Page 139 of Blade

“She wasn’t happy. My mother was a bitch. She spent my whole life trying to convince me that poverty was fulfilling. Then she died with millions! She was a fucking hypocrite.”

“Grams was more of a mother to me than you ever were.”

She turned around so fast I didn’t have time to brace. When she slammed her fist into my nose, I felt the bone crack. That was my mistake. I thought she would start with a slap.

See, the one thing I kept to myself, never told Micah or Grams, no one, was that my mother used to beat me.

My hands went to my face. I held my nose, trying to stem the bleeding. My mother grabbed me by the hair, dragging me into the living room.

Shit.

Shoving me onto the couch, she turned back to the kitchen.

I underestimated her. I thought I would have to push more. Thought I knew her patterns. She came back into the room holding the knife I had planned to use.

My plan backfired. I knew she would attack. I knew I could claim self-defense. My father was the sheriff, for fuck’s sake. I had the rage from years of abuse. What I didn’t count on was her rage.

“Did you really hate Grams that much? Did you have something to do with her death?”

She cackled loudly, sounding like the wicked witch that she was.

“I wished I had taken out that old hag. She took that away from me, too.”

She was insane. That was the only reasonable explanation.

“She took everything away from me. She took my friends, she took you, she took the inheritance that should have been mine! Everyone loved her and hated me. Even Declan only asked me to marry him because of you. You deserve nothing. It all should have been mine!”

She slapped her fist onto her chest with the hand holding the knife. She swung her arm around and pointed the knife at me.

“I know how to get everything back. You got yourself all tangled up with a biker gang. Everyone knows they’re all thugs. Shacking up with them, fucking them. Looks to me like one of them beat the shit out of you. Then stabbed you. Oh, maybe twenty-five times. One for every year of your pathetic thieving life. Once you’re dead, in comes the grieving mother. The next of kin gets everything if you die without a will. I’m your next of kin, little girl. I will finally get all of it.”

“You aren’t her only next of kin,Conifer.”

Spinning around with the knife in her hand, she charged toward my dad. He didn’t blink. Didn’t hesitate. He emptied his gun into her chest. Holstering his weapon, he darted over to me and lifted me into his arms.

I buried my face in his chest as he carried me out of the house, where we found over a dozen bikers running across the street with their weapons drawn.

Stopping in the driveway, he handed me over to Micah, who pulled me against him so tight I almost couldn’t breathe. Gunner rushed past us into the house.

“I’m ok, Micah. I’m ok.”

Taking my head in his hands, he looked me over.

“Baby, your nose. I think it’s broken. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I promise I’m ok. It’s over, Micah. She can’t come between us ever again.”

He kissed my forehead and looked at my dad.

“Do we need to hide a body?”

He laughed. “No, justifiable homicide.”

King slapped a hand on my dad’s shoulder.

“You’re gonna need this,” he said, holding out my dad’s badge.

My dad took the badge, pinning it to his chest where it belonged.

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