Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 43787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
I grin, despite the shitstorm brewing. “Yeah. She’s gonna taste sweet, fuck me sweeter, and only if she asks me will I spare Konstantin my wrath.”
CHAPTER 12
ALAINA
TWO DAYS LATER
I sit on the edge of the bed in the dimly lit room, my hands clenched into fists against my thighs. The air inside the clubhouse is thick with cigarette smoke, the muffled sounds of laughter and music bleeding through the walls. But all I can hear is the silence—the one stretching between me and the one person I need to talk to.
Konstantin.
My grandfather.
Apparently the man who’s gotten me into this mess.
I press my lips together, swallowing the frustration building in my throat. Two days. Two whole days since everything flipped upside down, since I learned just how deep my family’s ties to the crazy underworld of bikers and bratva/mafia run. Two days since I realized that my grandfather—the man who raised me, the man I trusted—has been keeping secrets that put me directly in the line of fire.
And now, he won’t even speak to me.
I stare at my phone, the screen dark, the absence of messages from him making my chest ache. It’s not like him to ignore me. No matter what kind of trouble he’s been in before, he’s always answered when I needed him. But not this time.
This time, I’m on my own.
A hard knock at the door makes me jolt. Before I can answer, the door swings open, and Damian steps inside. His broad shoulders nearly fill the doorway, and he’s watching me with that unreadable expression of his—the one that always makes my stomach twist.
“You gonna sit in here all night?” His voice is low, gruff, the kind of voice that makes people listen.
I sigh and shake my head. “Not all night.”
Damian smirks. “Could’ve fooled me.” He steps inside, closing the door behind him. His presence fills the small space, and I can feel his eyes on me, reading me like he always does. “You eat today?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not a child.”
“Didn’t for one second think that, sweetheart,” he counters. “I asked if you ate.”
I don’t answer.
He exhales through his nose, shaking his head. “Thought so.”
I push off the bed, frustration curling in my chest. Once again, I’m in a different place. Sure, I’m not alone in the woods in a box house. No, I’m in a converted warehouse that they call the clubhouse. A full house at that. There is always someone around, some noise. And while I know I’m surrounded by people, I feel very alone. No one understands my fears, frustrations. I don’t want to leave Damian’s room. It is a place I don’t get overwhelmed in. Just generally speaking, I want to go back to my life, my home, my normal. Not this … Anarchy. “I don’t have time to sit around and pretend everything’s normal, Damian. Not when my grandfather is out there avoiding me. Not when I don’t know what kind of shit he’s dragged me into.”
“I’m doing the best I can in a situation no one knows enough about. I brought you here because I have more eyes to help me keep you safe so I can dig into who the debt is owed to and pay it the fuck off. I can’t fix the shit with your grandfather, Alaina. I give you my word, I’m gonna do everything and I mean everything to keep you right where you are which is with me.”
His words remind me how dire my situation is but also that what I feel with him isn’t in my head. He feels it to. Looking to the man in front of me, I tell him what hurts the most. “I don’t see how he would let me get caught up in this.”
“The denial has to stop Alaina. I hate to be the asshole to tell you this, but life ain’t ever going to give you a heads up before it implodes.”
I throw my hands up. “I’m not in denial, Damian. I’m full of confusion, frustration, and missing my regular life.”
Damian watches me for a beat, then folds his arms across his chest. “You still think you can fix this, don’t you?”
I blink. “What?”
“You think if you can just get him to talk, he’ll make it all better,” he says. “Like this is something you can smooth over.”
I square my shoulders. “I need to talk to him.”
Damian tilts his head slightly. “Why?”
I scoff. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” he says, his voice even. “You want the truth? You want to know what this life is—what he is? Then answer the damn question, Alaina. Why do you need to talk to him?”
I swallow hard. “Because he’s my family.”
Damian steps closer, his presence like a storm cloud rolling in. “That’s not a good enough reason. Family ain’t blood, baby. Family doesn’t cross the people they claim to love. Family steps up, back to back watching every angle protecting each other at all costs. Not using them, not putting them in shit they aren’t prepared for without warning. And mostly family doesn’t ghost family when the storms come.”