Page 47 of Sinner’s Torment

“That too,” King agreed.

I stared at the phone, my mind racing.

Brandy was Hex’s daughter.

The daughter of a man who’d sacrificed everything for his brothers, only to be betrayed so deeply that he’d burned his entire life to the ground.

A man who’d walked away from the MC world and made damn sure no one could ever drag him—or his family—back into it.

And now I’d gotten his daughter pregnant.

“Fuck,” I breathed.

“Yeah,” King said. “Fuck is right. If Hex finds out one of you knocked up his daughter, he’s going to lose his shit. And if he finds out you’re trying to claim her under club protection despite the Federation rule, he’s going to come for all of you. And trust me when I say this—you don’t want Hex coming for you.”

Montana’s jaw tightened. “We’re not afraid of some ex-brother.”

“You should be,” King said flatly. “Hex isn’t just some ex-brother. He’s a man who survived five years in federal prison for a crime he didn’t commit. A man who walked back into his old clubhouse and beat the president’s son half to death with his bare hands. A man who’s spent the last thirty something years living off the grid, raising his family, and making damn sure no one from his old life ever finds him.”

“Until now,” I said quietly.

“Until now,” King agreed. “And when he finds out—and he will find out, Torment—you better be ready for what comes next.”

The line went dead.

Montana set his phone down slowly, his expression dark.

No one spoke.

The weight of what we’d just learned pressed down on all of us, heavy and suffocating.

I’d thought this was just about Brandy. About a club whore who’d run away because she was scared.

But it wasn’t.

It was about a man who’d been betrayed by the very brothers he’d sacrificed everything to protect. A man who’d walked away from the MC world and built a new life, a clean life, far from the violence and chaos that had destroyed him.

And now I’d dragged his daughter right back into that world.

“We need a plan,” Mercy said finally, breaking the silence.

Montana looked at him, then at me. “Yeah. We do.”

But as I sat there, staring at the phone on the table, I couldn’t help but think that no plan in the world was going to be enough.

Not when we were dealing with a man like Hex.

Not when we’d just crossed a line that should never have been crossed.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Brandy

I woke to the feeling of being watched.

Not the creepy, invasive kind of watched—the kind that made your skin crawl and your instincts scream danger. This was different. Familiar. Comforting in a way I couldn’t quite articulate. The kind of presence that had watched over me when I was sick as a child, burning up with fever and delirious. When nightmares woke me in the dark, gasping and crying out for someone to save me. When the world felt too big and overwhelming and I felt too small and insignificant to matter.

I blinked against the darkness, my eyes adjusting slowly to the dim light filtering through the curtains. The streetlamp outside cast long shadows across the ceiling, and dust motes drifted lazily through the pale beam that cut across my room.