Page 99 of Burning Ember

“I’m not—”

“You are,” he throws back.

Taz squeaks like a mouse behind me. I spin for a second and shoot him a dirty look, before rotating back to Mav.

Mav’s darkness is back. It’s hovering around him. He’s angry and I’m confused. Am I not the one being taunted and offended? Shouldn’t I be the one that’s pissed off?

“You do what we say when we say it. You’ve let me and some of the other brothers treat you like shit. You clean up after messy fuckin’ bikers and the whores that visit the club. You like that job?”

His words sting. Of course, I don’t like that job.

With all the sarcasm I can manage, I say, “Yeah, Mav. This is exactly what I dreamed of. I worked myassoff to get out of the hellhole I grew up in, because I wanted to come here and scrub cum off the floors. Clean up afterbikerswho are too drunk half the time to piss in the toilet.”

“Then why do you do it?”

Such a simple question. With no simple answer.

I shake my head.

“Why,Doll?” He sneers the name like he did that first day. It grates on my every nerve.

“Because I don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what I do with my life right now. Unlike you, I’m trying to make the best of my situation. You’re not the only one trying to recover from a bad relationship. And at least I’m not sitting around sulking about it.”

Holy Hell. Did I just say that to him?

“Make the best of it? You mean, accept the shitty options you’ve been given.”

“What are you saying?”

“In a few days, you know what you’re gonna be? Our little slut. Is that what you want? To be a clubpiece? To be used and fucked and degraded and—”

“No!”

“But you’re going to, right? ‘Cause you need the money.”

I shake my head, trying to deny what we both know is true. “I told you I’d leave. You’re the one making me stay!”

“And go where? Go whore for someone else?” he growls. “Not fuckin’ happening.”

White-hot rage crawls up my neck like a live wire being hit with a jolt of electricity. I snarl. Yes, snarl. The sound comes from some place deep inside me. My fist feels like a slingshot as I hurl it through the air toward his face. I swear my bones crunch together as they connect with his solid jaw. Upon impact, his chin snaps to the side. But I keep going as I pound on his chest with both fists. “How dare you fucking judge me!”

He staggers back two steps.

“Like your life’s so perfect. You’re an asshole to everyone around you because you can’t cope with a break up. It’s been five . . . FIVE damn years, Mav. Get the fuck over her already.”

He tosses my hands off him like I’m nothing but a mosquito. “What are you doin’ here?” he snarls back.

“God, you’re a jerk. I can’t believe . . .”I kissed you.

Moving forward, crowding into my personal space, he rasps, “What the fuck is a girl like you doing in a place like this, huh?” His chest bumps mine. “Why are you here, Doll?”

I bite my lip and shake my head.

“Why?” he shouts in my face and his voice echoes off the walls.

Throwing my arms wide, I yell, “Because it’s my only option. Out there, I have nothing, no one, and nowhere to go. Is that what you want to hear? Yes, I’m a stray. I’m homeless. Penniless. No, I don’t want to sleep with a clubhouse full of bikers or a bunch of scummy men I don’t know. But I’ll do what I need to do to survive! I have no other option.”

“Why can’t you go home?”