Page 6

Chapter Six

Summerville Kara

K ara's heart pounds against her chest as she steps up to the clubhouse door she hasn't stepped through since she stormed out months ago. Worse, she doesn't know if she'll be welcomed or beaten within an inch of life.

Lex called to tell her that Dani's safe. She's out, but she doesn't know much else besides how traumatized she seems. That she's a shell of her former self, but with that much time locked in basements with God only knowing what was being done to her, it's not that surprising. It makes Kara's stomach flip to think about what those monsters did to her. She knows what she had to endure to prove her worth, but nothing was outwardly forced.

The moment she steps inside, all eyes land on her, and she knows it was a mistake. But she's here, and she has to know. She scans the room and finds the curly blonde sitting with Colt, and she walks over to her while the rest of the room remains quiet. At least Lex doesn't look ready to murder her.

“Where's Dani?”

“She's at Dax's house,” Lex says. “I guess, her house, too?”

Letting out a sigh, Kara feels like she can finally breathe. “But she's okay? She's alive?”

“She's as okay as I think she can be, all things considered. We don't know what they did to her, but she was... different than I remember. Are you safe?”

“I don't know,” she admits with a humorless chuckle and sags her shoulders. “I'm going to guess they've figured out I was only trying to get in there to find her.”

Finnegan steps towards her. “So, it's true? You knew Dani was alive?”

“I saw her in a basement window like Lex did, only it was in a house over on Sheyenne. By the time I made it there without being heavily watched, she wasn't there anymore.”

“Why the fuck didn't you tell us?” Cannon shouts, slamming his hand on the bar top. “We could have gone and ransacked the place months ago!”

Lex reaches out and rests a hand on her arm, and Kara locks eyes with Chance, who looks at her with disgust while he shakes his head. He's disgusted with her ? There's no point in keeping his secret any longer. “Chance told me not to.”

“And you listened?” Lex asks, laughing. “I would've disobeyed him.”

“Wait,” Mac says and steps forward, waving his hand in the air. “Chance told you not to tell anyone you saw Dani?”

Even though Chance made a mistake, she still feels guilty outing him to his entire club like this. “Yes.”

“And you started messing with the enemy to get information?”

“I started flirting back with Ian. He was always hitting on me when I was out, and I figured he was the ticket in.”

Mac looks at Chance. “I don't understand-”

“She took the first opportunity she had to fuck the enemy. I don't give a shit what she says or thinks,” Chance explodes.

“You should,” Colt says. “She played a big part in saving Dani.”

“I think he worried I was falling backwards in my denial of her death,” Kara defends. “I was in a dark place after she died... disappeared? I feel like this situation just got so much more confusing. Anyway, I think his worry trumped anything else.”

Shaking her head, Lex narrows her eyes. “That doesn't make sense. Why not say something, even if it's nothing? What happened never made sense, and neither does this.”

“Dax was already on the ledge and ready to jump. He worried I'd push him over the edge, and he didn't want me putting ideas in his mind to create a problem if there wasn't one,” Kara says. “He didn't believe I saw her.”

Chance moves quicker than anyone can react and gets in Kara's face. “You went and fucked the enemy! I think it's safe to say the problem in the relationship was always you, Kara.”

“And it took you one night to fuck the first thing in a skirt,” she counters. “In our bed.”

“And it was better than anything I ever got from you! Besides, it stopped being our bed the night you tossed your kutte in my face.”

Tears fill her eyes, and she steps backwards. “I guess I did you a favor then. I was clearly terrible and awful, and you should be happy to be free now.”

“Oh, don't give everyone that pity party shit. It's beneath even you.”

Lex stands and gets between them. “You're deflecting, Chance. Sure, her methods were unorthodox, but she did what you didn't. She tried to find Dani.”

“You didn't believe me, and I did what I had to do when you let me down!” Kara shouts, hating the tears she can't stop. “I hated every minute of what I had to do, but you refused to help me. I had to do something. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try. Seeing her in that basement, it made all the shitty things I had to do worth it. She looked so sick. So... gone.”

“And you told us you were doing this for the club without telling us,” Lex says. “That's why you stared me down as you left. That you were going to be the one to do something.”

Sniffling, Kara nods and wipes her eyes. “I know better than to disobey a member of the club, and I didn't have any other choice.”

“You chose humiliating me and fucking a Kingsmen over disobeying me? I would've rather you told Dax, Kara. Are you fucking stupid?” Chance shouts.

“You would have talked him out of it! Or you would have stopped me,” she says. “You think I don't know you, but I know you better than anyone. You didn't want to believe me, and I think part of it was because then there's no excuse for how upset I was for two years. Why you let me clearly ruin your life. You should've kicked me to the curb when you got sick of me.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “Yeah, play the victim.”

“You didn't give me a choice!” she shouts. “You turned your back on me, and I needed to be a good woman of the club. A good friend. How long would we have let Dani stay with these freaks? They staged a house fire and had us bury a stranger. I sat at the grave and talked to a stranger! These guys are demented. Seriously demented. Trust me.”

“Well, aren't you just a fucking hero, then?”

The tears continue to fall, and Kara gives up trying to stop them. Walking towards the door, she lets out a defeated sigh. “I did what I thought I had to do when you let me down, Chance. I wanted to be what the club needed.”

“A good woman? You think that was a good woman of the club?” Chance shouts and glares at Lex. “Would you fuck an enemy to save someone in the club? Especially an old lady?”

“First, get out of my face,” Lex says, surprising Kara. “And second, fuck yeah, I would. Why say it like that?”

“Like what?”

She scoffs. “'Especially an old lady.' Like a woman of the club is somehow less worthy of extreme measures than a man of the club?”

Rolling his eyes, he crosses his arms over his chest. “You'd risk your marriage? Your connection to the club? I call bullshit.”

“Call it whatever you want, but you're fucking wrong. You've been wrong this entire time. Does it suck that Kara did what she did? Yes. But it sucks more that you failed her. Failed Dax. Failed Dani.”

“Fuck you!”

“No, fuck you!” Lex shouts back, pushing him backwards. “You don't get it, so I'll explain it to you. I was Dani. I know what it's like to be trapped with people who want to hurt you. Who will do whatever the fuck they want because they can. I was only tortured for three days, but I could have been like Dani. I could still be locked up, and you have no idea what that's like. And while I don't know exactly what they did to her, I know it was bad. Really fucking bad.”

“How bad?” Kara asks, her voice and body shaking.

Lex turns to look at her, locking eyes. “She has scars from where she tried to kill herself. It was bad enough she wanted to end her life.”

“She asked us to kill her,” Colt says, standing beside his wife in solidarity against Chance. “She didn't even recognize Dax at first. She told us she tried to end the suffering, but they wouldn't let her because they weren't done with her yet.”

Overwhelming pain surges through her, and Kara falls to her knees as her lungs feel like they've stopped working. “She tried... Oh, God!”

“You helped save her, Kara,” Lex says. “You did what I couldn't. You took a huge risk, and it paid off. And from what I can see, you hated every moment of whatever you had to do.”

Bile rises in her throat, and she does everything possible not to vomit right here on the floor. “It makes me sick, but I had to make them trust me.”

“You let him fuck you,” Chance says. “Hell, you probably let others fuck you. Got on your knees and took three at a time.”

“Stop it,” Lex says and turns to him. “What is wrong with you?”

Chance closes the gap and gets in her face. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

Venom jumps in before Colt can, and he pushes him away. “Get in her face one more time, motherfucker, and I will risk my leather to put you in the fucking ground. You're already on shaky ground, considering you knew Kara saw Dani for months and did fucking nothing!”

To Kara's surprise, Lex holds her ground and looks at Chance. “I asked what the hell is wrong with you. You forced her to do this because you failed. You failed as a club member, and you failed as a man. You didn't do the one thing you're supposed to do in this club, and that's to be a protector. Who protected Dani when you were the only one wearing a Drifter leather who knew she might be alive? Whether true or not, you should have done something. Anything! But you didn't, so you don't get to chastise her for what she had to do when you didn't do a damn thing.”

“You're a fucking bitch!”

“Yeah, I am. And unlike you, I have this club in my veins. You failed, and two women of the club had to pick up your slack. You could have been a hero, but you chose the coward's route. Get in my face. Call me names. The truth is, Chance, I don't give a flying fuck what you think about me because as far as I'm concerned, you don't matter. But you will not degrade Kara for doing what you couldn't. Not around me.”

His fists clench, and Venom growls beside Lex while Colt cracks his knuckles on the other side of her.

“Dude, she's the daughter of VP. The main VP. Also, she's not fucking wrong. Look around you, and think if this is a fight you want to get into because you're not gonna fucking win,” Finnegan says, taking Chance by the shoulders.

Looking around, Kara sees how many angry men glare at Chance rather than her, and she can't comprehend what just happened. Lex handed him his ass, and no one's getting after her for it.

Chance nods and glares at her, his nostrils flaring. “You win, Kara. You win.”

“No, Chance, I didn't. I'm pretty sure I completely lost,” she says and stands. “But at least I can live with the fact that what I had to endure brought Dani back. She's no longer in that hell.”

“You're dead to me,” he says and steps backwards. “You can justify what you did all day, every day, but I will never forgive you for what you did. You're fucking dead to me.”

Nodding, she sighs. As much as she expected it, it still hurts. “It's kind of funny. Even knowing I was right, I knew this would be your reaction. I clearly made you miserable, and now you have the perfect excuse to be done with me. You never let it show how unhappy you were the past few years, and now you can find what you need. I hope you find everything I wasn't, and I hope you can find happiness.”

Running outside, she barely makes it to her car before throwing up on the pavement. Memories of what she had to do with Ian, how she had to earn his trust, make her want to crawl in a hole and never come out of it. Dani's safe and out of there, but Kara can't find it comforting enough to not hate the person she sees in the mirror. Not after everything that's happened.