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“Pictures?”
She nodded. “Apparently, he’d been going through my shit when I wasn’t home. He found some old pictures.” She let that hang in the air between them for a moment. “They were pictures of Big and me when we first started…” She thought about what they had been doing back then. “When we were seeing each other.” Claire figured that was the safest wording to use, especially with Mayhem.
Her brother might know the extent of her and Big’s relationship two years ago, how it had been sexual because they didn’t keep their sexual relationship secret, but that didn’t mean she was going to call it like it had been— straight up fucking.
“Tell me, Claire,” Mayhem said in a hard, unyielding tone.
“He didn’t like finding those, like they were recent or something. The idiot thought we were still seeing each other.” She chuckled humorlessly, feeling her emotions rise up, consume her, threaten to suffocate her. “I guess I was too mouthy for him and not backing down.”
“That’s my girl.”
She smiled, but she felt no happiness in her brother’s praise. “He hit me.” She touched the side of her face, feeling her anger rise at the fact she’d let a man put his hands on her, that she hadn’t realized Steven had been a prick sooner. “I grabbed the first thing I saw, something I could use as a weapon that was closest to me.” She took a deep breath, remembering bringing it down on his head, hearing this sickening crack, and seeing the blood slide down his forehead. “There was a hot poker by the fireplace where I was standing. I just snapped when he put his hands on me and took that poker and hit him on the head.”
Mayhem pushed away from the wall. “Anyone hear anything? See anything, Claire?”
She shook her head. “We were inside in the living room, and the curtains were shut. There wasn’t any shouting. Just name-calling and the hit.” She leaned back in the chair knowing her brother asked her these things because this was bad, very bad.
“Is he dead?”
She shook her head. “No. I heard a crack and saw blood, but he was still breathing and cursing me as I ran out of there. He shouted at me that he’d find me and make me pay as I ran out the door, but I could hear in his voice he was in pain. He struggled getting that threat out.” She shrugged. “I was able to get to a gas station and fill up. And then I just hauled ass here.”
“And you just came here? Didn’t think about calling me before all of this happened? I could have taken care of it, Claire.”
She nodded. “I wasn’t thinking, Mayhem,” she said and looked up at him, feeling like she was breaking in two. “I just kept thinking that I’d really hurt him, and that he’d come for me. It was stupid going over there. Really fucking stupid.”
Mayhem was silent for several seconds. “Do you think he’ll call the cops?”
She thought about the question, and then shook her head. “I doubt it. He was a party guy, smoked a lot of pot, did some coke here and there, but he has a record. Just petty shit or at least that’s what he told me. Calling the cops would bring light on him, and I don’t think he’s that stupid.” She felt safer at the club, for obvious reasons, and this felt like home. “He’ll come after me, Mayhem, I know it, and although I’m not afraid of that, I am afraid of this situation.”
Mayhem looked sympathetic and walked over to her. He pulled her out of the chair and gave her a hug. “It’s okay, Claire. Everything will be okay.”
She nodded. “I know, but I’ve never been in a situation like this, Mayhem.”
He pulled back and smiled down at her. Her brother might be the same age as she was, have the same black hair and light blue eyes, but he was so big, so muscular. Her five foot six height had nothing on his over six foot tall frame.
He wasn’t just her brother. He’d always been her protector.
“No one will fuck with you again.” He pulled her in for another hug, and she breathed out. Her thoughts were consumed with what was going to happen, with how it would go down. She knew her brother wouldn’t stop until he tracked down Steven, and although the fucker deserved what he got, she didn’t like the feeling like she had to run to her brother and the club for help.
That’s what family is for.
“Did you tell any of the other guys … Big specifically?” he asked but still hugged her.
“You know the answer to that.”
She felt him nod.
“I don’t know what went down between you and Big. but you left partially because of him, but either way and no matter what, you’ll have to talk to him.”
