Page 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

DAKOTA

TWO WEEKS LATER

Standing in front of Willamette Haven again feels surreal. I honestly thought and hoped that I would never find myself here again. Briana’s fingers lace with mine. I’m glad we were able to put all of our differences of opinion and drama aside. The cross-country road trip was what we needed to solidify the fact that we are family and love one another.

Her hurt and anger are not mine or Bishop’s. They are hers. And while she’s still not excited about the situation, she’s also accepting of it now. I feel more at peace than I ever have. And at the same time, even more sure that Bishop was and is meant to be mine. Curated, made, and saved for me by my father.

We stand in front of the commune. I feel differently about this place now, about the people inside. This was my home for years, a place where I felt somewhat comfortable. I had no idea that they were hurting children the way they were. That these men who were my “uncles” were abusing girls. I feel disgusting. I feel like I am just as guilty as they are.

“This is not your fault. You had no idea. And even if you did, you were a child yourself,” Briana whispers.

I press my lips together. I hate that I spoke out loud what I was thinking. It just feels like extra salt in Briana’s wound. I am not the victim here. She is. But she doesn’t seem the least bit angry, at least not at me. She squeezes my hand again as she continues to stare straight ahead at the building in the distance.

Shocker slides up to my side, his palm on the small of my back. “So this is it?” he asks. “Your mama ran off and brought you here?”

“She did,” I whisper.

He clears his throat and lets out a snort. He doesn’t say anything, though. He doesn’t need to. I already know that this place is bullshit. Now that I’ve seen the rest of the world, now that my eyes have been opened, I agree with Shocker’s snort.

This place is bullshit.

“Let’s burn it to the ground,” Shocker announces.

Briana laughs softly. “Yes, let’s.”

The bikers have surrounded the compound grounds. Briana has told them where and how to enter the property with the least visibility. Shocker, Bishop, Briana, and I are entering through the front door.

Briana squeezes my hand, then releases her grasp as I feel Bishop’s body behind me. Wordlessly, the four of us make our way up the long drive. The main house of the compound is hidden from the street’s view.

Usually, there would be guards at the end of the road, much like at the Vicious Reapers’ clubhouse, but today, there is no one because today is the first Saturday of the month, and that means all hands on deck in the meeting room.

That’s why we chose today to walk onto the property. They are all in a single room. Most likely naked by now. The beginning of the meeting is normally where they talk about the previous month, who did what, and then they go over expectations for the rest of the month before they have an orgy.

I always left before their clothes came off and hid away in my room.

Briana and I fall behind Shocker and Bishop as they reach for the front door. We both suck in a breath as we reach for one another’s hands again, lacing our fingers together as we follow behind them straight to the back, where we told them the meeting room is located.

We can hear voices at the back of the building where the meeting room is. They grow louder with each step we take. The second they open the door, the voices cease. Almost as if the entire room of people can instantly sense our presence.

Everyone is sitting around in a circle. This means that the meeting is almost over, and they’re just getting ready to start massaging one another. That will be innocent for about five minutes, then clothes will start to make their way off.

I’m glad we came in before anyone was naked. I’ve seen all these people naked enough in my life.

“It seems we have some visitors,” the leader calls out from the sharing circle as he rises to his feet.

He doesn’t seem scared, even though I’m pretty sure that he needs to be just that. If he knew how many men were surrounding this building, he would be shitting his pants. But I stay quiet. Trying to keep hidden behind Bishop’s body. It doesn’t work.

The leader sees me. Almost as if he is homing in on me and just me.

“Dakota,” he purrs. “Our sister has returned,” he announces.

Which is the absolute wrong thing to say to Bishop. His back straightens almost instantly. His shoulders square, and then he moves forward. One step, then another before he stops. Flicking my gaze down to his hands that are loosely held at his side, I watch as his fingers twitch.

“Dakota is not back. But I have a bone to pick with you, fucker,” he growls.

The leader tilts his head to the side as his eyes search Bishop’s, and I watch as his lips twitch into a smirk. “You’ve been talking, haven’t you, Briana?”

Bishop shakes his head. “It wasn’t Briana. Not that it matters. You’re a dead man standing in front of me.”

I hear some screams from the other people, and that’s when the room fills with more men. They’re all wearing Vicious Reapers cuts, what I’ve been told are their leather vests. And they all have guns in their grasp.

Nobody is walking out of this room alive. I know that should bother me, but it doesn’t. “Want to tell me who the fuck your customers are?” Bishop asks, his voice showing his disdain and disgust when he says the word customers .

The leader has the audacity to appear shocked. “I’m not in the habit of asking more than once lately,” Bishop says. “My patience these days is beyond limited.”

I almost laugh because it’s true. We’ve all been through enough recently, and his patience is something teetering on the edge of everything else. I’m surprised he even has an ounce left at this point.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” he asks. “None of us are surviving this, whether we tell you or not. So why say a single thing?”

Shocker takes a step forward, his shoulders squared. I don’t know what he could possibly say, but I suck in a breath because he is ready to talk, and what he says makes my heart squeeze. His words are full of feeling, of remorse, and are laced with the rage I also feel.

“Taking innocent and beautiful creatures to do your bidding, to make you money, to use for sick pleasure, it’s the lowest of the low. You are not even a fuckin’ human,” he states, then sucks in a breath before he continues.

“You’re not even an animal. I don’t know what you are, and I don’t care to analyze it, either. What I do know is that none of those girls deserved an ounce of what you put them through. You’re a monster. And you are going to die today. Your people are going to die as well because of what you are. Not a single one of us is going to mourn any of you. In fact, I would venture to guess nobody on this planet will mourn you. Not for a single second. Whoever you’re protecting, we’ll figure it out, with or without you, and when we do, we’ll make sure they know you sent us their way.”

God.

That was a great speech.

Shocker lifts his hand with his gun in his grasp and points it at the man. “For the girls,” he says and then squeezes the trigger.

Blood sprays on the window behind the leader right before he drops to the floor in a crumple. Everyone screams except Uncle Freely, who stands to his feet. He doesn’t look at me or the leader. His gaze is focused on Shocker and only Shocker.

“I can give you the list,” he says.

I’m surprised by his instant agreement to help even though he knows that he’s as dead as the leader. Nobody asks any questions, though. Freely turns toward the hallway. I know the office is down there. Shocker and two other men follow behind him, no doubt toward that office where everything is still kept on paper.

“What do we do with the rest of them?” Bishop asks, turning to look back at Briana. Her eyes are wide as she stares at the leader dead on the floor, a huge hole in the back of his head where the bullet exited.

She lifts her chin and shifts her attention to Bishop, and I see unshed tears in her eyes. She releases her grasp on my hand, then walks over to Bishop. I watch as she wraps her arms around him in a hug. I hold my breath at the sight. He returns the hug, patting her on the back for a moment, then she looks up at him but doesn’t release her hold.

“They are not all guilty,” she whispers. “But they are all complicit. The only innocent people in this entire group are the children, if there even are any.”

There aren’t.

I was one of the last. I never asked why nobody was having babies, even though they were doing each other on a regular basis. It’s a weird phenomenon that I never questioned before now. And I’ll probably never have the answer to it, either.

“I want you girls to leave. Wait by the car.”

Bishop announces his order, but I can tell it’s not because he doesn’t want us near him. It’s because he doesn’t want us to see what’s about to happen. Briana takes a step back from him, her wet eyes finding mine, and she holds her head up high.

But before she walks out of the building with me, she makes her way to the leader’s body. She slowly lowers her head so that she’s looking down at him, then I watch as she spits on his dead body.

“That is for what you did to me and every other girl you stole. Rot in hell.”

She turns, her eyes meet mine, and together, we walk out of the building and down the driveway to wait inside the car. Her car. Her eyes find mine again the moment we’re both in the car, and she lets out a sob.

I reach across the center console to wrap my arms around her. She wraps hers around me as well, and we have a good, long cry. “I didn’t think I would feel this way,” she whispers against my ear.

Shifting back slightly, I look into her eyes. Her lips curve up into a smile. I didn’t expect to see her smile at all. Then she sucks in a deep inhale before she lets it out slowly.

“I’m free, Dakota.”

“You’re free,” I whisper.

“I understand how you feel with Bishop, I think. The weight of Willamette Haven has been lifted off me. The weight of what happened to me is gone. Sure, it will always be there because it’s part of who I am, but the anger is gone. I’m free.”

Tears swim in my own eyes before they slide down my cheeks. “I was a bitch. I’m sorry. I get it now. I’m ready to live my life. Not just survive it. I want to live it. And I understand it.”

A life worthy of living.

That is something truly special, and as the group of Vicious Reapers men walk out of the building, I watch as it bursts into flames. It’s done. It’s gone. It’s over. At least their reign is over. What comes next is still up in the air, but with the fact that the Willamette Haven is now literally in flames, I, too, feel an ease that I wasn’t expecting.

Then my eyes meet Bishop’s, and instead of staying in the car, I fling the door open and run toward him before jumping into his arms. He catches me, holding on to my ass as I wrap my legs around his waist.

My lips slam against his, and I kiss him—hard. It’s my turn to own him. He keeps walking us forward. Shifting my head back slightly, I look into his eyes. “Thank you,” I whisper.

“Fuckin’ love you, baby. Would kill every day for the rest of my life to keep you safe.”

My mouth should not be smiling at those words, but it is. “You saved me. I didn’t know I needed saving, but you saved me anyway,” I say.

He shakes his head once. “Not in the goddamn slightest, Dakota. You fuckin’ saved every fiber of my goddamn being. It’s you, baby. Just you. And it’s always been you, even though I didn’t fuckin know you existed. It’s been you. Now, let’s live the rest of our fucking lives together.”

“In extreme happiness,” I finish his words.

“Yeah, in that,” he grunts with a grin.

With that, he sets me on my feet, I climb onto the back of his bike, and together, we ride into the future.

The uncertain, unknown, wild future.

I can’t wait.