Suddenly, seeing brothers jumping to their feet catches my attention. Pulling out my earbuds, I sit forward and listen in on what’s going on now.
Cops are here.
I scan the bar, finding Dad watching the CCTV monitors, looking fatigued. It’s more than the weight of the club on him. He’s lived with the pressure of the club for years. No, there’s something different about him that I can’t quite work out.
“This is the Willow’s Peak Police Department. Lily McCarthy, we know you’re in there. Come out peacefully, or we will come in.”
Dad glares over at Harper.
“What do the cops want with your mom?”
Her face pales. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, but nothing comes out. I get to my feet as she looks around nervously and finds her mom standing next to Slade, who’s whispering something into Lily’s ear.
I overheard Sparky warning Dad, saying that the two McCarthy women were keeping even more secrets, and it looks like he was right.
“What’s going on, Lil? I can’t fucking help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on!” Slade roars.
Harper rushes over to Lily, who tells her brother, “Look after Harper.”
Two officers walk into the bar slowly, keeping watch of everyone surrounding them.
When their attention lands on Lily, she holds her head high, the defiance in her eyes burning like an out-of-control fire.
“Lily McCarthy?”
“Here.”
They close in on her. The older of the two cops, his left hand on his cuffs, asks her, “Do you know why we’re here?”
She replies calmly, “I have no idea.”
“When was the last time you saw Simon Webster?”
I watch her carefully, but her face is impressively set in stone.
“Must be nearly a year ago, or something like that. I’m not sure, as I haven’t even thought about him. Why? What has he done now?”
I haven’t heard of a Simon Webster, but then again, I didn’t take an interest in Lily before she blurted out that Harper was my dad’s daughter.
“We’re not sure what he did, but we know where he was found, and he wasn’t up for talking to us.”
Dad sighs defeatedly, but Lily shows no emotion, apart from feigning concern.
“What are you talking about?”
“We have witnesses who say you were Mr. Webster’s partner, and that you and your daughter were the last ones to be seen with him.”
“I can assure you, we haven’t seen him since the night he walked out on me.”
As one of the officers moves closer to her, she holds out her arm to stop Slade from interfering. “Let them do their job, Slade. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Simon Webster’s body was found seven days ago, and we’ve uncovered evidence that’s led us here, to you.”
When the officer begins reading her her rights, Harper launches herself at her mother, wrapping her arms around her, whispering something to her I can’t hear.
Once the officer has Lily cuffed and hauls her out to the squad car, I put in my earbuds as the drama is being driven out the gates.
I’ll find out later who Simon Webster is. I find most things out when Dad tells Mom, because he tells her everything. Well, that’s if she’s willing to listen to him these days.
The dirty work of running Lily out of town has been done for me by the shit town police department for now.
Murder is serious jail time. If she’s locked up for the remainder of her life, my mom won’t have to see her again, and I’m good with that. The corner of my mouth raises into a cruel smirk. Fuck Lily. I hope she gets the maximum, whether she killed the guy or not.
Chapter Eight
Victoria
I’ve been sitting in the corner of the kitchen, listening to the old ladies dissect Lily’s arrest all afternoon, and I’m bored.
“Has Cas told you anything?” my mom asks Alannah.
Picking up her coffee mug, she shakes her head. “He tried talking to me last night, but I wasn’t interested in hearing him out, so he went back over to the bar.”
Bonnie tops her mug and takes her seat back at the table. “Lily’s covering for Harper.”
I’ve spent my whole life knowing that the old ladies know as much as the guys in the club. It’s how they survive when the men are busy or away on a run, or like now, when there’s trouble. But they don’t usually share this kind of information in front of us “kids.”
I keep my mouth shut, wishing I was anywhere else but here.
“Apparently, this guy was beating on Lily, and Harper helped her by stabbing the guy until he died. From what Sparky said, they burned down their house so his blood couldn’t be found.”
For once, the old ladies go quiet. I don’t need to be told to keep what I’ve heard to myself—it goes without saying. I’m pretty sure it was engrained in us from the moment we learned to talk. It isn’t only the brothers who live by the club laws, it’s everyone connected to them.
You never know who’s a killer these days. You think men are the vicious species, but women are just as capable.
I remember people thinking it was weird when Lily and Harper just randomly showed up in town, but I guess Willow’s Peak was a place they could lie low.
Standing, Alannah announces, “I’m going to speak to Cas,” and walks out.
I slide off my chair and follow her over to the bar. Not because I want to be nosy or get into her business, but because I can’t listen to one more conversation about Harper and Lily.
Spotting Grandpa sitting at his usual table, I make my way over to him, ignoring Luca slouched on the couch by the pool table.
“Hey, darlin’. What are you doing over here?” he asks me once I’ve taken the seat beside him.
“It’s driving me crazy over at the house. I need a change of scenery, and since I can’t go home, here’s the next best place,” I mutter.
“You’ll be home soon enough, I promise.”
Kicking my feet up on the empty chair next to me, I inquire, “Grandpa? What would’ve happened if the twins didn’t want to join the club?”
His snort rumbles through his chest, it’s so deep.
“That never would’ve happened.”
“Just pretend for a minute. Would you have supported them in whatever they wanted to do?”
He at least respects me enough to think over his answer.
“I’d have supported them, but I wouldn’t have liked it. And I would’ve voiced it till I couldn’t speak no more,” he declares. “Why do you ask?”
I can’t tell him that Luca doesn’t want to join the club, so I opt for the noncommittal reply and shrug.
“What do you expect me to do once I’ve finished school?”
Which isn’t that far off. With lockdown, and the fact that I’ve crushed every one of my classes, I’m not worried about missing days at a time for school.
“You, my sweet girl, can do whatever you wish to do.”
As much as I love the club, the different set of rules for sons and daughters isn’t lost on me.
“Why?” he questions hesitantly. “Are you thinking about the world outside of Willow’s Peak?”
I’m not, but Luca is. Since he spoke of leaving to see what’s out there, it’s made me think of what I’m going to do here. There aren’t many options when it comes to money making careers, but I’m not interested in being a lawyer or a doctor, or anything like that. I just want to be able to survive, to live happy and peacefully.
“Willow’s Peak is my home. I can’t see me being anywhere else,” I tell him, and he smiles, happy with my answer.
“But if I wanted to leave, you wouldn’t try to stop me?”
“Of course I wouldn’t, but I’d have you watched over.”
I giggle when he winks at me. I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.
We’re interrupted when Cas’s phone rings. He puts it on speaker, and I shut my mouth so Grandpa can hear the
conversation.
I listen in to the new President of the Black Crows, barking out his demands for Leo and Harper to be handed over.
“Oh, and I’ve left you a gift behind the diner in town so you know how fucking serious I am. Harper has twenty-four hours to come to me if she doesn’t want to visit her mom in prison for the rest of her life.”
The call ends, and brothers start muttering their opinions about it being a trap, until Aunt Alannah steps through the doorway and says, “What if you’re not the ones walking into it?”
She’s always been strong and has never been afraid to voice her opinions with conviction. But today, she can barely meet Cas’s eyes as she goes to stand by Sparky.
“Care to explain?” Cas asks her.
“I have a friend in town who has reached out to me to ask for the club’s help.”
“As if I don’t have enough shit going on.”
The fire in her eyes ignites. “And that’s why you’re only hearing about it now.”
I’m starting to really see where Luca gets his asshole attitude from.
“She works at the diner. She’d be able to go about her business unnoticed if the place is being watched. She can find out anything without looking suspicious or out of place.”
I tune out of the deliberation and kiss Grandpa on the cheek, leaving the brothers to sort out yet another problem.
Heading outside, I walk along the club boundaries under the black sky. There’s no music coming from the bar tonight, only the sound of grown, frustrated men yelling and cursing up a storm, my dad being one of them. He’s usually the laid back one, but at the moment, he’s on tenterhooks like everyone else.
When I hear a car coming close from over the wall surrounding the club, I frown, wondering who it could possibly be at this hour. I don’t know why, because there’s always someone up no matter the hour, with brothers coming and going at all times of the day and night.
By the time I walk back around to the front, the car has rolled through the gates and is parking up by the bar.
It’s Lily.
Watching as she climbs out of the passenger side door and walks into the bar, I figure I may as well follow her and see what’s going on now. I’m getting so bored with all this. I just want this lockdown to be over. I want to be at home, tending to my plants and flowers in the greenhouse. Hell, I even want to be at school because it’s something to do.
I can’t believe I’m even saying that.
The first thing I notice when I enter is Luca, glaring at Lily from where he stands at the end of the bar.
When she informs everyone that she’s been released without charge, Luca grinds his teeth so hard, I fear some of them will crack. It’s obvious this isn’t the news he wanted to hear. Before I can casually walk over to him, he’s slipping through the crowd and heading up the stairs to his room.
I don’t debate for long on whether or not to follow him.
No one notices me disappear from the bar. As I walk down the hall to his room, I run my fingertips along the wall. There’ll be two ways this ends. One, with me in his bed, or two, him being an ass and ordering me to leave, blabbering on about how I’m not his friend or his girlfriend, and how I’m most certainly not his precious Sara.
Not bothering with knocking, I twist the doorknob, letting myself in, and find him pacing the short length of his room.
“What are you planning?”
Coming to a halt, he growls, “What are you talking about?”
Taking a seat on his bed, I lean back on my hands and stretch out my legs.
“I saw the way you reacted down in the bar when Lily came back.”
“You didn’t see anything,” he argues, and begins pacing again.
Slipping off the old mattress, I block his way at every turn when he tries to move around me.
“I’m not stupid. Tell me what you’re planning to do to Lily.”
He finally stops and looks me in the eye, seeming intrigued.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Maybe I can help?”
“And why would you want to help?”
Always answering with a damn question of his own.
Lowering my eyes to his chest, I run my finger down his shirt and hook my finger inside his waistband.
“Friends help friends. And as much as you keep telling yourself we’re not there, we both know we are. Whatever you want to do to her, I’m in.”
I gasp in surprise when he grabs onto my hips and hoists me up around his waist.
With the strength he uses to throw me onto the bed, I have to admit, it makes me hot.
“Take your clothes off, Tor. You won’t be needing them tonight.”
I don’t know who undresses faster, but by the time I look up, Luca’s as naked as the day he was born, and climbing up my body.
“This ain’t a joke, Tor. Are you sure you’re in? You don’t even know what you’re getting into yet.”
His lips brush across mine and I smile. “I’m not as nice as you think. I can be naughty when I want to be.”
He inserts his finger inside me with ease. I doubt there’ll ever be a time that I’m not ready for him.
“How far are you willing to go?”
Pulling his finger out, he runs it slowly over my clit.
“How far would you push me?”
Pinching my clit sends a sharp jolt of pleasure through every nerve ending, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from crying out.
“All the way.”
“Then fuck me while you fill me in. I want to know everything.”
I wrap my legs around his waist as he lines himself up at my entrance. My favourite thing in the world is being wrapped around Luca Jackson’s dick.
With every thrust, he tells me how much he hates Lily. Between my pussy and his hatred for her, he’s as hard as a rock, taking his anger out on my body in the most delicious way.
He may not realise it, but I’ve knocked out a shitload of bricks from his carefully built wall, and I couldn’t be happier.
Chapter Nine
Luca
Every time I close my eyes, I see Victoria laid out beneath me, burning to be at my side when I step farther into the darkness. That shit turned me on like nothing ever has before.
She doesn’t need me to protect or look out for her. She’s not Sara. And for the first time, I find I like it.
Something changed in the way I saw her. I didn’t want her to leave after I was done with her. I wanted her again, and again. I couldn’t get enough.
Standing outside the bar, I watch Harper ride out of the club on the back of JJ’s motorcycle, then turn my attention to the left, settling my gaze on Lily. JJ’s getting Harper out of town while Dad deals with Ellis, but this bitch decided to remain here.
She wraps her arms around herself, because she has no one else to hold her, offer her support, or just give a basic shit about her.
I make her jump when I come up beside her and stand uncomfortably close.
She’s alone now, and I’m going to enjoy every second of tearing her down.
“Now that your daughter’s gone, there’s no point in you sticking around.”
She curls her lip in disgust.
“I have family here.”
I hate the sound of her voice. I hate that she gets to breathe the same air as my mom.
Slowly, I move to stand in front of her, careful to keep a lookout for anyone taking notice.
“No one here would give a shit if you left, so do us all a favour and fuck off, and don’t ever come back.”
Even her incredulous gasp irritates me. It’s another breath she’s stealing from the air my mom breathes.
“I don’t have to listen to a child.”
Coming nose-to-nose with her, I growl, “Keep thinking I’m a child. I promise you, your underestimation of me will bring you a world of hurt.”
Flinching, she whispers, “Slade will—”
“Your brother lives by his code, but it isn
’t mine. I have no fucking code.”
“You have the look of your father,” she scowls at me with even more disgust, which only makes me smirk. “It isn’t a compliment,” she adds.
She’s wrong. I’m not my father—I’m worse, because I’m willing to get rid of the one thing hurting my mom where he’s not.
I reckon he’s losing his touch. He’s getting older, and he’s settling for the easier path. Until he proves me wrong, I have no interest in the man or his promises.
“I’m giving you twenty-four hours to get out of town, or I’ll twist your head up so fucking bad, you won’t even remember your own name.”
Walking away, I leave her staring at the gate as Leo jogs over.
“What was that about?” he demands.
“Forget about it. You didn’t see shit.”
He hangs back as I pick up my pace, knowing he isn’t going to get a word out of me. He certainly wasn’t interested in what I had to say the other day.
As soon as I’m in my room, I shoot a text off to Tor, telling her to come over, then jump into the shower. I doubt Lily will leave within the next twenty-four hours, and deep down, I’m hoping she doesn’t. I want to fuck her world up. Tit for tat.
Rinsing the soap out of my hair, I run my hand over my head and turn off the water. Wrapping a towel around my waist, I step into my room to find Tor already here, lounging on the bed.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“Don’t think.” I don’t like it when she thinks, because then she talks, wanting shit from me I’m not willing to give her, and then she fucking cries.
“Luca!” Laughing, she rolls onto her side and rests her head on her palm.
“We—”
Leaning over the bed, I grip her chin between my thumb and finger, replacing her words with my own.
“Stop thinking. And let me remind you, there is no ‘we.’ You’re helping me with something, and that’s all.”
She doesn’t try to free herself from my grip. Instead, she smirks, and I can’t help but think it should terrify me.
“One day, you won’t fight me,” she vows with confidence.
His Twisted Heart : Sons of Lost Souls MC Series Book Nine Page 6
