Page 46 of Reckless Vengeance

He didn’t say anything as he hugged her back, patting her on the back for a moment before letting go and motioning to the stairs for us to go to bed.

Caden led us to our own bedrooms, while Lukas made sure Rory got back to her room, and once I was in the ridiculously big bed alone, the silence became unbearable.

I’d been working myself into the ground or surrounding myself with people since Slash’s death, and now it was so quiet I could hear my own damn heartbeat. I was so fucking angry, but the grief hit like a tsunami and washed it away, making room for the devastation below the surface.

My best friend, the guy I’d called my brother for almost my entire life, was gone. No warning, no time to prepare, nothing.

“Fuck,” I cursed quietly as I sat up and put my head in my hands, fighting tears. I didn’t cry, Savage had made sure to raise me as a machine, not a man, but tears finally fell after a second as I took the time to finally grieve.

In this life, death was always on the horizon. Those of us in our twenties knew we were probably already halfway through our lifespan. Not many made it to their sixties.

Hell, a lot barely made it to thirty, so Slash’s death was always a high possibility, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t a shock.

I never thought I’d take over the Psychos, I assumed I’d stand beside Slash while he did it until we died in a blaze of glory together closer to forty. We still had so many things we’d wanted to do together for the crew, changing the way the world looked at us.

Now, it was all on me to keep pushing to complete what he wanted.

I wasn’t sure how long I allowed myself to cry, but I made a promise to myself that I’d put my mask back in place in the morning and make sure to prepare to give Slash the best send-off I could, and to ensure the Soldiers paid for their sins in blood.

CHAPTER EIGHT

RORY

“How’s your head?” Caden asked as we walked towards the parking lot after school, and I grimaced.

“Thumping. I need to train more. I want to be Skeet when I grow up,” I joked, holding onto my bag strap more tightly as he tried to take it from me. “It’s a headache. I can still carry my bag.”

“Give it here,” he grumbled, yanking it and almost making me land on my ass as I tried to hold on. “Aurora, stop being difficult.”

“Never,” I chuckled, giving him a small smile. “You like me being difficult.”

“Wrong,” he grunted, managing to get the bag from me and swung it over his own shoulder.

Tyler had skipped last period and was lounging on the hood of his car smoking a cigarette, watching as the smoke swirled into the air above him like it fascinated him.

“Hey, stud muffin,” I greeted, standing in front of the hood.

He grinned and flicked the cigarette away, sitting up and sliding down a little so his feet were on the ground on either side of my legs as he grabbed handfuls of my ass.

“Hey, baby. You should’ve ditched with me. Nothing goes better with coke quite like your pussy,” he replied, shoving his face between my tits and making motorboating noises. “Fuck, I love these.”

I could tell Caden wanted to scold him about getting high again, but he kept his mouth shut and unlocked his car, letting me deal with him.

“How about you stop doing coke at school?” I deadpanned, and he made loud booing noises.

“Boring! Where’s Luke and Jense?”

“They had to grab stuff from their lockers.”

“Do you think they’re stopping for a quickie? We should have a quickie,” he laughed, nipping my boob and sliding his hand up my skirt.

I swatted it away, giving him a dirty look. “You can wait.”

“You’re a stick in the sandbox,” he grumbled, and I rolled my eyes.

“You mean mud?”

“Sandbox sounds more fun. Unless it’s mud wrestling,” he mused, getting to his feet and fishing his keys from his pocket.