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He walked back to his sports car, saying no more. But those fire ants were back to crawling across my skin, biting fear into me—because Slater looked proud of himself. And he was only ever proud or happy when someone else was suffering. My gut was telling me I needed to see Holly, now, to know she was okay. Panic began to rise up with bile in my stomach. Something was happening, and if there was one thing I hated more than anything, it was uncertainty.

The roaring of motorcycles pulling into the lot, had me putting the plates down. We weren’t expecting anyone. That I knew of. Hearing the metal gates grit open, I walked out. I relaxed immediately when I saw their vests. The growling roar of the twenty or so bikes, was deafening.

My eyes landed on him and I wasn’t sure what I was meant to feel. But I was certain the anger rising in me, wasn’t the right feeling. Yet, as I saw Taron, I knew it only meant one thing. My eyes bounced off him and on to his Vice. Taipan.

I can’t stop the smile from forming on my face as I closed the clubhouse door and walked towards them.

The bikes died one by one and when it goes silent—it is deafening for a second.

“Holly Kincaid,” Taipan smirked at me and leant his bike to the side getting off it. The only good thing that came from Taron was knowing Taipan.

I walked straight into his arms.

“Fuck, you’ve grown up.” He hugged me tightly and then pulled back. “Heard what was happening, we hit the road last night. Fucking crawling through the city during the middle of the morning wasn’t a wise idea.”

“Guessing the citizens didn’t like the sound of your bikes?” I smiled and stepped out of his embrace. My eyes flickered to Taron who was standing near us.

He might be president but in my eyes he was lower than a prospect. I had no respect for him. After all he just got out and he didn’t even come here. No, he went straight to his chapter. Not to see his child. Not even to see the woman that was breaking every day after what happened. Nope. Straight to the club. Typical biker. It didn’t hurt Ivy, after she heard he was out and didn’t come here. No, it broke her. I was the one spending weeks helping her realize, he was in the past and I honestly believed she was just starting to listen. But certain things she would say made think, she wasn’t talking about Taron. . . it was like she had someone else.

Taron opened his mouth when I heard the roar of a bike I knew all too well. My eyes flickered to Creed seeing him pulling in. Something was wrong with him, I could almost feel it. Taipan still had his hand on my hip, when Creed got off his bike.

For some reason I could feel Creed’s rage as he approached.

“You don’t answer your phone?” He barked at me. Why was he sounding like a raging unmedicated crazy person? He pushed his sunglasses up, and his eyes went Taipans hand on me, to Taipan. I immediately stepped in the view of the two men.

“I was at the hospital. Kobra and dad are awake,” I hadn’t purposely ignored his call. “I left the phone in our room.”

“My room,” he corrected me right off, and then looked at Taron. “You said you’d be here yesterday.”

I was taken back. Because Creed corrected me about the bedroom.His room?I felt unwanted immediately and uncertainty about what we were or going to be flooded me. My abandonment issues rising.

But before I could focus on that, the knowledge that he knew Taron would be riding in, came front of mind. I felt my rage slowly tick up the meter.

He hurt me, it was normal for me to have those self doubting thoughts. But, him having knowledge that could led to my sister’s breakdown—well that shit doesn’t go down well with me. Creed could have warned me about Taron riding in. At least mentioned it!

I know Taron, I was sure he had something smart to say back. However. Creed’s attention was on me, and he clearly had something he wanted to tell me.

But the screaming of tires coming this way, stole all our attention. I watched slightly horrified as Ivy pulled into the lot, like she was driving on meth. A cold ice slowly drifted through my body. Ivy would never drive like that if Connor or Ollie was in the car. My stomach tightened when I see her.

The tears streaming down her face. The pure panic across every feature. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but I know in that moment, life as I knew it—had changed. I just didn’t know the moments before that second she came tearing into the lot. That those would be the last moments, I was essentially a good person. For the dark that would swallow me, would be all consuming.

* * *

The Winston’sfamily had always been hungry for power. After all they killed my grandparents for that power, only to have it backfire in their face. With my father, and my uncles stepping up, in the name of their parents.

I wondered why Dad let Creed patch to the club, when knowing his blood line. How he didn’t just assume that Creed was a spy. However, Dad, he can read people and he read Creed correctly. Creed hated the Winston’s blood, as much as any Kincaid did.

Ollie and Connor had been kidnapped from the park. There was no mistaking who took them. It was a Winston’s henchman. Now the devil himself had my sister and nephew.

The men went straight to the boardroom. Leaving us, to dwell out here. Ivy was drinking the vodka straight, and I was pacing. I needed to know what our next move was. I needed to know that my sister and nephew wouldn’t die because of our mistakes.

The door opened and my eyes snapped straight to them.

“What’s the next move?” I demanded to know. “What do we do from here—”

“Nothing,” Creed replied too coolly. His eyes on me, “You do nothing. This is a club problem.”

“Club problem. . .” I repeated shocked slightly and then I just stared at them. It was like his words were a knife, they had pierced me, but it took time for the pain to follow and the rage began to boil just as slowly. “This is family problem.” I corrected him. “If you think for one second that this won’t be answered by a Kincaid blood, you are wrong.”