Page 82 of Raze

“I’m goin’ to get her. You…” I point at her father. “...You stay right here.”

“Hell no, I’m coming with you.” He moves to follow me.

“No, you need you to stay and tell this man everythin’ you know about that Charter the Reapers are tryin’ to build.” I slap my hand into Wrath’s chest.

“Raze, we took out three of their men today, if what he says is true we gotta move fast on this, strike while they’re weak and put an end to it.” Saul points out, still lookin’ pale from his injuries.

“I gotta go get my girl before I can think about that.” I’m relying on the fact Kane has no idea where she is right now. Once I’ve got her and groveled my ass into the ground. I’ll take her somewhere she’ll be safe until every Reaper and her brother are dead. I’ll bet not many people know about that ranch Burlusconi owns.

“Go get her. Let me lead these guys to take down that charter while they're weak, they’ll be lower in numbers and we got enough men. You can join us when you know Peyton’s safe.”

I look at Aaron Adams and realize that he’s right, he ain’t a boy no more and I’ve got to give him a chance to show everyone here why he’s gonna make the perfect VP.

“You heard him,” I tell everyone as I snatch my tee back from Dev and lift it over my head. “You all follow Wrath’s lead, arm up, ride out, and take down whatever you find of this charter. But Kane is mine. Nobody touches him until I get back.” I nod my head at Wrath, and the slight smile he gives me tells me that we left any grievances we had in the bottom of the empty pool pit.

I throw my cut on and step closer to Kenny.

“I’m puttin’ all my trust in the belief that you care enough about Peyton to be tellin’ me the truth, I hope for your sake I ain’t gonna regret it,” I warn him, knowing that this could all be a trap, but having little choice but to take that risk. I wanna believe that Peyton is innocent in all this. I have to because she’s mine and I was an idiot to think I could give her up.

“I put all my trust in you, Raze, you just didn’t know it.” He holds out his hand for me and I take it, shaking it firmly before I take the gun that Saint has ready for me, slide it into my jeans, and head for my bike.

“Oh God, it’s good to see you.” I launch myself at my brother when I open the door. I really thought he was going to die today, so I take a few seconds to appreciate having him in my arms. I look over his shoulder and when I see the two other bikers standing behind him it makes me uneasy.

“I wasn’t gonna come back to Long Beach without protection.” He smiles at me as he sees himself inside and when the two guys follow him I’m not sure how I feel about it. These men are Raze’s enemies, if he knew I was in a house alone with them he’d be furious. At least, he would have been. Now I’m not so sure if he’d even care.

“Can they wait outside? I was hoping this conversation would be private.” I smile awkwardly at his friends, they are young, like Kane, and don’t look all that mean and dangerous but we have things to discuss that no Reaper should hear.

“Now, that’s not very hospitable is it, sis?” He tugs at my hair the same way as he did when I was a little girl and moves towards the refrigerator.

“An empty fridge, the Souls’ president sure knows how to treat his old lady.” He looks back at his buddies and laughs, and I don’t like the attitude he came here with. In fact, I’ve seen too many sides of Kane today that I haven’t liked at all. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever be able to see past the fact that he’s the reason Griller’s dead.

“Kane, we need to talk and–”

“You know I’ve patched in now? I’m a fully-fledged member.” He moves around the house studying it over, sounding proud of himself. It puts a sinking feeling in my stomach when I think about him officially being one of them.

“The club is growing, spreading their roots, quite close to here actually.” He stops roaming and focuses back on me. “I guess your boyfriend kinda did me a favor,” he laughs. “Butchering all them Reapers a few weeks ago made our new Charter low on numbers–”

“They were ambushed, what else were they supposed to do?” I defend Raze, despite not knowing where I stand with him. I still love him and he would never have had to kill those men if they weren’t trying to shoot him.

“And while you were fuckin’ the Souls’ president, did you worry about me, wonder if I was the one who got his head smashed to a pulp on the side of the road?” He looks up at me darkly.

“Kane.” I shake my head because I don’t recognize the tone he’s taking with me.

“Answer the fuckin’ question, Peyton. Did you think about me?”

“Every day,” I cry out, trying to hold back my tears. “It was horrible, Kane. I was petrified it was going to be you next and I hated lying to Raze. I was constantly living on my nerves.”

“Did you miss me?” He stands closer, ensuring that I feel his breath on my face and I’m about to push him away and tell him he’s being weird when he gathers a clump of my hair in his fist and pulls it tight.

“You did the worst of the worst, Peyton,” he scolds me. “And now you're gonna pay for it,” I scream when he starts dragging me through the house, kicking open every door until he finds what I assume is the master bedroom.

“Find something to tie her to the bed with,” he tells his two friends, who immediately start looking through the already pulled-out drawers and searching the clothes on the floor.

“Kane, please don’t. You know what we’ve been through, don’t tie me down.” I plead with him as he shoves me hard onto the mattress.

“Did you know there's a picture of you in the bathroom at the Sacramento clubhouse?” He leans his body over mine and props himself up on his hands. “It’s been spunked on so many times there’s barely anything left of it.” He laughs and I close my eyes in disgust. Why would he want to be a part of a club that did something like that to someone he loved?

“You are Kenny Longmire’s daughter, there’s some high points to be scored in fuckin’ you. Reapers really started listening when I started telling my stories.” He twists my hair around his finger and it makes my stomach roll.

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