Page 54 of Savage Fire

After Hound left to follow orders, Fang knew it was time to sack up.

“Listen, I heard about what happened with Tessa and Amelia, and what Amelia did, and how that put you all in a bad spot.”

Odin grunted, Trouble remained silent but hard-edged, and Grimm and Hawk simply stared. This was going to be harder than he hoped it would be.

“Each one of you warned me that trying to bring Tessa into my Hive would blow up in my face—and I’ll admit: you were right. I fucking lost her. And I tore me up, brothers, more than anything ever has. But last night, she gave me another chance…and I’m hoping you will give me another chance, too. I was an ass, a motherfucker, I was arrogant thinking I knew better, that you were wrong. But you were right. And in keeping my secrets, my confidences, it hurt your relationship with a good woman, a woman who deserves such badass brothers in her life. So…I’m apologizing. I’ll take whatever shit you think I deserve for ignoring your warnings.”

His brothers all grinned evilly. The fuckers.

“Just…nothing with my junk. Tessa wouldn’t like that.”

A knock on the door made them all turn to see Tessa standing at the threshold.

“We’ll talk more about that later, Fang,” Odin pronounced, though his tone said, “we’ll enact our revenge once the lady is gone.” “Come in, Tessa, take a seat.”

Fang pulled out the chair beside him and she took it, her shoulders back, her body tight with tension. He wanted to pull her onto his lap and wrap her in his arms. He knew that sitting among men she felt betrayed her couldn’t be easy for her, but he’d apologized to them, and he would take the time to explain the situation to her once the meeting was over.

AFK sat forward, smiling openly at Tessa, no doubt to help put her at ease.

“Tessa, we weren’t able to find out who texted you, but we were able to trace the purchase of the burner cell to a gas station in Heavenly, Wyoming.”

At the town name, Tessa visibly paled, her breath catching.

Oh shit.

“Did you say Heavenly, Wyoming?” she asked, seeming dazed.

Every man in the room was taut as a bow string, sensing something dangerous.

“Yeah. The burner was purchased at—”

“Joe’s Mercantile,” Tessa finished, making a shocked AFK nod jerkily.

“Tessa, do you know the man who sent those texts?” Hawk asked, his voice a mix of wariness and concern. Soft yet with the potential for hardness.

“If the guy who sent the texts was one of the guys who jumped me, no, I don’t know him. But if he’s from Heavenly, I have a pretty good idea who sent him and his asshole buddy.”

“Who?” Fang asked, the crawling under his skin telling him he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“My stepfather.”

Around the table, all eyes were pinned to her, wide, shocked, and differing levels of angry.

“Stepfather?” Odin repeated, his voice as icy and hard as a Norwegian glacier. “Your stepfather sent men to attack you?”

Swallowing against the churning fear, bile, and anxiety in her stomach, she nodded.

“I guess so,” she croaked.

Fang reached out, grabbing her around her waist, and hauled her into his lap. She leaned into his chest, welcoming his strength and warmth. He kissed her temple.

“I think you need to tell us everything,mi corazon,” Fang murmured into her hair as she fought back tears at his tenderness.

“What can you tell us about your stepfather?” Grimm asked. As head of Savage Protection and club Enforcer, he had resources and connections that would allow him to dig deep into the motherfucker. She knew this, but she was apprehensive. Could she tell them everything? It wasn’t like she was ashamed of her past—she hadn’t done anything wrong, but she had run, abandoning her mother and her stepsiblings.

Fuck it. Get if off your chest.

“When I was ten, my mom met Jacob Mannerly. He was older, seemed nice, and he romanced my mom with promises of forever and a life of ease. Up until that point, my mom was a single mom, struggling to raise me after her strict Catholic parents kicked her out after she got pregnant with me. She was only seventeen at the time.”

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