“Save your breath. I don’t need to hear your lies. I know exactly what you were doing. Where you were going. Who you were running off to. You little slut.”
Beads of sweat form at the base of my neck and trickle down my spine. I shiver violently as though a frigid breeze just swept through the room. My stomach clenches and whirls. I can’t escape. I can’t get away from him. Even if I could get past him or run back to my room, it doesn’t matter. He knows. I know that he knows.
His eyes are gleaming with a sick light. His thin lips are turned up into a horrible sneer. This is the happiest I’ve seen my father look in years. He steps closer.
I swallow with difficulty. “Please…” My words trail away. There isn’t anything I can ask for. There won’t be any mercy.
His gaze drops to the white rectangle in my hand. Evidence. The damning evidence I’ve so very obviously incriminated myself with. I have to get away from him. I have to destroy it. I take a halting step back, but I’m not fast enough. He’s on me with a lethal grace I didn’t even know my father possessed. His hand cuts through the air, catching me across the cheek.
I stumble, but I don’t go down. I channel all my rage into twisting. Lashing out. Fighting back. I let out all that rage that I’ve been taught to keep channeled inside. Stored away. The rage of losing Liam. The pain, the anger, the frustration. I strike back against the man who was supposed to love me. Who was supposed to care for me. The father who was never truly a father. He’s treated me more like a pariah than a human being. I was just there for him. I was never, ever something that mattered.
He overpowers me easily. He tears the letter from me, and holding it in his hand, he grips my shoulder so hard that I let out a hiss of pain. He shakes me. Shakes me until my neck nearly snaps from my shoulders.
I watch as his eyes scan the page. His voice is mocking as he says, “Dear Steel, you were right. I’m so sorry…”
Hearing my words read back to me, I know then, that I’m going to be the destruction of everything. Steel. His club. His brothers and their old ladies. Their children. I’m going to be the tool my father uses to hurt them. How could I have been so careless? Worse, how could I ever have believed that the things I’d done went unnoticed? I was so stupid. So naive.
I should have stayed away. If I really cared about Steel, I would have done what he said. I finally understand.
Now. When it’s too late.
Chapter Seventeen
Steel
It’s the first time there’s ever been a woman in church.
All the brothers are there, gathered around the table. Harley sits beside me at the head, a confused expression on her face. I could have told her separately, but I figured she’s old enough to know club business. And while this is a personal matter, it affects the club. Affects her. I can tell she’s hurt. It lingers, all mixed up with everything else she must be feeling. Edge sits to my right, the others crowded around. All the seats are taken, and the rest stand. We’ve grown so much over the years, we’ve outgrown the fucking table, but those sitting don’t hold any more rank than those standing. It’s just whoever gets there first takes a chair, not some ordered bullshit arrangement. Only the head chair and the chair to the right are reserved, for Edge and me.
In the two weeks since Leah stormed out, I’ve done a lot of thinking. Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed at her, but there was something so cute about her fucking tantrum. Feisty women have always been my downfall, and I’ve never met anyone who’ll stand up to me like Leah Harris. But instead of telling her how it is and that I wasn’t ashamed of her like a normal person would, I decided to let her stew until she came to her senses. I had one of my men keep an eye on her though. I wanted to keep it on the downlow, so I had to tell Snake that I needed to know if she was trustworthy if we were using her as a spy.
Good job he was there tonight, because when he called me an hour ago to tell me what went down at the Harris mansion I knew I had to come clean with everyone.
Admit that I’d fucked up.
That I’d let emotions cloud my reason.
I’ve just spent the better part of half an hour filling in my brothers on everything that happened. I left nothing out. It wasn’t just for the good of the club, like the brothers voted on before. I wasn’t using her for information. I was with her because I damn well wanted to be. That news shocked everyone. Everyone but Edge, who had already figured how deep in the shit I was. I can’t bear to look at Harley. There’s a good chance my daughter’s never gonna forgive me. That’s not the worst of it either.
We now have a bigger fucking problem on our hands.
I’m so blinded by rage I can barely fucking see straight. I can barely keep my ass in that seat and preside over this fucking meeting. What I want is to fuck up anyone and everyone who dares stand between me and Leah. I want to throttle her father. I can barely restrain myself.
“Tell me.” I face Snake. “Tell everyone what you saw.”
Snake’s eyes shift around the table. The room is deadly silent. The men, bleary eyed from being woken and dragged from their beds, barely even dare to breathe. When I call church unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, it can’t be for anything good.
“I was put on detail. Told to follow Leah Harris.” There are several nods around the room. “I was asked to watch her, keep tabs on her, make sure she wasn’t double-crossing us,so I did. I’ll make it short and sweet and say that we now have a problem. Her father knows that his daughter and… well… our Prez have been seeing each other. I’m guessing she was on her way to speak to Steel or drop something off. She had a letter…” his voice trails off and he glances at me.
Snake already knows the contents of the letter. When he called, he told me exactly what he heard. I make the ‘go on’ gesture. At this stage, I ain’t got nothing to hide from my men.
He clears his throat. “Suffice to say she made her feelings to our Prez crystal clear. She also said she was trying to get the information he wanted about her father.”
“Shit!” Gun mutters.
“Is she okay?” Rock asks. The brother might look like a mountain, but he’s got a heart of gold.
Snake shrugs. “He dragged her back inside. I was in two minds whether to get involved but I didn’t want to make things worse. He don’t have a rep as a violent man, so I reckon she was just in for a lecture.”
