Page 50 of Mace

I did not sign up for this shit. “Calm the fuck down,” I hiss at her, trying in vain to control her outburst. Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t. She just continues to scream and attack me, the air, anything close enough to her.

“Chloe.” Crank’s hard voice seems to penetrate through the fog of rage she’s buried in, and she instantly relaxes in my arms. It’s as if someone turned the power off, and the change in motion makes me stumble.

“The fuck,” I mutter.

Blade gives me a smug glare. “I tried to tell you.”

I pin him with a savage look of my own, clinging to the suddenly motionless woman in my arms.

“Go to the room,” Crank orders.

I’m hesitant to let go of her, but when I do, she doesn’t attack her mother. “Don’t you dare come here again and try to ruin my life. Haven’t you done enough?”

Sandy peers up at her, and I see the hurt in her eyes. “I don’t know what spell he has you under, Chlo, but you’re my daughter, and I’m never giving up on you. I love you.”

Chloe scoffs. “If you loved me, you’d stay away. This is my family, my life. You’re just the bitch who birthed me.” She twists her head to look at me. “Let me go.”

“Are you going to behave yourself?” I ask.

She gives a sharp nod, and hesitantly, I release her, ready to grab her again if she tries to attack her mother. But she does as Crank says, striding towards him and taking his face in her hands before kissing him senseless.

“That’s why I had hold of her,” Blade mutters. “She’s a fuckin’ nut.”

Sandy glances away, pain rippling across her face. But her daughter doesn’t seem to care that she is stabbing a lance into her chest, and Crank is equally unbothered by the fact he is driving a wedge between mother and daughter.

His hands come to her bottom, squeezing the globes of her arse before she steps aside and walks towards her room.

For a moment, the air is charged, the tension growing to suffocating levels. “I don’t know how you’ve convinced my daughter to hate me,” Sandy says, climbing to her feet. I reach out to steady her when she wobbles, but she brushes me away. “But until I get her back, I’m going to make your life a misery.”

“Careful. I might decide you’re a problem, and you are very aware of how this club deals with problems.”

I have to hand it to her. Sandy doesn’t so much as flinch at the threat. “She is not yours to keep.”

“She has Sons’ blood in her veins, Sandy. She is exactly where she belongs.”

“She is half your age and barely an adult. She doesn’t understand how your world works, but I do. I’ve been one of your club girls. You want her now, but when that changes and you freeze her out, you’re going to destroy her. I won’t allow that to happen.”

Crank’s mouth twists into a macabre grin, one I recognise all too well. It’s the look of a man who thinks he’s untouchable.

You’ll have your day, you fucking prick.

“Let me walk you out,” I say to Sandy.

There’s no point arguing with Crank. He’s a fucking narcissist who cares about no one but himself.

Sandy looks as though she wants to rile back, but I gently take her bicep, steering her towards the door.

Diesel is leaning against the wall near it, a booted foot pressed against the plaster, watching, as he always does.

“Thanks for the help,” I mutter at him.

His eyes slide towards me, but that’s the only acknowledgement he gives me as I pass him.

I usher Sandy out of there. Her shoulders remain tight until we’re through the door and out into the parking area. Only then does she let them slump. She lets out a scream of frustration that I feel in my bones. “He can’t have her, Mace. She’s my child, not his whore.”

“What do you want to happen here, Sandy?”

“I want my daughter to come home. I know what he’s like. I know he fucks her in front of the whole club as if she’s trash. I know he uses her for his own pleasure, and I know that in the right mind, my daughter would not want this.”

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