“He loved you?”
“Yes. I was a selfish bitch. He loved me, and I couldn’t bring myself to love him.” The tears were falling thick and fast. “To me, he was my brother. Nothing else.”
“You need to stop worrying about what he thinks, Lacey. He’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”
A sob broke free at the harsh reality of his words.
“Please, don’t say that.”
Dalton’s gone. He’s never going to find love or know what love feels like. You’re selfish and should have died.
“You’ve asked me to show you this house. In a few months it’ll be cleared away, and either another house, a set of apartments, or a business will take its place.”
“All evidence they were here will be gone. No one knows about them.”
Dalton and the club had spent so long intent on taking their revenge, and it had led them on this path. The path to their deaths. She should have known they wouldn’t make it out alive. The rumors about The Skulls had told her they were not a club to mess with. She’d tried so hard to get Danny to see reason, but he wouldn’t listen, refused to.
“No, they’re not gone, Lacey. They’re inside you and part of you. They are gone, but you’re not dead. You’re living, breathing.”
“I don’t deserve to be.” It didn’t matter what Whizz said. She knew the truth of what happened. Dalton asked her to stop looking for Whizz. He’d warned her about what would happen when Whizz knew the truth. Instead of listening, she did what she wanted to do.
He covered her hands with his own. “You’ve got me.”
Turning around, she stared up into his eyes. “I’ve not got you, Whizz. I never had you. I didn’t try to find you that night at the coffee shop, but I knew who you were. I knew what Alan did to you, what you were fighting. You need to let me go.”
Whizz shook his head. “I’m not letting you go.” He cupped her cheek, tilting her head back, and forcing her to look back at him.
Her mouth went dry from the possessive look staring right back at her.
“You’re not going anywhere. I believe you when you say you didn’t hunt for me, but you found me, Lacey. Not only did you find me once, you came to me several times. I’ve been inside you, and I’ll be inside you once again.”
She shook her head. “You’re being insane.”
“No, you’re the one being insane. Those men, your brothers, they’re dead. They died because they didn’t have the fucking sense to come to us. The Skulls would have let them live, but they put us and the town at fucking risk. They were a bunch of idiots pretending to run a club.”
Lacey slapped him around the face. “How dare you? You didn’t know what it was like being hunted by Gonzalez. We were all easy prey to him. He took our families from us and made sure we knew who was in control.”
“That was Gonzalez’s father,” Whizz said. He was glaring right back at her. He didn’t raise a hand to her even though she slapped him.
Lash stayed away, which surprised her. She figured he would have intervened by now.
“Gonzalez was there with his father. He made the order that took our families from us. Both of them were there when he gave the order to do what they wanted. When the first man stole my innocence, Gonzalez was organizing a dinner for when he got home. I wasn’t important enough to stick around. I lost my ability to bear children. We had the right to take Gonzalez out. Danny, the club, didn’t trust anyone to ask for help. From that moment Gonzalez tore our world out from under us, we were warned not to say anything. We were told to stay silent, to not talk about the past. We didn’t. All of us moved on together with one mission in mind, to kill the Gonzalez line.”
“Your biggest mistake was not listening to Butch,” Whizz said.
“You don’t get it.”
“I get it, but you’re too busy feeling guilty instead of listening to reason. I’m not going to keep trying to tell you differently. They’re gone. You’re alive, and I will not let anything happen to you.” He gripped her arm and started walking her toward the bike.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m done listening to you feeling sorry for yourself. We’re going back to the club.”
“I want to see Butch.”
“You don’t get to do that.” Whizz handed her the helmet. “Put it on.”
“Why are you angry?” she asked.
“You’re determined to find excuses for them. They were untrained and could have killed everyone in that room. Fort Wills belongs to The Skulls. The moment the Savage Brothers hit out they were dead. You were all stupid to believe that you could get away with it.”
Lacey didn’t think about what she did. Raising her knee, she connected with his cock and balls. Without giving him time to react, she started running away, trying to get away from him.
“Fuck,” Whizz said.
She ran off but didn’t get far.
“I don’t fucking think so.” Lash grabbed her around the waist, dragging her back. She started to hit out at him.
“Let me go.” She wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
“You better deal with her.” Lash caught her hands together. She didn’t stand a chance against his strength.
A red-faced Whizz stared at her. He didn’t speak, simply put the helmet on her head and turned away. She watched him climb on the back of the bike.
Lash put her on the back. “I suggest you hold onto him if you don’t want to hurt yourself falling off. I’m not in the fucking mood for you to start killing yourself. You want to die, ask one of us to do it.”
She shivered as a wave of fear washed through her. These men were not the kind to mess with. Wrapping her arms around Whizz’s waist, she held onto him. They went straight back to the clubhouse. The sun was still up. She saw Angel walking into the grounds as she removed her helmet. Gash was right behind her.
“Where have you been?” Lash asked, walking over to Angel.
“I went to the spa.” Angel pushed some hair off her shoulder, smiling up at Lash.
Lacey watched the change in Lash. He wrapped his arms around his woman with a smile on his lips.
“I bumped into her and decided to walk her home,” Gash said.
“Am I forgiven?” Lash asked.
She nodded. “I can never be mad at you for long, even if she didn’t deserve your words.”