Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Rage
“I’ll leave this on the hook for you,” I tell her, hanging my robe near the shower after getting dressed.
She peeks her head around the curtain, giving me a shy smile. “Thank you.”
I take a big step toward her and grab her face, kissing her slowly. “I won’t be long.”
She reaches for me and rubs over the stubble on my cheek. Her eyes trail her fingertips, and I can’t describe how incredibly good both feel.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she says quietly. Slowly, her eyes slide to mine. “But anytime you want to make it official and give me that ring back, I’m down.”
Just like that, my girl has returned. The corners of my mouth pull up. It still feels so foreign. Mila has been slowly bringing out the joy in me. I make her giggle, and she makes me smile.
There’s not one doubt in my mind as to what I should do next.
I drop to my knee and reach in my pocket, pulling out the ring I’ve kept there since I found she’d left it behind.
She pulls her hand behind the curtain, her mouth falling open.
I know she meant it as a joke, but I want her to know she is no joke to me. I love her. I’m not sure how it happened so quickly, but I guess life happens fast.
“Serenity, I love you.”
A small sound of surprise leaves her lips.
“The first time you looked at me, something changed inside. Like the color of your eyes was the very combination to unlock my heart, and goddammit I know how cringe that sounds.”
She pushes the curtain aside and grabs my hand, urging me to stand. When I reach my full height, she tips her head back to look at me while pressing her wet body against my clothed one. “Yes. Yes, I will marry you,” she says.
I chuckle, bending over to kiss her on the tip of her nose. “That’s cute, but I hadn’t asked yet.”
“Oh,” she says. “Well, hurry up and ask.”
“So impatient,” I scold, swatting her lightly on the bottom. Her eyes widen in response but not in a bad way. “Will you marry me, Serenity?”
“I already said yes, didn’t I?” she responds, giving me some of that sass I fell in love with.
“I guess you did.” I take her hand and slowly slide the ring down her slender finger. “But I’m going to need to hear it again.”
When the ring is fully seated, she places a kiss at the corner of my mouth. “Somewhere along the line I fell in love with you, Chase Turner. I’ll say yes to you every day of my life.”
I place my hand on the back of her head and kiss her until she gives me a gentle shove in the stomach. I allow it because it’s followed by the sweetest smile.
“Go on. Your brothers are waiting.”
I reluctantly pull away from her.
“I’ll hurry,” I say before closing the door.
My hand goes to my chest as soon as I’m in the hallway, and I double over.
Carver is instantly at my side. “Is she okay?”
I nod, forcing myself to stand fully. “She’s good. Thank you for bringing her here.”
He chuckles. “She was already here. I just made sure she stayed.”
I start past him. “Let’s go. I want to see what’s on that drive.”
His feet catch up to mine, and he falls in step with me. “We’ve been taking bets on what’s on it. Personally, I think she recorded herself confronting her brother.”
“Ain’t none of you winning this bet.”
“I don’t know. There are some pretty good theories.”
The second I step into the living room, I snap my fingers at Wizz. Let’s get this show on the road.
He clicks a button on his laptop, and footage from the Cage appears on the screen. Everyone in the room looks confused as to what they are seeing.
It begins with Serenity entering the building. Prospect glances up from the desk. The look of surprise on his face isn’t all that unusual, but I catch something else – the way his jaw clenches. I move closer to the screen. I don’t want to miss a single thing.
Their conversation is simple and easy. He doesn’t suspect a thing, and why would he? Serenity is about as benevolent as one can be. It’s exactly why I trusted her in the beginning.
“What the fuck is this?” Carson and Cole ask in their weird simultaneous way.
That answers one of my questions. They didn’t know about this part.
Prospect walks away from the desk and heads down to room three. She locks the door and turns off the open sign.
This has everyone sitting up a little straighter. Oh, they haven’t seen anything yet.
My teeth feel like they’re going to snap as I watch him help her with her gear.
“Gosh, you sure do remind me of someone. Do you get that question a lot?” she asks, tipping her head to the side, looking him directly in the eye.
“No, not at all. I have to say, you sure look pretty, even in this suit. I bet no one confuses you for someone else.”
Oh, that fucker better be deader than dead.
“Shit, sorry. I know you’re Rage’s girl. I meant no disrespect,” he adds quickly, but not quick enough.
“You’re so sweet,” she responds.
“Sweet?” Carver frowns. “She must be joking.”
Just wait.
“Aw, I try,” he says, handing her the bat.
She taps it against the ground. “It’s funny. You’re the exact opposite of your brother.”
Everyone in the room shifts in their seat.
He helps her with her helmet. “My brother? I don’t have a brother.”
She waits until he turns around to respond. “Not anymore, you don’t.”
He pauses mid-step.
Carver moves to stand next to me, and the room leans in.
“Pretty shitty they all died before you got your reward, huh?”
Reward? What the fuck is she talking about? Even I’m confused about this one.
He turns around slowly, facing her.
“I mean, you did your part. Isn’t that right?” She’s rage baiting him. “Your club never knew you hadn’t reached the inner circle of the Bastards, did they?”
“You don’t have any fucking clue about what I know or don’t know about the Bastards.”
“Oh, but I do. I know you were the one to tell the Scorpions about Mila.”
“It was Prospect,” Cub rasps. He meets my eyes, remembering our conversation about who might have tipped them off about my custody hearing for Mila. We never once suspected him.
Prospect takes a step toward my woman, and I want to put my fist through the television.
“What are you here to do, Serenity?” he asks.
“I’m here to give you your reward for a job … well … done,” she says, tipping her head side to side at each word.
God, she’s sexy when she’s being a sass, but then my brain registers her words and my blood begins to boil. I’m just now understanding that the Scorpions were going to gift her to him for spying on us. What makes it more disgusting is that the Scorpions included her brother.
“Your brother told me I’d be yours. He liked it when I cried. Do you? Would it help if I turned on the tears?” she asks.
Carver’s hand shoots out to place it on my chest, preventing me from hitting something.
“Did he touch you?” Prospect asks the question I also want to know.
“Oh, did he touch what was yours? I bet he did that a lot when you were kids, huh?” She takes a step back as he takes one forward. “I just have one question. Where were you going to keep me? Locked in the basement? Or maybe a box under your bed? Because I never would have gone with you willingly.”
The way he stops and smiles at her has me clenching my fists at my sides.
“I’m not going to keep you at all,” he taunts.
Serenity visibly swallows, and fear flashes across her face.
“I’m going to fuck you.” He inches forward. “Fuck you again, and again, and again, and then I’m going to sell you to the highest bidder.”
My brothers all slowly stand, because they think we are about to ride out and kill him. They don’t know she’s already done that for us.
When he lunges for her, I grab my head. Fuck, I don’t want to watch, but I remind myself that she is in my bedroom. I just heard her tiptoe from the bathroom a few minutes ago.
She swings the bat. He expects her to aim high, but she takes his legs out from under him.
Every man in the room cheers.
“Fuck yeah,” Carver says quietly beside me.
She goes for his head next.
Again
And again.
And again.
“Cry all you want, but stop the fucking screaming. No one’s coming to save you!” she yells in her rage.
And that statement breaks my fucking heart right down the middle, because I know someone said it to her, and it was most likely Prospect’s brother.
“Who is his brother?” I ask Wizzard, barely controlling my anger.
Wizzard sighs. “It looks like he was the Scorpion’s VP … they had different last names.”
Meaning we missed it in our vetting. We missed Serenity’s brother too.
Serenity peels out of her gear, kicks her shoes off by the door, and then walks out. That is where the footage ends.
“I don’t understand. Wolfe went over there looking for Prospect because he was supposed to help at the Trough tonight. He checked all the fucking rooms. Especially when he found the flash drive and quilt on the counter,” Cub explains.
“I’m looking through the footage from the Cage as we speak,” Wizzard chimes in.
Cole laughs. “Guaranteed it’s going to be missing the chunk we just watched and everything that happened after.”
“You think she had help?” Cub asks.
Carver taps his fingers over his mouth. “She had to have. I was in her backseat that entire fucking time, but she parked in the fucking alley, so I didn’t see anything.” His eyebrows rise as he has an epiphany. “It was those bitches from Nevada.”
Carson and Cole both jump to their feet at the same time.
“Got something,” Wizzard says, pulling it up on the screen.
The twins put their tension on pause as two women appear on the screen. They’re standing in the lobby of the Cage.
“Hey, Carver, we just wanted to hop on and say congratulations on finally catching up to us.” They each blow him a kiss.
“Jesus,” Cub says. “Those two look like trouble.”
Carver looks at the twins. “I meant no disrespect brothers, but the women in your old man’s club are …”
“More than you can handle,” they say at the same time.
Carver dips his head. “I will admit they’re a force, but I wouldn’t say more than I can handle.”
The twins roll their eyes, knowing damn well he met his match. They turn to me. “Is Serenity okay?”
I glance down the hallway, wondering how best to approach her. “She’s fine. Everyone out,” I say calmly. Serenity and I need to talk.
My officers instantly scatter.
I bend over and pick up the quilt Cub was talking about. My chest squeezes painfully. It’s made from some of the clothes I bought for Mila. I rub my finger over one of the squares with little yellow rubber ducks on it.
Before I head into the bedroom, I heat up a bowl of soup. After the microwave dings, I find Serenity sitting at the end of the bed waiting for me.
“Prospect’s brother, Psycho, he didn’t hurt me,” she says before I even get the door closed.
My shoulders drop in relief. That says a lot about her character. She didn’t torture me longer than necessary.
“I thought he was Savage.”
That is where her story begins. She tells me everything as her soup grows cold on the dresser. I don’t want to stop her, though. She needs to get this out, and I need to hear it. Every detail.
I sit beside her quietly, holding her hand, both of us staring at the wall as she speaks. It’s nice learning more about the twin’s family, but it’s also a little hard to listen to. They saved her, not me.
“It should have been me,” I say quietly when she finishes.
“You were right where I needed you to be. The only reason I was able to do what I did was because Mila was safe here with you.”
“I need to kill someone,” I say, my anger simmering just below the surface with the thought of another man touching her.
She laughs lightly, and her fingers rake through the back of my hair. “How about you make love to me instead?”
My gaze bounces over her face because I’m not sure she’s ready. She’s been through so much, and I’m still not certain she trusts me. Why the fuck would she?
She rises from the bed and turns to stand directly in front of me.
And then she drops the robe.