Page 8 of In the Midst of Chaos

“Nash made me untouchable.”

“You’re still trying to kill me,” he groaned as he slid me off his body, then made his way to Nash and shook his hand.

Chapter Three

There had never beena time since I could remember that Finley Primrose hadn’t been a part of my life.

She was the daughter of my dad’s business partner, so we were always around each other. Then around three, she and Huxley became best friends and used to team up to torment me.

They did everything together, from taking naps, bathing, joining Little League, leaving Little League, baking cookies, making a mess, and getting in trouble. They were inseparable.

Then at thirteen, Finley was an orphan, and the girl who was always around was now under our care. She was like a sister to me. She was always sad but hid it well. Something my brother seemed to forget a lot. She was a great addition to our family. The daughter my mom never had.

Then she turned fifteen the summer I had turned eighteen, and everything changed.

My brother started to develop feelings for her, and I saw the way she began to look at me.

She was a kid, and I was the prince of an empire. Everything I wanted, I had at the snap of my fingers—all types of girls, different shapes and flavors. Besides, she was promised to my brother. An arranged marriage her father and my father had wagered a long time ago.

We all had our jobs for the family, and mine was to protect them.

Then Finley turned seventeen, and that was the catalyst for the mess we were now in. I had gone away for almost two months on a job, and when I came back, the girl that came running toward me wasn’t the same one I had left behind.

All the things that made Finley look like a child had disappeared. Her freckles were now covered by light makeup. Her features no longer held that childish charm but were replaced with mischief, and then there was her body.

I felt like a dick by how I held her closer to me, knowing she was what my brother wanted the most.

“She’s like a sister to me, bro,” Nate said as he shook my hand.

“Tell that to Huxley and not to me.”

Nate gave me a knowing look but didn’t say more. He was going to let me play the pretend game, and I fucking needed that.

“Have you talked to her about that night, about why she had to leave?”

My only answer was to grind my jaw and keep quiet.

“Finley is joining us,” I said as I got off my bike.

“Cool.” Nate shrugged as he took a drag of his cigarette. My father, Finley’s dad, and Gunner started something a long time ago. We were Death Disciples, but we weren’t. The three of us were the face the world saw, but the club governed themselves. Gunner was the president and Nate their VP. Gunner and Nate got a vote at board meetings. They represented the club’s best interest, and Axton and I got a vote at the table.

This was the main chapter; all the other chapters had no idea what really went down at the top. It was best if it wasn’t known who really called all the shots.

In the club, women had no voice. They did what their men wanted and trusted that they would do right by them. Finley was another story. She was a Primrose, a founding member, so she got a seat at both tables by default. We made our clean cash with the company, but our real money came with the club.

We walked into the chapel to decide how we were going to do the pickup and the drop. Huxley was pissed off, but then again, my little brother had always had a war inside his head. I loved him, but he needed to let go of the idea that we needed changing because the truth was the life we were in, there was no getting out of it.

Finley was talking animatedly with Andre. The smile on her face was genuine, kind of like the one she gave my baby brother. The one she used to give to me.

One day, she would marry Huxley, and I would deal with that when the time came. She was his girl, not mine.

The club members came in and sat around the old wooden table with Gunner, their president, in the center, and Nate to his right.

On the other end, there was only one chair, and usually I took it since I spoke for the family when Axton wasn’t present, which was almost never nowadays, but before I could grab the chair, Finley came and gave me a petty smile.

“What a gentleman,” she said. “Thank you.”

I bit my lip so I could stop smiling. There was something different about this version of Finley. She’d always been a bit wild, but now there was something a bit more dangerous.

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