Page 20 of Where We Promise

Natty’s golden brow wrinkled. “She didn’t make Luke swear it?”

My stomach dropped out before I shook my head.

“Luke had already…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He’d already left me by then.”

Natty’s face flushed. “Oh.”

The reality of my rejection, and my son’s, was always a fresh pinprick to my sternum.

“Can I ask…if you knew Jameson from the beginning, then why not—” She trailed off, inspecting her bottle of water.

“Why not him instead of Luke?” I finished for her, already knowing where her mind was going.

She nodded. “Just seems like he would have made more sense.”

If she only knew.

“It’s complicated…similarly to your own situation that has tangles of strings, barbed wire and scotch tape keeping it all together. Simply put, Jameson and I…well we?—”

There was suddenly a loud knock on Natty’s door, making us both tense while our heads swung over.

“Natty, it’s Killian. I’m looking for Penelope. Well actually Jameson is, but I wouldn’t let him come up here.”

Our gazes collided and then Natty moved off the bed.

SIX

JAMESON

There wasn’t a single day that went by lately where I didn’t try and figure out what the fuck had happened to my life.

A month ago, I was the only leader of the Chaos Kings, a club with over two hundred members. I’d been the president since I was nineteen years old. I had respect, loyalty. I owned a garage in Richland, and the club was more prosperous from legal work than we ever had been from doing illegitimate shit. Our club had renovated and expanded. I’d bought a house, it was small, but it was mine. I was doing well with my other real-estate ventures too.

I had a vice president that had my back…someone I thought was my friend.

But fuck me, everything went to hell really fucking fast.

I wasn’t present for the moment the shit hit the fan with Luke and Penelope. I’d left town the second I heard she was pregnant, but when I’d returned, the club had been a mess. That was right after Luke and Penny broke up…it all happened in a blink. Pen was pregnant, the club was treating her like shit. I was trying to keep it all together and then Penelope’s mom got sick.

It was like every day something new had imploded in my life. Some new threat seemed to grow overnight, ready to fuck me over the second I woke up.

I had started looking for ways to help Penny after Wanda had begged for me to get her daughter away from the club. We all knew it wasn’t as easy as stashing her away. She was carrying Luke’s baby, one of the highest-ranking members in a powerful club. I was trying to do right by her, while still keeping my club intact.

But then Luke made the decision for me and defected, taking a solid chunk of my club with him. It forced me to look outside the box for another solution. Which brought me here, to the Stone Riders. I had heard they wanted a meeting through my cousin Giles, and after dealing with all the bullshit drama from the Chaos Kings from the previous six months, I finally got in touch with him and had him set up a meeting with Killian Quinn.

I’d heard the story of Natty Langford from when Simon Stone had made that trade for her. What he did for her…it just simply wasn’t done. The amount of money he gave up in that deal, all for one girl. Didn’t make any sense, but years later, there were rumors that Natty was still with the Stone Riders and it had my curiosity piqued. If she had been moved here, and she’d stayed then perhaps the club was safe. Maybe they could take Penny in, and she could have her baby in peace, stay safe until Luke was dealt with.

That was the plan.

Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing Luke had his own agenda, which apparently included teaming up with a previous member from the Stone Riders, Jefferson Quinn. Killian’s father had been in prison for murder, and suddenly freed thanks to a corrupt senator. His sole focus once getting out was to overthrow the Stone Riders. Luke had a similar goal with wanting to take over the Chaos Kings, so the two became a team.

Jefferson had arrived in the middle of the day with Luke and drew a line in the sand. Join them or die. Several had joined but ten of my loyal men were killed, and I was so utterly terrified for Penelope’s life that I got her out, abandoning my club and driving straight to Rose Ridge.

My plan to leave her with the Stone Riders ended when Luke and Jefferson claimed the clubhouse. My men had nowhere to go that was safe. So, we ventured here, and now lived in the abandoned house on the back of Stone Rider property. I hated how misplaced I felt, and even worse, how each day I spent around the Stone Riders, I was starting to feel like maybe I’d never had the loyalty of my men in the first place.

Maybe they always wanted a leader like Jefferson Quinn, or worse, Tuck Holloway—Luke’s father had always garnered more loyalty for his antiquated ways of thinking.

The cold air bit at my face, bringing me back to the present. Back to that steady thrum of violence hammering away in my chest.

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