Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“You’d hurt me?”
His eyes flash. “Leave, Aviana.”
“Alarick would never hurt me. Briella ...”
“Alarick has nothin’ to do with this ...”
“King ...”
“You’re pushin’ me. Get the fuck out.”
I move to run, but he’s fast. So god damned fast. He lunges at me and plunges the needle into my neck. The effects are immediate and, as I sway, all the contents of the safe fall to the ground and scatter. Money flies everywhere, papers separate, and one piece lands in the pool of blood around my father. Cohen catches me as my legs give way. “Who are you?” I whisper, eyelids getting heavy.
“Someone you’re never goin’ to see again. I’m sorry, Aviana. I’m doin’ this for you.”
Then my entire world goes black.
1
NOW – AVIANA
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Briella cries, hugging me so tightly my insides twitch.
I want her to get off me. Not because I don’t love her, but because I hate being touched. Despise it. Dread it. I want her hands away from my body, a body that I’ve used and abused for years. A body I hate.
I step back, forcing her to let go. I stare at her, once my best friend, the only person in the world I had outside of my aunt Carrie, who is now gone. But her club took everything from me. King had my family killed. Cohen made sure I disappeared. They ruined everything. Now I’m back to give them a god damned dose of their own medicine.
I hate that I have to hurt my best friend in the process.
But that’s just how life goes, right?
“I’m glad to be back,” I say to her, my voice not at all convincing.
“Where have you been?”
“Around,” I murmur, glancing at Cohen who is walking inside the house.
He’s avoiding me.
He knows that I know.
I know everything.
I’m going to make him wish he was never born.
“One moment.” I smile at Briella. “I really need to pee and then we can talk about everything.”
Like I fucking want to talk about anything.
“I’m so glad you’re here, seriously.” She smiles. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
I flash her the fakest smile I’ve ever managed to conjure up and then walk toward the clubhouse where the man who took my entire life just disappeared. I know what me being here is doing to him, I know exactly what is going through his mind right now. After all, his little club doesn’t know he had anything to do with my disappearance, nor do they know he took information that they needed. He took it, and I want it back. I want whatever was in that safe, because whatever it was, changed the entire course of my life. For whatever reason, Cohen decided he was the only one who would have access to that information.
He’s fighting a losing battle. I’m here to reclaim who I am, and I’m starting with making him pay for every single thing he put me through when he made me disappear.
I walk into the clubhouse and, for a moment, just a moment, I take in the surroundings of the place I was once, so familiar with. It is still filled with the same things it was when I used to hang out here with Briella, and the smell brings back memories of laughter and beer and so many things that need to remain as nothing more than memories. I don’t need those in my life, what I need is vengeance.
What I need is the truth.
I find Cohen standing by the bar, his back to me.
The years have changed him, that’s for certain.
His young man features have been replaced with rugged masculinity that is incredibly inviting. He always did look like a rugged Ken doll, but now he has an edge to him that brings out a certain level of danger.
His hair is still that dusky blond, messy and falling all over the place. Untamed and wild. His eyes, still the same breathtaking silver, the kind of eyes you rarely see. His body is bigger, filled out to the point it stretches the tee he’s wearing. He’s covered in tattoos, and as always, he’s sporting the leather jacket that tells the entire world who he is.
A biker.
Someone not to be messed with.
“You can’t hide from me.”
My voice comes out low, husky, and slightly whip like.
Cohen turns slowly, his face hard as he takes me in. “What the ever-lovin’ fuck are you doin’ here, Aviana? Why would you ever think you could come back here?”
“You know exactly what I am here, you were only hoping I’d never show my face again. Tell me, Cohen, do they know yet that it was you who made me disappear? That you took something of mine? That you’ve known where I am all this time?”
“I didn’t fuckin’ know where you were, you didn’t end up where you were supposed to.”