by C. Lymari
He said she could marry Huxley or Duncan, but Micah’s wishes were that she couldn’t marry me. If I did, he would dissolve his shares.
Apparently, he made Leon in charge, and if there was anything anyone took sacred around here, they were the vows you made.
So, I was on a fucking precarious line.
I sat at Micah’s desk.
“I’ve been trying to find your murderer, and it’s like I’m blind. I want to find retribution for you and give your daughter peace, yet you didn’t want me with her.” I tapped on his desk, angry that the word of a dead man stood between my happiness.
Upon knocking on the desk, the computer turned on, and it struck me as odd since his office was just here waiting for the day Finley finally took her seat at the board.
Per her father’s will, she had to be twenty-five.
She had her trust fund, but it was minimal. It got transferred to my father, and then he gave her money.
For someone who wanted Finley prepared for war, he’d left her with as little as possible. But then again, Micah used to say money changed people, and he didn’t want to jeopardize her daughter to fall for the green’s greed.
While I looked at Micah’s computer, I thought about the piece of information Andre and Nate had found.
Micah was being followed a few days before his death. According to a few comments the brothers had made. They said he sounded almost paranoid.
Whenever I tried to bring this to my father, he would shut me down, so I knew I had to proceed with caution.
Rats always brought the worst in people because their betrayal always cut the deepest.
God help whoever betrayed my family because I sure wouldn’t hold back.
The door opened, and I looked up to see Leon and Huxley walk in laughing.
It annoyed me. Everything about my brother would irritate me lately, and I knew it was all jealousy, and I couldn’t help it. I compared myself to him when I knew I shouldn’t.
“Can I help you?” I said, raising a brow to both of them.
“What are you doing here?” my brother asked.
“The better question is, what are you two doing in Micah’s office?”
Leon walked over and put his briefcase on the desk. “It’s closer to the meeting room, so I sometimes use it.”
“One day, this will be my office.” Huxley shrugged.
It pissed me the fuck off.
“This will be Finley’s.”
“And she’ll be my wife,” he replied as if him marrying her was more than enough to strip her of her titles.
By this point, I couldn’t control my anger.
“She could always say no and not marry your ass.”
“She can’t,” Leon said. “Not if she wants to be part of the Disciples or DD Enterprises. She needs to take the vow like the rest of us.”
I gritted my jaw. It seemed like at every turn, there was a stop.
The chances of being able to keep Finley came crashing down at every turn. Our pillars of lies wouldn’t hold strong enough to the truth that was set in stone.
I stormed out of Micah’s office and made my way to my father’s. He was sitting behind his desk. He didn’t even look up as I barged through his office doors.
“What? Are you going to bitch about Finley again?” he asked without so much as looking up from his computer screen.
“We have a fucking rat!” I yelled, feeling like there was nothing I was doing right anymore.
My father stood up and pinned me with a death glare.
“We will not discuss this here,” he said.
“You know,” I breathed in disbelief.
“Of course I fucking know. It’s my fucking club. At the end of the day, you’re just a fucking child. You do not know everything. “
“Then fucking tell me,” I seethed.
My father didn’t do it. Not in that office. Not where he said people could hear us.
That night we met in the clearing at midnight. We were the only two living people amidst the dead.
“Before Micah died, he was a little paranoid. He was erratic, and not calm and collected,” my father started.
I nodded because this much I had gathered.
“By this point, things had already been happening. Lost cargo, raids, things that didn’t make sense.”
“Yeah, Chops mentioned the bust on the old shipping warehouse,” I told him.
My father’s eyes flared.
“Who have you been talking to about this?”
His tone was serious, his posture stiff.
“No one,” I lied. I had only told Nate, but I was sure he hadn’t told a soul.
“You mustn’t ask questions,” he told me. “I thought Micah was behind all of it,” my father confessed, and I sucked in a breath.
“I don’t understand.”
“We started this club with an idea. We had a plan and a goal. As we grew, so did our views. We had a disagreement, and I thought he betrayed us—me.”
I couldn’t even process what my father was telling me. All I could think about was that if Finley found out, she was going to be crushed.
“How did you know he didn’t betray you?”
“Because before we were supposed to have a meet to discuss these events, he was murdered. And I let everyone believe that I thought the man you killed was the one responsible for his death.”
I felt sucker punched.
Shit.
The life I had taken was in fucking vain. I didn’t mind doing what was asked of me to make it right for my family, but I drew the line at hurting innocent people.
Fuck.
I needed Finley. I needed to get lost in her to wash away what my father just said.
My father looked at me and sighed.
“I would have preferred you never found out about that. But to ease your conscience, you did not take an innocent life. That man was a criminal but not responsible for Micah’s death.”
I nodded because that’s all I could do. I still felt like shit.
“As you all know, we suspect he was killed. I paid for the report to be altered. His brake lines were cut, but I didn’t want that getting out. I’ve been waiting for someone to slip, but nothing.”
“Who do you suspect?”
“You’re not dumb,” he replied.
I cursed.
“What do they have to gain from his death?’
My father shrugged. “I don’t know. I want to believe Leon nor Gunner would ever betray us, but I also know it could be one of them.”
Fuck. I didn’t want to believe any of this shit. They were fucking family. Disciples. A betrayal from a friend cut deep, but from a brother, that shit killed, and that’s what I was doing to Huxley.
“Blair was having an affair,” my father said about Finley’s mom.
I glared at him.
“You know why, Dad? Because you can never marry for love, you and Micah treated your wives like glorified whores.”
“Well, I think whoever it was, is who got her killed,” he finished off.
“Fuck this shit,” I said as I started to walk back to the manor. These damn secrets were going to kill us all.
“Nash,” my father called after me.
“Yeah?”
“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Don’t talk but observe. Sooner or later, rats get caught, and when that day happens, we will be there.”
It took a few heartbeats, but I nodded because I knew he had a point. Chaos was the last thing you needed when you were tethered to war.
Without thinking, I made my way to Finley’s room. I passed my mom, who was smoking a cigarette on the balcony that overlooked the woods I had come from.
She came up to me and stroked my cheek.
“Fight for what makes you happy,” she said as she kissed my cheek and walked away.
With my head too fucked-up, I didn’t think about what she had said.
I made it to Finley’s room. Her night-light was on, an
d she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed finishing her homework.
I knew she noticed me but acted like I wasn’t even there.
“I fucked up,” I told her.
She continued to pretend like she hadn’t heard me come in.
“I’m so fucking crazy when it comes to you,” I confessed. “The fact that if it was anyone else, I would have already handled it. But I’m stuck between the girl I love and my little brother.”
With that, her face snapped to my face, and her mouth parted doing a sexy little O.
“You love me?”
“Fuck, Fin,” I said as I made my way to the bed. “You’re the one girl I couldn’t have and the one I couldn’t stay away from. You’re the one girl who could break my family apart, and I tried. Fuck, I tried to help it, but it’s always been you.”
She crawled her way to me, and she looked so fucking sexy and so irrevocably mine.
“That’s why I picked him. Because I knew I could fall in love with you,” she told me.
I bent my head and cupped her cheeks. There were tears in her eyes, and I felt like a dick for making her cry.
“I love that you’re vulnerable for me,” I told her.
She went up on her knees and wrapped her arms against my neck.
“I love that you have no problem being soft with me.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist, my hands coming down to her ass. I moved one of my hands down and pushed her shorts and panties aside, only to be greeted with wetness.
“I can also be hard,” I murmured darkly.
“Fuck me,” she begged me. And I was tired of staying away. I didn’t care about the fallout.
Chapter Twenty
Past
I was angry with Nash, with myself, but all of that went out the window when he walked into my room. He looked like the day he took the vow. Like he lost a piece of himself and needed my help to find it.
“I’m going to figure it all out for us,” he vowed against my lips, and that meant more than the wager my father had made with Axton. He dipped his truth into my lips, and I breathed it like it was the life force I needed.
I moaned when he inserted a finger inside of me.
“I fucking love it when you make that sound,” he growled before he pulled his fingers out. I didn’t have time to react as he pushed me back so I’d lie on the bed. He was on me in a second, taking off his shirt with one hand.
I loved his tattoos. I traced them, and he just stared at my face. My hand went to his chest, where he had the Death Disciples insignia.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he looked down at me.
I reached up and kissed him. I loved everything about him. His mismatched eyes were a window to his soul: one warm and one cold.
“Make me yours,” I whimpered.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
His lips crashed down on mine, as his hands roamed over my body. I pulled at his buckle and brought his jeans down. He removed my shirt, his mouth coming to my breast as he sucked one into his mouth. My head rolled back as he sucked a nipple. He then removed my shorts and my damp thong.
He inserted two fingers in me. My back arched as he pistoned them. He kissed my neck, licking, sucking, and biting. Come tomorrow, I would have marks everywhere. I didn’t care who knew anymore. I didn’t want us to hide. I wanted us to be out in the open.
Nash pulled his head back.
“When I get exiled, are you going to follow me?” he asked, his voice heavy with lust.
I nodded with half-mast eyes as his thumb played with my clit.
“We still have my…fuck.” I couldn’t finish what I was saying because he kept adding pressure.
He chuckled.
“My money,” I said on a moan.
He smiled at me but didn’t say anything. It was a weird smile, but I didn’t question him when he bent his head and licked my pussy.
Nash forced my legs to spread. He held onto them, making pain radiate from my apex, but that took a back seat when he started eating me out.
“Nash,” I whined.
He didn’t answer me with words; he did it with actions. He devoured me with a desperate need. My lower belly started to quiver, and my body shook. My whole body vibrated with the need to release.
I gripped his head and rode his face as I screamed his name.
My ears rang as I came down from the high. Nash left butterfly kisses around my belly button, then went up to my chest until he got to my lips.
“I love you,” he whispered against my lips before he kissed me.
I gasped, because it was everything I’d ever wanted, and everything I was taught not to do, but having Nash say that to me was everything.
“You love me?” I whispered.
His eyes went soft but were still full with lust as he caressed my cheek.
“Baby,” he said in a low voice, but I understood. I was never meant to be his, but here we were.
“I love you too,” I said with a sated grin. “Now take your pants off and fuck me.” I pushed him off me.
He chuckled, and when he took off his pants, I could see the hard imprint of his dick, and I felt a thrill. He reached down to take off his shoes when his face morphed from lust to concern.
“Fuck,” he said.
I pulled off the bed, coming to stand behind him.
“I have like ten missed calls from Nate.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said.
“Baby, I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Please, my father used to bring me everywhere.”
He nodded. “But you do as I say.”
I nodded and then ran to get changed.
The manor was quiet, everyone either out or in their rooms. Nash turned on his Harley, and I climbed on the back of it.
He turned around and gave me a soft smile.
We were really doing this. We were going to face the consequences together. I wasn’t scared of the outcome as long as I got to keep him after all the chaos had settled.
We made it to an old warehouse. Nate was there, albeit a little banged up. His lip was busted and his eye swollen. He sat on the floor, his back rested on the metal for support.
“What happened?” Nash growled as we parked the bike. He got off and then helped me get off. He held my hand and led me to Nate.
I let go of Nash so I could kneel in front of Nate, and with the sleeve of my shirt, I wiped his blood.
“What happened?” I asked again, this time as I ran my fingers through his hair.
“Princess.” He smiled weakly at me. “Take it you’re official?” He directed his question at Nash.
“Yeah.” He smiled as he looked softly at me. I felt butterflies, but we had more important things to worry about.
“Hello? We are somewhere shady. You look like you got the shit beat out of you.”
Nate took a deep breath, then made a move to get up.
“So, I got this tip, and I followed it. It led me to a fucker.” He turned to me. “He was banging your mom.”
I gasped. Nash glared at Nate with no surprise whatsoever on his face.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
Nash wrapped an arm around me and pulled me back to his chest.
“Fuck.” He kissed my temple. “There’s a rat, and I’m pretty sure they were behind your father’s murder.”
Nate offered me a grim smile. I couldn’t wrap my head around having a traitor, let alone someone murdering my father. I thought it was just an accident.
I listened while they each told me what had been going on, filling in each other’s blanks.
“I got here, and he was waiting for me. I didn’t think anything of it. Just probably somewhere where he was laying low. When I made it inside, he was ready for me. He got the upper hand, and then he pulled a gun on me.”
I ran my hand over his face.
“How did you make it out?”
I prepped myself for him to tell me that he had kille
d him. Killed the man who had murdered my father.
“Leon got here before he could pull the trigger.”
“Leon?”
Nate nodded. “Yes.”
“I need to talk to him,” I said as I ran to the warehouse.
“Finley,” Nash growled, trying to stop me, but I was too fast. I needed answers like they were water and I had been in the desert for days.
I didn’t listen. I opened the rusty metal door, and it took a second for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Except in a corner, there was one lone light with a man strapped to a chair, and Leon was above him looking like a reaper.
I stopped running until I was in front of him. I looked at his face, trying to recall if I’d ever seen this man. I couldn’t remember him, but he seemed to know me.
“You look just like him,” he said. “She wondered if you had anything of hers in you. She was sweet, and he was cold.”
I sucked in a breath. The sucker knew what to say to kill.
His words hit a chord. My mother never told me, but I suspected she resented me for being more like my father. For knowing I was more valuable to him than she would ever be.
I knew my parents had issues, but never in a million years did I think she would betray him.
“What is she doing here?” Leon directed his question at Nate and Nash.
I glared at him. He might be part of the club, but he was like Axton and Gunner, set in the ways that women couldn’t lead.
“He murdered my father. I have a right to be here.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Leon said. “He might have been fucking your mom, but let me tell you something, there aren’t many who didn’t. “
I felt like he had slapped me at the fact that he called my mother a whore.
“Leon,” Nash warned as he came to stand protectively behind me. I took a step forward, making me stay out of his protective embrace. I did not need him to fight my battles for me. This was something that my father always wanted me to avoid. And I wasn’t going to start my relationship with Nash on the wrong foot. I could slay my own damn dragons.
The man who was on the chair gave me a bloody smile. It was sinister, and there was already a dead look in his eyes. He looked at Leon, then at me.
