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I let out a sigh. “I haven’t let myself want things in a very long time,” I admitted without looking at her. “It’s a hard habit to break, and even harder when it’s something I want so desperately.”

“Most habits are hard to break,” she began with a wistful smile. “But you’re here and you haven’t given Rex what he wants, which I’m guessing is even more ingrained in you than not letting yourself want things.”

We sat there a while longer until Tripod decided he had enough of both of us and limped off toward the shade.

“Good point,” I finally responded, wondering if I was brave enough to say those words to Knox.

***

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I wondered if it was Knox but then I saw the caller ID. Dani. I still hadn’t updated her about my mom, so I was looking forward to telling her all about our trip to Nevada. I opened the chat with a smile on my face, but when I saw the photo that had been sent my whole body turned to ice.

Dani, bloody and tied to a chair. A bruise forming on her face.

A text arrived seconds later.

Come to the Roadhouse Bar if you want to see this little bitch alive. And Ivy? Come alone. Or else.

My stomach dropped through the floor. He was using my love for Dani against me, the same way he used me against my mom.

I stood slowly, ignoring my mom’s worried expression. “I need to go talk to Hatchet about something,” I told her absently. “Let’s meet up for dinner?”

“That sounds lovely. Ivy,” she called after me.

I smiled. “Thanks, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you too, honey.”

I felt bad lying to her, but this was the first time she’d felt safe since leaving him. I didn’t want to spoil it unless it was necessary.

***

I found Switch and Hatchet before leaving the clubhouse. I wasn’t the naïve girl my father had given away to a stranger, not anymore. I wasn’t stupid or reckless, even if I was beating myself up over not warning Dani that Rex was losing his shit. Dani was my best friend. No, she was a sister to me. She was the only reason I hadn’t killed myself years ago. Her friendship saved me and I would repay the favor today.

I drove to the old Roadhouse Bar. It used to be Warlords MC property once, before too many complaints and code violations shut it down for good. The building still stood, which said something about the construction even if nothing else about it worked anymore. The windows were broken or blacked out, and the parking lot was cracked through with weeds.

The front door was unlocked.

Inside was dim and smelled like stale cigarettes and old wood. Dani was in the middle of the room, tied to a chair, because Rex was that confident. Her mouth was taped and her right eye had started to swell, but she was conscious, and when she saw me, she shook her head fast and she wore a panicked expression. The message was clear: danger ahead.

I already knew and I braced myself for Rex to make an appearance.

He stepped out from the shadows near the bar. “I knew you’d come.” He smiled like he had the upper hand just because I showed up.

I shrugged off his words and his obvious glee, not because it didn’t matter to me but because he thrived on other people’s fear. He craved it the way any junkie craves their next fix. “You made sure I would,” I shot back. “Dani is the only person in this whole fucking world who matters to me, of course I came.”

He laughed. “Emotions make you weak.” He spat the words he’d said to me too many times to count, as if repeating them enough made them true.

“Arrogance makes you weaker.”

Something shifted in his expression. Anger first followed quickly by amusement. “You got some spine since I last saw you. That’s good, you’ll need it where you’re going.”

I shook my head, offering a small smile that threw him off. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He walked over to me, slowly like the predator he was and stopped in front of me. Rex stared at me like he hated me and then backhanded me across the face. “That’s no way to talk to your father.”

I staggered back a few steps, absorbing the burning sensation in my cheek. The sting lessened with every passing second and when it was gone, I smiled. “I don’t have a father,” I replied in as calm a voice as I could manage while I balled my fist around the brass knuckles I had tucked into my jacket pocket before I left the compound. “Just a cruel man who was mean because nobody ever loved him.” The words landed and his anger burned, and that was when I hit him in the stomach with everything I had.

Rex doubled over with a loud, agonized grunt. He took a step back and tried to catch the breath I punched clean out of him. His eyes were wide with shock, and that look was worth the fear I’d bottled up. “You bitch!” he growled and took a step forward.