Page 20 of The Bonds We Break

“How long will you be gone?” I focus on cutting more toast and egg before looking back up at him.

“Again, none of your business.” His ice-blue eyes focus on me. I like his ability to do that. Many of the men I’ve dated recently can barely keep their eyes off their phones for more than ten minutes at a time.

“Fine. Should I unpack?”

“No. I don’t know when I’ll be back or when I’ll move you.” He moves to the door. “But do us both a favor, duchess.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Be a good girl.”

And the door closes with a slam.

8

KING

Fuck this shit.

That’s my first thought when my bike vibrates to life beneath me and I swerve away from the cottage my father left me.

Rae knew exactly what she was doing when she said those baffling words about that Hamlet dude. There is no part of Shakespeare that this American needs to survive. I’ll not be brought down by ghosts.

But as soon as I think it, I think of Dad.

Fuck ghosts too.

And fuck the fact I had one of the best night’s sleep with Rae fucking Miller lying out of reach. I’ve been trying everything to get over this insomnia. Who knew kidnapping a sharp-witted woman was the answer.

It’s a good job my subconscious knows the way to the clubhouse, because I barely remember taking a left or right turn. But somehow, I end up pulling into the lot. Halo and Niro are bundled against the cold, sitting outside.

“You teach that bitch a lesson?” Niro says as I park the bike and walk up to them.

I force my face into a grin. It’s almost like I’ve forgotten how to smile and, worse, how to fake it. “Sucks like she was born to it,” I say.

Halo looks confused. “You got a woman on the side there, Prez?”

I shake my head, confused as to why I just nearly talked about Rae in front of Halo. I don’t want anyone in the club beyond Vex, Niro, and Bates to know I have her. “Not one who matters. Just one who needs a lesson.”

“Bates owes me twenty bucks. Said you’d bitten off more than you can chew with that one.”

I dig deep for a response. Something that will put Halo off the scent. “Pretty sure that’s what she said when she was trying to swallow my cock.”

Both men laugh; Halo even slaps me on the shoulder as I step inside. I got shit I need to deal with. Looking over the books, checking on the strip club seeing as Saint isn’t here, and finding the motivation to do any of it.

I walk into the office that was my dad’s, Arthur “Camelot” Hills. Honestly, there are days when I can smell the faint scent of his cologne. His cut hangs framed on the wall. It was shredded when he was caught beneath the wheels of a semi. I can see the scratch marks made by gravel as he was dragged along the highway. When I close my eyes, I see sickening images of him and his bike being torn apart beneath a truck, even though I wasn’t there.

Fucking ghosts.

I rub my hands over my chin and step back out again, over to the bar where a new prospect stands waiting. I tap the bar twice, but of course, he doesn’t know what I want. “Whiskey,” I say, tipping my chin to the top-shelf liquor.

“Hey,” Gwen says as she sits next to me. My nonidentical twin who looks so much like me.

“What are you doing here?” It’s a well-known fact I don’t like old ladies hanging around the club every day of the week, even if this one is my sister. I’m sure she thinks she has privileges as Clutch’s, my VP’s, old lady. But I’d rather my men be able to do whatever they want within these walls than live beneath the thumbs of their women.

That said, I’ve really missed my sister. She’s one of the few rays of sunshine I have in my life right now.

“Don’t get pouty. I’m not staying. Landon forgot his lunch, and I’m not working at the hotel today, so I thought I’d drop it off and see if you needed lunch too.” She drops a brown bag in front of me, like a school lunch. She’s even written my name and drawn a smiley face on it too. My heart stings a little at the kindness.