Page 88 of Where We Ended

I narrowed my gaze at my mother. “Fuck that. Tell me why she was traded.”

“I can’t, Son. If I tell you why she was traded, then you’ll start a war. That war will start and end with Natty. The Stone Riders will more than happily sacrifice her if it means avoiding a war.”

“She is mine! She’s patched to me, she’s my fucking wife!”

By the way my mother was wincing, I knew this was the angriest she’d ever seen me. I felt a pressure in my head as tears gathered in my eyes.

They had Natty, which meant if I tried to go and remove her from their club, it would start a war and with the club loyal to Dirk, I had no one that would back me.

I glanced at my best friend who shook his head, as if he was working out what I was trying to.

“Tell me why she was traded. She was spoken for, no one had the right to do that except for me.”

My mother placed her hands on either side of my face.

“You must trust me, Son. I did the only thing that would have kept her safe.”

It all connected suddenly. “He did something to her, didn’t he?”

I was going to fucking kill Dirk. I moved, heading to the door when Lance tackled me to the ground.

“Get the fuck off me!”

“No, Brother. I’m sorry, but you can’t go after him. You don’t have the numbers yet. You have to be patient and kill him when the time is right, when the club will follow you. You have a new mission now.”

I tried to shove him off, but he had me in some fancy martial arts head lock.

“Did he touch her?” My voice was raw from screaming.

How come she never told me. How long had it been going on? Why would the Stone Riders agree to take her?

“I can’t tell you any more than that, Son. You will kill him in time, but if you know the full scope, you’ll black out and try now. And you’ll kill yourself in the process. You need to live; you need to focus on taking him down, so she can come back to you. Until then, you must leave her be.”

This must be why she wasn’t answering my texts.

“What did you tell her?” I knew my mother had to have told her something. Fuck, I needed to know if she was okay.

“She knows you need space and time. Which is true. She accepted this trade willingly, Silas.”

Fuck Simon Stone.

Regardless of what was happening here, he didn’t have the right to accept a deal or broker one on her behalf. She wasn’t just my property patch; she was my wife. She belonged to me, not the club or anyone else.

“She’s been instructed not to mention your connection to her. The Roman is circulating right now; it could put her in danger.”

Shit, I knew that was true, but I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around the idea of losing her. No, I refused to lose her.

“You need to think this through, Silas. She needs time to adjust to the Stone Riders, they’re safe…they have a code they live by.”

I pushed up, throwing Lance off my back and began stalking toward my mother. I’d never hurt her, but I needed to understand what the fuck she had done.

“Simon promised me. I’ve gotten to know him, Silas, and I trust him. You know what he did for his own daughter.”

I tossed a chair out of our way. It crashed against the counter, shattering a few glasses. “That was for his flesh and blood, Natty isn’t his. No one will protect her the way I will protect her.”

“Silas, I protected her,” my mother argued, yelling just as loud. “I trust Simon, and you know I would never let Natty walk into danger. Not on my life, Son.”

I did know that. My mother loved Natty. While she often tried to show her a firmer hand, I knew how deep her adoration ran for my wife.

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