Chapter 6
SIX
Darby
I’d chosen not to talk to Rebel all day, and he’d left me alone.
I was thankful for that but there had been a few times I’d heard him outside the bedroom door, just hovering.
Part of me wanted to open the door, to say I wasn’t mad about my family being gone, and ultimately I wasn’t.
I was sad about Keefe, but not them. That should make me a monster, right?
They were still my family even if I hated them, I should feel some form of something… right?
The only thing I felt was…safe. I was safe because Rebel was here and I knew he would protect me with everything he had.
I’d never felt that before in my life. I didn’t want this to end because they were all dead.
I wanted to wake up to Rebel’s cooking every morning, have him in my bed every night, have his cock buried so deep in me I didn’t know where he ended and I began.
But he’d already told me it was nothing to him. It was just sex.
A transaction.
My chest pulled at that thought. After what we did…I’d wanted to bask in the afterglow, have his arm wrapped around me as I drifted off to sleep. Instead, I’d gotten mad at him. He had said himself he’d not wanted to keep it from me and only followed what everyone else wanted.
I checked the time on my kindle and decided it was past time I left my room. I closed my kindle case and trudged from my room to the kitchen. The house was quiet save for the sounds of the TV turned down low.
“Hey,” I heard an unfamiliar voice say from the back door. He came in and even though I saw him in his cut, I was wary. “I’m Josh. Rebel just had to head out for a few hours. He’ll be back soon.”
I nodded, hoping it came off as sincere and moved into the kitchen. My stomach was growling angrily since I’d not eaten since last night. I opened the fridge to see a note on a Tupperware container in Rebel’s handwriting. My chest squeezed.
Even though I refused to talk to him, he was still thinking about me. I pulled it out and read the note.
Please eat this for dinner. I don’t know what time I’ll be back but if this is still in the fridge when I do get back, I’ll wake your ass up and make sure you eat. We can talk tomorrow x
Kendrick.
I couldn’t help but smile. I peeled the post-it note off the container and lifted the lid up so the steam could vent and tossed it in the microwave.
Looking back over at the guy sitting on the couch, I could tell he was nervous, shooting me glances every now and then and going back to his phone.
Something about him had me on edge but I couldn’t place it.
If Rebel left him here, he had to trust him, so I really shouldn’t be worried.
Why couldn’t I get it out of my mind that I knew him from somewhere then?
The microwave beeped and dragged my attention back to it. I opened the door and the sweet aroma of chicken carbonara wafted up to my nostrils.
God…how was he such a good cook?
I was never going to get used to not having this in my life once this was all over. An uneasiness settled over me as I thought of not seeing him again, not having his cooking, not having him to perve on when we worked out, not seeing his smile or feeling his arms around me.
I choked back a sob and shook my head to dislodge the fear building inside of me. I knew what this was before I slept with him, and I knew it had an expiration date but what if…what if I didn’t want to say goodbye?
Sitting at the table, I finished the entire contents of the container and moved up to the sink to rinse it. Josh hadn’t moved but he still cast wary glances my way. We knew each other somehow. It had to be that or else I wouldn’t have this funny feeling and he wouldn’t keep looking at me like that.
The door opened and Josh jumped up. Rebel rounded the corner, taking in Josh first, then me. His eyes softened when he saw me.
“You’re good, brother,” he aimed at Josh. “The boys are expecting you.”
Josh left. I noticed how they didn’t have the same playful friendship Rebel had with the others which made me curious. Did he not like him?
“I’m glad you’ve eaten.”
I nodded. “Thank you, it was delicious.”
“My pleasure,” he said, shrugging off his cut and hanging it over the back of the chair. “Do you want anything else? I can make some brownies if you’re still hungry.”
“No, I just ate,” I told him. Before I could think to stop myself, I added, “You didn’t tell me you were going.”
“Sorry, I figured you were asleep. It was really quiet behind that door and I didn’t want to wake you. I just needed to be brought up to speed on the movement of your brother. Wolf confirmed it was Riagan.”
I nodded, but that was when something hit me. That was…how I knew the other guy.
“Wait, that guy that was here…his name was Josh and he’s a member right?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“How well do you know him?”
Rebel thought about it for a minute. “He came up with me and Fury as a prospect, so a few years. Why?”
“He didn't talk much.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty private,” he replied. “We used to always try and get him to open up more but we figured he had a shit life and didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Do you trust him?” I asked, suddenly very nervous.
“What’s with the fifty questions?” he asked. “Did he try…something with you?”
There was a shift in his demeanour, a subtle one, but a menacing one all the same.
“What? No…” I felt a smile lift on my face. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” he said quickly. “Of course not, but his job was to sit here and protect not hit on you.”
I could see the anger rising on his face. “You can relax, Kendrick, he didn’t hit on me.”
He visibly relaxed. “So, why all the questions suddenly?”
“I just…recognise him,” I told him, and for the first time since he came back, I felt scared of what was going to come next.
“How?”
“Kendrick, he knows my brothers. I’ve seen him at the Destructive Sons clubhouse, and I’ve seen him drinking with my father. I think he was working for them.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
Rebel frowned, thinking it over, possibly trying to figure out where I could be right. I loved that he wasn’t just shutting me down like my father did. He actually listened to me.
“How can you be so sure it was him?”
“Didn’t you say a few days ago that someone was leaking information?
That you had someone attack you and there was no sign of who did it almost like a ghost?
Maybe you have someone working from the inside against you.
My father didn’t just play games, he played the long game.
He could have inserted Josh into the Ghost Rebels years ago. ”
“How sure are you?” he asked me, his eyes wide with panic.
“Kendrick, I wouldn’t cause shit for nothing. I think you have a mole and if you do, he’s it.”
Rebel
Blaze had fled by the time I’d called the boys to tell them what Darby had confessed.
No one had been able to find him. He must have known she would be able to identify his lying ass after he’d been put on her detail.
How he’d gone undetected all these years, I had no idea, but his personality, how shut off he was, it all made sense now. He was lying in wait…
The fucker. I was furious that we’d allowed him in, that I had allowed him to watch Darby when he could have done something to her, handed her over to Riagan even. Fuck!
It made my blood boil.
It had taken three days to track the fucker down.
The fact that Wolf had no idea was surprising but he’d never noticed him at the clubhouse before.
We had decided that it was best to keep Wolf out of our club dealings for the time being.
He was an Outlaw, through and through, not loyal to anyone, even if we thought he was to us.
He might be…but not recognising Riagan and now with Blaze…
shit was just fucking weird. Once we caught up to Blaze, it had been on game on.
I looked over at the mole chained up in the shed. All of us stood around him, furious.
He had been our family. Which is why it made his betrayal all the more painful.
“Did you kill Razor?” Chains asked him. I could see he was struggling to keep it together. He needed this resolved. We all did.
“Yes,” he said with a sneer. “He was easy. He’d been locked up for so long, he didn’t know not to suspect why one of the others were meant to get him. He just got in my car. Even when I took him to that bar, he didn’t question it, he had my back.”
Chains’ head looked ready to explode. “Why?”
“I was told to make a play on one of you. He was the easiest to target without making anyone else suspicious.”
Chains gripped his weapon tightly in his hand, raising it up and whipping the chain links across Blazes’ abdomen.
He let out a cry of pain, his legs almost failing him.
Chains did it again and again, until Blaze’s abdomen was red and bloody.
We all each took a hit of him with our weapons of choice.
He was bleeding, swollen and barely being held up by the chains by the time my turn came around.
I had trusted this fucker. I had trusted him so much that I’d left Darby with him. I’d left my girl… fuck…not my girl…
But she was.
Even if I tried to ignore it, I knew she was mine.
And I’d put her in danger because I had trusted this motherfucker…
for years. We’d come up together, sat out in the gatehouse for years together.
This betrayal was worse than I could have ever imagined.
I’d trusted him. He knew about my life, my past…
and still…he’d wormed his way in. I fucking hated that, most of all.
Blaze looked up at me and a sick, twisted smile pulled at his lips. “Finally…”
“Why?” I asked him, my voice deeper than I imagined it would be, broken from the unshed emotion clogging inside.