Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I stepped over him and stormed to my room, not waiting for his bullshit reply. After yanking a duffel bag out of the top of my closet, I tossed it onto the bed and began throwing my necessary clothes into it along with any important documentation that I had. I could practically feel Tristan’s eyes on me as I moved around the room, but he was silent, giving me a moment to gather myself.
“What makes you so sure that the club will turn on him?” Tristan finally asked me.
“No one here really likes Charles,” I informed him. Tristan stayed silent, allowing me to continue. “He always wanted to go against Joey. Everyone here respected Joey as a president, and they respected his decisions. Charles running me off, the one fucking person Joey ever gave two damn shits about, the one person this club ever respected like a sister, is going to cause problems. Mark my words—the club is going to turn on Charles.”
“And what happens when the club turns on him?” Tristan asked me.
“It gets bloody,” I told him. “And the club is very possibly over.” Which just made my chest ache. I didn’t want to see Joey’s legacy die.
Tristan stayed silent. I zipped my bag up, and he grabbed it off of the bed. “Guess you’re finally coming home where you belong,” he softly said, but he didn’t sound all that happy about it. “I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances, Addy.”
I swallowed thickly but nodded, knowing the Sons of Death was the only place I could go to now. I didn’t have anywhere else.
I looked across the hall to Joey’s room as we stepped out of mine. Putting my finger up to signal Tristan to hold on a minute, I pushed open Joey’s door, swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat as I took in the picture of us on his nightstand. I was about to turn nineteen in a couple of weeks in that picture, and Joey had surprised me by making me an official member of his club and giving me my own room in the clubhouse.
We were standing right outside of the clubhouse, and he had his arms wrapped around me from behind. I was wearing his cut to show everyone that I was his woman, even though it basically swallowed me. Joey had on a blue and black flannel shirt with a pair of dark jeans, and he was grinning down at me as I laughed at something he had said.
If I wasn’t mistaken, Jessie had taken the picture of us.
Even then, we had always clashed heads, but we loved each other in our own sick, twisted ways.
Silent tears trickled down my cheeks as I picked up the picture, a small, sad smile playing on my lips.
Fuck, I already missed him so damn much.
“I will always love you, Joey,” I whispered, my words almost inaudible to my own ears.
I grabbed his cut one of the members had laid out on his bed, and I grabbed his knife that he always kept under his pillow. It was the first knife he ever owned, and he had always said if he ever had a kid, he would always give the knife to his child.
He wasn’t ever given the option. Joey would never have a family, never have children.
I walked back out of the room, and Tristan looked down at the items in my hand. Deciding to stay silent, he just followed me out of the clubhouse without a word. He was strapping my duffel bag to his bike when Jessie rushed outside and threw her arms around me. I hugged her back instantly.
“I’ll miss you, gorgeous,” she whispered into my shoulder.
I squeezed her gently, tears stinging my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall—not here. “I’ll miss you, too, gorgeous,” I whispered in return.
She pulled back from me, her dark eyes glimmering with unshed tears. “Promise me that you’ll stay safe?”
I nodded. “You better do the same,” I told her. She gave me a wobbly smile. “If things ever get to be too rough around here, call me. I promise I will come to get you, whether Tristan agrees or not.”
She nodded and kissed my cheek. “Please keep in touch,” she quietly begged me.
I kissed her cheek as well. “Always, gorgeous.”
With one last sad smile, she headed back to the clubhouse, where Ink was standing in the doorway, waiting on her. I had no idea what was going on with those two, but it wasn’t my business.
I sighed and slid onto the bike behind Tristan as he turned the engine over, the bike rumbling to life beneath me as I sat down. He gripped one of my hands and brought it up to his lips, pressing a light kiss to my knuckles. I drew in a slow, deep breath before I tightly wound my arms around his midsection and pressed the front of my body to his back.