She counts it silently, and the tapping of her nails on the notes is the loudest sound in the world. “Six thousand,” she confirms.
I nod.
She hands me forms and I sign.
The woman prints everything and I tuck the paperwork into my bag, smoothing the edges carefully.
As I leave the bank, my reflection flashes in the glass door, I look tired and sad. I hate that.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KADE
I swipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my wrist, my breath coming in sharp, uneven bursts.
“You need to hit the gym more,” Diesel mutters. He smirks when I throw him a look that clearly saysfuck off.
Jimmy wheezes, a wet, rattling sound, and I roll my eyes. “What the hell you holding on for?” I mutter, pushing off the wall and nudging his chair with my boot. The chair rocks. Jimmy barely clings to consciousness.
“You wanted slow,” Diesel reminds me.
I lift a brow. “There’s slow, and then there’s boring.”
Diesel snorts, then glances my way, both careful and purposeful. “You feeling any better?”
I tense. “Better?”
“Well, with Liam gone. And now Jimmy,” He shrugs. “Thought maybe you’d get some kind of peace outta this.”
Peace. The word grates. I sigh, rubbing the ache in my shoulder. “The world definitely feels lighter with them gone.”
I kick Jimmy’s chair again. Harder this time. The legs scrape, then tip.
The chair crashes back onto the concrete, Jimmy’s head smacking against the floor with a dull thud. His chin sags to his chest, and a strange gurgling noise bubbles up his throat. He drags in one last, shallow breath, and then nothing.
Silence.
“Finally,” I mutter. I pull a rag from my pocket and wipe the blood off my bruised and split knuckles. Something Eden would usually have insisted on cleaning or at least wrapping in ice.
The rag comes away red.
Diesel exhales, rubbing his face. “Maybe now,” he says quietly, “you can get back on track with Eden.”
I stop wiping and give a small, almost invisible nod. “Yeah,” I lie. “Maybe.”
But even as I say it, my stomach twists. Because crushing the men who hurt her didn’t fix a damn thing in me.
By the time I climb out of the basement and step back into the clubhouse, the place isalive. Music thumps. Laughter bounces off the walls. Brothers drink and joke like we didn’t just commit ourselves to drowning in blood again.The calm before the storm?
I drop onto a barstool and knock my knuckles twice on the counter. Jet slides a whisky my way without a word. I take a sip and let the burn settle deep in my chest.
My eyes scan the room.
Do any of them really understand the seriousness of what we’re about to take on?
Sure, we voted. It was unanimous—no hesitation, no fear. Every single one of us chose the darkness again, like it was a long-lost friend.
And maybe we were all thinking the same thing I was.
