Lore shoves past me and stomps out of the room. I have to rush to keep up with her as she bounces down the stairs and out of the house. I’m mildly perplexed when she climbs onto her bike instead of going around the back, but I’m in no place to judge her actions.
Lore’s back wheel kicks up pebbles as she skids to the side, doing a one-eighty with the bike while keeping one foot on the ground, and then she shoots forward at a breakneck speed. I grit my teeth and fight the urge to stop her reckless behavior. Even though I know it would take more than a crash to kill her, I’m still struggling.
I race down the drive full throttle to catch her. There’s no way I’m going to let her get away from me, not when she’s hurting so badly.
I follow the roar of her bike and the ache in my chest as she weaves in and out of traffic on the two-lane road. Other vehicles slow to let her pass, probably for their own safety.
I know where she lives—hell, I can’t count how many nights I’ve spent riding past her church in hopes of catching a glimpse of her—but she’s not heading to the east side of town. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s heading back to the clubhouse.
I maneuver through traffic just as recklessly as she does to catch up to her. It would be impossible for Lore not to know I’m next to her, but she ignores my presence. I can accept that for now.
CHAPTER5
Lore
I ripthe clubhouse door open. I’m feeling raw and would like nothing more than to kill something. Modeus trails behind me like a lost puppy, or maybe I’m the lost soul and he’s just trying to make sure I don’t join my father. I could puke at the thought.
The place is quiet, and the few members who are present all cast their gazes in my direction. I feel their eyes, but I’m focused on the back of the club. Salvador gets to his feet slowly. A moment passes between us where I swear he reads what I discovered on my face. He looks down at the ground, and his ochre skin changes to a sickly yellow shade as his shoulders slump.
Modeus’ chest brushes my back. He probably thinks he’s going to have to hold me back from doing something I may regret later, and I don’t tell him otherwise. It’s sick to admit, but I like his presence, which means I should be avoiding him, but I don’t have the strength to push him away right now.
“You should have told me sooner,” I rumble.
“Did you… Did you find him?” Salvador stutters and takes a shuffling step forward, but we’re still separated by at least thirty feet.
My throat tightens, and it takes me a few seconds to force my answer out past my lips. “I did. Maybe I would have been in time if you would have fucking told me sooner!” Near the end of my answer, I’m screaming.
Salvador briefly brings his hands up to cover his face. “And I’ll have to live with that choice,” he says after removing them.
“If I let you.” I step forward, and Modeus follows right behind me so I can still feel every inch of him pressed against me, and then he grabs my arm in a punishing hold.
“If you want to kill the demon, I won’t stop you,” Modeus says, even while restraining me, belying his words. The strange part is I have no urge to pull away from him. “But I need to make sure it’s really what you want.”
“I would be forced to stop you, Lorelei,” comes a sultry voice. I snap my head to the left and see Thana slipping closer to me. The fact that she moves like smoke is the only reason I didn’t notice the sergeant sooner.
“You could try, vampire, but remember, you got your position because I allowed you to have it,” I warn, reminding the sergeant at arms that I could have held her rank at any time, but I chose my station in the club.
She continues to meet my stare, not backing down. Modeus’ grip tightens a little more, and I wonder if I’ve been herded into this position. A near stranger is at my back, and a rival is at my front. Thana and I have clashed since the first time I kicked her ass in hand-to-hand combat.
“I earned my position, Lorelei,” she bites out through razor-sharp teeth, “but even as the new president, you have rules you must follow.” Thana darts her eyes up over my head and casts her gaze over Modeus. It makes me want to snarl at her, but I refrain. “It’s the sergeant’s job to ensure the laws are not broken,” she finishes, dropping her glower back to me.
“That would be hard for you to do when you’re in pieces at my feet.” My skin twitches to shift. I usually don’t allow myself to be baited so easily, but I’m on edge, and ripping her fucking spine out through her throat sounds positively cathartic.
Modeus places his lips near my ear and makes a sound that could be called a hum, but it’s too dangerous to call it that. Still, I feel the effects cascade over my entire body. “Know your place,” he says louder to Thana, and I work to suppress a shiver.
Thana’s dark eyebrows rise high. “Watch your tone, enforcer, and rememberyou are beneath me.”
“Thana,” Salvador chastises roughly. “Lore is the president and able to appoint her own inner circle, as you well know.”
“She could also hold trials and surrender the Obsidian Angels MC entirely,” Thana adds almost innocently. It sets off alarm bells, but it’s also a lifeline I didn’t know I was looking for. I could walk away from the club, move out of the territory, live in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and never have to deal with club politics.
“Not for a fortnight,” Salvador argues. “The club is allowed time to mourn. Holding a trial for a new leader before then would be disrespectful.”
“The same goes for replacing the ranking officers.” Thana plants a hand on her hip as if Salvador just proved her right, but I think her goal was to let it slip that I could escape the bonds of the Syndicate.
“Rules or no rules, I will not hesitate to kill anyone I see fit.” I let everyone get a good look at me so they can see the truth in my words. I hope word spreads through the club and the territory like wildfire. I may have never wanted to be in this position, but I’ll be damned if anyone will fuck with Harlow’s legacy. If I find out anyone had a clue about what he was going through or that this was an inevitable possibility, I will claw open their flesh and pluck their bones from their body while they are alive so they’ll feel every excruciating second.
Reaper nods his head slowly, showing he understands. “I’ll get word to the other presidents. If there’s anything you need, Lore…” Even though it feels sincere, I’m still so incensed at him. If he only realized something was wrong faster or told me that Harlow was missing sooner, maybe we wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t want to paint the walls with his and Thana’s blood.
