Page 2 of Ours to Keep

“Richard,”I grind out. “Elliot, you need to track down the cunts car. You had a tracker fitted to it, right?”

“Yes.”

The air is so thick with tension, our combined anger is a whip against my senses. It’s so damn taut—there’s a real possibility that any one of us might snap at any given moment.But as much as I want to let it rip, tear the world apart and destroy that motherfucker, my priority right now is Lily. She’s all that matters.

I let her down—again.

He was a direct threat and right under all our noses the entire time.

Fucking motherfucker.

“The scars, they were caused by him, weren’t they?”River says, although his focus, like mine, is trying to assess her injuries.

“What fucking scars?”Tommy asks, grinding his jaw.

I glance up as his pacing ceases, his expression thunderous.

“She has some on her lower back. Pretty sure they’re from cigar burns,”I reply.

His face turns almost ashen, his entire body tensing from my words. He grips the back of his neck, and I can see the telltale signs of an impending panic attack.

Shit!

He glances at Lily and then back to me and begins to back away until his body meets the wall. Then he’s sliding down it, hands in his hair, his breathing ragged.

“Tommy,”I call out, torn between coaxing him out of it and attending to Lily.

I glance between Lily and back to Tommy, but thankfully, Elliot is already there, crouching in front of him and speaking to him softly.

I let out a ragged breath. “Fuck.”

My eyes return to Lily, who seems to be stirring, thank fucking God.

“What the hell happened,Jackson?”River asks, his words loaded with his barely contained rage.

Apart from the fucking obvious? The retort is heavy on my lips, but I manage to keep it contained.

“I don’t know. I left Lily alone in her room, and that’s when Elliot alerted me to the private feed he found in her bedroom.”

His eyes roam over her body, taking in every visible bruise and abrasion.

“All this time, he was right here all along.”His usual hazel eyes darken with anger. “All this fucking time. It was him.”

His fists clench, knuckles whitening as his jaw tenses.

Chapter Two

RIVER

Fuck, this can’t be fucking happening. Lily looks deathly pale, and that one thought alone is enough to make my heart stutter in my chest. Jax’s usual composure broke when we found her curled up in a ball. At first, it took my eyes and brain a few moments to adjust and catch up with what I was seeing.

I want to jump in one of those fast cars in the garage and go after that cum stain and murder him with my bare hands, but not before I’ve sliced him from throat to navel. I never used to have these kinds of dark thoughts, fuck I know it’s not considered normal, but damn if they don’t make my adrenaline spike with intent. Not even my armour of humour can hide the monster lurking within me right now.

I always got an off feeling about that prick, and when we saw her scars, I should have fucking put two and two together. That little weasel loves a fucking cigar. But no, I was so caught up in the euphoria of Lily’s feminine prowess that my instincts for imminent danger were long gone.

Who does something like this and uses a belt to do it? He’s the worst kind of scum there is, a glorified coward hiding behind his golf buggy and expensive watches.

But why did she never tell us that it was him, that he’d hurt her? Fuck!

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