Chapter 3
“ G ates don’t open for another hour.” One of the hefty guys sitting on a barrel outside the entrance growls at us as we step toward them. All of them are built the same and look as if they could do some damage, but we didn’t come here to fight. Wrath came to break devastating news to his sister, and I… well I guess I came here to tear open old wounds and torture myself.
“We ain’t here for the show. I came to see Freya,” Wrath tells him, doing his best attempt at nice.
“You did, huh?” One of the others laughs as he crushes his smoke out with his boot. “Every fucker with a swinging dick comes here to see her.” They all share a look and I have to restrain myself from slamming their heads together and gouging out their eyeballs.
“She’s my sister, and I need to speak with her.” Wrath somehow manages to keep his calm. I’m guessing it has something to do with the weight of the news he’s carrying, and for the sake of my best friend I find my calm too.
“She’ll be preparing for the show,” the one who’s smoking a blunt tells us.
“I appreciate that, but this is important. It’s family business.” Wrath’s jaw has started to tick, which means these fuckers got about two minutes left of his patience.
“Family business.” The one on the barrel stands up, looking like he’s gonna square up at him. “Chuck, show biker boy and his buddy, here, to Freya and Drew’s trailer,” he orders before heading in the opposite direction. Wrath turns his head to look at me, and we both follow Chuck , through the turnstile gates and round the back of the show tent.
We see all kinds of weird sights as we make our way closer to Freya. Some hot ass redhead winks at me as I pass her, then lifts a sword high above her head like she’s about to swallow it. I don’t look back to check if she pulled it off, I just keep moving forward, trying not to let the knots in my stomach cripple me.
“Aaron.” I hear Freya’s voice before I see her, and when my eyes follow the sound and she’s standing right there in the door of a trailer, there's no chance of me hiding the reaction from my face.
She looks like a pin up girl from the 20’s with her hair curled, and her costume is still as tight as it was two years ago, except it shines brighter, and there's even less of it.
She races toward her brother with tears in her eyes.
“Aaron, what are you doi—” She flinches when he lifts her off the ground and spins her around, and I see the pain on her face when he squeezes his bear-like arms around her. Something ain’t right.
“I heard you were in town, did ya think I’d let you pass through without coming to see ya?” Wrath smiles as he places her back down. “Though I wasn’t expecting to see quite so much of ya. What’s with this?” He tugs at the fringe that’s hanging from her shoulders.
“It’s a crowd pleaser.” She laughs, before her eyes glance up and she notices me standing behind him. The way her smile quickly fades breaks my heart.
“I… I have a show in just over an hour, but I’d love to catch up. What are you doing back in town, is it for good? And where's Willow?” She looks around us expectantly, and I feel my brother's pain as he takes hold of her hand. I stare at Chuck, until he gets uncomfortable enough to leave us, and while I wait for my best friend to find the words I hang my head so I don’t have to see any more hurt on her face.
“A lot’s happened since you left, Freya,” Wrath starts, his voice already sounding croaky and weak.
“Well you still haven’t cut your hair.” She laughs, and as it tails off I sense the tension getting tighter.
“I came home because the club took down our father. He ain’t president no more,” he starts, leading her over to a plastic chair that's outside one of the trailers. I don’t like how tightly compacted they all are, there are far too many places someone could jump out from.
“Really?” She takes the seat and I can’t tell if the sigh she makes is caused by relief or sadness. Freya may have been the apple of her daddy's eye, but under the surface, she must have known he was a bad man. “He ran away and took Willow with him,” Wrath admits.
“Took Willow where?” Freya quickly gets back on her feet and looks concerned. Proving to me that she knows exactly what kind of man her father is. “Aaron, tell me you know where she is.” Her skin turns pale.
“Sit back down, Freya.” Wrath places his hand on her shoulder, easing her back down, and I ask myself again why I’m here. Seeing her hurt is only gonna make me wanna make her better. Even if I could, it’s not my place to, she has her big brother and asshole boyfriend here for that.
“Freya, Willow’s dead.” His words are followed by silence, a long, lingering silence that forces me to look at her and see her pain.
“No…” Her head shakes and those pretty blue eyes magnify with tears. “She can’t be dead, she’s just a kid, Aaron.”
“After Dad took her, he left her with the Reapers.”
“The Reapers?” Now she really looks confused.
“He thought he could trust them, he’d been working with them for years behind the club’s back, but they found out he was betraying them and…” Wrath can’t finish his sentence, he doesn’t have to. Freya may have been playing the pretty little circus act for the past five years, but she grew up around the club and she knows how things work.
“Where is he? I’ll kill him.” Pure rage takes over her sadness and suddenly she looks ready to take on anyone.
“I already took care of it.” Her brother looks up at the sky, before he scrubs his hand over his face. “Dad’s dead too.”
“Willow can’t be dead.” Freya seems to ignore that fact to focus on what matters.
“I want to believe that too, Frey. I wanna believe that more than anyone, but I saw the look on his face when he told me. It’s the only time I’ve seen that bastard look remorseful for anything.” Wrath’s got her by the shoulders, holding her steady, and when I catch her boyfriend in my peripheral view starting to come at him, I quickly put myself in front of them.
“Now ain’t the time,” I warn him, looking down at him and frowning as he puffs out his chest.
“Drew.” Freya quickly rushes past me and shimmies herself between us. “He’s my brother, it’s just Aaron.” There's a tremble in her voice that suggests she’s scared of this little prick, and when her hand reaches out to touch his forearm and that shakes too, I look the fucker right in his eyes and let him know I’m on to him.
“You need to tell your brother and his friend they have to leave, we got a show to prep for.” He stares back at me, and I wonder if he remembers me from that night I turned him away from the club.
“Drew, he came here to…”
“I don’t care why they came here. It’s time for them to leave. Bikers are bad for business, especially the ones in this town.” He looks me up and down like I’m a piece of shit. I’m about to push Freya out my way so I can teach this cunt some respect, but Wrath is already on it.
“Who the fuck do you think you’re talkin’ to like that?” Wrath gets in his face, while his stunt buddies surround him.
“Aaron, you need to leave.” Freya grabs hold of her brother and drags him back. “Please,” she begs.
“I ain’t leaving, we still have things to talk abo?—”
“There’s nothing I want to discuss with you, Aaron. Get out of here,” she tells him firmly, shoving him in the shoulder and refusing to make eye contact with either of us.
“Frey—”
“You don’t get to turn up here and act like you suddenly care!” she yells, shocking us both. “You left, Aaron, you fucked off into the night without so much as a goodbye. It’s too late to show up here and start trying to be my brother.”
“Freya, c’mon, we’re family. We’re all eac?—”
“All my family are dead.” She looks at him coldly, before taking hold of Drew’s hand and marching back inside her trailer. The smug prick glances over his shoulder at us both and when Wrath goes to go after them, I hold him back.
“Leave it, she needs time to process.” I watch the stunt prick close the door behind them, then look at the crowd that’s formed around us. All of ‘em are lookin’ at us as if we outstayed our welcome. “C’mon, let's go home.” I tap my best friend's shoulder and lead him back toward our bikes, and when I take a look back toward her trailer, I see her staring out of its window. Her eyes are fixed on mine and I swear they're screaming at me to save her.
Sometimes, if you want something badly enough, you’ll believe anything.
Wrath doesn’t say anything as we get back on our bikes, just revs his throttle and kicks up dust as he takes off. I follow after him, hating that we’ve left her hurting, and not only from what she heard today. Something was really wrong. I saw the way she flinched when Wrath hugged her. I heard the way that son of a bitch spoke to her, and she seemed scared of him, not happy, not in love, but fearful.
The whole ride back to the clubhouse I try to convince myself that I’m wrong, but I keep seeing that look in her eyes again.
We pull through the compound gates and Wrath gets off his bike.
“I need a fucking drink,” he tells me, breathing himself calm, and knowing that Eden will want to know how things went. “Ruckus…” He stares at me, confused when he notices that my engine’s still running. That niggle inside of me ain’t going away, and it won’t, not until I’ve seen her again and checked that she’s okay.
“I got somewhere I need to be,” I tell him, gripping my bars as I back up my bike.
“Somewhere ya need—where?” Wrath shakes his head.
“I’ll be back,” I shout over the sound of my engine as I pull back the throttle and head back to her.