Page 16 of Truths

She scoffs. “'Especially an old lady.' Like a woman of the club is somehow less worthy of extreme measures than a man of the club?”

Rolling his eyes, he crosses his arms over his chest. “You'd risk your marriage? Your connection to the club? I call bullshit.”

“Call it whatever you want, but you're fucking wrong. You've been wrong this entire time. Does it suck that Kara did what she did? Yes. But it sucks more that you failed her. Failed Dax. Failed Dani.”

“Fuck you!”

“No, fuck you!” Lex shouts back, pushing him backwards. “You don't get it, so I'll explain it to you. I was Dani. I know what it's like to be trapped with people who want to hurt you. Who will do whatever the fuck they want because they can. I was only tortured for three days, but I could have been like Dani. I could still be locked up, and you have no idea what that's like. And while I don't know exactly what they did to her, I know it was bad. Really fucking bad.”

“How bad?” Kara asks, her voice and body shaking.

Lex turns to look at her, locking eyes. “She has scars from where she tried to kill herself. It was bad enough she wanted to end her life.”

“She asked us to kill her,” Colt says, standing beside his wife in solidarity against Chance. “She didn't even recognize Dax at first. She told us she tried to end the suffering, but they wouldn't let her because they weren't done with her yet.”

Overwhelming pain surges through her, and Kara falls to her knees as her lungs feel like they've stopped working. “She tried... Oh, God!”

“You helped save her, Kara,” Lex says. “You did what I couldn't. You took a huge risk, and it paid off. And from what I can see, you hated every moment of whatever you had to do.”

Bile rises in her throat, and she does everything possible not to vomit right here on the floor. “It makes me sick, but I had to make them trust me.”

“You let him fuck you,” Chance says. “Hell, you probably let others fuck you. Got on your knees and took three at a time.”

“Stop it,” Lex says and turns to him. “What is wrong with you?”

Chance closes the gap and gets in her face. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

Venom jumps in before Colt can, and he pushes him away. “Get in her face one more time, motherfucker, and I will risk my leather to put you in the fucking ground. You're already on shaky ground, considering you knew Kara saw Dani for months and did fucking nothing!”

To Kara's surprise, Lex holds her ground and looks at Chance. “I asked what the hell is wrong with you. You forced her to do this becauseyoufailed. You failed as a club member, and you failed as a man. You didn't do the one thing you're supposed to do in this club, and that's to be a protector. Who protected Dani when you were the only one wearing a Drifter leather who knew she might be alive? Whether true or not, you should have done something. Anything! But you didn't, so you don't get to chastise her for what she had to do when you didn't do a damn thing.”

“You're a fucking bitch!”

“Yeah, I am. And unlike you, I have this club in my veins. You failed, and two women of the club had to pick up your slack. You could have been a hero, but you chose the coward's route. Get in my face. Call me names. The truth is, Chance, I don't give a flying fuck what you think about me because as far as I'm concerned, you don't matter. But you will not degrade Kara for doing what you couldn't. Not around me.”

His fists clench, and Venom growls beside Lex while Colt cracks his knuckles on the other side of her.

“Dude, she's the daughter of VP. The main VP. Also, she's not fucking wrong. Look around you, and think if this is a fight you want to get into because you're not gonna fucking win,” Finnegan says, taking Chance by the shoulders.

Looking around, Kara sees how many angry men glare at Chance rather than her, and she can't comprehend what just happened. Lex handed him his ass, and no one's getting after her for it.

Chance nods and glares at her, his nostrils flaring. “You win, Kara. You win.”

“No, Chance, I didn't. I'm pretty sure I completely lost,” she says and stands. “But at least I can live with the fact that what I had to endure brought Dani back. She's no longer in that hell.”

“You're dead to me,” he says and steps backwards. “You can justify what you did all day, every day, but I willneverforgive you for what you did. You're fucking dead to me.”

Nodding, she sighs. As much as she expected it, it still hurts. “It's kind of funny. Even knowing I was right, I knew this would be your reaction. I clearly made you miserable, and now you have the perfect excuse to be done with me. You never let it show how unhappy you were the past few years, and now you can find what you need. I hope you find everything I wasn't, and I hope you can find happiness.”

Running outside, she barely makes it to her car before throwing up on the pavement. Memories of what she had to do with Ian, how she had to earn his trust, make her want to crawl in a hole and never come out of it. Dani's safe and out of there, but Kara can't find it comforting enough to not hate the person she sees in the mirror. Not after everything that's happened.

Chapter Seven

Summerville

Marnie

Marnie watches how Venom jumps in and defends Lex. How he threatens to kill Chance for getting in her face. She finds herself both jealous and turned on. Having someone like that, ready to go to bat and risk everything for her, is something she realizes she had with him herself until it all came crashing down.

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