Page 28

River

Ikept my eyes on Adelaide’s back until she strode out of the warehouse and from my sight. Gritting my teeth, I focused back on the task at hand. “Someone fucked her up bad,” Joey stated, shaking his head as he ripped his eyes from her as well.

I didn’t know what had happened between them outside, but her eyes had been red and puffy when she’d come in with him. Judging by the way they’d been holding hands though, it wasn’t horrible. But it was probably heartbreaking.

“She won’t fucking talk to me,” Tristan grumbled. “I can’t do anything if I don’t know what happened.”

I arched an eyebrow at my president, someone I was quickly losing all fucking respect for after the way he’d treated Adelaide. “Have you tried being nice to her instead of threatening her all of the time?” I asked him, most definitely overstepping my boundaries as a patched member but not really giving much of a fuck.

I never really gave much of a fuck about anything until Adelaide popped back up a little over a year ago. And the way he’d been treating her since he’d found her again? I’d lost count of the number of times I’d almost overstepped my boundaries and punched him in the fucking face, especially recently.

“I don’t fucking threaten her, River,” Tristan growled as he turned his dark eyes to me. “Learn your fucking place.”

I shook my head at him, keeping my mouth shut, not wanting Adelaide to catch heat if Tristan decided to think that I had feelings for her. I did, but he didn’t need to know that. Everything between me and Adelaide was only mine and Adelaide’s business. She didn’t want anyone knowing right now, and as long as she wanted it that way, I would keep it that way, no matter how much I wanted to openly claim her as my woman.

Jesup met my gaze from across the table, a knowing look in his eyes. I clenched my jaw, worried he might say something, but Jesup surprisingly kept his mouth shut. We all turned, watching as Adelaide strode back into the warehouse.

“You’ve got company, boys,” she drawled, sounding careless, but I could see the fear in her eyes. I moved away from the table, my hand going for the gun in my cut on instinct.

Tristan moved from the table. “Who?” he demanded.

“Oh, brother, remember me?” Red asked, stepping in behind Adelaide, his gun pointed at the back of her head. I clenched my jaw in fury, stepping forward before Jesup clamped a hand on my shoulder. He gave a slight shake of his head at me to warn me to keep my cool. Reacting like this would set Tristan off.

And Adelaide didn’t fucking want that.

But right then, she was in danger. I could give less of a fuck about how Adelaide felt about Tristan knowing about us. I would not let her get hurt just to save Tristan’s feelings. My brother, who I hadn’t had contact with in years was not someone to fuck around with. If he was showing his face, he wanted something, and he’d hurt anyone who stood in his path.

Including my fucking woman.

“Let Addy the fuck go,” Tristan ordered, his tone hard. He knew Red was my brother, and he knew about the bad blood between us.

Red’s eyes met mine, the same blue of my own reflected back at me. “Grim doesn’t know, does he, River?”

Fuck. How the fuck did he know ? “Shut the fuck up, Red, and let Adelaide go,” I ground through clenched teeth.

He shoved Adelaide onto her knees, the gun held at the back of her head. Her knees hit the concrete floor with a sickening thud. Her pulse was jumping wildly at the base of her neck, her eyes begging me to save her. I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to keep a clear head. Thinking with my rage would only get Adelaide hurt. “You going to suck my dick as good as you sucked River’s, baby girl?” Red taunted, his lips twisted into a sadistic smirk.

“How the fuck do you know?” I glared, ignoring the rage on my president’s face. I would deal with him later. Adelaide was my main priority. I just needed to give one of these dimwits enough time to incapacitate my brother.

I watched Joey move out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t turn to look at him, not wanting to alert Red. He was laser-focused on me, and that was how I needed it to remain.

“Fucking with the garage doors open probably wasn’t your brightest move, brother.” Red smirked. “Especially with how loud she was screaming your name, begging for your cock. I didn’t think you were worthy of all that, but fuck, what the hell do I know, huh?”

I quickly raised my gun, pointing it at him. “Two seconds to let her the fuck go,” I warned. And he knew I would pull the trigger.

Red smirked and kicked her to the ground with his boot to her back. I rushed forward, shoving my gun back in my cut, ignoring Grim’s angry gaze on my back. Joey punched Red in the side of the head, knocking him out cold as I moved toward Adelaide and grabbed her off of the ground, drawing her shaking form into my arms.

“What the fuck, River?!” Tristan finally roared.

I pressed my lips to Adelaide temple, ignoring him. She shook her head, her hands grasping my face, tears shimmering in her pretty, dark eyes. There was so much fear in her eyes. Fear for me. “Go to Joey,” I softly instructed.

She swallowed thickly, her lips trembling. “I’m sorry, River,” she whispered, hot tears sliding down her beautiful face.

I smirked down at her, trying to soothe her by pretending none of this was affecting me. I wasn’t afraid of death, and honestly, if I was going out all because I loved her, then it wasn’t a bad way to go. “I’m not. Now, go,” I gently coaxed.

She moved over to Joey, where he slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side, supporting her. “You fucked my woman?!” Tristan roared when I turned to face him.

“She’s not your fucking woman, Grim. You’ve been treating her like shit ever since she got back,” I snapped at him. “How you could expect her to even want to be yours with the fucking way you’ve been treating her is fucking beyond me.”

“I’m a hairsbreadth away from putting a bullet in your skull,” Tristan threatened.

If I was getting a bullet in my skull, he was going to get a fucking wake-up call, and I hoped that Adelaide would choose to go back to Joey. The man had changed in the year she’d been gone, and I knew he would finally love her how she deserved to be loved if he got a second chance with her.

“If you would treat her right, Grim, you wouldn’t ever have to worry about another man like me,” I told him honestly.

He reached for his gun, and I clenched my jaw, my eyes flickering to Adelaide’s panicked ones. “No!” she screamed, shoving Joey off of her before he could get a better hold on her. She roughly crashed against me. I stumbled with the force she knocked into me with, wrapping my arms around her as I steadied us to keep us both from falling to the concrete floor.

“You’ll kill me first,” Adelaide seethed at Tristan as she clung to me, using every bit of her strength to stay with me.

He clenched his jaw, hurt flickering in his eyes. “Why him, Addy?” he asked her, sounding broken. I almost rolled my eyes. How the fuck could he be hurt about this shit when he had been doing nothing but treating her like pure garbage? Like a dog that might bite someone? “The first second that I’m gone, you hook up with the one man that I trusted with you mere hours after I just fucking had you in my damn bed.”

“I’m not the same woman I was a year ago, Tristan,” she told him, her voice apologetic. I knew she still loved him. Still cared about him. She didn’t want to hurt him, and she didn’t want him finding out this way.

I smoothed my hands over her back, holding her with me, giving her the strength that she needed to say what she needed. She couldn’t keep biting back her feelings.

“I don’t give a fuck, Addy!” he roared, thrusting his hands through his hair. Adelaide flinched. I tightened my hold on her, narrowing my eyes at Tristan. “Fucking hell, woman, you know that I fucking love you! Why would you do this?!”

She audibly swallowed, pain flashing across her face. I gritted my teeth. “You never saw me , Tristan,” she quietly told him, sounding broken. “You saw the girl you wanted me to be. You only saw who I was before you ruined me on my eighteenth birthday.” His face shattered, revealing the broken man beneath his mask. The man all of us knew he would be without her. Her bottom lip trembled. “Please, Tristan, if you love me, you won’t kill him.”

With that, she reached up and trailed the tips of her fingers over my jaw before she strode out of the warehouse, trusting Tristan to make the right decision for her.

She had a hell of a lot more faith in him than I did.

Tristan’s eyes met mine. I was blown away by how shattered he looked. But this shit? It was his own fault. I didn’t feel bad for him at all.

“You’re banished from my fucking club, River.” I had figured as much. Not like I wanted to stay anyway. “You’ve got twelve hours to pack your shit, turn in your cut, and get the fuck out of my town. The only reason I’m not putting a bullet through your traitorous heart is because Addy cares about you, and I won’t hurt her more than she already is.” He looked toward the doors she had disappeared out of. “I’ve fucked her up enough as it is.”

With that, he turned on his heel, disappearing into the office inside of the warehouse.

Joey looked at me, and he heaved a sigh as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “I fucked up with her numerous times, River. That woman… she has a fucking heart of gold. Love her like she’s always deserved to be loved.” He drew in a deep breath. “She’s going to fight you at first. The woman loves me more than she probably should, and she’s going to do her damnest to try not to completely betray the love she feels for me, but I talked to her. Tried to talk her into letting me go.”

So that was why she’d come in looking a mess.

“She’ll always hold you with her, Joey,” I told him. He sighed as if he knew that, too. “I can bear that, and I can bear her love for you.” I shrugged my cut off my shoulders, holding it out to Jesup. He nodded once at me. I was surprised to see a prideful glint in his eyes as he took my cut, almost as if he were proud of me for finally standing up for what I believed in. I looked back at Joey. “But as long as you make her happy, I don’t give a fuck how long she holds you with her, even if that’s the rest of her life.”

With that, I strode out of the warehouse so I could go pack my shit and get the fuck out of Sons of Death’s territory.

I threw my duffel bag onto the back of my bike and strapped it down, ignoring the sound of the pounding music from the clubhouse behind me. Tristan hadn’t come back to the clubhouse yet, probably staying away until he got the word that I was gone.

Adelaide had disappeared from the warehouse before I had left, and I had only received a single text from her telling me she was safe and that she would see me before I left. But she wasn’t there yet, and I didn’t want to wait around any longer just in case Tristan changed his mind about sparing my life.

I straddled my bike, getting ready to strap my helmet to my head when I noticed a slim figure walking through the gates to the clubhouse, her arms wrapped around herself. Those beautiful, brown eyes that I loved so much locked on me. “Leaving?” she softly asked as she drew closer.

“Got to,” I informed her as she continued making her way over to me. “Grim’s orders.”

“I’m sorry.”

I grabbed her hips, pulling her closer to me. Her hands settled over my shoulders. I slid my arms around her waist, drawing her between my knees as I propped my ass on my bike seat. “Don’t be. I’ve been dying to have a taste of you since you came back from Joey’s club,” I admitted. “I’ll never regret anything that happened between us, darlin’.”

“Where are you going to go?” she asked, reaching up to run her thumb over the stubble on my jaw.

I shrugged. “Wherever the road takes me, I guess,” I told her. But I had a feeling I would be going back home. Home to Texas and to the club I was born and raised in before family shit drove me away.

“You’ll take care, right?” Her eyes ran over my face, shiny with more unshed tears. Today was the most I’d ever seen this woman cry.

I reached up to cup her cheek. “Always, darlin’.”

She leaned down and pressed her lips to mine. I deepened the kiss for a moment, wanting this with her one last time. I knew she and I were destined to be together, but I had to be patient. She would come to me when it was time. And I knew when that time came, she would find me without even meaning to.

After a moment, I released her, strapping my helmet to my head as she stepped back from me, wrapping her arms back around herself.

“Live for me,” I told her as I started up my bike.

She swallowed thickly, tears sparkling in her beautiful, brown eyes. “Always,” she promised.

I peeled out of the lot, leaving the last bit of my happiness behind with her.

But I knew she would find her way to me when the time was right.