Widow
Fifty-Seven
Rory collapsed in my arms, tears still streaming down her face. Her skin was red, blotchy, and streaks of mascara marred her cheeks. I knew how she felt. The moment I heard Cinder say those words, my breathing stopped. She told me what that phrase meant to the two of them.
Cinder was slumped over a bottle of Jack. She’s been looking for her sister for a year with no luck. Her mother took her the moment Cin turned eighteen, because she knew she wanted to adopt her and take her away from the toxic environment. She must be using her as a scapegoat for money or drugs.
“I was supposed to keep her safe,” Cinder whispered. “I knew I should have gone there and took her before she had the chance. I always thought the bitch would be too drunk or high.”
“You’ll find her, Cin.”
“My firefly is alone.”
Firefly. “You never told me why you called her that.”
“Growin’ up in Louisiana, we had a yard with woods and lightning bugs would come out. Aurora loved them. When my mom would do drugs or her current boyfriend would come over and be a dipshit, I asked her ‘wanna chase fireflies, firefly?’ when she needed to hide or go outside.”
“When you find her, she’ll know her light came back to her.”
“I hope she knows I didn’t choose to leave her.”
Every Viper heard it, but Rory felt it. I felt it.
Cinder was dead. Fuck. There was a shadow of melancholy descending onto the clubhouse, but no one dared to utter a word.
There were things that needed to be done, but that would be a problem for another time.
First, I needed to get Rory into bed and let her sleep this off.
Then I’d go find Melisa and tell her what had happened.
“Get her door open,” I told Haven. I needed to know if it was her fault or not. Cinder was dead, and here she was in Viper territory. It felt like an insult, but Rory would hate me if I killed her or sent her packing.
Haven followed my command, walking to her bed as I adjusted Rory in my arms. She was fidgeting in her sleep, fighting a demon I wished I could slay for her.
Her nightmares had been bad when I returned home from prison, but she hadn’t had them in years.
One night could ruin everything, and I already knew we had to get her therapist to the clubhouse ASAP.
Rory was strong, but this would throw her over the edge.
Someone from her past did this. They took Cinder to hurt her, but why? What was the motive behind making her listen to that?
I walked out of her bedroom and into the main room of the foyer. “Boss.” Boss. I didn’t want to be the fucking boss. I was the sergeant at arms for a reason. I didn’t want this responsibility. Cinder had Mal.
“What?”
“What do you need from us? Cinder was a Viper. We aren't going to let her death be in vain,” Mal said.
My brows furrowed. “We will figure it out. Right now, I need everyone's focus to be on Rory and making sure we didn’t let a Devil spy into our clubhouse.” They nodded in agreement.
“I’m…” Fuck, I didn’t know how to finish that sentence; what I wanted to say, what came next.
But if I didn't get out of this clubhouse before my anger and grief got the better of me, things would go from pretty fucking bad to worse. “I’m going to see Melisa.”
I knew I had to see her, but not without clearing my head first. The last thing anyone needed was for me to go off on Melisa because of the emotions stirring in my chest. I messaged her and told her to meet me at the pier.
She needed to be one of the first ones to know.
Cinder’s loss was going to affect more than just the club, but the town, as well.
She made a mark on our little coastal town, and she did it for Rory.
We wouldn’t survive this loss. This must have been how Cinder felt when she lost Diesel.
Grief was complicated, something I had never experienced first-hand.
I loved Diesel, but he wasn’t a father figure to me.
It felt like I lost a boss or a coworker, but the rage in my chest knowing Cin was gone could make the whole cosmos explode.
I wanted to fight, to scream, to make someone pay.
Melisa was waiting for me when I pulled up. Her hands were tucked in her pockets as she watched the water crash onto the shore.
I killed the engine and dragged myself out of the car. The wood groaned beneath my boots as I walked up to her. She had a cigarette lit between her fingers and dark circles under her eyes. This life affected her almost as much as it did us.
“I got a toddler at home waiting for me with a grouchy babysitter. What do you have?”
Melisa was always the one to jump headfirst into something.
I saw why Cinder had a thing for her. They were cute together, but their lives clashed hard when it came to law and order.
Cin said the sex was great, though. Now I had to break Melisa’s heart with the truth. I needed to rip the Band-Aid clean off.
“Cinder is…”
Her cigarette fell from her fingers. “Don’t fuck around like that, Widow.”
“I’m not. He called Rory, but it was Cinder. She said her goodbyes before he shot her.”
Melisa crushed the cigarette under her boot, looking up at the dark clouds. She was hiding her emotions. Cinder and Melisa never admitted their relationship status, but the secret was behind glass. Everyone knew, but no one said anything because they didn’t.
“How’s Rory?” Her voice was low, almost a broken whisper.
I clawed my scalp, trying to stay grounded. This was something I still hadn’t processed myself, and I didn’t know how to. “She’s…we’re all distraught, but he did it to hurt her, and it worked. She hyperventilated and passed out. She is in bed with Axel Morningstar’s kid now.”
Melisa did a double take. “What do you mean in bed?”
“They’re together. Fucking. I don’t know.
” I still didn’t like it, but right now all I needed to do was make sure Rory was okay.
Unfortunately, that meant dealing with Haven fucking Morningstar in our town, with my…
with Rory. She wasn’t mine, and could never be mine.
Especially not after this. It was my job to protect her now.
“Do you know if he’ll dispose of her body?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then she might not be dead,” Melisa stated bluntly. “I’m a cop. No body, no proof.”
“I can’t put Rory through that. I can’t give her hope and then find out Cinder is actually dead.”
“Then we will wait to tell her. I’ll look into it myself if I need to, but until her body is found, Cinder is alive.”
I would let Melisa have this, and hope she was right.