AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her grip on my hand tightened while her eyes quickly studied where her Thunder used to live. I wasn’t sure where I would make my next home. I just had to trust Diesel until I figured it out.
Holding their stomachs, Chubs and Roamer rushed past us and into bedrooms. Chubs had his own when we left, but Roamer had been staying with Tabi and me.
In my room, Rya touched the dresser, the couch. She looked over the chair and the black walls I had drawn on for years. “I always wondered what ya home looked like,” she said, grazing her finger along a drawing on the wall of a silver mask. The one Ani wore on stage. “And ya othe’ life.”
Her accent was thick. She was nervous too.
Touching the bottom bunk bed, the one where Tabi and I had slept, she jerked her hand back, resting it on her chest.
“I’m sorry,” I tried, but was stopped with a kiss to my chest before Rya repeated words from the past. “Whateve’ it takes.”
Then she left the room.
“Rya…”
I understood her departure but worried for her safety until Art appeared in the doorway, assuring me, “In my sight at all times.”
He’d already killed for her, and I knew he would again.
After they both disappeared and Chubs reappeared, I couldn’t talk for some reason. When Roam shut the door, giving the three of us privacy, I sat on the bottom bunk. I swear, I could still smell Tabi.
My hands yanked at my blond hair that had grown longer while surviving in this room. “What is wrong with me?”
Chubs held a PlayStation remote, staring at it as if not understanding ever enjoying it. “You almost died here several times?”
Roamer stared out the window that showed a glimpse of the beach at the end of the road. “You were my dad’s punching post?”
We all had lost so much here. “How are you?” The house may still be bugged so I couldn’t say much more.
He touched the glass. “Since Dad ‘took off’… I’m sad my father isn’t worth missing.”
Damn, if that didn’t say it all.
“I’m sorry I’m dragging you guys to Georgia.”
“I can handle some back-wood country girls for a bit,” Chubs tried to tease away our anxiety, but we all knew why he yearned to get to the Redemption Ryder compound.
Not willing to call him out on it because of more secrets we had to hide, I decided to harass Roamer instead. “Same go for you?”
Feigning ignorance, he grimaced. “What?”
Chubs elbowed him. “Maybe a country boy for ya instead?”
When I was fourteen, I learned Roamer preferred the same sex, a fact we couldn’t share with men who made their money off selling girls. They never would’ve understood. It might have even put him in danger.
Outside, saying goodbye, I hugged Weatherman again since he wouldn’t be coming with. In his ear, I asked, “You said Onus was obsessed with me. Do you know why?”
“No.” He leaned back to see me. “All I know is that he needed permission for something.”
Frustrated, I knew what I had to do. I needed to get more answers.
To do that, I was going to have to face … Onus.
FOURTEEN
TRICKY PERCEPTIONS
Thunder
