Page 90 of Wrath

“You said it would be a last resort.” Laura sounds angry.

“She was clearly starting to panic, what if she’d grabbed the wheel? We could have been killed.”

Mark?That was definitely Mark’s voice. I fight against the heaviness that keeps my eyes closed and when I manage to get them open I realize that the entire Collard family is staring over me.

“Thank God, you're awake.” Laura throws herself on top of me, while Mark clears his throat and backs away.

“We’re sorry about that, dear.” Trisha flashes me her fake smile before her eyes glare over to Mark. Her head shakes in disgust and when Laura finally gets off me, I slowly try to sit up.

“Don’t move too fast, you're probably still drowsy,” she warns, offering me some support. I shrug her away when everything that happened in the car comes back to me.

“You drugged me?” I stare at my best friend, feeling betrayed.

“Ididn’t,hedid.” Her head turns to her brother, who is casually sitting in a chair in the corner, sipping a scotch.

“Like I said, she was starting to panic.” He speaks to her as if she’s an idiot and it makes me wonder how I ever considered being married to him. “None of that matters now, she’s come around and you're fine. Aren’t you, sweetheart?” Trisha lifts up a glass from the table beside her and offers it to me.

“Here drink this, it’s just water. I’ve read about the side effects. Your mouth must be dry.” She smiles as if I haven’t just been fucking kidnapped and I look between all three of them, waiting for someone to offer me an explanation.

“What the hell is all this about? Laura, I need to get to the fight before Aaron gets hurt.”

“Relax, the fight has been dealt with.” Mr Collard steps into view again, I’d almost forgotten he was here. His participation in all of this throws me completely off. Grahame’s a quiet man and one who’s impossible to read. He never gets involved with anything. “The fight was stopped about an hour ago, the local PD got an anonymous tip.” He looks at his wife and raises his eyebrows. And suddenly, all this starts to make sense. If Aaron doesn’t fight I can’t buy the business back from Mark. What I can’t understand, is why I’m here.

“This is crazy, you can’t just take me against my will.” I can feel the panic building in my chest. These people can’t be right in the head.

“Technically, we didn’t take you against your will, you got into Laura’s car very freely.” Mark sniggers as he knocks back the last of his glass.

“Why am I here?” I slide my fingers over my forehead when it starts pounding, the lights in the chandelier in the Collard’s living room are far too bright.

“Because I needed to speak to ya.” A voice I don’t recognize comes from behind me and when I slowly turn around and see an old man wearing a very worn Dirty Souls cut, I know instantly who he is. He’s tall, even with his slightly hunched back, andalthough his skin looks too saggy for his face, I can still see that he has the same eyes as Raze.

“Dad?” I stare at him, not knowing how I feel about him being here. Part of me wants to run to him, to wrap my arms around him and check that he’s real. The other part of me wants to cause him pain. And not the physical kind, the same kind he’s put me through.

“I never thought I’d hear ya say that.” A smile lifts on his wrinkled mouth as he shuffles toward the chair beside mine and when Mr Collard offers to help him into, it he shoos him away.

“I’m not a fuckin’ invalid, Grahame, don’t treat me like one.” He coughs repeatedly as he lowers himself into the chair, then makes everyone stare at him in shock when he takes the pipe from the inside of his cut.

“You two know each other?” I glance between him and Mr Collard, and then when I look across to Laura again, I see even more guilt on her face.

“Me and Grahame, here, go back a long way.” He looks up at Mr Collard and the grin they exchange tells me I’ve been reading Mark and Laura’s father very wrong.

“I used to be a member of the Utah charter, back when I was?—”

“We don’t talk about those days anymore, do we, Grahame?” Trish interrupts him, still not letting her fake smile slip as she pours herself a vodka from the bar.

“You were a Soul?” I stare at him in shock.

“For a while, it was a rebellion against my parents to start with. I soon learned that the lifestyle wasn’t for me, but I always upheld my loyalty. Especially to the brothers who were good to me.” He places his hand on my father’s shoulder.

“All this time, did you know that I was here?” I ask him, feeling my eyes sting from the tears they’re forming.

“Sweetheart, I’m the reason you were here,” he tells me, sounding as if he expects me to be grateful.

“No.” I shake my head as I look at each member of the Collard family, and suddenly I notice how guilty they look, even Mark.

“I met you at college, we were on the same course.” I frown at Laura, my best friend, the person who’s been by my side for the past ten years.

“It was Laura’s interest in fashion that gave me the idea,” my father admits. “Grahame was always talkin’ about how keen she was to be a designer when we spoke. I knew from what Jimmer and your brother had told me, that you were into the same kinda thing. At first, I just wanted you to have a friend, someone ya could talk to.” He somehow makes his tone go soft through his deep, scratchy voice.

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