CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Layla
We stand in suspended silence for a beat before I make a move, trying to get behind the door and doing my best to slam it shut, but this man is faster, pushing his hand out to stop me.
I swing frantically, and some of my punches connect and he grunts, but then he grabs me by my shoulders and begins to pull me down the hall to the living room.
“Layla!” he says. The fact he knows my name shocks me, and I look up at him in horror.
How does he know my name? “We need to talk, you and me.” He smells of cologne and I can’t place it but I’ve smelled it before.
I claw at him with my nails and I kick, trying anything I can to get free, and all the while he begs me to stop as he holds me.
I grab for a picture on the wall of my mom and me when I was small, and hit him with it over the head as I cry out.
The glass shatters, falling to the floor, and he yelps. “Fucking Christ!”
I make a run for it but I don’t get far before he’s cornered me in the living room, his hands holding my shoulders tight. He’s strong, so I can’t escape. My house is growing darker with the setting sun and I know my property is big enough that no one will hear me scream.
“You need to fucking listen to me! I knew this was the only way I could get to you without him.” He pins me against the wall, and he takes a moment to look me over, slowly.
My mind races with all the reasons he’d want to get me alone.
“Fuck, you have her eyes,” he says as he searches my face, and I can’t make sense of why he’s here. “It’s like … seeing her fucking ghost.”
I hate what I see when I look at him. It’s not rage. He’s looking at me like he knows me.
“I’m not listening to you! Let me fucking go!” I cry out, closing my eyes as I struggle, waiting for a fist or an assault that doesn’t come.
Instead, he loosens his hold. I try to run and he slams me back against the wall, speaking clearly. “I don’t have to hurt you if you just fucking cooperate! You’re looking for answers and I’m gonna fucking give them to you … but you can’t fucking run!”
“I don’t want anything from you!” I bite out, trying to raise my leg to knee him. Then a shadow catches my eye and I suck in a deep breath of relief when I see Sean over this sick fuck’s shoulder. I didn’t even hear him come into the house but he’s here, pulling back my attacker’s head in a blur.
The look in Sean’s eyes is terrifying, like a monster has been set loose from its chains.
It’s as if he doesn’t even see me while his fist connects and a sickening crack fills the air.
I know by the sound that my attacker’s nose must be broken and then Sean’s arm is wrapped around the man’s thick neck and he’s dragging him toward the back door.
He didn’t even get a chance to fight Sean at all.
Sean pushes through the back door and I follow quickly, trying to stop him from killing this man out in the open, but when we reach the yard Sean pulls him behind a thick row of cedars, away from any eyes or visibility.
Sean doesn’t hesitate, tossing him to the grass behind a bush as the man mumbles around a mouthful of blood.
“Motherfuck—” I hear him mutter as Sean hits him again.
“Alex fucking Ramos,” Sean growls at him.
“I was fucking coming for you. But here you are, offering yourself up to me.” He hits him again before the man can even speak, and the sound of his jaw cracking seems to fuel Sean.
I watch Sean hit him over and over. I should stop him but I don’t.
I don’t know how long Sean beats him for, but I know that, as long as I live, I’ll never forget the sound of Sean’s fist connecting with his face.
Ramos goes limp and stops trying to fight and I know if I don’t say something Sean will kill him.
I want to stop him. Not because I don’t want this man to die but because I have some questions for him first.
“Sean.” My voice is steady and calm from behind him.
Sean stops, as if he’s come out of a trance, as he looks down on Ramos, letting go of his bloodsoaked t-shirt collar, and turns to face me.
“That’s enough,” I order softly. Sean looks up at me and stands, moving toward me with a look on his face that I can’t quite place.
Just before he reaches me he drops to his knees, hitting the earth with a heavy thud as he wraps his arms around my waist, burying his face in my stomach.
“I’m so sorry, baby, did he hurt you?” There’s a guttural sound that leaves him as he chokes out, “I’ll fucking kill him,” over and over until he’s quiet.
I have no idea how long we hold each other for.
His arms grip my waist, clutching my shirt then moving under it as I kiss the top of his head before he looks up at me from his knees.
I run my hand over his head and bend down to kiss his lips.
“I’m okay,” I whisper as his eyes come back to me from somewhere else entirely. As if he’s reliving something I can’t understand.
Sean rises and moves on silent feet to the side of my house to turn on the hose.
He washes his busted and bloody hands and then rips a piece of fabric from the bottom of his t-shirt.
He runs it under the water carefully and comes back to me, wiping away the tears I didn’t even know were streaming down my face, and what I assume is Ramos’s blood from Sean’s first punch.
He takes his time, making sure every speck of me is clean, washing the places he once painted me with in his own blood.
“Why did he come here?” I ask, shivering as Sean tosses the fabric down and runs his hands over my bare shoulders. It’s not cold out but I think I’m in shock and his warm hands comfort me.
“His name is Alex Ramos. He’s a patched member of the Wretched Souls.
I don’t know how he’s connected to your dad yet, or why he did what he did.
Kai and I just found him a few days ago.
I’m gonna figure out how he found you though.
” He brushes my now messy hair from my forehead and kisses me before bringing me to his chest, cradling me in his arms. I’m swallowed completely by his size and I’m able to take my first deep breath since he arrived.
“That’s better,” he whispers, breathing me in.
“He says he has answers … could he?”
“I’m gonna figure that out.”
“What do we do now?” I ask into his chest.
“I do what I do, and you decide how deep into my world you wanna be.”
I look up at him, not quite understanding.
“He was right. I was hunting him. I wasn’t planning to kill him, but now …” He flexes his bleeding hand. “You know exactly who I am …” His thumb comes up to stroke my cheek softly.
“Yes.” I place my hand on his jaw, needing to feel him.
“But knowing that reality and seeing it are two totally different things, understand?”
I look over at Ramos.
“Of course.”
Sean ducks his head to bring my eyes to his. “Don’t look at him. He’s lying there like that because he took from you, and I will never tolerate that. No one will ever harm a single hair on your head, or anyone you love, ever again.”
I think about this man dying at Sean’s hands because he threatened me, and I can’t think of a better fate for him. He took my mother, and I’ll forever be without her because of him.
I look up at Sean. A moment of clarity in the midst of the storm. He’s my center. I barely know him, yet I know unequivocally that he’s all I want and all I’ll ever need.
“I don’t have many of those … people that I love,” I mutter softly. “But … do you think he does?” I don’t even know why I ask.
“Don’t do that.” He tilts my chin up. “Look at me. He isn’t worth an ounce of regret. He made his choices in life, the wrong ones. This is his fate.”
The funny thing is, I would kill him myself right now if I knew there would be no consequences. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I don’t feel guilty as I look down at Ramos bleeding on my grass.
I remove Sean’s steady hands from my face and straighten up. I won’t let Ramos take one more thing from me or one more moment of my life. After tonight I will never think of him again.
I push past Sean and move to stand over my attacker’s unconscious body.
I breathe evenly. Flashes of my mother run through my head: her holding me when I was scared, humming softly as she sat with me when I was sick, laughing as we ran through the sprinkler in our yard.
Her face beaming with pride when I sang in church.
Her cheeky smile when she said something she thought was naughty.
How she loved butterscotch ripple ice cream and would hide it in the freezer so Dell and I wouldn’t eat it.
Her eyes, whenever she looked at me. Filled with love.
“I’m stronger than you think, Sean,” I offer before dropping to my knees. Fire rises in my belly and a rage that I can’t explain brings my hand up. I cry out as I hit Ramos in the chest. The feeling exhilarates me.
“An eye for an eye.” I choke back a sob as I pick up a heavy rock from the garden and raise my arm to hit him again, but Sean is faster. I don’t even know how he got down beside me so quickly, but he grips my hand tight and pulls me back, pushing my hair out of my face as he shakes his head.
“No, little dove. Not yet. I will fucking gut him if you want me to, after I get the answers you need and you have some time to think clearly. Taking a life will change you, but I understand why you’d want it.
” He kisses me. “What happens to him is your call because he took from you. My only intention was to bring you peace, and in doing that I was the one to put you in danger.” He bends down and kisses me again, his eyes full of regret as he focuses on me.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not your fault. However he found me doesn’t matter. It’s all part of our truth, remember? I don’t care what you have to do to him. I want to know why he killed my parents.”
“Then you will,” Sean says firmly. The sound of Harleys in the distance has him looking over my head. “That’s Kai and Jake. Did you tell the girls not to pick you up?”
I shake my head quickly. “I didn’t have time.”
Sean nods. “Call them now and tell them to meet you at the club in an hour. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I know there’s no longer a threat.” He kisses me softly on the lips. “Or maybe ever.”
I kiss him back. “I can live with that right now.” My heart is still pounding but the moment I saw Sean in my kitchen, I knew I was safe.