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I cling to him, a little in disbelief that I’m here right now. This is real. This is Gray’s bed and from this night on, I belong in it. I belong in his life. He’ll carve out a world for us. This is our reality. Us, as a family. It’s everything I was terrified to believe in, but love has to be bigger than terror. Love has to be bigger than everything.
Chapter 17
Lark
The sweet silence we’ve enjoyed for the past few hours after Gray fucked me into a near senseless state is shattered by an alarm pealing from Gray’s phone. It startles me so badly that I gasp, jerking against him. He holds on tight to me with one arm and reaches across the bed with the other. Palming his phone, he frowns at it, then curses. I was startled but not afraid until I hear that guttural fuck from him.
He shoots off the bed, killing the lights.
I scramble off too, already tugging my clothes back on. Someone’s coming.
“Who?” I wrench my sweater over my head and tug my jeans on frantically. He’s doing the same, throwing jeans and a t-shirt back on.
“No one I know. Wizard will be seeing it. My brothers are on their way.
We both see the sweep of headlights out in the yard at the same time and hear the low hum of an engine, the whir of tires crunching on the gravel driveway.
Gray flies to the dresser, pops the top drawer open, and palms a handgun. He doesn’t check it, which means he knows that it’s loaded. He’s alone in here most of the time. There’s no reason for him not to keep a loaded weapon at hand.
A wave of anxiety pummels me. The fact that this man, who plans so carefully for everything, doesn’t know who’s out there is chilling.
“Stay there.” Gray flies to the window. He plasters himself up against the wall and peeks over.
My mind races through every single horrible scenario. Men with guns. Knives. Enemies even Gray never saw coming.
“Fuck,” Gray’s guttural growl flies through the room and hits me like a sharp smack. He moves away from the window. I’ve never seen him look afraid, but he’s pale now.
I rush to him and throw my arms around his neck, plastering my body against his. “Who’s out there? I know you know.”
“Get Penny. There’s no lock on the door, but stay there with her. Half the club will be coming soon. Those men out there didn’t give a shit about tripping that alarm even though they must know about the cameras. They don’t want a fight, or they would have gone straight to the clubhouse. They want me. I’m going out there and I’ll make sure they take me before anyone else gets here. They’ll leave you alone and no one else will get hurt then.”
I’ve never known terror like this. My legs are like water and Gray has to hold me up.
“How- how can you know that?” I try to see who is out there, but he twists me in his arms and grasps my face, tilting it up to his brutally. “Gray? Who?” I dig both fists into his t-shirt and cling lightly. I’m not letting him go out there to sacrifice himself like a martyr. He’s not allowed to throw his life away tosave ours. I’m filled with a rush of adrenaline, the strength that I’ve been trying to dig down and find.
Gray’s chest heaves. “My dad.”
“Your- your father?”
I’d collapse if he wasn’t bracing me. I’ve been trying to make peace with whatever Gray has done in the past. Did I really think that he had murdered his own father? He never told me so, and I’d confronted him multiple times. His evasion of it explains a lot. He couldn’t tell me, because he hadn’t killed him.
“I don’t have time to explain, but the club wanted him dead. He’d betrayed some of the brothers, and the rest finally found out. He wasn’t the prez we all knew anymore. We called a meeting, and the brothers made it clear they wanted me for their next president. He was my father, and I couldn’t just let them kill him. I convinced them to let me take him out and do it, to bury him myself. Out of respect for me and my grief, they agreed. I did take him out, but I told him that he had to leave. Change his identity and go somewhere else and never come back.”
“You spared his life and he’s back for revenge?”
“Something like that.” Gray pushes me gently away. He shakes his head. “I was so fucking stupid trusting him. I should have known he wouldn’t have gone down quietly.”
“But- but you let him live!”
“I thought that would be enough too, but if he’s back, it’s because he wants what was taken from him. He views us all as traitors, even though he was the one who betrayed us first.”
That sinking feeling shoots from my stomach to burst like a grenade in my brain, painting the room red. “Who? Who did he betray?”
“Raiden. That bust. It was his doing. He was wary of the power we were building up in the club. The brothers liked us. It was me he should have banged up because I was his son and the most likely candidate to replace him and he knew it, but that would have been too obvious, so he took down my closest friend.”
Tears flow down my cheeks. I’m terrified for Gray and for myself and Penny, but I’m also angry. The rage swirls through me like dark, toxic smoke. My brother lost five years of his life because of one man’s arrogance and greed.
I set that aside because Gray doesn’t need me spitting nasty words. He needs me to be strong, so he doesn’t have to be strong for me. A single shot can start a war. “Please don’t go out there.”
