Page 133 of Hell Breaks Loose

The biker tongues the inside of his lip, giving me a dirty look.

“Hey! None of that. I will kick anybody’s ass who has a problem with Hellena. Are we clear? Now who did they ask for?” Ora hammers his chest with one finger. The guy at least has the decency to look abashed.

“Whoever’s in charge,” he clarifies.

“Aha! So I did not need to get out of bed at all.”

The crowd rustles, murmurs of agreement ripping out. Doubt. Hesitance. Some of them nod, others just look a bit confused.

“You know, we never really discussed this. Or took the townspeople’s votes on who they want to be in charge,” Gavin grumbles quietly, intoning that this isn’t the best time to do it either.

“Bullshit. We had an election and everything.”

“You did?” I ask, trying not to sound skeptical.

“Yeah. The Block had it out after Clive died,” Alaya’s radio voice interjects. “Ora made it very clear that she was president.”

“You mean that you whooped Gerard’s ass so hard that he’s still walking funny,” Ora snaps back. “And that was club business. And this is club land. So anyone wanting sanctuary agrees to abide by club rules.”

Tell opens his mouth to interrupt.

“But,” Ora cuts him off, “The club has also always fallen under the purview of the Sinful. And by blood, I’m Xavier’s heir. Hellena’s dad was too. So…”

She shrugs like that’s the end of the conversation.

“You made all of that up just this minute, didn’t you?” Tell snickers.

“You’re damn right I did. Now, are we going to wait around for them to get antsy and try to shoot their way in, or are we going to go talk to sleek-sly-exotic-eyes?”

“I call dibs!” Alaya protests from the receiver in Ora’s hand.

“And I call bullshit!” she snaps back, clicking off the radio. A second later, an arrow hits the ground a foot from Ora’s foot, making her jump and squeal. “You bitch!”

“She has a bow and arrow, too?” Tomlin makes a face, and Gavin nods, not at all surprised.

“What the fuck?!” Ora looks up toward a cliff face to our left and flips off the hidden woman. “I am going to fucking murder her later.”

“Only if I get to kick her ass first,” I grit out, my nerves frazzled. Alaya with me in her sights brings back all sorts of memories. None of them good.

“And what an ass it is,” Ora mumbles.

I can’t even with them.

I’m about to grab her arm and head down the hill when she stops me one last time.

“It’s not cool the way some of these assholes are treating you, Hell. I’ll say something.”

“It’s alright, Ora. They have no reason to trust me.”

“They have no reason not to! You were the fucking boss long before I stepped in during crisis mode.”

“Evan was my boss, actually.”

“I meant after that. We were all a team. We should be again.”

A fact that the average Sanctum Harbor resident wouldn’t know a thing about.

But she has a point.

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