Page 1 of Tye

Prologue.

Ice – (Aka Tye, his road name is now Ice).

Carefully, I observed the two assholes in their cages. Cody was also present, both of us armed and guarding the prisoners. Harley and Christian were outside, guarding the building.

Dad was at Reading Hall tearing into Mom, and I guessed it best to leave. Cody, Harley, Christian, and I had bundled the prisoners into a van and driven them away.

The truth was, I’d have blown up if I hadn’t left. Why had Mom taken such a risk? Worse, Mom had brought them home.

The inner circle was on their way, called by Cody as Dad had stayed on the phone the entire time Mom had driven home. Dad had refused to hang up while she was driving in case something happened.

“Ice,” Fanatic said, walking into the room.

“Hey, has Dad stopped shouting yet?”

“No, he’s yelling through a locked door. Mum’s locked Dad out of the bedroom,” Fanatic replied.

“Can you believe Mom did that? Why take such a stupid risk?” I blurted.

Fanatic looked at me long and hard.

“Because it’s Mom. She wants to see the best in everyone. But she also wants justice for McKenna. Whether Mum trusted him completely or not, she had Volcano in her grasp. Mom wasn’t going to walk away.”

“And if he’d attacked Mom? We would’ve lost her!” I exclaimed.

“And that’s what’s frightening you the most. Being alone again.”

“No!” I yelled, and Volcano and Grunt turned to look at me.

“No?” Fanatic asked softly.

I glared at the two assholes and faced Fanatic. “They might have hurt Mom. That’s what scares me,” I snapped.

“Yeah, they might have. They didn’t. Tye,” Fanatic said, dropping my road name, “no matter what shit happens, you won’t ever be alone.”

I hated that Fanatic saw through my anger to my real fear. If I lost Mom, would I lose my family too? It was there, niggling at the back of my mind, and the thought was insidious and disturbing.

“Micah.”

Fanatic sighed. “I get it. Believe me, I completely understand. When I watched that asshole beat the shit out of Mum, I always wondered, would this be the day he killed her? I remember and still feel that fear. But no matter what shit happens, even if we lose them both, we’ve got each other. That’s never going to change.”

I swallowed hard. Somehow, Fanatic had understood what I was suffering and hit the nail on the head.

Fanatic reached out and hauled me in close, and we bumped heads together. We stood there for a few seconds before boots stomped down the stairs.

“Okay?” Harley asked as he entered.

“Yeah. Where’s Christian?” Fanatic questioned.

“Hiding the van. We don’t want to lead anyone to the new wet room,” Harley replied.

“Uncle Chance is on his way with Bear,” Fanatic said, and I nodded.

I turned to stare at the prisoners. Grunt and Volcano were both relaxed and watching us. Grunt seemed curious as to our relationship, but Volcano didn’t seem too bothered. His expression was blank, and I wanted to beat the shit out of him. McKenna’s face haunted all of us. It had only been a fuckin’ week, and I could crawl out of my skin for what happened.

The latest news was McKenna remained in hospital and refused to talk or see people. She’d banned all visitors and became distressed when anyone tried to speak to her. Marissa and Lina were going out of their minds and Hawthorne’s had stationed a guard permanently on her door.

I ground my teeth together. “How long till the club arrives?” I asked Harley.