Page 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tristan

ONE YEAR LATER

I walked into the bar where Vin had set up our next exchange. A year had gone by since Adelaide had left, and it was like she’d disappeared off the face of the earth. There was no fucking trace of her anywhere. Honestly, if we couldn’t still find proof of her driver’s license and social security number, I would have thought she was a mere figment of my imagination.

Vin had mellowed out shockingly, but I still had a feeling he knew where Adelaide was, and I also had a feeling he’d been the one to attack her and leave her for River to find. I’d tried to go after Rodney too just in case he’d had a hand in her attack, but someone had beat me to it, leaving him bloody and broken, his limbs bent at unnatural angles. When I confronted Joey about it, thinking he’d been the one to take Rodney out, he’d been as shocked as I’d been. Someone had shut Rodney up before either one of us could, but we just put that down to the dumbass having too many enemies.

So, a couple of months after Adelaide had disappeared, I set aside my pride and formed a truce with Vin in the hopes that I would find Addy before it was too late to save her.

“Fuck, this place is a disgusting ass strip club,” Jesup muttered, following me back to the small booth in the very far corner where it was the darkest, where Vin always decided for us to sit. He didn’t like being able to be seen. He preferred to keep his business in the dark, just like the shady mother fucker he truly was.

A roach crawled across my shoe. I flung it off, disgust crawling down my spine. I was glad this place didn’t serve food, but I seriously worried about the alcohol the patrons were consuming. Jesup wasn’t joking. The club was disgusting and dirty. It was one of the filthiest establishments I’d ever stepped foot into.

Vin sauntered out of the back, his suit immaculate, a stark contrast to his strip club. “Welcome, boys,” he greeted us as he took a seat. A waitress dressed in practically nothing sauntered up to our table, and Vin ordered three rounds of vodka shots, but I wouldn’t be drinking mine, that was for sure. I might be an outlaw, but I had standards, and cleanliness was one of those standards.

It was silent around the table for a few moments. Vin liked to do this—let the silence linger. It made him feel powerful, like the big man in charge.

The song playing over the speakers switched, and the blonde girl that had been dancing on the stage walked off as another dark-haired girl appeared to take her place. She was wearing a red ensemble that barely covered her. She looked starved, way too fucking skinny. Hell, I could see her ribs from my table, and we were in the far back corner.

She turned her face our way, and I sucked in a harsh breath, the need for blood to be spilled pulsing through my veins. “Grim, is that—” Jesup started, but before he could finish his question, I snatched my gun out of my cut, pushing it against Vin’s temple. He hadn’t had any warning, so all he could do was sit still and just hope that I didn’t blow his fucking brains across this booth.

That hope would be fucking futile.

“Why the fuck is Addy on your stage?” I snarled at him.

Vin’s lips tilted up into a smirk. “She’s mine now, Grim,” he informed me, using my street name.

“Not anymore, she’s not. She’s mine ,” I barked. I pulled the trigger, his blood splattering across my clothes and my cut. I roughly booted his dead, lifeless body out of the booth and stood up, glad that I had my silencer on my gun. No one had noticed the commotion, but everyone was soon going to see the blood splattering my clothes. And I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone came across the owner’s dead body, half his skull missing.

I couldn’t even bring myself to give a fuck about that though. I’d found Adelaide, and right then, that was all that mattered to me.

I stormed up to the stage. A man, more than likely some kind of security guard, blocked my way, crossing his arms over his chest. “No one is allowed up on the stage with the girls,” he told me gruffly.

I was past the point of giving a fuck about his goddamn rules or anyone else’s. I’d found Addy, and I was fucking taking her home.

I quickly put a bullet in his chest, and then I stepped over him, storming up onto the stage. Addy snapped her eyes over to me, stumbling in her heels as her dark eyes widened in shock. Her face paled at the blood covering me.

“It’s time to come home, Adelaide,” I told her.

“I—Tristan—” she stuttered, not able to form an entire sentence in her shock.

“Hey, you’ve got to wait for your fucking turn!” a disgusting man barked from the foot of the stage. I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, my patience fucking gone. “I paid two fucking grand for her tonight.”

From the foot of the stage, Jesup snapped the man’s neck, shaking his head. “I would hope she’s worth more than two grand,” my VP grumbled in distaste as he spat on the man’s lifeless body.

Addy stumbled, her eyes rolling to the back of her head as she passed out. I caught her before she hit the stage and lifted her into my arms. Fuck, she was light—too light. She’d lost so much fucking weight that it was a miracle she was still alive. She was severely malnourished.

“Good thing we brought the van,” Jesup commented.

I silently agreed. We’d originally planned to leave here with guns, but I had cargo in my arms that was way more important. I would send a couple of other men to get my weapons. I had to get Addy back to the clubhouse where it was safe and where I could keep an eye on her.

And where she couldn’t fucking leave me again.

I carried Adelaide through the back entrance of the club to where the van was parked in the back alley. Addy grunted quietly, her eyes slowly opening as she began shivering when the cold air slid over her exposed skin.

I slid into the passenger seat of the van with her still cradled in my arms, and Jesup jumped in the driver’s seat. “It’s c-cold,” Adelaide stuttered.

Twisting, Jesup leaned back and grabbed my jacket, silently tossing it to me before he cranked up the van and pulled onto the highway. I covered her up with it, cradling her closer to me, unable to bring myself to care about the fact that I was covering the side of her body in Vin’s blood.

“You’re covered in blood,” she grumbled after a moment, her eyes roving over my torso and face.

I shrugged. “Shit happens,” I said bluntly.

“You do that a lot now?” she asked, looking up at me with her gorgeous, dark eyes.

I just grunted. I had turned into a ruthless bastard when she left, and I wasn’t the same man she’d left behind. But I wasn’t the only one who changed. Adelaide’s soul had gotten ripped apart. It was laid bare in her eyes.

I just didn’t know how fucking bad yet.

When we got to the clubhouse, I carried Adelaide straight to my room, not giving two shits about the numerous eyes that followed me as I did so. “Why are you bringing me back here?” Adelaide asked, sounding a bit pissy.

“This is your home, Addy,” I gruffly reminded her. This clubhouse would always be her home.

She stayed silent, which was unnerving. The Addy I was used to would have at least tried biting my head off. But silent Adelaide? It made my gut twist with anxiety.

I set her on her feet, watching as she slipped off her heels, making her height drop almost six inches. “It’s not my home anymore, Tristan,” she finally spoke up, but there wasn’t fire in her voice anymore. She sounded lost and broken, and it shredded me. “I’m not the same woman that left.”

“Like hell that this isn’t your home, Addy,” I growled. “This will always be your home.”

She looked up at me, slowly undoing the buckles and chains to her outfit. I damn near swallowed my tongue as I let my eyes trail over her. Her skimpy outfit dropped to the floor, leaving nothing to the imagination any longer. God, even though she’d lost so much weight, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life.

My cock strained against my zipper, begging to be buried deep inside of her.

“What do you want from me, Tristan?” she asked softly, stepping toward me. She ran her hands under my cut, gently pushing it off my shoulders. I bit my tongue to keep from saying anything until I figured out what the hell she was trying to do. She wasn’t even giving a fuck about the blood.

“You want to fuck me, don’t you? Want to sell me out?” she asked huskily. “I’m a fantastic way to earn the club some extra money.”

And there it was. I let my eyes meet hers, but hers were dead and lifeless. She was cold. Detached.

My blood roared in my veins. Whereas I had just been ready to let her have her fucking way with me, now I was seeing fucking red.

I stepped back from her, watching as she just let her hands fall back to her sides, not even giving a fuck that she was naked as she stood in front of me. “What the fuck has gotten into you, Addy?” I demanded.

She shrugged. “I told you that I wasn’t the same woman that I used to be.” A cold smile tilted her lips. “Vin made damn sure of that.”

“I could shoot him a second fucking time,” I snarled, my hands tightening into fists at my sides.

She shrugged carelessly. “It’s not his fault that I’m like this.” Like hell it wasn’t. “I went to him willingly , Tristan. I asked him to make me forget who I was.” She let those beautiful eyes meet mine. “I was tired of hurting.”

I didn’t believe that shit for a second. She’d been terrified of him. Why would she just give herself over to him?

I shook my head and walked over to my dresser, rage like no other roaring through my veins. I yanked open my drawers, grabbing one of my t-shirts and a pair of my sweatpants. “Get a fucking shower,” I snarled, shoving the clothes against her chest.

Refusing to grab the clothes from me, she crossed her arms over her chest, that old spark lighting up in her eyes. There she was. There was my woman. “Make me,” she seethed, finally getting angry.

Without a word, I moved to the bathroom, knowing my door was locked and Jesup had put two men outside of my door and my window. She wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. She wasn’t escaping again.

After turning the shower on, I stripped out of my clothes and walked back into the bedroom. I didn’t miss the way her breath caught in her throat as she ran her eyes over me, but I was beyond giving a shit anymore.

She wanted me to make her get a fucking shower? Fine. I wasn’t being the fucking nice guy anymore. Being nice to her when she was like this wasn’t going to damn work.

I gripped her wrists and shoved them behind her, thrusting her chest out so her nipples brushed against my chest. My dick instantly went hard, but I pushed down my desire for her, instead grabbing a pair of cuffs from my dresser.

“Tristan, what are you doing?” she screeched, panic flashing through her dark eyes and bleeding into her voice, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. She was always pushing buttons. That, at least, had not changed in the year she’d been missing.

Leaning down so that my eyes were level with hers, I stared down into their dark depths, giving her a silent challenge. She swallowed thickly as she slightly leaned back from me. “You’re not the only one who’s changed, Addy baby, and I promise you that I will bring the old you back,” I quietly swore.

“I’d like to see you try,” she snapped at me, trying to hide her panic, but I needed her to break, needed her to come back to me.

I smirked down at her, and her throat bobbed nervously. “Oh, you will, Addy, and I’m going to break you down as I do,” I promised. There was no escaping me, and there was no escaping my plan to destroy the demons that burned inside her.

I cuffed her wrists behind her and dragged her to the bathroom. She fought me, but I just dragged her. Once we were in the small bathroom, I thrust her toward the running shower. “Get in the shower,” I ordered.

“Go fuck yourself, Tristan,” she snarled, her breathing quickening.

Without a word, I swept her off her feet and stepped into the shower with her. “I fucking hate you!” she screamed, those beautiful, brown eyes sparking fire at me.

A humorless smirk twisted my lips as I set her on her feet. “If that’s the case, baby girl, your hatred is only going to grow,” I warned her.

She glared at me with nothing but cold hate and disgust shining in the depths of her eyes, but I swallowed down my guilt and that need to apologize to her. Because if I wanted Adelaide back— my Adelaide—I had to break her down, no matter how much it pained me to do so.

She would understand why I had to do this in the future, and she might even thank me for it. So, for now, she could fucking hate me.

“You’re a mother fucking asshole!” Adelaide shouted from my room after I shut the door to my apartment behind me. I hated leaving her like that, but I didn’t trust her to not run away again. I needed her to stay. Needed her to stay with me so that I could fucking help her.

Jesup arched an eyebrow at me. “Sounds like everything is going swell,” he sarcastically stated as Adelaide screamed at the top of her lungs. Just fucking screamed .

I ran my hands down my face, exhaustion and guilt weighing down on my shoulders. “I have to do it to her,” I said quietly. “I hate it, but I don’t know how else to bring the real her back.”

“Tristan, get your ass back in here and uncuff me!” Adelaide shouted.

Jesup barked out a laugh. “You cuffed her?” he asked, his eyes shining with humor.

“To the bed,” I said, not even ashamed. If I didn’t, she was going to try running, and I knew how sneaky she could be.

Jesup only laughed harder.

You’ll forgive me for this later, Adelaide .