9. Aimee
Aimee
There’s nothing like punching something to let out a little frustration. My knuckles crack as my fist meets vinyl, and pain radiates through my hand and up my arm.
But I don’t pull back. I strike again.
And again.
After last night, I need to release this ball of tension.
More importantly, I need to regain strength after the Iron Sinners locked me in a cage and spent two weeks holding me at the brink of starvation.
It was exhausting and painful, but it wasn’t unexpected.
After I escaped from Titan a decade ago, I assumed he’d make me suffer.
At least this time, Titan began his torture with isolation, and I got out before it went any further.
The next stage would have been worse.
It always is.
Once I was hungry and weak enough, he would have dragged me to his room like he did back then .
Some mornings, I still wake up feeling the chains at my wrists. Feeling his hands on my skin. Reliving the nightmares again and again.
I strike the bag once more and picture Titan’s face.
Eyes that haunt me when I close my own.
Levi is worried because of the state they found me in, but he has no idea that was nothing compared to a decade ago.
Sweat drips down the back of my neck as I release the rage breeding in my chest. Every painful strike of bone against bag is satisfying. But not enough.
Nothing will be enough until Titan suffers like I did. Like he’s making my father suffer now.
“Maybe you should wrap your wrist before you break it.” Luna eyes my hand.
I step back, shaking my wrists out. “Probably.”
But I won’t. I need to feel this if for no other reason than to remind me what I’m fighting for. Pain is a reminder that I’ve felt worse and survived. If Titan couldn’t break me back then, nothing will.
“I, for one, need a second breakfast.” Tempe wipes the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
With her and Reagan being pregnant, I expected a calmer workout. That wasn’t the case. Clearly, the two of them have no plans of letting pregnancy slow them down. So even if they were careful, they worked almost as hard as Luna during their self-defense sparring.
“Ghost has to take a trip into the city to switch out a camera at Sapphire Rise. We could tag along and grab breakfast in town,” Luna offers .
Reagan’s eyebrows furrow. “At the strip club?”
“Not at the strip club.” Luna grabs a water bottle. “But there’s a diner around the corner. He can drop us off while he works.”
“Sounds good to me. Pearl and Margaret were going to watch the kids for a few hours anyway.” Reagan shrugs, looking to Tempe, who also nods in agreement.
Luna turns to me. “Aimee?”
“I think I’ll hang out here a little while longer, but have fun.”
Reagan frowns but doesn’t say anything.
I’m trying to make an effort, but I know better than to let myself form bonds I’ll eventually break. The girls are nice because they pity me and assume the worst after finding me with the Iron Sinners. But they aren’t my friends, and I’m not staying in Vegas after I rescue my father.
Vegas houses too many bad memories, and it’s crawling with Iron Sinners. I want nothing to do with this city once my mission is done.
After the girls and kids leave for breakfast, the gym is quiet. The only breaks in the silence are the occasional hum of motorcycles and the rustling desert.
A breeze whisps through the open barn door, and I’m thankful for this time of year because the temperature is bearable.
I continue circling the bag until my arm aches and my knees wobble. Only then do I move to the mat to stretch.
Maybe I should have joined the girls in the city for breakfast. It would have given me the chance to lure Titan into a public setting. He can’t make a move in a public setting, but it would allow me some time face-to-face.
I hate that I know how he operates.
I hate that I know him at all.
Boots drag across dirt, and I look up to see Levi walking into the gym.
He looks so good, it’s annoying. His dark jeans and long-sleeve shirt hug his thick muscles. If it weren’t for his leather cut ruining everything sexy about him, I’d be at risk of losing all good sense. But the crowned skull logo on his patch easily puts those thoughts at bay.
“Working out?” He stops at the edge of the mat.
I rest my hands behind me and lean back to look up at him. Sweat makes my T-shirt see-through, but Levi keeps his eyes on mine.
Always a gentleman.
Or maybe I’m just that unimpressive compared to his girlfriend.
“I was, but I’m stretching now.” I pull my arm across my body, making a show of stretching a shoulder like I didn’t just do this. “Let me guess, we need to talk .”
“Yep.”
I really should have joined the girls for breakfast.
I climb to my feet and snatch my water bottle off the bench, taking a long sip. Levi watches me until water drips down my chest, and then he turns his attention to something more interesting out in the desert.
My throat is still burning from the cool water as I follow him to the barn door, where he leans against one side, and I lean against the other .
“This place is different from what I imagined all those years ago.” My gaze slips to the clubhouse in the distance.
“It’s different from what it was back then.” Levi follows my gaze. “Steel’s father was a good man, but the club has been better under Steel’s leadership.”
“How long ago did Steel take over?”
“While I was enlisted.” Levi clears his throat, his gaze dropping to the ground. “Only a couple of years in.”
I hum, watching him kick at the dirt. “Is that why you came back to the club? New leadership? Your friend, at that.”
While I never met any of Levi’s club friends when we were teenagers, he would mention them on occasion, and all the names I recognize from the past now fill the spots at the table with Steel and Levi.
“That’s one reason.”
Levi doesn’t need to say what the second one is.
I was gone.
Anything we dreamed or planned was just that—a fantasy. Wishes made by kids too young to understand what life would throw at us. Maybe it’s for the best that we never were anything more than friends. It’s complicated enough grasping at these strands of what-ifs.
“Looks like it worked out for you,” is all I can bring myself to say.
And I can’t hide the bitterness in my tone. I might be the one who disappeared, but it wasn’t my fault that happened. Levi, on the other hand, made his own choices .
He shakes his head like he doesn’t miss that I’m irritated, but he doesn’t bother explaining himself either.
“Why do the Iron Sinners want you, Aimee?”
I quirk an eyebrow. “Straight into the interrogation?”
“I told you last night I need answers.”
“That you did.” I pop the cap off my water, taking a long drink but not breaking our stare.
When I reach the bottom of the bottle, I spin to walk back into the gym because at least in here I can pretend I’m anywhere else but the clubhouse.
“Aimee—”
“Titan needs me.” I toss the empty bottle in my bag, zipping it up.
“Why?”
“Why does Titan need anything?” I cross my arms over my chest, turning to face Levi, who now stands a touch too close for comfort.
“I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m his leverage.”
“For what?”
My jaw ticks, and even when I do my best not to let my emotions swell, I know Levi catches my hesitation. “For my father. Titan has him.”
Levi’s eyebrows furrow in confusion at that bit of information, and I don’t blame him because my father has never had anything to do with this world.
My father hated bikers, which meant he never liked Levi, and the feeling was mutual.
Even after Levi decided to join the military to prove to my father he could be something more, Dad never approved of me spending time with the son of a Twisted King.
“Anderson is with the Iron Sinners?” Levi’s head angles.
I barely mask the chill that runs through me as I nod.
“What does Titan want with your father?”
“I don’t know. Titan isn’t exactly forthcoming with his plans. But given my father’s skill set, it’s probably business-related.”
“Your dad worked for a law firm?”
“Yeah.”
Levi wipes his hand down his face. “So that’s why you were with Reagan? The Iron Sinners kidnapped you to persuade your father to cooperate in whatever he’s up to?”
Again, I nod, holding his gaze. It’s part truth.
Titan was using me against my father in that particular scenario.
It’s irrelevant if the entire story is far more complicated.
The less Levi knows, the better. Levi might have a girlfriend, but his actions so far make me think he might do something reckless if he finds out everything.
“So now you see why rescuing me only complicated things.” I shrug.
Levi breathes out a chuckle. “Only you would be pissed at me and my club for saving your fucking life. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“I didn’t thank you.” I force a vicious smile. “Your heroic act might have gotten my father killed.”
My voice cracks, and I hate it. Especially when it releases the anger from Levi’s expression.
“He’s not dead,” Levi says .
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because”—he lifts off the frame and takes a step toward me—“if he were, they wouldn’t still be coming for you. Titan needs you back for a reason.”
“I guess.” My gaze drops because I can’t argue without explaining to Levi all the other reasons Titan would want me back that have nothing to do with my father.
“Do you know where they were keeping him?” Levi takes another step, and his boots slip into my line of sight.
“No. Why? Are you going to rescue him?”
Please say yes.
I hate myself for even thinking it, but I know Levi has the means to help. I didn’t want it in the beginning, but I’m running out of options and time. I might as well find some use for my time at the Twisted Kings clubhouse.
“Yes.”