Page 20 of Shattered Pieces

“You told this asshole he could fuck Rory?” I spat. In his defense, Tyler looked embarrassed by it.

“I didn’t tell him to fuck her, I just said I didn’t give a shit if she was hooking up with them. She loves me, that’s all I give a shit about.”

“She can’t just go around collecting guys like they’re Pokemon,” Jensen scoffed, and Tyler frowned.

“Why not? She can do what she wants as long as she doesn’t push me aside. For someone who’s never really had love in her life before, she has so much to give when you let her in. I don’t mind sharing it a little if it makes her happy.”

Hunter sighed, rubbing his temples. “This is sweet and all, but it’s not the point of the conversation. Rory never touched us, but none of you believe her.”

“Can’t you talk to Skeet? He needs to protect her,” I said, a defeated tone in my voice. He’d put his walls up so damn high again that I couldn’t even see the top.

“He won’t listen to Diesel, so he won’t listen to me.”

“Wait, Diesel’s trying to convince him? He believes her?” Jensen asked with a frown.

“From what he told me, he and Brick are the only two in the Psychos that believe she didn’t betray them. Skeet’s protecting himself by pushing everyone away and being angry.”

“My bad,” Marco muttered.

“What did you do?” I asked slowly, his eyes flicking to Hunter as if asking permission.

Hunter stared back at him for a moment before sighing, waving his hand to continue.

“Skeet’s a damaged piece of shit because I broke him when we were seventeen.”

“I know. You guys fucked him over and shot him,” I answered, but he shook his head.

“Before that. We were together in secret. The previous leader of the Psychos was a cruel man and kept Skeet on a tight leash. He raised him with an iron fist, and he never would’ve allowed Skeet to date a man, much less one connected to another crew. It was easy to sneak around at first, we were just teenagers, but the older we got the more that asshole watched us. You think Skeet’s possessive with Aurora? He was insanely obsessed with me. It was going to get him killed.”

“Wait, you and Skeet dated?” I asked quietly, confusion rolling through me.

“No one knows about it, other than Diesel, us, and Rory. Slash did too. We had to keep it a secret, Skeet’s life depended on it,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands on his lap. “I fucked some girl, knowing he’d walk in to see it. Outright told him I’d played him and never loved him. I did what I had to in order to keep him safe, even if that meant destroying everything I had with him.”

My mind was reeling the more I thought about it. Skeeter had basically forced me out of the damn closet before I was even aware I was in it.

“There’s no way you guys were together,” I finally said, but doubt whispered in the back of my mind.

“Why? Can’t picture me bending him over? Spoiler alert, it was hot,” he scoffed, and Hunter shot him a look of warning. It was obvious Hunter was trying to protect some of Skeeter’s privacy while still giving us information.

How could Skeeter have forced me out publicly after keeping his own relationship a secret?

“I’m going to bed,” I announced as I stood, hearing Jensen sigh as I left the room as fast as possible. Skeeter was lucky I didn’t go and punch him in the face right this second.

CHAPTER FOUR

HUNTER

Islept maybe two hours all night once we’d gotten home from Jensen’s. Trying to figure out other ways to help Rory was impossible. I’d given up my research at three in the morning to sleep before hitting the road on my bike just after five with Marco following, making the four hour ride to Fairview to see Lexi.

We stopped for a late breakfast on the way to the prison, going through the process to get inside with the usual strip search they loved giving us since they were so sure we were trying to bring drugs into the prison.

We sat at a table in the visitation room once they’d established they were wrong again, and I instantly started scanning the other people so I knew who was in there. No one I recognized, which was always a good thing.

Marco slouched in his seat looking bored, probably wishing he was literally anywhere else. He’d only come as my backup in case I had trouble on the road, but I hadn’t liked the idea of him sitting outside on his bike while he waited.

A soft smile tugged at my mouth when Lexi walked through the door, rocking her prison outfit as always. The girl would look good in a trash bag.

I stood, giving her a quick hug and noticing how tight she held on this time. I knew Lexi like the back of my hand, and as much as she was strong, she wasn’t like Rory, who enjoyed the violence and mayhem. She only went along with it out of pure survival.