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  I sat on the bed beside her and pointed at King who was still beating the shit out of the rapist asshole. “That man’s sister was used by the guy who was raping you, and that’s why we’re here. He won’t stop until he kills the guy, at which point we’ll take you wherever you want to go. You’re safe with us. Okay?”

  Her eyes widened and then she nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered, her body visibly relaxing a little.

  “Good. Now where are your clothes?”

  She jerked her chin towards the corner of the room and I located them and brought them to her. “Get dressed, ‘cause I don’t think we’re gonna be here much longer,” I said as I took in the bloodied mess King was creating.

  I left her to it and walked back to where King was. “You need a hand, boss?” I asked.

  He stopped mid-punch and looked up at me. His long dark hair stuck to his sweaty face, his eyes held the crazy that I knew he was made of, and his breaths were coming hard. “Does it look like I need a fucking hand, smartass?” he asked. He’d knocked Marco unconscious and, by the looks of it, Marco’s remaining breaths were limited.

  I grinned and shrugged. “Just making sure, old man. I mean, you’re nearing forty so I figure your body might start letting you down soon.”

  “Fuck off,” he muttered, and went back to what he was doing.

  I waited in silence. The only sounds in the room were of fists colliding with bones and the grunts King made as he took his revenge. I’d lost count of the number of times this scenario had played out over the last thirteen years. King liked to take back-up when he went on one of his missions, but he rarely needed it.

  The sound of whimpering caught my attention and I turned to the girl. She stood by the bed staring at King, tears streaming down her face. My natural instinct was to go to her and wrap her in my arms; however, I figured after being attacked by one stranger, she’d hardly want another stranger touching her. Instead, I said to King, “Can we hurry this the fuck up, ‘cause we’ve got a woman we need to get out of here.”

  King straightened, took a step away from the body lying at his feet, and turned to me. Blood covered his shirt, some of his face and his hands. He looked like he’d stepped out of a horror movie but it wasn’t anything I’d never seen before. His gaze flicked to the girl. “You wanna see me end his life so you know for sure he won’t ever hurt you again, or would you prefer to leave the room?”

  “Fuck, King, like she needs to see anymore shit,” I said, before she could answer him. King had some fucked-up ideas sometimes.

  He glared at me. “Let the girl decide. Maybe she’ll surprise the fuck out of you.”

  I returned his glare before turning to her. She stood staring at me in panic, shaking her head at the idea. It looked like she wasn’t even taking breaths.

  I nodded and started walking to her. It was clear she was about to lose her shit and I needed to get her out of here. When I reached her, I pulled her close to me and said, “It’s okay, I’ll get you out of here before - ”

  The shot rang out and her scream tore through me as her eyes looked past me to King.

  Fuck.

  Motherfucker.

  I gripped her harder and levelled an angry stare on King. “What the fuck?” I roared, “She didn’t want to fucking see that!”

  King’s eyes had morphed from wild crazy to deranged crazy. When he spoke, his words dripped with lunacy and the hardness that was signature King. “I don’t give a fuck what she thought she wanted. She needed to see that.”

  “No, she fuckin’ didn’t.”

  We faced off, glaring at each other. King was amped, his body taut and full of rage. I knew that look from past experience. He hadn’t rid himself of the need to exact revenge yet; he still had more in him and he’d have to find a way to work that out of his mind and body before the night was over.

  He dismissed me with a wave of his gun. “Get her out of my fucking sight.”

  She whimpered in my hold, her body wracked with sobs. Without another word to King, I began dragging her out of the room. I moved fast, and when we made it to where the other guy was lying passed out in the hallway, I stepped over his body and roughly pulled the girl outside with me. I knew what King would do with him and she didn’t need to see any more death.

  I had her on the back of my bike and was just about to leave when another gunshot sounded. A moment later, King stepped outside and stalked to us.

  “You take her, and I’ll call Bronze,” he ordered, still with that deranged glint in his eyes.

  The cops.

  Of course. Shit was gonna go down between Storm and Silver Hell over this if they ever worked out it was us responsible for the deaths of two members. King had Bronze on our payroll and it was a smart move to give him a heads-up over this.

  As I sped off in the direction the girl gave me, unease slid through me. The two clubs had existed for years on a mutual agreement to leave each other the fuck alone. The events of tonight had obliterated that agreement, and while Storm was capable of holding its own, I didn’t want to go to battle.

  A battle meant death and destruction.

  Two things I’d seen enough of to last me a lifetime.

  Chapter Three

  Evie

  I stepped out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel and walked to the vanity. The woman staring back at me in the mirror seemed more like a stranger than me.

  When did I lose myself?

  I spread toothpaste onto my toothbrush and tried to avoid my thoughts. They came hard and fast, though, relentlessly chasing me. Trying to force me to face them.

  A year ago when you gave up on Kick.

  That’s when you lost yourself.

  Lost your way.

  I spat out the toothpaste and rinsed. Slamming the toothbrush down, I muttered, “Shit.” I reached for the towel and dried my face. Staring back at myself in the mirror, I traced my finger over the dark bags under my eyes. Leaning closer to the mirror, I stared hard at myself.

  Fuck, my grief and exhaustion plastered my face.

  Moving my face away from the mirror I reached for my skincare and slathered it on. I still couldn’t be bothered with makeup, but at least the skincare might help.

  Jeremy’s funeral yesterday had taken every last drop of energy from me. And then seeing Kick had sucked anything remaining.

  Kick.

  Why the hell had he come back? The last year with no contact had been hard. Harder than the years where we’d been apart but still in touch. At the time, I’d thought those years were hard – having him there but not having him as mine. I’d finally gotten my head together over it all only to have him come and screw with my mind and my heart again.

  Just when I’d decided not to care about anything anymore, he’d shown up, and I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Turns out I still did care about something. Or rather, someone.

  A loud knock on my front door distracted me from my thoughts. Shit, at eight o’clock in the damn morning. Really? They could go to hell, I wasn’t ready for visitors.

  The knocking turned into loud banging and then I was stunned to hear a female voice I knew well yell out, “Evie, are you home?”

  My sister. Who I hadn’t spoken to in years.

  “Yeah, give me a minute,” I yelled back and hurried into my bedroom to put some clothes on.

  When I opened the door to her a couple of minutes later, I was surprised to find a woman who hardly resembled my sister staring back at me. Julie had been a thin, well-kept blonde the last time I’d seen her, which was about five years ago. Today, she was overweight, brunette, and had aged more than the five years she actually had.

  “Hi,” I said, hesitantly. We hadn’t parted on the best of terms, and Julie was a bitch at the best of times, so I’d learnt to hedge my bets as to her mood over the years.

  She glared at me. “I know you’re judging me already so just quit it,” she snapped as she pushed past me to stalk down my hall.

  I shut the door and t
urned to follow her. “I see you still haven’t learnt to use your filters.”

  When we reached the kitchen she dumped her bag on the table and graced me with her glare again. “I just say it as I see it. And you can’t tell me you weren’t standing there staring at my fat, judging me.” She placed her hands on her hips and waited for my reply. Almost as if she was ready for a fight.

  “I wasn’t judging you, Julie, but I won’t deny I noticed it and wondered how you’d gone from where you were to this.”

  She moved her hands off her hips to hang by her sides, her body easing out of its tense state a little. Only a little, but that was a lot for Julie. “Thank fuck someone can be honest with me.”

  My tiredness and grief mixed with the absurdity of this whole scenario and caused laughter to bubble up and escape my lips.

  She commenced glaring at me again and demanded, “What’s so funny?”

  I shook my head and threw my hands up in a defensive gesture. “Well, you come to see me, and rather than saying hello and starting a conversation like any normal sister would after all these years, you have a go at me and barge into my house. How screwed up are we? Seriously, it’s fucked up, Julie.”

  She thought about it for a moment and then nodded and gave me a slight smile. “Yeah, I guess it is. But hell, with our family, you can’t blame us, right?”

  She had a point. “Right.” I took a breath and asked, “So why are you here?”

  Her whole face softened. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Julie’s face soften like that. “I heard about Jeremy.”

  My stomach rolled and my breath caught at the mention of his name. I reached out to hold the chair to steady myself.

  This is too hard.

  I worked to catch my breath again and the nausea passed, but I remained silent. What was there to say, anyway?

  “I’m sorry, Evie. I know how much he meant to you.”

  I met her gaze and found only concern there. She had no ulterior motive for being here which I would have suspected in the past. “Thank you,” I said softly and sat at the table.

  Julie sat as well and kept talking. “Have you seen Kick?”

  “Fuck,” I muttered, “do we have to talk about him?”

  She shrugged. “Any discussion of you and Jeremy is pointless unless Kick is involved. The three of you were almost joined at the damn hip.”

  “Jeremy and Kick had a falling-out five years ago, Julie. And Kick and I went our separate ways three years ago, so any inclusion of Kick in this discussion is pointless.”

  “Shit,” she murmured, connecting the dots in her head. “I’d heard you and Kick broke up but I just figured you would have stayed friends like you did the first time you broke up. And I never would have thought Kick and Jeremy would ever stop being friends. What happened?”

  I sighed. It seemed I couldn’t escape Kick today. “I don’t know. Neither of them would tell me.”

  “And you never pursued that information?”

  “I did, but you know those two. Stubborn to the bitter end. Neither would crack, so, in the end, I just let it go.”

  “That must have been hard. To stay friends with Jeremy while you were with Kick, I mean.”

  Nodding, I agreed. “Yeah, it was, but I made it work. I did try to make them see sense, but neither would give in.” Sadness wrapped me in its arms while I remembered how amazing Jeremy had been throughout that time in my life. He’d never walked away from me, even though it was clear he couldn’t be around Kick any longer. And Kick had even managed to not be an asshole about my friendship with Jeremy. It was almost as if the two of them had some agreement about it all but I’d never managed to work it out. I’d just gone with the flow because it had broken my heart that they’d fallen out in the first place. I’d done my best to bring them back together, but that had been a waste of time.

  Julie looked at me. Really looked at me, as if she was trying to work something out. “Are you going to be okay? I know it’s shit right now, but I want to make sure you’re coping.”

  I considered her question, and I also considered her presence here today. “Why today, Julie?”

  She knew exactly what I was asking. Sighing, she said, “Let’s just say, I’ve been re-evaluating my life lately. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but I’d like to try and put that behind us and spend time together again.”

  “Why are you suddenly re-evaluating things?” God, I hoped it wasn’t sickness or something like that. My body tensed, waiting for her answer.

  “I’m a thirty-six-year-old woman with no husband or kids, and I pushed my family away when I was younger and stupid. My best friend recently died from cancer, and I decided life’s too short for petty disagreements. So here I am.”

  The tension relaxed out of my body. “Sorry to hear about your friend, but I’m glad you’ve decided to make those changes.”

  “It might take me some time with Mum and Dad, Evie. Don’t expect this to just happen overnight. Not after all the shit we’ve been through.”

  “I get it.” I really did. Our parents were hard work.

  “How are they?” she asked tentatively.

  I stretched my legs out in front of me and sagged a little in the chair. “They’re doing okay at the moment.”

  “Right, so that means they’re still struggling to get their shit together.”

  She was right. In our family, doing okay didn’t mean the same as it would in most families that I knew. “I’ll let you decide for yourself once you go and see them.”

  She stood and picked up her bag. “I’ve got to get to work. It was good to see you.”

  I stood as well and moved to hug her. She awkwardly tried to return the hug and that offering spread warmth through me. Julie was not an affectionate person so this hug meant the world to me. When we pulled apart, I smiled at her and said, “Thank you for coming and don’t be a stranger. And go and see Mum and Dad.”

  She nodded and I expected her to say something about them, but she didn’t. What she did say took me by surprise. “I don’t know what happened between you two, but is there any way for you and Kick to work out your differences? Assuming he’s not with someone else now, that is?”

  “He’s not, but I don’t think so. We’ve been through too much, and if we couldn’t make it work the two times we tried, I doubt we could now.”

  “I don’t believe that, Evie. The Kick I remember would do anything for you. Anything.”

  I wrapped my arms around me. She was wrong, and I needed to protect my heart this time. “I don’t think he would. Not anymore,” I said softly.

  Her face took on that look a person got when they were trying to make you see something their way. “Go through your memories again. Try and remember back to when you were kids. I know he would have done anything for you back then. You two are so connected...between your childhood, our families, Jeremy, the stuff you’ve both been through...that can’t count for nothing, Evie.” She paused and stared hard at me before adding on a whisper, “Make it count. You two deserve happiness.”

  And then she was gone and I was left alone.

  Consumed by memories.

  ***

  Evie

  16 years old

  “Kick! Stop!” I chased after him but he didn’t stop. No surprise there; when Kick decided to do something, nothing got in his way.

  I rushed after him as he stalked towards the basketball courts where Stephanie and her posse were. His back muscles were tensed, ready for the showdown. Those bitches had been harassing me for months and he’d been itching to take them on, but I would never let him. There was no way I could hold him back now, but really, they deserved whatever he had in mind.

  Unless he physically lashed out at them.

  That thought sent cold chills through my veins. I was sure he wouldn’t lay a hand on a girl, but what if his anger and need to stand up for me made him do something stupid?

  I picked up my pace and yelled out to him again. “Kick, please sto
p! I can handle those bitches myself.”

  He kept going without a second glance in my direction. The girls spotted him and all turned to face him. The other kids noticed the standoff and they, too, turned to watch. Everyone began closing in on Kick and the girls, and I hated that I had put him in this situation.

  He finally made it to them and stopped. I couldn’t see his face but I could imagine his glare. That look from Kick was enough to make most people consider their next step but Stephanie didn’t cower. She actually took a step closer to him and sent a glare his way.

  “Why the fuck can’t you bitches leave Evie alone? You don’t even know what shit really went down with her family, so you should shut the fuck up rather than spreading nasty gossip and treating her like a slut,” he raged. I could tell from his voice how close to the edge he was.

  Not good.

  “I know her mother cheated on her father and that’s a slut as far as I’m concerned. Like mother, like daughter,” Stephanie countered.

  Kick’s arm moved as if he was about to raise it but he kept himself under control and instead clenched his fist over and over, as if he was fighting the urge to punch someone. “I’m not gonna fucking argue this shit with you, Stephanie. Leave Evie alone.” His voice had dropped to a menacing tone.

  Stephanie said something to him but a hand on my shoulder and the brush past me of a male body distracted me from her.

  Jeremy.

  “Sorry, Evie,” he murmured, as he shoved me aside and kept advancing towards Kick.

  I missed what Stephanie said but zeroed back in on Kick who had raised his voice. “You don’t wanna start something with me. Trust me on that,” he threatened just before Jeremy stepped in.

  Jeremy placed his hand on Kick’s shoulder. Kick’s head jerked around to see who it was but before he could say anything, Jeremy spoke calmly to Stephanie. “Why do you always have to be such a bitch, Stephanie? I’m seriously beginning to wonder about your parents and just what they get up to.” He paused, and I saw her face flinch. Jeremy gave Kick a grin and then continued, “Yeah, I think we might look into that, Kick, and then report back what we find.”