Chapter 20
Rowan
Opening my eyes, I felt an ache in my arms, and a headache making it hard to see anything without a sharp, shooting pain reverberating around my skull. The smell around me was different, and not something I immediately recognised.
“Wakey, wakey bitch,” I heard a gruff voice say from behind me. “Don’t pretend with me. I can see your body tensing.”
Fuck.
Two hands came to rest on my shoulders, my eyes shooting open, despite the pain.
I didn’t dare move, waiting for him to make his play.
My heart hammered in my chest, unsure of what the hell happened.
One minute I was kissing and promising to come home with Reaper, and the next I was being held at gunpoint, blood streaming down the side of my face.
Then the look of terror in Reaper’s eyes as he watched the fucker drag me out of the Pit. Why didn’t I fight?
“You’ve caused us a fair bit of trouble, little girl,” he said, his voice holding a hint of recognition in my brain, but I couldn’t think of where I’d heard it before. “What are you going to do about making it up to us?”
Us?
My eyes scanned the room, and in the corner, on a chair sat another man, his eyes devoid of emotion, but I recognised him immediately. I tensed again, realising just who had taken me.
“Why don’t you loosen the ropes and I’ll show you exactly how I can make it up to you for almost killing me the first time.”
The guy in the corner snorted before he chuckled. “Big girl talk for someone who was so easy to subdue.”
He stood, and stalked his way over to where I was. His buddy was pressing his fingers into my shoulders, causing me pain but I refused to show it. It’s what they wanted, and I was damn sure I wasn’t going to be doing anything they wanted.
“Rog, whaddya reckon?” the fucker from behind me said to his buddy.
I snorted out a laugh. “Rog? As in Roger? Your parents must have hated you.”
The slap to the side of my face was instant, a burning sensation erupting over my skin as my head snapped to the side from the impact.
It fucking hurt.
Slowly, I turned back, a smile on my face. “Oooh, someone has a temper. The first sign of weakness…don’t worry, I’ll find the thing that topples you over the edge in no time.”
He squatted in front of me, looking up into my eyes. “You will be a perfect little toy, since we have no one telling us to stop this time. When we’re done with you, they’ll find you in pieces on the side of the road. Your precious club can’t save you this time, princess.”
“We’ll see about that,” I spat back. “You don’t have Trojan on your side. I do.”
I knew that fucker could find anything. Even Trey told me as much. Reaper would have called him the second they took me, and depending how long I’d been out, he probably already knew about this place.
I hoped anyway.
“Trojan?” the guy asked, his hands disappearing off my shoulders and he moved to stand in front of me. Roger stood to give him the space. This was the fucker who had whaled on me the most. I would recognise him anywhere. “Sawyer Graham?”
I shrugged my shoulders, acting non-chalant, even though I was freaking the fuck out. How would I know Trojan’s real name?
Non-Roger faced Roger, in a panic. “This place isn’t in any of our names, right?”
“Relax, Bry. She’s just talkin’ shit.”
“What if she isn’t? You know Trojan’s rep. He can find fucking anything.”
“If he could do that then why are the Ironborne so powerful still?” Roger spat. “She’s fucking with you.”
“Awww no, boys, trouble in paradise already?” I chuckled, my wrists burning in the ropes they’d tied me with as I tried to wrangle myself free.
“Shut the bitch up,” Roger growled at Bry. “I’ll make a call.”
“Maybe…I don’t know…maybe we should call Raf and tell him what we did.”
“Shut up about that fucking asshole. He’s not going to help us. He’ll kill us before we step foot outside. He hates messes, and this is a fucking mess.”
I watched on as they bickered and moaned to each other about the situation they found themselves in. It was almost comical as they floundered, calling in favours, left, right and centre. All to avoid Raf.
Personally, I got it. He was a scary motherfucker. But he hadn’t always been. Once upon a time, he was as close to me as Trey was, then he got in with the Ironborne, and he turned into an asshole. I was just glad Frankie got out of the relationship, even if it did break her heart.
“I’m calling Raf,” Bry said, picking up his phone to dial when I saw Roger smash it out of his hands.
“Don’t.”
“No need,” Raf’s deep baritone echoed in the small room we were in. I looked to the door where he was stepping into, a gun by his side, and a seriously pissed off look on his face. “Care to explain this monumental fuck up?”
“Raf…”
Bry was literally shaking in his shoes. If I weren’t mistaken, I could probably see his pants getting darker with urine.
“Twenty words or less,” Raf said, his eyes finding mine and something crossing over his expression before he looked back at the two idiots before him. “My time is precious.”
Roger stepped forward. “We took her to piss the MC off so we could start the war the Ironborne have been too scared to start for years.”
Raf’s laugh was unnatural in the tension mounting, and it had a chill running down my spine.
“And you think you two are the best to start said war?” Raf asked. “Mannix doesn’t even trust you with basic errands. He handed you over to me so you didn’t embarrass him anymore. And now look at what you’ve gone and done.”
“Raf…”
“Enough,” he boomed, and I even jumped at it. “Untie her.”
“But–”
“Did I fucking stutter, Roger?”
Roger moved behind me, yanking at the ropes, causing the material to rub against my already tender skin.
“If I see her wince one more time, I’ll be putting a bullet in your hand.”
The untying was gentler for a moment, before I could finally wrench my hands in front of me. He untied my ankles, and I kicked away from the chair, a little woozy but able to stand on my own.
“Did they touch you, Rowan?” he asked, not looking at me. I watched as confusion coasted over the two bumbling idiots’ faces.
“No, didn’t give them a chance.”
Raf smirked.
“You told us to attack her,” Roger argued.
“He told us to hurt her, never to kill or touch,” Bry said, almost as if it had dawned on him. “The orders never came from the Ironborne.”
My eyes shot to Raf, but he didn’t look my way. Fuck…did he have me beaten for no reason?
“Both of you, come here.”
They begrudgingly walked toward us, and I felt my senses heighten as Roger seemed hellbent on getting to me first. I used my training and blocked his attack, hitting him in the side of the head. He fell to his knees, weakened. Raf clocked Bry on the head with the butt of his gun.
“Usually I would kill them for what they did, but a promise is a promise.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Get in the car outside, Rowan.”
I moved away from him, unsure if he was a saviour or an enemy, and looked outside.
It was dark still, so I couldn’t have been gone for long, and one lone car sat in front of the building.
Two others were parked further down. I looked around for an escape, but we seemed to be in the middle of fucking nowhere.
“You can run, Ro, but you’ll never make away from me. Get in the car.”
I turned to see Raf hauling Roger over his shoulder toward the boot of the car. He opened it, and threw Roger in, like he was yesterday’s trash, before he moved back inside and retrieved Bry. Both men passed out cold.
“In the car, Ro.”
He slammed the boot shut, and moved to the driver’s side and got in. I moved over to the passenger side, and got in as well. We sat there for a while. I wasn’t even sure why neither of us spoke, but I could feel whatever was coming next was going to change everything.
“You ordered them to hurt me. Was the debt even real?”
It took him a moment to respond, and the only reaction I got was a tic in his jaw. “Ask me my full name, Ro.”
“What?”
“Do it.”
I sighed. “What’s your full name, Raf?”
“Rafael Bianchi.”
The name registered and I felt the gasp leave my throat. Bianchi, the name of my biological father.
“Who are you?”
“Your brother, as it turns out.”
“Did you know all this time?”
He shook his head. “I found out a few weeks before the moment in your apartment, truthfully.”
“You let your own sister get beaten to a pulp and almost die?”
“I stopped them before they could do that,” he shot out, his eyes moving to mine. “I just needed you to be scared enough that you would seek help.”
“Did Trey ever have a debt with the Ironborne?”
Raf sighed but shook his head. “No. He was too drugged up to know the difference. I needed you to seek shelter somewhere our father never would have looked for you. I knew Trey, and I knew who his dad was, and I also knew you had nowhere else to go.”
The pain slashed across my chest, both at his revelations and the pain of him using the one weakness I had. My inability to have a safe haven, so I had to seek one out.
“Why? Why is knowing my father so bad?”
“He’s not a good guy,” Raf explained, as if that was answer enough.
“Are you a good guy, Raf?” I spat, anger taking root somewhere deep inside of me.
“No,” he said, softer this time. “I’m not. But I’m damn sure not like that bastard. He would have used you as a pawn, married you to someone high in the Ironborne for a seat at the table. I never would want that for you.”
“This is the twenty-first century, Raf, I am my own woman. I make my own choices.”
“Not in the Ironborne, you don’t. They live by old creeds.
I see the way the wives are treated, and I don’t want that for you.
Mannix is bringing in change, but it won’t be in time to save you if he got his clutches on you.
I expected the Sons to take you in, because that’s who they are, but I never expected you to fall in love with the fucking President. ”
“You pushed me there.”
“And you opened your legs for him.”
I slapped him so hard, I felt my palm erupt in pain, but I didn’t stop. I slapped him again, tears rolling down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry I said that,” he told me. “He obviously cares a lot about you. Do you love him too?”
“I do…”
It was the truth. Unerring and painful, but it was the truth. I loved Wyatt Jameson with everything I had. I only prayed he could love me back the same way.
“Good. He’ll keep you safe. A Prez’s ol’ lady is untouchable. Everyone knows that.”
“I’m not his ol’ lady,” I said, quickly.
“Could have fooled me, Ro.”
“Oh yeah, why is that?”
“He called me to find you, minutes after you’d been taken. He made that choice to reach out to his enemy, owing him a favour in return.”
“What are you going to make him do?”
“That doesn’t concern you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“I have to get you back to him before he and his crew ride out to beat me senseless. Plus, I have a special delivery for him.”
“He’ll kill them, you know.”
Raf nodded. “I would have if I hadn’t already promised them to Reaper.”
We travelled toward Creed’s Crossing in almost silence, until I started to see the beautiful creek coming into view, and the bridge that took you toward the clubhouse.
“What about Trey? He doesn’t owe the Ironborne, but does he owe you?”
“No, and he now knows about this, but I made him promise that I would tell you all of it. He got me good, the fucker. He loves you, even if you don’t have the right appendages to please him.”
“That’s the worst way you could put that.”
He chuckled. “Let’s just say I got him a nice little retirement package to make up for the stress I put him under.”
“The Pit.”
Raf nodded. “The Pit is always co-owned, one by the Sons and one by the Ironborne.”
“I’m aware.”
“Are you the other half?”
“No, I’m not an Ironborne. I just work for them.”
“Then who?”
“They are a silent partner…for now, at least.”
“Why?”
Raf drove through the open gates of the clubhouse and up to the front. He didn’t speak, he just got out of the car. I opened my door, feeling hands on my arm, I went to shove them off me, before I looked into the worried eyes of Reaper.
His hand was on my face, cupping my cheek. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “They didn’t get a chance to hurt me.”
He nodded, pulling me into his body for a moment. I relished the feeling of safety it brought.
“Go inside with Cherry, yeah?” he asked. “I’ll be with you in a minute.”
I didn’t argue. Suddenly, I felt a wash of exhaustion hit me and I gladly nodded, and moved toward a smiling Cherry.
The last thing I heard was Reaper telling the boys to clear out the shed.