Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
SILAS
The fire curled and licked toward the underbelly of the trees. Shooting sparks that danced higher before they turned to ash and fluttered to the ground.
I sat rocked back in a chair, entranced by the flames while my crew joked around me.
“Did you see me in action?” Brody gestured at himself. Amped after today’s unfortunate incident.
“What I saw was you ducking for cover,” Trevan razzed behind a sip of his beer.
Brody gasped in mock offense. “Are you kidding me? I went straight hero today.”
Brody stretched out his arms like he was the prize.
Phoenix grunted the way he always did. Seldom amused.
“Hero, huh?” Trevan’s brow lifted with the tease.
“Don’t you know not all heroes wear capes?” Brody tossed out.
Trevan cracked up. “Nah, heroes wear cuts.”
I fought a chuckle, but my words were serious as I told Brody, “You did good today.”
He looked my way, seriousness taking over him too. “Wouldn’t have let that bastard get away with what he planned. This club’s mission is my mission.”
“I know,” I affirmed.
Meaning it.
He might have messed around nonstop, but when it came down to it, Brody knew what was important.
The same as the rest of my MC.
This mismatched family that fought for what was right.
It was me who’d gone askew. The one who’d fucked up. Fucked up so bad, letting myself get lost in her.
She was abso-fucking-lutely off-limits.
A job.
A woman under my protection who was basically being used as a pawn.
And I’d let that purpose spiral.
Splinter as she not so slowly seeped beneath my skin.
I mean, fuck, she might as well have been a drug injected directly into my veins.
Whittling her way through muscle and bone and getting to the marrow.
Casting a glow somewhere at the center of my being.
She was this riotous light that I was drawn to. As hot as the sparks that flitted from the flames.
Wildfire.
Kindling that had lit something deep.
Warming my long-dead spirit.
I needed to put out that fucking fire stat.
Extinguish it before it destroyed the oath that I had made.
But I was only getting struck by another lash of severity.
Awareness crawled across my flesh and piqued every cell in my body in keen, desperate attention.
My guts tangled in a fit of greed as I watched her come stumbling out from the cover of trees with my baby sister in tow.
What the ever-lovin’ fuck did they think they were doing?
And what the fuck was she wearing?
Brinley dressed up in one of those tempting short dresses. This one black with capped sleeves and a plunging neckline, flowy skirt to match.
Thighs that I’d had my hands all over earlier exposed, legs for a fucking week.
Waltzing in like a conquering queen on those black peep-toe sky-high heels that could make even a good man commit obscene things.
And I was not a good man.
A swell of possessiveness rushed in, something that verged on irate as every last Crow standing around the fire took note.
It wasn’t like I could blame them.
She was a flash of lightning striking on parched land. A storm rolling in to quench a ten-year drought.
Trevan’s attention cut to Elena, exactly the way it was supposed to, and he stood, already lumbering her way.
He wasn’t only my second in command when it came to the MC. He was second in command at watching over my sister.
Charged with her safety in the moments I couldn’t be near her, an obligation I’d given him after she’d been rescued from Kent Ellison’s clutches.
One he took fucking seriously. Always watching and hovering close.
Elena pulled away from where she was tacked to Brinley’s side and instead grabbed her hand and pulled her into the fray of men and women already devolving into depravity.
The party slanting toward unruly.
Styx fingering some chick where he sat at a picnic table while another was on her knees sucking his dick.
A few others were scattered about clearly deteriorating in that direction.
My cock hardened at the thought of Brinley doing the same.
Getting on her knees right out in front of everyone so they would know she was mine, all while I wanted to gouge out their goddamn eyes if they caught sight of her doing it.
No one could say I was being rational.
From over the fire, I watched as a few of my men moved up to Brinley, checking on her, gruff assholes still exerting their care.
“Thank fuck she’s okay,” Brody rumbled before he moved in her direction, ducking into a cooler on his way and extending it to her like a peace offering.
Something heavy clouded him, even though I could see him trying to front his easy, arrogant smile.
She accepted the bottle, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Brinley’s gorgeous face was all pinched up in gratitude.
I hated that Brody’d had to draw blood, but I knew full well that venom already pumped through Brody’s veins.
It was coming.
Inevitable.
They say you can leave, but you are always where you came from.
And I was going to have to accept that he was cursed like the rest of us.
Brinley suddenly lunged for Brody, hugging him tight before she stepped back and tried to straighten herself out, unable to believe she’d allowed herself to expose her vulnerability that way.
The fear and horror I knew still clung on, acting like all was good as she cracked her beer and brought the rim of the bottle to her lips.
Those lush, distracting lips.
Fuck, I couldn’t sit still for a second longer. I needed to put an end to this. Command she and Elena go home.
This wasn’t the place for them tonight.
Not any night.
I pushed from my chair, telling myself it had nothing to do with the fact I needed to get closer.
No fucking stopping myself.
Drawn.
Brinley Webber nothing but gravity.
The kind that was so powerful it could drag you across galaxies and you knew full well it’d crush you when you collided.
I started to move, basically stalking along the fringes of the gathering since Brinley and Elena had once again begun to move, Elena holding Brinley by the hand as she led her toward the clubhouse.
They disappeared inside, the door swinging shut behind them.
Trevan didn’t hesitate to follow.
They’d be fine with him watching over them, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of letting Brinley out of my sight.
Not with the vibe that had taken over the MC tonight. The high of the kill still saturated the oxygen, turning the pack wild and rabid.
A shivery sense of mayhem and unruliness urging their souls into upheaval.
Music pumped extra loud and undulated through our senses.
I felt half mad in it. Deranged as I cut through my men, heading directly for the door.
It might as well have had Destruction stamped on a sign hanging over the top. A call to Hell since I knew that was exactly where I was headed.
Going after the one thing that I was as sure of as my guilt was off-limits.
A thousand times so after what I discovered earlier today.
The truth that a whole lot of that brash impetuousness that Brinley wore was a cover. A cover she wore so well. One I wanted to sink my dirty claws into so I could expose everything underneath.
Nothing but a bastard for wanting to do it.
I tossed open the door and stepped into the raving fray of the clubhouse bar.
Music blared at a deafening level, the lights dimmed, though the strobes over the dance floor had been set to high.
A haze of smoke and rebellion clouding the atmosphere.
Crows wearing cuts loitered all around, but there had to be at least three women to every man.
It was the perfect way to feed the frenzy.
The air charged.
Fuel for the insanity.
I shouldered through the crush, and a few Crows clapped me on the back as I went.
“Prez, how’s it going?”
“Good job today.”
“Took that fucker out.”
I gave them slight nods and grunted responses, never slowing as I followed the energy that glowed and called.
Elena and Brinley had taken up a spot at a high-top table near the back right corner of the bar. Both were sipping beers, their gazes taking in the decadence and debauchery unfolding in front of them.
Fuck. I wanted to shield my sister. Cover her eyes and her heart. Send her back to the house and shove her back into that cage, clip her wings the way I’d been doing for so long.
It was utterly wrong, but I didn’t know anything else.
How to protect her when I forever felt our safety slipping away.
Knowing I was traversing treacherous ground, I turned course and beat a path to the main bar.
Tonight, Lulu was slinging drinks behind it, her grin both warm and sly. Her weathered face arched in knowing speculation as I slipped onto a stool.
She immediately set an old-fashioned in front of me. A sugar cube and cherry floated in the amber whiskey.
“It’s been a day, honey.” Care filled her tone.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, wrapping both hands around the glittering tumbler like it might serve as a lifeline.
She cut a glance at Brinley and Elena.
“She okay?” she asked.
A huff puffed free as I brought the tumbler to my lips, soaking my tongue with the sweetness, relishing the burn as it slid down my throat.
I hoped it would soothe the chaos, but it only poured gas on the flames that raged in my stomach.
Amid it, there was nothing I could do but slant my attention to the two who had their heads pressed together. Giggling and whispering.
As thick as thieves.
Like they’d been friends forever.
Wasn’t exactly sure what tightened my chest at the sight of it. That same wayward emotion that had detonated inside me when she’d run Kai and Elena to safety a few days ago.
I turned back to Lulu. “Doubt it. Who would be after going through what she did today?”
She hummed as she wiped a rag over the gleaming bar top. “Well, I’m sure it definitely made a mark, but I can also say she’s doing a whole hell of a lot better right now than she would have been otherwise.”
Rage burned hot, and I attempted to swallow around the shards of glass that rolled around at the base of my throat. “Bastard never should have gotten that close to her.”