Page 70 of In the Midst of Chaos

“Leon is fucking dead,” I hissed.

I walked up to my father in a rage.

“Tell me how the fuck you knew this was going to happen.” I pointed a hand to the now destroyed clubhouse.

My father had told us to get out just seconds before the bombings had started.

“Not now, Nash. First, we have to get everyone out of here and make sure your brothers are okay.”

As much as I wanted answers, I stood down because he was right. I nodded and did as he asked of me.

We were all going back to the manor. We had room and space, and it was secluded enough.

My father, Duncan, and Huxley all left when Dion showed up in a black van. We couldn’t be seen here with all the chaos going on. It would only lead to more questions. We didn’t need any of that heat, especially right now when Finley was still fucking missing. The only hope I had to hold on to was that they needed her, or else she would have been sent back in pieces.

Bile rose up my throat when the other alternative popped into my head.

“You need to stop bringing Finley to the meetings; she’s just a girl,” my father shouted at Micah. They were in his office, and the door was ajar. I was on the way to my room up in the tower but stopped when I heard them arguing. It was something they did more and more lately.

“Do you know what’s going to happen if I treat Finley like she’s just a girl?” Micah spat. “She’s not just a girl. She can’t afford to be weak. Not when we have a line of enemies waiting to take our throne. I treat her like a girl, and she ends up raped, tortured, and dead.”

My heart stopped as I tried not to picture it but failed as the horrid images floated in my head. I don’t think I could recover if that happened.

“She’s going to be fine, right, Dad?” I suddenly felt like a child again, asking my father if it was all going to be okay. He looked at me, his eyes soft, something he rarely did anymore, and then reached out to pat my cheek.

“She’s not a normal girl. Micah made sure of that. I never understood it but maybe because I never had any daughters. But he took her fragility and turned it into a ticking time bomb.”

It wasn’t the answer I was looking for, but it gave me comfort.

Once at the manor, the staff was waiting for us, all of them ready to bring in Huxley and Duncan. None of them questioned why we couldn’t go to a hospital. We took care of them, and in return, they took care of us.

The Disciples showed up later, not all together so the roar of motors wouldn’t alert people where they had come to hide.

My brothers were in rooms being attended to by our private medic. Duncan was critical, but the doctor said he would be fine. That his body was just too weak, and the impact of the hits took a toll on him.

Huxley had lost a lot of blood and had a second-degree burn on his side; the stab of the metal hadn’t pierced his kidney, so thank fuck for that. I would never forget how he screamed in pain as they took off the shirt that was burned into his skin.

My perfect brother wasn’t so perfect anymore, and I was about to take the one thing that he was going to want to hold on to in these chaotic times.

My dad, Gunner, Nate, Ace, Andre, and I were locked in his office, finally having enough time to talk over all the shit that just went down.

“Are we going to pretend like Leon isn’t behind this?” I gritted out.

My dad and Gunner looked at each other. Then they looked at all of us, and my father spoke.

“At the clubhouse, I got a call from Humberto, telling me that it was okay, he didn’t need me anymore for guns.” He stopped and took a breath. “At that moment, I knew that the rat was Leon. Because he wasn’t in the room with us anymore. And the only reason Humberto would know about my involvement is that the person behind all of this would have told him. And the fact that he said he wouldn’t need me anymore, plus revealing his card, it would mean that they weren’t planning on any of us being alive.”

“I want to kill him,” I said through gritted teeth.

My father’s jaw got hard. “He’s not your kill to make. He’s club business now, and we will deal with it according to plan.”

I stood up and roared. “He took my girl!”

If anyone was surprised, none of them showed it. Andre pretended to look at his shoes. Gunner looked at my dad.

“Fuck what Micah said. Fuck all of that bullshit. He gave power to Leon, and the way I see it, his word means shit since the moment he betrayed us. You want to disown me, go right ahead. I don’t fucking care…”

My chest was heaving by this point. “If she doesn’t…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence anymore. I couldn’t even fathom living in a world where Finley didn’t exist. “I’ll die if something happens to her.” I fucking croaked in front of them, and I didn’t care if they all thought I was weak.

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