“Did those other men hurt you?” I ask, lifting my hand and sticking my thumb behind my shoulder toward the Skulls who are bellied up to the bar.
She shakes her head, her eyes following my thumb and I watch as her eyes glaze over. Her cheeks turn pink, then she lowers her gaze to the table again before she lifts her eyes to meet my own. It’s her tell. She has something on her mind, something that I don’t even realize she knows is right there in front and she’s about to explode with it.
“No, they didn’t,” she whispers.
“Did you fall for one of them?” I ask.
She nods her head. “I did, but he doesn’t want me back. He’s happily married with a child.”
“The leader?” I ask, my eyes wide and no doubt showing the amount of shock that I feel.
“The leader,” she says, nodding her head. “It’s stupid. It’s why he’s giving me back, though. I don’t want to be a whore for them. I don’t want to be one of their caged women. I just want him.”
I don’t know what to say. I am at a loss. She’s fallen for a married man, one who is into kinks that I don’t even get, kinks that she doesn’t seem to like. Then I think about the whore thing and I realize that she may be expected to be that here, too. I’m not because I have Dylan, but she doesn’t have a man.
“What if they ask you to be one of their girls here, too?” I ask.
She shrugs a shoulder, her gaze flicking to the bar again, then back to me. “I don’t know.”
“They wouldn’t make you, but I have a feeling that nobody stays here for free.”
“And there’s no way they’re just going to let me go.”
“Yeah,” I say, but I don’t know what else to say.
I can’t make her feel better and I can’t reassure her of anything. Not a damn fucking thing. All I know is that they won’t force her and they won’t abuse her. Nothing else is sure in any of this.
“I don’t have anyone. My dad was all I had. He was a selfish dick and honestly, I thought that when Riot took me, that it would be an adventure.”
I snort, imagining my father being the idea of an adventure to anyone. It’s laughable, mainly because he’s only a nightmare, nothing else.
“It was awful,” she whispers. “But, I think falling for someone you can’t have is an even worse feeling.”
It seems as though I have my answer then. My father didn’t rape her, neither did all of his men. If they had, she wouldn’t be thinking that unrequited love was the worst thing to have ever happened to her. She would have completely different traumas than a man not liking her as much as she likes him.
“Things could always be worse, Maci,” I whisper. “Always. He’s not the one you’re meant to have, then. Maybe there’s a real adventure waiting for you.”
Her eyes find mine and she doesn’t respond, but I can see understanding in her gaze. I could explain to her all of the ways that things could be worse, but I decide against it. It doesn’t matter. I can tell by what she said and the way that she said it that it would only serve to traumatize her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
JAGUAR
It’s exactly the way Google Earth showed it. It’s fucking perfect. Looking around, there are a few pickups pulled up to the back of the small house and I recognize them from the Donkey Punchers clubhouse.
“It’s them,” I whisper to Silver.
I watch as he pulls his phone out and sends a text. I assume he’s texting Dragon to find out the next play. He grunts then looks over to me. “Shall we?” he asks.
“Fuck, yeah,” I grunt.
“Stay with me. Dragon will lose his fucking shit if you get separated.”
I know what he means. He’s not looking out for my safety or anything. He wants to make sure that I don’t betray any of them again. I don’t blame him either. Not in the fucking slightest. This is another test, another way to prove to them that I know what I did was wrong and another way to earn their trust again.
I’m going to do it all, too. I am going to show them that I have no desire to betray them. I am going to earn their trust again, and I am going to prove to them that I know I was wrong and I’ve changed.
As quietly as possible, we all gather around the back of the house. There aren’t any lights on. Worm clears his throat. “We’re good,” he murmurs. “No evidence of surveillance equipment.”
“Good,” Dragon rasps.
“We smokin’ them out or going in?” I ask.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been privy to any meetings, so I’m going into this completely blind. Dragon looks over to me, his eyes smiling before his mouth does. He loves this shit. As much as he claims he hates war, the man loves to dish out to fuckers what they deserve.
“Smoke, then fire,” he says as his explanation.
It’s my turn to smile, except my eyes don’t just turn up into a smile, my entire fucking face lights up. I am ready to bring these fucks down and watch them burn. I’ll do it with a smile, a huge ass fucking smile.
Dragon turns his head, then jerks his chin and I watch as Silver, Mountain, and Wolfe grab some bags out of the back of the truck. When they unzip them, my eyes widen at the sight of what’s inside.
Fucking Molotov cocktails. Turning to Silver, I stare at him with wide eyes. “Brother, those are unstable as fuck and we just drove all the way across the goddamn country with them sitting in the bed of the truck?”
Silver’s lips turn up into a grin and
