Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
The brutality of my brothers’ vengeance is all over his face in the form of cuts and bruises, and I know it’s going to take days if not weeks for the swelling to go down in his eyes.
With my arms around him, I use my hands to search his torso for more injuries. Telling by the hissing air rushing past his clenched teeth, he’s hurt everywhere, but he’s alive, and right now, that’s all that matters.
“We need to get you out of here before they realize they didn’t kill you.” With futile effort, I try to lift him but he’s so heavy, I don’t even manage to budge his shoulder from the ground.
“I love you,” he gasps.
“Baby,” I whisper on a choked sob as my hands work over his body again.
He’s hurt somewhere I can’t see. He knows how this ends, but I’m grateful, even in my hatred and anger with the two men in my life that were never supposed to cause me this much pain, that they left him long enough so I could tell him goodbye.
“Where did TJ stab you?” The rope is all Lynch, but TJ isn’t one to walk away without getting a piece of someone himself. I’ve seen the two of them in action more often than not. Publicly displaying betrayal in front of the entire club as a deterrent to the others was always my father’s style. I watched a man die for the first time when I was four years old, and it happened regularly after that.
“Tell me you love me,” he begs. “Tell me you’re mine forever.”
“Forever,” I answer, hating that forever may only last a couple more breaths.
“I would trade spots with you,” I confess on another sob as I situate us so his head is resting in my lap. “I can’t do this without you. I won’t.”
I didn’t think I could hurt myself, but the idea doesn’t seem so foreign right now. Something quick will be better than the slow, agonizing death I’ll suffer with him gone.
“I want your lips on my cock.”
“What?”
Looking down at him, both eyes are swollen shut, but a small smile tilts his lips up. “Not right now, because I’m sure I’ll be pissing blood for a month, but eventually.”
“You’re dying, and all you can think about is your dick?” I shake my head, thankful he’s acting exactly like himself. It’s the best goodbye he can give me. “Typical.”
His laugh is the most amazing sound, but then it turns into a gurgle and a wracking cough.
It seems like an endless wasted time before the coughing stops. Turning his head, grimacing from the pain, he spits blood on the floor before turning his face back to me.
“I’m not dying, baby. They weren’t trying to kill me.”
Even though it seems like it weighs a ton, he lifts his arm and cups my cheek with it.
“What the hell do you call it then?” I ask, letting myself believe him if only for a little while.
“They were giving us their blessing.” His smile grows wider, the split in his lip becoming worse. “Tell me you love me, and you’re mine for forever.”
“I love you.” Turning my head, I press my lips to his dirty palm. “I’m yours for forever.”
“Worth it,” he mutters before his arm drops, and he goes completely lax in my arms.
I don’t know how long I’m screaming for help, but my pleas are barely a whisper before I hear footsteps on the stairs.
“He finally told them, huh?” Ronan crouches beside me, looking down at the lifeless man on my lap with a smile on his face.
“You owe me a hundred dollars,” Chains says as he joins us.
“You both owe me five hundred each,” Professor says as he joins the fucking party like Briar unconscious in my arms is an everyday thing to them.
“Bullshit,” Ronan hisses.
“I said less than six months,” Chains qualifies. “It’s only been two and a half.”
“You both said he’d end up dead. Look.” Professor points at the slow, ragged inhalation barely registering on Briar’s chest. “Still alive.”
“For now,” Chains says with a devious edge to his voice. He chuckles, holding his hands up near his ears when I glare at him.
“I’ll kill every last fucking one of you if you don’t help me get him to his room,” I hiss, meaning every damn word I said.
All the guys chuckle, clearly unaffected by my threat, but they lift him from my lap. Briar groans when Ronan shifts his weight, throwing Briar’s arm around his shoulder.
“Be gentle.”
They all laugh and refuse to let up. My man is jostled, run into two separate door frames, and tossed on his bed by the three goons.
“You hurt him even more,” I hiss when they begin to walk out of the room.
“Do you know the danger you put him in? What would’ve happened if he were any other man in this club?” Chains leans in, invading my space as the others walk out of the room. “Do you know what will happen to the next guy who doesn’t follow an order because Briar was given a pass? Do you know how what you two have done compromises your brother, his safety, and the entire foundation of the club?”