The sound happens before I feel it. A sharp crack splits the air, and then my cheek is burning, my head snapping sideways and my knees giving way as I stumble to the floor.
No one reacts. Not one person in that room even flinches.
Colin stands over me, looking down, and his voice is calm, almost bored. “That’s the problem with you,” he says. “You forget your place too quickly.”
My fingertips brush the floorboards, and I blink fast, chasing the tears away before they fall. Something inside me quietly fractures, and I realise this is my mother’s story.
Her life.
Her ending.
And I’ve walked right back into it.
Shadow
Three days.
Three fucking days without her.
The club keeps moving around me—engines, deals, runs, laughter—but it all sounds like static. Like I’m underwater and everyone else is breathing fine.
I’m in the garage, wrench in hand, working on a bike, when Grizz walks in. He takes one look at me and decides silence is his best chance of survival.Smart man.
Then Smoke strolls in, all loud and clueless. “Pres wants you in church. Now.” I don’t answer. I don’t even look up. He shifts his weight. “Shadow, did you hear—”
I turn, wrench clattering to the floor. “Iheardyou,” I snap.
He blinks. “Right. Okay. Don’t bite my head off.”
“Then stop fucking talking.”
He exchanges a wary look with Grizz then turns on his heel and leaves.
I rake both hands through my hair, gripping hard enough that it hurts. I haven’t slept properly since that night. Every time I close my eyes, I see her face. Wrecked. Broken. I put it there, and then I let her walk right back into that fucker’s arms. All because I was pissed. Because my pride was louder than my goddamn heart.
The door opens again, and this time, it’s Lexi. The one person I don’t have the energy to bully out of my presence.
“You eating?” she asks, her arms folded and her brow arched, daring me to bite back.
“No.”
“Showering?”
“No.”
“Planning to stop acting like a moody prick?”
“No.”
She nods once, like she expected all this. Then she comes closer, resting a hand lightly on my arm.
“You can end all this,” she says gently.
I scoff. “Pass me the gun.”
She rolls her eyes. “Just go and get her.”
“Not happening.”
