Page 61 of In the Midst of Chaos

I prepped myself for him to tell me that he had killed him. Killed the man who had murdered my father.

“Leon got here before he could pull the trigger.”

“Leon?”

Nate nodded. “Yes.”

“I need to talk to him,” I said as I ran to the warehouse.

“Finley,” Nash growled, trying to stop me, but I was too fast. I needed answers like they were water and I had been in the desert for days.

I didn’t listen. I opened the rusty metal door, and it took a second for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Except in a corner, there was one lone light with a man strapped to a chair, and Leon was above him looking like a reaper.

I stopped running until I was in front of him. I looked at his face, trying to recall if I’d ever seen this man. I couldn’t remember him, but he seemed to know me.

“You look just like him,” he said. “She wondered if you had anything of hers in you. She wassweet, and he was cold.”

I sucked in a breath. The sucker knew what to say to kill.

His words hit a chord. My mother never told me, but I suspected she resented me for being more like my father. For knowing I was more valuable to him than she would ever be.

I knew my parents had issues, but never in a million years did I think she would betray him.

“What is she doing here?” Leon directed his question at Nate and Nash.

I glared at him. He might be part of the club, but he was like Axton and Gunner, set in the ways that women couldn’t lead.

“He murdered my father. I have a right to be here.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Leon said. “He might have been fucking your mom, but let me tell you something, there aren’t many who didn’t. “

I felt like he had slapped me at the fact that he called my mother a whore.

“Leon,” Nash warned as he came to stand protectively behind me. I took a step forward, making me stay out of his protective embrace. I did not need him to fight my battles for me. This was something that my father always wanted me to avoid. And I wasn’t going to start my relationship with Nash on the wrong foot. I could slay my own damn dragons.

The man who was on the chair gave me a bloody smile. It was sinister, and there was already a dead look in his eyes. He looked at Leon, then at me.

“I cut off his brakes. I was just waiting for the day he took a too-sharp turn or one wrong move. He didn’t take good care of Blair. When she died, it was like he didn’t care. Life went on for him, and it stopped for me. So I avenged her. She was the woman I loved.”

Rage burned through me as I heard him talk about my father’s murder. This man took everything from me—the image of my perfect family. The memory I had of my mother. And he was confessing to my father’s murder.

I took a step back, and I felt Nash there, his hand coming to my hips, steadying me. Silently letting me know he was there for me. Supporting me and giving me strength. I reached to his waist, knowing he always carried his gun. He was more outlaw than he was a businessman.

He was a one-percenter but not the kind Axton would have preferred. They raised him with leather and a gun, and he was in the in-between line, living precariously.

I found the cold metal and gripped it. I knew how to handle guns since I was ten. My father taught me the art of fire play. You couldn’t fear machinery; you had to know how to operate well.

I pulled it out, and Nate and Nash yelled.

I pointed the gun at the guy.

He smiled. “My only regret is that I didn’t get to kill you.”

I took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger. Nash and I were close enough that blood splatter landed on our faces.

Leon took most of the blow. He whipped his face around, glaring at us.

“Fuck,” Nash whispered, intending to take the gun away from me.

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