Tavi
The door slammed behind me, locking me in the office with him. Letting my rage simmer for a brief moment, I looked over at him.
The one who controls my future.
My brother.
Now, the head of the fucking Ironborne Crew.
“Manny.”
“Tavi,” he said, his expression grim. He held the weight of the entire legacy our father had turned into his empire on his shoulders. Sure, the Crew had been carried down through the generations from the first Ironborne - the Ayres - but it was my father who thought he was king shit when it came to power. The one who started the ongoing war with the Shackled Sons MC.
Now, that had been a scary time. Especially being the daughter of said Ironborne.
Growing up and thinking you could be hurt just because your dad hated the local bikers and wanted to start beef with them every time they rode through our territory was no way to grow up. I guess it wasn’t new, the two of them had continuously been at each others’ throats over territory since the beginning, but my father had amped it up a lot.
“Why did you want to see me?”
“I hear you’ve moved out of your home.”
“I have,” I answered. Of course, Hardy had come to him. They were best friends, after all. How very cliche of me to fall in love with my older brother’s best friend. It was meant to be a fling, something to piss my father off about but I’d gone and got myself pregnant, and now I had a lifetime of dealing with Hardy.
“Why?”
“I don’t see what it has to do with the Ironborne or you, Mannix. I’m a grown woman. I can choose to leave my partner if I choose to.”
“And what about Van? Isn’t he going to miss his mum?”
I blanched. “What? Of course I’m taking my son with me.”
“He’s Hardy's son, too. Where will you go? He has the money to look after you both. Maybe you need to talk to him first.”
“You know, as well as I do, that he has never been faithful to me. He only proposed to me because I had just had his baby and he wanted Dad to be happy.”
Mannix sighed. “Tavi, I’m telling you, he isn’t going to back down. That’s his son. I’m imploring you to reconsider.”
I knew what that meant. Hardy was threatening him to tell me to stay. Mannix had a plan. A plan to turn the Ironborne into something greater than what it was. I was fucking proud of him for it, but it was taking time. Not everyone wanted to operate that way, in a way that meant we were allies with the Sons, instead of enemies. He had to wear them down, get in fresh blood that would stand by him when it all went to shit, which meant he had to tread a line he rarely ever wanted to.
Like appeasing the men who would see him off the throne and anarchy erupt.
“He won’t teach my son that women mean nothing,” I said, my teeth grinding in the back of my mouth. “He’s four. He needs his Mum.”
Mannix closed his eyes for a moment longer than I think he realised. I could feel the stress coming off him in waves. “Tavi, hewants a subservient wife. I know that’s not you, but it’s not about just you anymore. You have a son who needs you. Make the right decision.”
“I’m not subservient. I never will be. I want to be loved and cherished. Is that so hard for him to understand?”
Mannix shrugged. “I suppose it is. He’s never known it from his own parents, so how could he know what to do? Show him, or…find another way.”
“I refuse to be with a partner who doesn’t value me.”
Turning my back on him, I stormed to the door. My hand was on the door handle when he spoke.
“Why do you keep calling him your partner?” Mannix asked.
Confused, I turned around to face him. “Well that’s what he is. I feel likeboyfriendis a little juvenile.”
“Tavi…”
