Page 31 of Bound by Adoration

Not again. I wasn’t getting pulled into this fucked up world ever again. Not by Nyx and never by Raid. Fuck that shit. And fuck him. He won. Good for him.

Yes, it pissed me off that he did, but I wasn’t a fucking wizard and couldn’t change how things lay. Life happened. Unfortunately, it didn’t come out in my favor. So be it. Wouldn’t be the first time and wouldn’t be the last. If it wasn’t Raid, it was someone else. Always someone else.

“You little piece of shit.” The kick to my ribs was hard and fast. I didn’t prepare myself for it, and every drop of air rushed out of me. A few more kicks came before I curled into a ball and protected myself as best as I could.

My father though … he was a beast. Even worse when he was drunk.

Considering he just got back from the bar, this would be bad. My body still hadn’t healed from last week, and I had to lie when the teacher asked me about the bruises on my arms, legs, and neck. They bought my bullshit excuse, but when you’re between life, death, or a severe beating, there really wasn’t a choice. After all, there was only a two-thirds shot something bad would happen.

Those odds were never good for me.

Nothing was ever good for me. When it came to my family.

“I fuckin’ told you not to eat…” Kick. “My.” Kick. “Food!”

I wasn’t stupid therefore never touched his food. Ever. He took anything as a reason to hurt me. Beat me. Put me on the brink of death only to let me heal and do it again.

Now Clara joined in when she was inclined. If I could keep out of the old icebox in the backyard, that would be the goal this time. Being in the dark with no air wasn’t where I wanted to end up tonight. Please don’t let me end up there tonight.

I was so sick of everyone trying to hurt me. Yes. I was done.

Parking in front of the law office, the streets were littered with people walking to the different shops.

The sun was shining, the weather beautiful, and with several smiling faces, they were enjoying it. Once Nyx left Atlanta, I hadn’t felt the happiness until I opened the door and saw her face. Would I ever be able to find a sliver of joy? Fuck, I hated thinking like that because I fucking loved her.

Anger rose inside me. Of course, Raid got his claws into her. But it appeared she had her claws in him too. Guilty. She felt guilty for kissing me.Maybe I shouldn’t have…Fuck, that hurt.

I rubbed my chest and tried to wipe away the intense stabbing pain there. Too bad that didn’t work. My best bet was to finish this and never return to this God forsaken town.

Shifting the truck to park, I killed the engine and got out, slamming the door behind me, then locked it with the fob. While Sumner was small and the Ravage MC usually kept the crime to a minimum, being a cop had me not trusting anyone.

Why I didn’t remember that when I saw Nyx… Who was I kidding. I did trust her, and that was what made the knife dig further in. There was never a reason not to. But what should I expect? She’d been out of my life for a long time. She moved on like any other person would. Maybe it was because of Raid. Maybe if she’d picked someone else it wouldn’t stab so badly.

I needed to start over. Erase this part of my life. Maybe leave Atlanta and start somewhere else where the past few years could be forgotten. That would be after the buzz around the station told me that Nyx was safe because that day would come. Raid would make sure she’d be safe. He was at least good for that. Truthfully, he was good at a lot of things, but I was too angry to think down that road.

Moving to the sidewalk and then to the door, I read “Dave Willis Law.” He didn’t know I was coming, but I didn’t give a fuck. He should have everything we talked about over the phone ready to roll. A few signatures and Clara was fucked. Zero for her. She could rot in hell for the rest of eternity.

As much as that normally would’ve brought a small smirk to my face, it didn’t this time.

My mood was completely soured.

“McMathews.” I stopped at the call of my last name, turning to the familiar voice that I’d only heard in Atlanta.

What the fuck washedoing here?

“Thompson,” I said, moving to the man and holding out my hand which he took and gave it a firm shake then releasing. “What brings you to Sumner?”

He eyed me in an assessing way which wasn’t something I’d expect from him. We’d never had any bad blood.

“I’m the new Chief. I run Sumner now. What are you doing here, McMathews? This is out of the woods for you.”

HerunsSumner? What the fuck did that mean because no one ran this place except for Ravage. They wouldn’t allow anyone to come in and take over their city. The new chief. What the fuck?

Especially a man like Thompson. He’d started out in Atlanta and was a colleague of mine, but then moved to work with the governor. I hadn’t seen him since he'd left. And why the fuck he was here to “run” the place baffled me.

He was a big city man. Not a small town one.

Did he know Nyx was here?

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