Page 1 of Perdition

ONE

Emily Flowers bracedone hand against the wall, tried to catch her breath, and failed.

Her lungs refused to drag in air because her heart was no longer beating.

Because it had just shattered into a million jagged pieces, covered in blood and bits of shredded, gory flesh.

She should have kept walking. She should have never even come to the clubhouse in the first place. But she was a good wife, a goddamn wifey rock star, and she wanted to make sure her husband, the love of her life, had his favorite pair of jeans—she’d even repaired the hole in the waistband for him. All she planned to do was leave them in his bedroom upstairs, pop her head into his office to tell them they were there…maybe get one of those beautiful crooked smiles from him for the first time in too long, a smile that she was so freaking needy for. That same smile that had won her adolescent heart that summer day long ago. That same smile that turned her inside out on their wedding day, as she stood before him, sliding a ring on his finger, and pledging her life to him.

It was that ring, that pledge that had brought her to the clubhouse, her loyalty despite the chilly, steel walls thickeningbetween them. She missed him, so freaking much, so she told herself that even a glimpse of him, the rumbling sound of his voice, the whiff of his familiar leather and bourbon scent would be enough to hold her over until they could figure things out.

And they would figure things out, because they were end game, they were forever. They were one and only.

But she shouldn’t have bothered.

She shouldn’t have given in to the desperate urge to see her husband, a man she hadn’t set eyes on in over a week. A man who had clothes in her closet, coffee mugs in her cupboards, and a cold, empty spot on the other side of her bed, but hadn’t set foot in their home of fifteen years in over seven days.

She should have known something was wrong; he never went that long without at least coming to grab a change of clothes. When they’d first married, for those first few months before he’d enlisted and shipped off to Fort Drum, he’d been a homebody, only ever leaving their tiny single-wide trailer to go to work at the grocery store, stocking the shelves. After work, he’d come home, stay home, and they’d spend all their time together. They had no money for fun and extras, so they made do with cable they stole from the next-door neighbors, cheap meals, a comfortable bed, and the person they loved. But now…he was an MC president and former American warrior, so she was used to long absences in the name of duty.

But lately….

Her ears, the tips burning, locked in on a voice that wasn’t the smoky rumble of her husband’s.

“Frost…you know I’m here for you….”

It wasn’t “duty” her husband, the love of her life, was chatting with behind a closed door in his office in the middle of the day. A sliver of a crack between the door and the frame allowed the voices to carry into the suddenly suffocating emptiness of the corridor.

Thankfully, the clubhouse was empty; the brothers and whores all busy doing whatever the hell they did during the day.

At least they aren’t here to see me fall apart…their “queen”.

What a freaking joke.

I should have kept walking….Her breath caught as her husband’s voice caught her ear.

“I know you are, sugar, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am,” Frost replied in a tone, soft and warm, that Emily had only ever heard him use with her and their children. His family.Theirfamily. His and hers. A family they’d built from nothing but adolescent hopes and dreams.

Andsugar? When did he start calling other women pet names?

Something inside of her twisted painfully, making her bite back a groan.

He called their daughter, Sorsha, “Princess”, and he called—used tocall Emily, his wife, his “Bloom.” Even as a kid, she’d been fascinated by flowers and plants, so much so that her dream had always been to “do something” with flowers. And he always said he loved that about her, that she loved pretty, living things, and that she was so good at growing things that made people smile. She always preened when she’d said things like that, his words filling her up, like she’d inhaled a lungful of the most beautiful fragrance, then held it there to memorize every separate scent.

A scent that meant everything to her.

But now…the scent on that bloom no longer pleased…it stank like it had been cut from the bush and left to rot in the dirt.

Sugar…he’d never called any other woman anything other than their name.

That wasn’t true now.

Her heart jerked in her chest, pushing jolts of energy into her limbs, urging her to keep moving, to walk away, to escape so shewouldn’t have to hear the other half of her soul give a piece of himself to another woman.

I should have kept walking….Because then she would be blissfully ignorant. That was better than the pain, right? Than the realization that what she’d feared the most in the whole world was playing out just on the other side of an office door.

But she hadn’t kept walking, didn’t pass by his office to drop his jeans in his room as she’d planned when she’d first arrived; she stopped…because she’d heard her name…and the rest of what she heard turned her feet to stone.

“I know Emily hasn’t been around in a while,” a voice Emily was starting toreally hateremarked, the tone slimy with false empathy.