Page 136 of Shattered Pieces

I turned slowly, seeing the bullet hole in the wall where my head had been, and I knew it was time to leave. That had been a lucky miss.

“I never lied to you, but believe what you want,” I murmured, stepping towards the door. “Thanks for nothing.”

His firm gaze remained on me, so did his gun, until I left the house and climbed into Lukas’ car, the door to Slash’s house slamming behind me. I finally let the tears fall, knowing there was no way he’d change his mind.

I drove off before he could shoot at the car or something if he was flipping out inside, lifting my hand to feel my throat. It was tender, each breath hurting my lungs as I tried to keep my breathing even.

Once I’d driven a few blocks away, I pulled over to inspect my throat in the mirror, cringing when I saw the finger marks. It would definitely bruise, which meant I couldn’t let Josie see it.

I doubted she’d believe I’d just gotten in a fight for funsies, and she’d call the cops with her finger pointed at Skeeter.

I cleared my throat and regretted it instantly as pain hit me, and I wondered if he’d actually crushed something. Was that possible?

I had three options right now. One, go home and try to put a damn scarf on before Josie saw it and pray she didn’t want me to talk. Two, call one of the guys to meet me to get ahead of the situation before they finished school and saw it without warning. That was probably the smart choice.

I definitely couldn’t call Diesel. He’d lose his mind and kill him.

My final option was to go to Hunter to see if his doctor could check it out, but that also came with consequences. Would he go after Skeeter? I really didn’t need that.

The pain was only getting worse, so I shoved down my pride and started driving towards Mount Mercer, mind made up. I could call the guys once I’d been checked out so they didn’t worry so much.

Faris was just climbing out of his car when I arrived, a grin on his face as I opened the door and he realized it was me.

“Hey, Donovan. It’s been quiet around here without you,” he teased, and I forced a smile.

“Is Hunter here?” I asked, my voice coming out rough and broken. His amusement fell as he moved closer, his eyes dropping to the finger marks on my throat.

“Yeah, he’s inside. Come on. You want some ice for that? What happened?”

“Me and Skeet exchanged words.”

“He choked you?” He didn’t seem surprised, just wanting the facts.

“Shot at me too,” I tried to say with a laugh, but my voice gave out and cut half my words out.

He opened the door to let me inside first, and I eyed Marco as he beat the hell out of someone in the cage. A few of the guys lingered, but it was obvious most were out on jobs, and Marco’s little show wasn’t for pleasure.

I jerked when Faris snagged my elbow to tug me along a little faster, heading to the bar to pull two ice packs out for me.

“Sit here and ice it. I’ll get the boss,” Faris instructed as he motioned to the bar stool, turning and heading up to the office once I was seated.

“Who’d you piss off?” Preston snickered from close by, running his eyes over me.

“Skeet,” I shrugged, and he groaned.

“Seriously? You’re bringing Psychos’ drama here again? You must suck dick real good if⁠—”

Someone punched him and almost knocked him over, my eyes sliding to Marco as he moved to stand in front of me. He was breathing heavily, blood coating his hands with spatters of blood across his chest and face.

“Watch your mouth, Pres. You don’t want the boss to hear you talking like that,” he warned flatly as I heard Hunter jogging down the stairs with Faris behind him.

He appeared in front of me and motioned for me to move the ice packs out of the way so he could look at my throat, his eyes narrowing when I did as he asked.

“What the fuck?” Marco bit out when he realized I was hurt, but Hunter seemed content to gently tilt my head out of the way to run his fingers over my throat, pulling back when I winced.

“I’m going to kill him,” Hunter spat, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him from stalking off.

“Don’t,” I rasped out, stopping him in his tracks. “I came to you to—” I coughed, which just hurt like a bitch, so he shook his head.