Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Daemon
“She’s not here,” Ivy says, coming from down the hall of Everleigh’s house.
In the time we’d been fucking, I’ve not once been in here. As I look around the place, I could get the feel of her, but parts are missing.
“We already knew that.” Sutton huffs and walks past me into the kitchen. “The bitch left letters.”
“What?” I mutter, stalking in the same direction to see what Sutton’s talking about. Sure enough, sitting on the little island are three letters. One of them is addressed to me, and it pisses me off that she’d fucking leave a letter behind.
“This doesn’t make sense.” Angel grunts, coming to stand beside me as Sutton opens the letter addressed to the ol’ ladies.
“It’s Everleigh,” Ivy mumbles and joins Sutton as the woman reads the letter out loud.
“I know you’re all pretty pissed at me right now, and I’m sorry for that.
But it had to be done. I’m not going to let anyone else take on my problems. You guys don’t need it, and neither does the club.
” Sutton pauses as she scans what’s next.
“I always knew my time would run out and they would demand my return. Well, that’s happened, and I’m not going back.
I don’t want to marry some guy I don’t know—”
“What the fuck?” I snarl, rage starting to fill my veins. Is this why she didn’t want to be with me?
Sutton ignores my outburst and keeps going.
“You know they said I disgraced them a long time ago, but you don’t know why, and I don’t want to tell you now.
It’s not fair to you all but it is what it is.
Please don’t come after me. Let it be and go on living life as you should.
It’s for the best. Know that I love you all and wish you all the best of everything.
” Finished, the woman balls the paper in her hands.
“That bitch, I’m kicking her ass when I see her again. ”
“You’ll have to beat me to it,” Ivy mutters. “She knows we’re more than just friends, we’re family and we don’t turn our backs on each other.”
“She said we don’t need her problems,” Sutton seethes. “She thinks she’s protecting us all by leaving . . . running away. She doesn’t want to give the club more drama because of what Juniper did.”
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse,” Reaper states, speaking for the first time. “We’ll get Styxx or Scythe on it. See if they can’t track her down.”
I nod but don’t move to follow. Instead, I open the letter Everleigh left for me.
A part of me wants to rip the damn thing up and say fuck it all, but my gut tells me I need to see what she’s wanted to tell me.
I tear the envelope open and pull the slip of paper out.
Unfolding it, I stare at the handwriting reading over her words.
I find it strange that it’s handwritten and not typed.
This day in time no one writes anything anymore.
It’s all done on computers and printed out.
Scanning the words, my chest tightens at each one.
Daemon,
I want you to know that if given the choice I would have agreed to be yours the first time you told me you wanted me to be your ol’ lady.
But I can’t. I’m sure by now you know about my parents and the community they live within.
They’re the reason I couldn’t say yes. You probably think this is all crap, and maybe it is, though it’s my life, and I can’t leave it.
You see, what I could tell the girls but feel you should know is when I was sixteen, I did something to disgrace my family and tried to escape them.
I not only paid the price but so did the one who tried to help me.
The only reason I was even allowed to be able to go to school and live outside the community is I’d promised my uncle, who’s the leader, that when the time came, I’d do as he says and marry.
Now that time has come, and I don’t want to. I can’t do as he asks because my heart would shatter more than it already is at writing this. You don’t know how much it hurts to have walked away so many times when I want nothing more than to be yours.
Please don’t come for me. I’ll be okay. I have a plan and I’ll be safe. I promise.
Always yours,
Everleigh
It takes me several moments to grasp what she’s written. The woman’s been mine all along. Fuck me. When I find her, I’m going to spank her ass for this shit. Everleigh could have told me.
I fold the paper and put it in my back pocket. I make my way out of the house, locking it behind me. Getting to my bike, I follow the rest of my brothers who’d already started back to the clubhouse.
The whole way I think about all that was in the letter and a plan comes to mind. But I’ll have to get my hands on her first to make that happen.
I walk into the clubhouse to find Reaper already talking to Styxx. Both men glance in my direction with grim looks on their faces.
“What?”
“After the shit with Juniper, I looked into Everleigh and Josephine,” Styxx announces and holds out a file for me. “You’ll want to take a look at this, and I’ll tell you now, you’re not gonna like it.”
I take the folder, flip it open, and start reading over it.
My stomach twists and tightens the more I go.
She went to a regular school with the others, but she wasn’t allowed to do anything else.
At sixteen one of the kids, she was friends with went missing after attempting to help her run away.
To make matters worse, there’s a note in here about her having a kid that was taken from her at birth.
And the community she and the others mention is nothing more than some sort of religious cult.
“You sure of all this?” I ask the question, though I know I don’t need to. Styxx and Scythe are thorough when it comes to this type of thing.
“Every last bit of it.” Styxx’s eyes seem to harden as he nods.
“What do you want to do, brother?” Reaper asks.
“She’s mine, and I’m not about to let her get away from me,” I grit, clenching my teeth, shifting my gaze to his. “No way am I letting her deal with this shit on her own.”
“With you there, Daemon,” my Prez mutters. “She’s trying to keep her shit from touching us and bringing it to our doorstep, but she’s already one of ours and we’ll do what it takes to help her.”
“Already know what I’m gonna do,” I inform him, grinning. “I just gotta catch up with her first.”
“I’ve got all of the systems set to notify me the moment she uses her card for anything,” Styxx says, “but the woman is smart. She sold her ATVs for cash and probably has more than just from the sale of those.”
“Meaning, she’s in the wind unless we get a tip.”
Fuck.
“Exactly,” Styxx confirms.
“We’ll find her,” Reaper mutters and reaches out to clasp a hand on my shoulder. “Until then, we do have some shit we’ve got to take care of.”
I know we do. The meet with Dusan Morozov is scheduled to happen.
He’s one of the distributors we work with when it comes to the cars we steal, along with the ones we design and build ourselves.
We won’t be able to put him off. He’s not just a man we work with when it comes to this part of business.
He’s also an ally we don’t want to make an enemy of.
I swear, Everleigh’s timing couldn’t be worse, but regardless, I’ll find her one way or another and be there for the meet with Dusan. He might be meeting with Reaper, but the cars are my designs and I’m needed for the meeting as well.