Chapter Thirteen
Olivia
The bed dips behind me, and Bully’s arm wraps around my waist. I glance at the bedside clock, noting it’s early evening.
I must’ve dozed off. I stretch out, his hand sliding under my shirt just as I remember our fight.
He nuzzles my neck, teeth grazing my skin.
Typical. Using sex to slip back into my good books.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and I freeze. Words like that rarely fall from his lips. “I fucked up, Liv. You’re the one person I should never doubt. The one who always has my back.”
I turn in his arms, narrowing my eyes. “You’ve found something out.” His expression is innocent. Too innocent. “What have you discovered?” I press.
“Nothing, darlin’,” he murmurs, his lips brushing my shoulder.
“Bully, I know every guilty look you’ve ever worn. So, out with it. Who fucked up?”
He lifts my top, trailing kisses down to my stomach. “And you were right earlier,” he murmurs. “It’s your role to run the whores. I shouldn’t have interfered. The rota stays. I’ll deal with Poison.”
Now, I’m really suspicious. “You’re scaring me,” I whisper.
His lips pause. “It’s club business,” he says gently. “But now I know, I can fix it. I can focus on us again.” He smiles, moving his mouth across my chest.
“Can things be resolved with the Scorpions?” I ask.
He hums against my skin. “Yes.”
I exhale, loosening my grip on the fear rising in me. “No more bloodshed?” He doesn’t answer, just continues kissing. I tug his hair, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Bully, is this over?”
The sudden pop of a sharp sound cuts through the air.
He goes still.
Another pop.
This time, he’s off the bed in an instant. “Stay here. Don’t leave this room,” he orders.
“What’s going on?” Another crack splits the air. “Bully, that’s the same sound I heard at the bar. Is it gunfire?” My voice shakes.
He grabs my shoulders, firm but steady. “Olivia, focus.” I breathe in, out. “Stay here. No matter what.”
“But Bria . . . what about my sister?”
“I’ll find her.”
He’s out the door before I can speak again. My legs carry me to the doorway, breath catching in my throat. I can’t stay here. I have to find Bria.
The club is shaking from the commotion below, the voices barking orders, the unmistakable thud of boots on the stairs. But all I can think of is Bria. I slip out the bedroom, careful to avoid the creaking board near the railing, and edge toward the back stairs.
My heart thuds in my chest as I ease myself down each step, my back pressed to the wall. If I can make it out and around the back, Bria will probably be under the tree where she said she was going to read.
“Liv.”
The voice stops me cold.
Dagger steps from the shadows, his presence as smooth and poisonous as his name. He’s calm, too calm, like the chaos doesn’t touch him. “You need to hide,” he whispers, glancing around. “Now.”
“My sister . . .”
“Is hiding too. Fuck. Why are you so damn perfect, always looking out for someone? Who will save you, though, Liv?”
I swallow, backing up a step. “What’s going on?”
“Just a little fun.”
I almost choke on my words. “Fun?” I hiss. “This isn’t fun, Darren. Why can’t you both just fucking stop this bullshit?”
He grins easy, like I’m the one being hysterical. “Three things that men fight over, Liv—money, power, and pussy. Which one do you think it is?”
“Bully thinks it’s me,” I whisper, my eyes reaching his.
He smirks, his hand lifting but pausing when I flinch. Slowly, deliberately, he cups my face. I freeze. His touch is soft, but it feels like poison sinking beneath my skin. “Of course, he blames you. That’s the kind of man he is.”
“So, it’s not me?”
“You’re cute,” he murmurs. “Just say the word and I’ll get you out of here. I can give you more. The world, even. But this?” His eyes glint, sharp and unforgiving. “This isn’t about you, mama. This is all him.” He moves closer until he’s on the same step, towering over me.
“Why?” I whisper, my breaths coming out hard as he continues to stare deep into my soul.
“Because of Lila.”
My blood runs cold. “Who’s Lila?”
“Ask him, Liv. Ask your old man all about Lila Carson.” He leans in, brushing a kiss over my lips, quick, deliberate, wrong. Then he turns away. “Now, go upstairs like a good girl,” he calls over his shoulder, “and don’t come out until I’ve gone.”
I back up, taking each step carefully but watching the space where he was.
I get to the top, and the sound of gunfire stops.
I hold my breath. Waiting. Listening. There’s nothing.
I step onto the landing as heavy boots run up the stairs, and I freeze, sagging with relief when Bully appears.
His eyes narrow. “What are you doing out here?”
I smile, too relieved to care about his snappy tone as I throw my arms around him. “Are you okay?”
He holds me too, his face buried into my neck as he inhales deeply. “Everyone’s fine.”
“Good,” I whisper. I run my hands over his face, tears stinging my eyes. “Good.”
He looks amused. “Are you okay?”
I nod a little too quickly as a tear escapes down my cheek. “Who’s Lila Carson?” His sharp intake of breath is so loud against the silence, it takes me by surprise. “Who is she, Bully?” But I know. Deep down, I already know that whatever his answer is, I won’t like it. It’s going to break us.
“Where did you hear that name?” he asks, removing my hands from his face and holding me at arm’s length. “Where, Liv?” he suddenly snaps, shaking me.
“Oh god,” I whisper as pain squeezes my heart. My hands go to my mouth as more tears escape. “You did it again.”
“Who told you about her?” he demands.
“Dagger,” I say, barely a whisper. My smile is sad, my heart breaking. “Dagger told me.”
“Pres, we need you down here,” calls Boss, breaking the tension between us.
Bully lunges for me, grabbing my upper arm and dragging me towards the bedroom. “Stay in there until I come back. Don’t fucking move.”
I can’t stop my sobs as they leave me, painful and loud. “If you leave me now, without an explanation, I’m walking out of here.”
“No,” he says firmly. “You’re not going anywhere.” And he slams the bedroom door shut, locking it.
I fall onto the bed, crying into the pillows.
Bully
Downstairs is chaos. Furniture is tipped up, bullets lodged into anything wooden.
The windows have all gone, now shattered across the floor, twinkling in the low sun like cruel little stars.
The air tastes scorched, and there’s a faint hum in my ears, adrenaline or maybe the echo of gunfire still vibrating off the walls.
“Have you checked in with the women?” I ask, scanning the room for any movement. Boss nods.
“All accounted for. No injuries. Is Liv okay?”
I nod, though my head is pounding. Not from a blow, just pressure, noise, too many thoughts crowding into one skull. I’ve got so many damn questions, and none of them have answers. Not yet.
Taz kicks a chunk of splintered table across the floor. It skitters to a stop against the bar. “Shooting up the front of the club,” he mutters, brow furrowed, “it makes no sense. Why not force their way in? They must’ve realised we were unarmed when we didn’t fire back.”
His voice cuts through the ringing in my ears. The logic of it all doesn’t hold, but then it hits me, cold and sharp. “It was a distraction,” I say, the words sticking in my throat. “He wanted to talk to Liv.”
Silence drops like a weight. Boss shifts beside me as Taz looks up sharply.
“You think he . . . Dagger used all this just to get to her?”
I nod slowly. “She knows,” I add, “about Lila.”
There’s a beat before anyone speaks. Dust dances in the sunlight, drifting through the blown-out windows like ghosts.
The kind that don’t rest easy. “Shit. You think he got to her in our own damn clubhouse?” mutters Taz.
The thought he was so close to her . . .
again. I shudder. Fuck. I turn and head for the stairs. I need answers. Now.
The door unlocks with a soft click, and I push it open like I’m stepping into a warzone.
Because I am.
Liv’s standing by the bed, stuffing clothes into a duffel, her face blotchy and red, eyes hollowed out like something’s already died in her. Something I killed. She freezes when she sees me. Not in fear . . . in fury.
“Liv,” I say, voice low. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” she snaps, zipping the bag closed like it’s final. Like we’re final.
My chest tightens. “Put it down.”
“No.”
She’s not crying anymore. This might be worse. The tears I can handle, but this silence, this steel . . . it terrifies me.
“Don’t do this,” I say. “Not like this.” I take a step towards her, but she flinches back like I’ve raised a hand. “I was going to tell you,” I say. “After all this, after tonight—”
“Bullshit. We’ve been here before, Bully.” Her lips tremble, but she doesn’t cry. “You always do this. You tell me the truth too late, when I can’t unhear it. When I’m already bleeding from it.”
“I can fix it.”
“Who is she?” she demands.
“She worked in the prison . . . on my wing.”
She pauses, her brow furrowing as she works it out, and then her eyes find me again, and the fury is replaced with hurt.
“The one time I didn’t worry, and you were fucking someone on the inside?
What was she, a cleaner? A visitor?” I shake my head, placing my hands on my hips.
“Then who was she, Bully?” she screams, her face red with anger.
“A screw,” I mutter, breaking eye contact. “She worked the wing.”
Her sharp intake of breath is like another punch to the gut. “How is that possible?” Her words are low, barely a whisper.
“It happens more than you think,” I say, unhelpfully, and she screams in frustration, barrelling towards me like a woman possessed, raining blows against my chest with tight fists.
“It was a mistake,” I repeat, trying to grab her wrists as her arms flail around, catching me on my cheek.
When I finally grab her, she stills, her eyes burning into me like she’s trying to convey all her hatred in that one look.
Her chest heaves with exertion, and she pulls free, stepping back. “How many times do you get to call it a mistake before it’s a pattern?”
I shake my head, swallowing hard. “I was weak. I let her in when I should’ve kept my head down. It was hardly a thing at all before she got found out. She got fired, Liv. She lost everything.”
“Oh, poor her. Should I feel sorry for her?” she asks, her voice thick with sarcasm.
“Then she took her own life. And Dagger . . . he was her husband. But I didn’t know any of that until today.”
Realisation passes over her face. “I knew you were acting odd. I asked you outright.” I nod, more guilt seeping into my already saturated heart.
“You had no intention of telling me at all,” she whispers, her voice cracking slightly.
“If you were going to, you’d have told me then . . . when I asked.”
I look away. “I was scared of losing you.”
“Pity you weren’t scared when you were fucking Dagger’s old lady.”
“I didn’t love her,” I say. “Lila. I swear to you, Liv, I didn’t. It was a mistake. A moment. A mess I made in a place where everything was already broken.”
“How long?” she asks, folding her arms over her chest. “Actually, how many times?”
I shrug, swallowing the dread in my throat. “Not long.”
“How many fucking times, Bully?”
I sigh heavily. “Maybe ten. Fifteen.”
“Wow.”
“But it meant nothing, Liv. Just sex.”
“It meant everything. It meant losing me. It meant causing a war with Dagger. So, I hope she was worth it.” She picks up the bag, and I immediately snatch it.
“You’re not leaving me.”
“Oh, I am,” she says firmly. “I am leaving and I’m not coming back.”
“It’s not safe.”
“Dagger doesn’t want to hurt me. He wants to hurt you.”
“And hurting you will do that. He knows that.”
She scoffs. “So, why hasn’t he done it already?” I don’t have the answer, and after a second of silence, a cruel smirk spreads over her face. It doesn’t suit her. “He’s always nice to me, Bully. Like he cares.”
“He doesn’t care. He’s using you to get to me.”
“Is that why he kissed me?”
My world tilts, and I drop her bag to the floor. “What did you say?”
She grins now, like she’s enjoying my pain. “On the stairs. He kissed me. It was quick. Deliberate. Wrong. Just like you.” Her words hit like fists. I stagger under the weight of them, but I deserve every single one. “And do you know what? I wasn’t mad about it. In fact, it felt . . . nice.”
“Stop,” I whisper.
Instead, she steps closer. “And I thought about what it would feel like to fuck him.”
“Liv,” I whisper, my voice dangerously low. A warning.
“Because it’s only ever been you, Bully. Even when you went inside, I stayed faithful to you. And there were men,” she says, smiling like it’s a good memory. “Many men who tried. Many men who saw in me what you never have. I should’ve taken my chances. I realise that now.”
“You don’t mean that. You’re hurting.”
“Tell me, was she ever there when I visited?” I stare at the ground, the knot in my chest pulling tighter. “Was she in that big room, watching you while I visited?”
“It meant—”
“Don’t you dare say it again,” she screams, and I press my lips together in a tight line. “Did you laugh at me?” Her voice breaks a little, and my heart twists painfully.
“Of course not. Never.”
“Was she prettier? Better in bed?”
“Jesus, Liv, of course not. But she . . .” The words trail off, and Liv swipes a stray tear away, waiting for my next words. “She was there and willing.” I wince, hating how it sounds out loud.
“It’s not my fault I wasn’t.”
“I was in a bad place, missing you and the club. She took my mind off it.”
The door bursts open, and we both turn to Bria. Her face is pale, and she’s clutching her mobile phone tightly. When she sees me, then the bag, she thrusts the phone at Liv. “Press play,” she says, glaring at me with hatred.