Page 106 of Where We Promise

Penelope was exhausted all the time.

I was too, but she felt it on a different level entirely because she was nursing. So when my mom called asking how she was doing, I was honest.

Even if mom didn’t come, we could have handled it. We had enough people around us offering to help that it would have been fine, but I needed someone to stay with Pen and Connor while I attended to a little business and I didn’t want her to realize I’d gone.

Mom arrived and things were good. Better than good, and when I had told her that I needed to go check on something club related, Mom understood.

She’d nodded and locked the door behind me, Pen completely asleep.

The clouds covered the moon as I pulled my hood up, then my gaiter mask, the image of a skull face on it as I walked.

The Stone Riders’ property was miles wide, so I ventured west and just kept walking until I’d reached the coordinates Killian had texted me. A shack appeared in the darkness, it was big enough to store a car inside, and tall enough for someone six feet to duck inside.

Approaching the door, I knocked three times then waited thirty seconds before knocking once more.

Silas pushed the door open, his hair disheveled and cutting into his line of sight.

I walked past him, ignoring the blood smeared across his fists and face.

Luke sat zip-tied to a chair, his lip and eyes were swollen, he was bleeding from his nose, which was likely broken.

I ignored what I saw below his chest, where his hands and knee caps had been mangled.

“Jamie.” Luke’s head lolled to the side, one good eye landing on me. “Get me out of here.”

“You’ve kept him hydrated?” I asked Silas.

The Death Raider gave me a nod. “And fed…needed his strength to endure the torture.”

“You get anything out of him?”

Silas shifted, pushing his bloodied hands into his hair. “Fable is moving with his own agenda, outside of Jefferson.”

Damn, that meant Silas had shit intel on his dad potentially coming for Natty.

“Need anything else from him?” I eyed my former vice president.

He was trying to speak, trying to defend himself and convince me to spare him.

Silas shook his head. “All yours.”

I turned to face Luke but muttered to Silas, “Can you text Killian that I’d like his cleaners to come up here in an hour?”

Silas dipped his head. “Consider it done.”

“No, Jamie! Wait…fuck…just.” Luke began gurgling, trying to make his tongue work. Silas must have done something to it.

The door to the shack clicked shut, leaving me alone with the traitor who’d knocked up my wife.

That’s how I was arranging my thoughts to see this situation. Connor was mine; Pen was mine.

“Want you to see your son, Luke. Look at what you gave up.”

I slid my phone out, and then gripped Luke by the hair for him to watch.

The image was of Penelope sitting in the rocking chair I’d put in our room. She was by the window, cradling Connor in her arms.

Luke groaned, making a sound, but I kept going with photos.

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