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EMBER

Coming home, I didn’t know how I would feel or how it would go. I’d been gone several years now. I hadn’t come back here. Not once in the time I’d left to go to school in New York. Then, I moved to Montana after what happened.

I try not to think of it. What happened to me to get the scars I now carry on my arms and the one dead center of my chest.

I tried to overcome what happened to me, but I’m still plagued with nightmares. Sometimes, I’d go days, weeks, even months without having them, then they start all over again.

Dex had been there for me after it happened, but in the end, I think the two of us made the right decision to break it off.

I couldn’t give him what he needed. I felt like I was pretending more often than not.

I also missed being around my family. It simply wasn’t the same in Montana.

I needed to be near my uncles, my uncles and their families.

I wanted to be able to get to know the women who caught their attention enough to settle down.

Even if they drive me crazy, I still love them all.

The only one of them who knows what happened to me is Reaper, and he swore he’d keep it to himself until I was ready to share.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to share.

Telling him hadn’t been easy. I wanted to throw up, run away, and so many other things all at once.

I hadn’t even been able to meet his eyes afterward.

It was Reaper who made me look him in the eye. I’d seen the pain there, but I didn’t see pity. He’d told me to take my time. Heal. He wanted me to come home but let me go all the same. It surprised me how he hadn’t blown up, but I want to think he was giving me what I needed.

After leaving Montana, I hadn’t come straight home.

I’d gone and stayed with my cousin, Bethany, and her family in Virginia.

Bethany didn’t know what happened or why I split from Dex, but she offered to let me stay in Virginia with them.

I stayed for a little while, spending time with her and catching up.

We’d gone to the beach, and I got to hang with her and Chaz’s kids.

Melody is awesome. I know when she gets older, she’s going to be hell on wheels.

While staying with Bethany, I also went to a bar called Outlaw Racks.

Very cool. I loved the atmosphere there, but it wasn’t home.

Still, it was close since I knew so many people.

My cousin’s family is large. Through Chaz, you have the band.

Crazier between them all, they live in the same massive house, separated by wings.

It’s pretty cool how they had it set up.

I love how close they all are—a true family.

Another bonus had been catching up with my friend Cara, who was happily married.

After what happened to me and then her kidnapping, we both went through our own hells and lost touch. It felt good to be able to talk to her again. We still actually text each other daily. Sometimes, it’s a simple text. Other days, it’s a full conversation that goes on for hours.

What I didn’t expect when I moved home, though, was that he joined the club.

I should have, but I didn’t think anything of it.

My uncles never told me he joined the club.

He got what he wanted. I recognized him instantly the first day I walked back through the doors of the clubhouse.

He looked at me like he was looking through me and not seeing me at all.

I suppose it was a good thing since I wasn’t the same girl.

Too much had happened in my life since I’d last seen him.

I thought coming home would be a good thing. In some ways, it was. In others, it was very different.

I felt like an outsider. I wasn’t, but it didn’t change the way I felt.

With my uncles finding their women, I knew things were going to be different.

They had other focuses. This I didn’t mind.

I wanted them happy. It doesn’t matter to me they were close to my age.

As long as they were happy and didn’t change who they were, I was good with it.

What made me feel like an outsider was the fact that I was gone for so long and missed so many important moments. My cousins were born. All of them are super cute and sweet. Getting to know Ivy and Sutton. I somewhat knew Stella and always liked her.

I stayed with Reaper and Ivy for the first two months I moved back. I wanted to have a job and be able to put some money in my account before finding a place of my own. I spent most of my savings while in Virginia, and I needed to replenish it before moving into my own house.

During the first bit of time, I helped Ivy out with the twins while I put in applications. Paxton was so much like Reaper it was laughable, while Sage was a mirror image, even at her age, to her mom, Ivy. The little girl even had her momma’s attitude, which I found hilarious.

It didn’t take long for me to find a job. Still, Reaper, Angel, and Tombstone kept telling me I could work for one of the club’s businesses, but that wasn’t what I wanted. In Montana, I figured out what I wanted to do, and I was going to do it. However, I ended up following through.

Besides, I don’t think I could work for the club.

No matter how much I love them, I can only handle so much of them.

I’d been on my own for a while, and I liked my independence.

Plus, it was hard enough hiding my nightmares from Reaper.

If I had to stick that much closer by working for the club, I wouldn’t be able to hide how much what happened to me still affects my life.

If Reaper were to find out, he’d probably spill the beans, and I’d find myself wrapped in bubble wrap.

I didn’t need that. I surely don’t want it.

I like my space. I love being on my own. Plus, being home, back in East Texas, I feel I can breathe again. Maybe even heal or at least try.

With my new job, instead of working on a medic rig, I applied for a dispatcher position.

I might like helping people. It’s what I did in Montana.

I’d taken a course and got a job as an EMT, but I needed a change.

As a dispatcher, I can still help people.

It’s better for me, honestly. I can use my ear to listen, and I don’t have to look over my shoulder to see if someone is going to come after me.

I can focus fully on the patient without my fears getting in the way.

It probably makes me sound like a crybaby, however, I don’t care. It’s my life, and I’ll be a crybaby, scaredy cat, whatever, all I want.

As long as I hide the truth from those around me, it doesn’t matter. Because in the end, I’m alone, and no one has to know I still carry the branding of a monster who, even dead, haunts me. I never even showed Reaper when I confided in him.

To make things worse, I’m now in a predicament that can mean life or death for me. The crazed look of the man who stole me away in the night reminds me even more of that Halloween night.

I’d been on my way to work when my car started acting weird.

I was going to call one of my uncles to come pick me up and take my car to the shop, but my phone didn’t have any service.

It was then I found my car surrounded by a bunch of men.

All grimy looking. All looked like they were going to do something if I fought them.

I was completely outnumbered and had to be smart .

The leader, I knew this from the way he’d stepped to my door, held my gaze, and pulled me from the confines. He didn’t say a word.He didn’t speak until he had me where he wanted me. In some warehouse on the other side of town. I found myself put in a room alone for a little while.

But then I was moved to another room, where I was strapped to a chair that looked like the electric chair you’d see in the prison shows.

The leader introduced himself as Samir Byrd, and he kept asking me questions.

All of them about my uncles, their families, and the club.

He seemed to have patience, but I could tell he was getting pissed by the sound of his voice.

His eyes never gave anything away. Samir isn’t thrilled I refused to speak and answer his questions. To give him what he wants.

I refuse to give in. I won’t let this man break me. I’m stronger now than I ever was before. No matter what he might do, I won’t shatter. He can’t break me. I won’t let him.

Let him try his worst. Soon enough, my uncles will realize I’m not at work. Someone will have found my car. They’ll find me, and this will be in the past, just like everything else is.

Samir holds my gaze, and if I were to believe in mind readers, I’d think he was doing just that with how he doesn’t even blink. Then again, neither do I.

“Who marked you?” he finally asks, tilting his head to indicate my arms.

He removed my long-sleeved shirt before strapping me to the chair but thankfully left my tank top in place.

I don’t answer him, but there’s no way he misses the way my body tenses slightly. I can’t help it. It was a reaction I couldn’t stop myself from having.

“Someone had to have hurt you, the way you’re tense tells me they did, so what did they do?” Samir asks, coming to squat down in front of me.

Still, I don’t answer him.

“You’re resilient. You know that?” He shows the first smile I’ve seen him get since he took me. It wasn’t a good smile either. It showed a perfect set of teeth. Strange, though, considering how he’s dressed. “Maybe I should mark you myself? Would you talk then?”

My throat threatens to close on me. Nausea coils in my stomach. If he so much as tries, I’ll bite his ear off if I have to, to keep him from touching me.

“Gotta admit, brought you in here thinking you’d break easy.

Many times, I’ve brought someone in here and they’ve broken.

Just from sitting in the electric chair.

You, though, you haven’t even spoken since I took you from your car.

” Without touching me, he stands from his squat and leans in a bit.

“I admire this about you, Ember. You refuse to allow yourself to break. Tell me, does anyone else know about your scars?”

I don’t answer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t jerk my head to the side, breaking eye contact with him.

Samir chuckles and steps away. “Interesting.” Moving around me, I feel his hand glide along the wood of the chair, but he doesn’t touch me.

“I’ll explain why you’re here, Ember, then I’m going to do something I’ve never done before,” he says from behind me, his head lowering to speak at my ear.

“I’m going to let you go, and you’ll deliver a message to your club for me.

I thought to use your dead body as that message, but I like you.

” His fingers then move behind me to run along my upper arms. “You have spirit in a way that I find intriguing. So, you’ll live to deliver this message. ”

Stepping away, he comes back around the chair, squats back down, and holds my gaze while he unstraps the restraints at my wrists.

“Tell your uncles and his brothers, this is the only leniency I will show. I want what is owed to me. The debt owed is never forgotten, and the next time, I won’t let you go.

I might not kill you, that would be a shame, but if the debt is not taken care of in full, then I’ll take something else I wouldn’t mind having in its place. ”

Samir steps back when he finishes his message for me to deliver, allowing me to get to my feet.

“Give them the message. They do not pay, Ember, I’ll be coming for you again. And when I do, you’ll pay the price for them.”

I want to tell him to go to hell, but I don’t.

I clamp my jaw shut. I don’t need to do anything to keep him from letting me go.

I’ll deliver the message for him, but I know my uncles, they’ll come after him and make him pay.

Reaper alone will make sure to deliver a message of his own.

And while he does this, he’ll make sure that nothing else happens to me.

“Come on, I’ll show you the way out,” Samir says, ushering me toward the door. “Feel free to tell them where you were, by the time they get here, we won’t be. We’re called the ‘Nameless Militia’ for a reason, we’re invisible.”

I swallow down the bile wanting to choke me when he touches me, but I don’t pull away. I don’t tense. I show no emotion whatsoever to what he’s saying. I don’t even ask for my shirt back. I just want out, and this is the only way for me to do it, then so be it .

“You can also deliver one other message for me,” Samir says, stopping at a door.

I turn to look at him, watching him close, waiting.

“Tell them, the Scarlet Needles group, they’ve moved on.

They have me to thank for that, so they’ll be wanting to see that debt of Diablo’s taken care of.

The sooner, the better, but I’ll give them seven days to see it taken care of.

”With that said, Samir opens the door and pushes me into the bright sunlight.

He doesn’t follow, but he calls out while closing the door.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again real soon, Ember. Think of my leniency when I do.”

His leniency? Was he serious?

I shake my head, glance around me, and start heading in the direction I figured would be best to go. I needed to get to the clubhouse, and I needed to get there soon.