soaking in the sun in the compound, lying back, enjoying the feeling of being completely at peace. Well, okay, not completely, but better than I have felt in a long time. Kael took me to a club lawyer this morning to draft up divorce papers. It hurts to know Gage will get them and it will tip him over the edge, but if I don’t do it now, he will forever have a hold over me.
“Oh?”
“Come with me?”
I nod, pushing up to follow him, hand in hand, to the back sheds. When we get in, I see Wolfe, Knox, Talon, and Zane all standing by a bunch of crates. I already know those are full of weapons, but I’m curious as to why I’m here. I glance at Kael, and he nods at Wolfe.