Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
A twig snapped. I swung around, ready to smash in the face of whoever was here. Whoever had a death wish. Hush stood watching me, his arms folded across his chest. My balled fists relaxed. If it had been anyone else . . .
“What do you want?” I said, voice fucking rasped.
“You okay?”
I stared at Hush, at his ice-blue eyes staring me down. My mixed-race brother standing near a tree, the branch hanging low near his neck, made me think of all the fucking faceless men I’d seen swinging from nooses. The work of my old brotherhood, done to anyone who wasn’t white, who was a Klan deserter or who was an enemy to the cause.
“You didn’t tell him.” I was talking about Styx. Hush had kept my secret.
Hush raised his eyebrow. “No.” He stepped closer. Lighting up a smoke, he offered one to me. I took one and lit up, taking a long drag. “Wasn’t my story to tell,” Hush eventually said. My stomach untwisted. “Who you’re fucking ain’t my business.”
Who I’m fucking? I thought. She’s my fucking fiancée! I almost snapped. But I held it back. No one knew that. No one but me and her. Christ. At times I didn’t even know if it was still true. If she still had the scrap of a makeshift ring I’d given her. If she still even wanted me.
“We’re gonna be taking her cousin,” Hush said. I took drag after drag of my smoke, hoping the nicotine would stop the pulling feeling in my stomach. The damn rope that was coiling around my organs, tearing them apart. “Your old lady gonna forgive you for that?”
Truth was, I didn’t fucking know. But she’d already forgiven me for worse . . .
Hush flicked his smoke to the ground, standing on it to put it out. With one last silent look, he walked back toward the clubhouse. The minute he was out of sight, I slumped to the ground. Back against the tree that was now stained with my blood, I closed my eyes and let the sun that was slicing through the trees warm my face.
I thought of Adelita sitting, waiting for her cousin to marry. Having her not show. Panicking when she realized she’d been taken by the Hangmen, Valdez, or whoever the fuck else her old man had pissed off. I blew out a breath. I didn’t fucking know what to do. I didn’t know how to be in this club with all this shit hanging over me. The woman who owned my heart, now the enemy. I had to protect her, but I had to protect my club too. And then there was my brother, my fucking little brother . . .
Needing something to think of that wasn’t this shit, I let the sun heat my face and thought back to Adelita. To the days when she made me lose my mind. The days when she started knocking down walls I thought would never be destroyed . . . especially by someone like her . . .
I sipped at my water. I needed whiskey like I was a damn alcoholic, but I hadn’t touched liquor since we’d arrived here a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t trust anyone here. Not fucking one of them. I was keeping my head straight, my eyes clear.
I glanced up at the sun. It was hot as fuck. And another day had come when my old man had kept me out of whatever he was planning with Quintana. Another fucking day where I had to sit around and count down the days when we got to go back to our Texan lands.
Beau: How is it?
Me: Shitty. How’s back home?
Beau: Same old same. Landry taking care of business. Be good to get you back.
Beau kept checking in while I was here. He didn’t trust Quintana; that was obvious. I’d give anything to be home. Instead I was here. In this hell.
Looking at the jokes that were Quintana’s guards, I barely heard the click of a door opening to my left. I froze when Adelita walked through, holding a book, dressed in a short see-through robe of some sort, showing off her tight body. Her black hair hung down her back in loose curls. Her eyes were covered with massive black sunglasses. She came toward me, her red high heels clicking on the path. I’d sat around the ridiculous-sized pool this morning hoping the bitch wouldn’t find me to drag me around with her. I was fucking done with being around her. Her husky voice grated on my nerves. I was twenty-seven. She was quite a bit younger than me. I’d guess late teens or early twenties. But somehow had every fucker here wrapped around her finger. She clearly thought she could do the same with me too.