Page 45

Since the day Pope informed me that Frankie was no longer a problem, I’ve woken with a smile on my face and lightness in my heart. Fear has taken up a tiny spot in the back of my mind, creating a home I can’t seem to evict it from, but I don’t let it control me anymore.

I don’t want to live my life afraid.

Verena helped me find confidence in the woman I was before Frankie tried extinguishing her.

Each morning, my kids watch me with wide eyes filled with wonder as I dance through the house. They smile and laugh at the happiness that radiates from me.

The uncertainty of who helped Spunky lingers, a reminder that there’s still a piece to the puzzle that’s missing.

Pope had things to do at the club today, but I’ve kept myself and the kids at home.

It feels like the safest bet right now. My home is familiar to me, and I know who is within the walls of my space.

I haven’t told Pope yet, but I enrolled in some online college classes.

That was something Frankie never allowed.

He couldn’t control someone if they’re not under his thumb twenty-four-seven.

It’s time I do something with my life. Something I can be proud of myself for.

As much as I love Pope, our past together taught me how stupid it is to be unprepared for the unexpected.

If it wasn’t for the safe full of money I took from him, I wouldn’t have had a way to support myself and the babies until I could work.

There’s a trust that Dad and Grandfather left me, Val, and Cyanide, but I haven’t touched it. I wanted the kids to have that nest egg if something ever happened to me.

I haven’t decided completely what I want to get a degree in, but figured business classes wouldn’t hurt anything.

There were about eight Saint’s Outlaws who showed up an hour ago and stationed themselves around the house. I knew some of them, like Banjo, Dash, Riffraff, and Handlebar. The others I wasn’t as familiar with since they weren’t around seven years ago.

Cyanide was with them and informed me that Pope wanted extra protection on the house because some shit has happened. These are the men my brother chose, that he trusts to keep us safe, so I’m doing the same.

He wouldn’t tell me what and he seemed in a hurry to get back to helping Pope, so I didn’t want to hold him any longer. Whatever Pope needed him for was important enough that he needed to make sure we’re covered.

The kids haven’t noticed anything, thankfully.

I don’t expect it to stay that way, but I’m keeping them oblivious to the men roaming around outside for as long as I can.

Their presence was too distracting for me, though. So, instead of completing coursework like I should be doing, I’m doing laundry. It’s tedious enough that I don’t need concentration to do it.

With a pile of the twins’ clothes in my arms, I peek in on them quick before heading upstairs to put the laundry away.

The last thing I’m expecting while shoving clothes into their drawers is a masculine voice screaming from outside for me to run and hide.

I toss the clothes down as I fly down the hallway. The hair lifts on my nape and arms as I hurry to the stairs.

As soon as the first gunshot rings out from outside, the twins scream and begin to cry.

The gunshots continue repeatedly as I make it to the stairs and skip down them.

I’m almost there. I almost fucking make it to my kids when the front door is kicked open. There’s a loud crash of glass shattering from the kitchen as another breaks in the back door.

“Run to me,” I scream to my babies as tears pour from my eyes.

“Mommy,” Lovelyn cries.

Someone wraps their arms around me from behind as I reach the bottom of the stairs.

Lovelyn and Legend’s terrified cries are the only thing that keeps me from freezing up.

I fight, which the guy wasn’t expecting.

The moves Verena taught me come easy, my muscles instantly recalling how they need to operate.

Terror tries to shove through the shocked numbness, but I brush it away, keeping my focus aimed at the men that keep trying to stop me from reaching my babies.

No matter how much I fight back, it’s not enough and powerlessness fills me.

What good is my fire if I can’t use it to protect the ones who matter most to me?

A man twice my size snatches Lovelyn up, and he squeezes her to his chest while another grabs Legend.

I scratch, claw, and bite the hands that try to stop me. I block hits that are aimed at my face, but I never once remove my eyes from the men who have my kids.

“You’re all dead,” I scream. “I’m going to kill you.”

But when they point a gun at their heads, I fall quiet. One wrong move and they’ll kill my kids.

“Please, don’t hurt them. I’ll do whatever you want,” I plead with them in a hoarse voice.

“Ah. That’s more like it,” a familiar voice says from the doorway.

No.

There’s no way.

Betrayal burns through my veins.

I close my eyes, hoping it’s just another horrible nightmare, until a fist tangles in my hair and jerks my head back.

A grunt rips from my throat before I can stop it, and when my eyes fly open, it’s only to clash with the satisfaction in his.

“Monster,” I snarl, before spitting in his face.

Never show the fire.

Why did I forget that?

Legend cries out, and my eyes jerk to over Monster’s shoulder.

Blood pours from his lip as he stares at the man in front of me with so much anger in his eyes.

“Stop hurting them. Please, Monster.”

“So docile,” he croons. “Will you be a good girl and do as I say? I really don’t want to hurt you.”

Bile fills my throat, but I nod, understanding now that all the men my brother put on us are dead. “Whatever you want, just leave them alone. You can just take me. You don’t need them.”

“Frankie wants them. He promised me that if I delivered them to him, I can have you. If I can’t have the club, at least I get something I want.”

“It was you,” I whisper, horrified for my friend.

Oh, Coco.

“You were always supposed to be mine,” he snarls. “Don’t you remember? It was always me before him . Then he had to come in, and I was just tossed aside.”

Memories from our childhood fly at me.

From the earliest I can remember, Monster was there in the background.

Hugging me and Val when I was sad, making us laugh, playing with us when no one else would.

The way he was always checking up on me and Valkyrie when things got rough with Mom and Dad.

I always thought it was Valkyrie he had a crush on as we grew up, before he met Coco.

The more I think about it, the more things become obvious.

How he always showed up when Coco was hanging out with me. The way he’d tell me I was beautiful in such an off-hand way that I thought nothing of it. The way he’d casually brush his hands along my arms and then blame it on an accident.

From the moment Pope dropped into my life, he was the only guy I could see. It made it easy to ignore the attention another man wanted from me. It’s why I couldn’t pick up on the red flags that were in front of my face.

He was supposed to love my best friend, so it never occurred to me that there were nefarious purposes behind every interaction with Monster.

“Now, you remember,” he says so sweetly that it makes my stomach roll. “It was always supposed to be us.”

“What about Coco?” I whisper.

Keep him talking. Keep him calm. Keep his attention away from the kids.

Monster rolls his eyes. “What about her? She’s too stupid to see what was in front of her face.

I couldn’t get her to play along, but Spunky and Dimples always let me.

They liked to pretend I was Pope and they were you.

It was the closest I was ever going to get since Frankie took you from me in the past.”

What the hell is wrong with these fucking men?

Maybe, just maybe, I can get him to leave the kids behind. They’re smart enough to know to hide until someone comes to find them.

Pope will show.

He will.

“You don’t need them anymore, Ellison,” I say, using his given name to try to connect with him more. “You have me. It can be you and me, just like you want.”

There’s hunger for that scenario in his eyes, but he shakes his head. “Frankie wants them.”

“Pope has Frankie.”

Monster tilts his head with a smile, his hand lifting to cup my cheek. “Not anymore.”

It takes everything inside of me not to flinch at his touch or his words.

Frankie is free?

“Don’t worry, my love. I won’t let him hurt you anymore. You’re mine to protect now. He just wants the kids.”

Swallowing hard, I give him a shaky smile. “But if he hurts the kids, it’ll hurt me, and then I won’t be able to focus on giving my love to you. Leaving them here with their dad will be best.”

Monster opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, another familiar voice intrudes.

“You don’t want to disappoint Frankie, Monster,” Dimples says, stepping over the broken pieces of wood in the entryway.

“You promised him the brats, and he’ll let you have her.

They’ll only be in the way for me to get what I want if they’re left here.

” She takes the gun from Monster and points it to the middle of Lovelyn’s head as she stares at me.

“If you don’t walk out of this door right now, I’ll shoot her without hesitation. ”

No matter how much my soul urges me to fight, there’s no way in hell I’ll risk my kids.

They’re always going to be my weakness.

“Okay,” I whisper, then give a shaky smile to the twins. “Everything is going to be okay. We’ll be fine.”

What these people will never understand is that even though my kids are my weakness, they’re also my greatest strength.

They’re my reason to fight.

To keep going.

So, I’ll endure what I need to.

For them .

For him .

Because there’s no way in hell, this is our end.

Pope will come for us.

When he does, I’ll be ready to burn the goddamn world down at his side.

He may strike the match, but I’ll pour the fucking gasoline.