Chapter 1 Gage
AGE NINETEEN—
I flick ash from the end of my smoke, inhaling the nicotine as it flows into my lungs, giving me the rush I crave as I stand in the shadows, facing my father’s house. It’s not my home, not since the day my mother left it. Every bit of joy and warmth inside died with her.
I can still close my eyes and see the fucking black body bag as they zipped it up, blaming the murder on a home invasion gone wrong.
There were no witnesses, no DNA left behind—just a quick bullet to her brain as she stood in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
A jewelry box had been tossed, and my parents’ safe had been broken into, but nothing of value was taken.
The police told me the thieves broke in, got caught, panicked, shot my mother, and fled.
I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t now. My mother’s death is a direct result of her marriage to Mifflin Blade, the CEO of Blendcore Enterprises and co-founder of a popular health food supplement company. He has enemies, powerful ones.
I’m convinced her death was a warning to my father. He’s never admitted it, and I doubt he ever will. I won’t hold my breath waiting for any declaration. Mifflin is too smart to fuck that up.
My father thinks he’s untouchable. Whatever people he pissed off, my mother’s death ended the feud between them. According to the police, the violence began and ended with my mother’s life being taken. No other violence has occurred since. Well, none that’s been connected to Mifflin.
Almost a year later, my father remarried. That was when I gained two stepbrothers. At the time, I didn’t know that the woman who became my stepmother had been his mistress the entire length of his marriage to my mom. The two boys? My half-brothers.
I was a year older than Liam, and Theo was two years younger. We hit it off from the beginning. Three wild, reckless boys who had too much money, time, and absentee parents. Their mother, Beverly, treated me kindly, but she died five years later from uterine cancer.
That night, I learned the truth about Beverly. Both Liam and Theo had grown up knowing about the affair, but I never had a clue. My hatred for my father grew, nearly consuming me as I thought about burying my mother. Did she know that he cheated on her?
I’ve only cried twice in my life. Both were attending the funeral of a woman I cared about.
“Fuck,” I whisper, tossing down the butt and stomping the cinders with my boot.
This train of thought needs to derail before I fucking do something stupid.
Like ride my Harley fast enough to crash or jump up to the second floor, enter Letty’s room, and fuck her like I’ve been wanting to do for the last year.
Better yet, I can slowly strangle my father, watching him struggle for his last breaths before I slice his throat with my knife.
“You look wound up,” Bullseye observes, joining me in the shadows.
They’ve become my home since I patched into the Summit Hill Vipers. In the darkness, I lurk, watching, waiting until the time I can finally serve justice. Until blood is spilled and my mother can rest in peace.
But I’m on a fucking leash until that day.
For now, I focus on my father’s window. It’s on the back end of the property and faces a glittering lake with a breathtaking view that few people ever get the chance to enjoy for longer than a vacation.
His study is in the room on the left, and he’s there most of the time he’s home, taking conference calls, drinking expensive scotch, and ruining lives.
“I’m here. It’s enough to drive me fucking insane,” I admit to my cousin.
Bullseye, or Drew as I grew up calling him, is one of my closest brothers in the club. Zoo, Torque, Cash, Heathen, and Bullseye are my boys. My club is my fucking family. They’re the reason I’m still alive and not rotting in a jail cell, waiting for the hangman’s noose.
I want vengeance for my mother and the past stolen from me.
But. . . I want Letty Jacobs even more.
I’m so fucked.
“We can go to Show ‘N’ Tail,” he offers, giving me a smirk. He knows my answer before I give it.
“No,” I growl.
“Well, how the fuck are you gonna work out that frustration? You’re gonna pop off, do something stupid, and piss off Storm.”
Storm, our president, takes shit from no one, especially me.
“I know.”
“So, let’s get some pussy, brother.”
“Can’t,” I groan. I won’t touch another woman. I fucking can’t. My cock wants to fuck. My head orders him to go flaccid when I try. And I’ve fucking tried. More than once.
That only makes me feel even guiltier than I already do. For thinking about and considering cheating on a girl I’m not even with, much less have the option of fucking for at least another year.
I really am screwed.
Bullseye snickers as he slaps my back. “You’re gonna have a crooked cock, man. Just sayin’.”
I shove him off. “Get the fuck outta here with that shit.”
Yeah, it was common knowledge that I had to jerk off and didn’t get laid like every other lucky motherfucker in the club. Did they have any sympathy? Hell no. Every last one of those bastards enjoys my suffering.
I still love them. Kinda. Assholes.
Bullseye takes pity on me and shuts up. Finally.
We stand around in the shadows of the trees, watching my father’s property. He finally clears his throat.
“How long has it been since you spoke to her?”
My obsession? One year, two weeks, five days, and three hours. Who’s fucking counting?
“Almost thirteen months.”
“And she doesn’t know?”
“No.” It has to be this way. Storm will kick my ass if I disobey his orders. I respect him too much to fuck that up. “Probably never will.”
He can hear the pain in my voice as I try to hide it. “Hey, you’re halfway through. Right?”
I can’t touch Letty while she’s in high school. She’s not eighteen yet. Too young. Too risky.
But there are other reasons I don’t want to think about right now. “Yep.” I pop the ‘p’ as I say it.
“You can drop the bullshit with me, Gage. I know you better than I know myself.”
He’s not wrong.
“Just easier this way.”
“I know.” He ticks his chin toward the house. “Letty’s light is on.”
She’s been home for hours, but she hasn’t gone to her window yet. I’ve been anticipating a glimpse of her, nearly starving for a few seconds of her beauty. Just enough exposure to trudge through the miserable hours and days I’ll have to endure without her again. Night after night.
A whole fucking year.
“She’s finally going to bed.” I don’t have to guess. It’s obvious when the light goes out. Not to mention, I know her routine by now. It’s one of the perks of being her stalker, err, shadow.
Bullseye knows I sneak into her room at night when she’s sleeping. I stick to the shadows, watching over her as often as I can. Sometimes, when the pull is too much, I lower myself onto the bed, lying on my side while I dare to stroke a finger over her soft skin.
“You going inside?”
I’m about to say yes when I hear someone shout. There’s the sound of something breaking, like glass as it shatters. Heavy footfalls. A fist pounding on a door.
It’s my father, and his wrath is directed at Letty. The light flicks on again in her room.
I don’t think before I act, I just move. He won’t get to her.
My boots pound through the wet grass, still coated in the summer rain that ended an hour earlier.
I don’t care that I slip and nearly crash into the rose-covered lattice outside the lower deck, reaching up to grab onto the balcony and hoist myself up.
I’m flinging my body over the railing, nearly crashing into a table and chairs, and running toward the double set of doors that lead to the second-floor bedrooms. I don’t have to look over my shoulder to know that Bullseye follows me.
When I reach them, I pause to listen, ensuring I know the position of everyone in the house before I enter. If Letty sees me, I’ll lose my fucking patch. I have to be delicate about this. Not bust through the door and swing my fist into my father’s face. It’s so fucking tempting, but I hold back.
One day, he’ll get what’s coming to him.
Before I enter, I pull out a balaclava and pull it over my head. It’s scratchy, and I instantly start to sweat, but I can’t reveal my identity. Not yet.
Mifflin, the man who donated his fucking sperm to give me life, is banging his fist on Letty’s door. I don’t listen to his slurred words. He’s been drinking again. The fucker is drunk.
It’s actually perfect. He won’t remember shit in the morning.
I sneak up on him and whack him over the back of the head. He goes down like a topple of bricks, and I snort with amusement at the heavy thud that follows. I’m hoping he wakes up with a hell of a hangover and leaves Letty alone. If he doesn’t, I’ll have to intervene.
Her mother doesn’t do shit. Cynthia won’t stand up to him. She’s a fucking doormat, nothing like her daughter, whose fiery temper has often gotten her in altercations with everyone in the house.
My thoughts remind me that I need to move before my brothers realize someone is in the house. They didn’t give a shit to come to Letty’s aid, and I’m not surprised. Things have gotten strained between us ever since I patched into the Vipers. We’re not as close as we used to be.
Things have turned. . . hostile.
The reason always comes back to Mifflin.
“His study,” Bullseye whispers as we hear Letty on the other side of the door.
She calls out, wondering who is there. In the silence that followed Mifflin hitting the ground, she must have heard us.
I nod at Bullseye, and we pick up my father, carrying him back to his study and dropping him into his chair. We manage to prop him there with a spilled glass of bourbon in front of him and retreat to the shadows just as the door to his office flies open.
Letty stands there, looking pissed. She’s framed in soft light as it surrounds her like a halo.
An innocent angel stuck in the depths of hell.
I almost swear as I see her in a tank top and sleep shorts.
She’s showing more skin than I want anyone else to see, especially my father, Theo, or Liam.
I’ve seen how they all look at her. Like she’s a toy they want to play with before they destroy it.
They’ll never touch her. I can promise that.
Letty sighs. She steps into the office and approaches the desk, shaking her head at the sight of her stepfather. “You’re an asshole,” she tells him, not bothering to whisper.
His light snore is the only sound in the room.
“I hate how you treat my mom and me. As soon as I graduate, I’m leaving and convincing my mother to divorce your ass.”
She spins on her heel, heading toward the door, when she pauses. Her head tilts. I have to focus on my breathing, not making a sound to tip her off that I’m inside. Or that Bullseye is with me.
“I’m imagining things,” she whispers before leaving and walking down the hall back to her room. Once I hear her door shut, I finally leave the shadows and sneak out through the balcony, careful to remain out of sight before I drop to the ground.
Once I’m hidden in the trees, I yank off the balaclava, and I stare up at the house. Letty’s light is out, but I know she won’t be in a deep enough sleep for me to visit her tonight. Not with Mifflin and his bullshit.
“This won’t get any easier.”
“I know.” I glance at Bullseye. “You don’t have to stay.”
“But I will.”
He always does when I’m here. Not because he thinks I’ll do something stupid. Or even to talk me out of it. He just wants to make sure that if I do, I’m not alone.
I prospected with the Summit Hill Vipers while in high school. After I graduated, I patched in. I’ve never regretted it.
My brothers in the club have my back, and when the time comes, they will help avenge my mother and take down Mifflin.
I just have to be patient a little longer.
“I really want a fucking smoke,” Bullseye mutters.
“Same. We’ll smoke when we leave.” It’s too dark out now. The cherry will expose us the second we light up.
“Fuck. That’s hours from now.”
“You gonna be okay, sweetheart?” I joke, fucking with him because I can.
“Fuck off,” he laughs. “You’re buying me a pack for this shit.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I’ll buy him a carton. Then he can shut the fuck up. I tell him, and his low chuckle makes me grin.
I might be fucking miserable, but misery loves company.
And I’ve got a whole brotherhood.