Page 4 of Daughters of Chaos

The man's mouth twitches as he counters, "You must be Raven."

When he says my name, everything goes cold. My body stiffens as I straighten my back, still holding my bat in front of me. The shockwave wears off almost as suddenly as it came on. I glare at the man who said my name. "What's it to ya?"

He laughs as he looks me over again, muttering under his breath. "You may as well come in," he tells me, stepping out of the way, "your sister's already here."

My jaw clenches as another wave of anger courses through me. "Yeah, because you assholes kidnapped her."

The man chuckles as he holds up his hands. "We didn't kidnap anyone, sweetheart. She agreed to come here all on her own. Come see for yourself." He nods inside, inviting me in again.

I'm about to tell him to go fuck himself and demand he bring Phoenix outside when I hear her say my name. She doesn't sound scared or hurt. She sounds like her usual, bubbly self.

I watch the men at the door as I brush past them to find my sister. She's in the doorway of a kitchen with an older man in a leather cut that matches the other two. As I rush over, I note thewords "Vice President" on his patch. "Phoenix," I say, lowering the bat.

"Raven, what are you doing here?" she asks, surprised to see me.

I tell her how I found her note and followed her here, reminding her how stupid it was for her to come by herself. I look around, eyeing the group of men scattered around the room. "When I pulled up, they were shoving you into your car. I thought they were kidnapping you, Nix. I came here to save you. To take you back home."

Phoenix almost looks ashamed, and she gives me a sheepish look. "Sorry, Rae. I had to do this. I needed to meet him. To see if there's a chance he'd want to know us."

My eyes roll. I love my sister to death, but sometimes she does things that make me think she's gone bat-shit crazy. Why the hell would Elias West want any part of our lives? He's the president of an Arizona motorcycle gang. I'm sure the last thing he wants is two new daughters he's never known barging in and shaking things up.

I stand there fuming as my sister watches me, begging me to give this a chance. We're both still alive for now, but that could change any second. If one of these goons loses their temper, one or both of us could end up six feet under. I eye the big one who met me at the door as he holds up a wall, looking as friendly as ever. The scowl on his face has deepened, if that's even possible.

I'm about to grab Phoenix and pull her out the door when she speaks again. "At the bar, Elias agreed to hear me out. To let me tell him about us—about Mom. It all came as a shock when I told him I was his daughter, but he agreed to hear me out. That's something, right, Rae?"

The look in her eyes is so hopeful. I can't stand taking that away from her. For whatever reason, my sister needs this. So, for her, I'll give this a bit longer. I grit my teeth and hiss, "I can'tbelieve I'm agreeing to this. The second things start to go south, we're out."

Phoenix's face lights up as she pulls me into a hug. "Thank you, Raven. It'll all be okay. I know it."

I look again at the gruff men surrounding us, hoping I didn't just sign our death warrants when the booming voice of Elias rings around the room. "Alright, prospects, out. There's some business to attend to. Members only."

I watch as two men shuffle out the door while the rest move into the living room. Elias gestures for us to follow. When we do, he offers us a seat on the couch closest to his chair. "You have my undivided attention. Now," he says, looking at Phoenix, "you say you're my daughters? Tell me everything."

So Nix does. She tells him that Mom shared their story with us in her final days—how she seemed to still love him even at the end. She shares details about our lives—our birthday, where we live, and little details about him that Mom shared before she died. There's so much that Phoenix shares, too much, if you ask me, but Elias listens intently as she tells him everything.

When Nix shows him our birth certificates and old photos, that's when I see it. Something in his rough exterior cracks. Barely, but enough for me to notice. When he sees the old photos of us with Mom, I watch his face soften.

Well, I'll be damned. The bastard does have a heart.

He holds the most recent photo of her in his hands gently as he studies it. There's something familiar about him, something that calls to me. Watching him, I can tell he isn't someone who likes to let his guard down. Ever. But as he looks at those pictures, his tough-guy exterior starts to crumble. He reminds me of myself, as much as it pains me to admit.

It almost makes me curious about the guy. Almost.

"We can take a DNA test to prove it." I hear Nix's voice cut through the silence in the room.

Elias nods. "We'll have the test done soon." He finally looks up from Mom's picture. "Bear, call Doc. Set it up," he says to his VP.

The one called Bear nods. Then, he eyes Nix and me with suspicion as he disappears into another room. He doesn't believe us. He thinks this is some elaborate hoax. I can tell by the way he's been studying us this whole time.

I don't trust him. I don't trust any of them, but I'm here for Phoenix. If this is really what she wants, then I'll be here to back her up. I'll make sure none of these guys try anything funny.

"You both have my eyes." Elias's voice pulls me out of my train of thought. I look over to see him studying us. His face is still hard, but it's softer now than it was before.

Realizing what he said, he clears his throat and shakes his head, looking irritated at himself. Phoenix opens her mouth to respond, but before the words make it out, Bear comes back. "Doc says he can come out tomorrow to do the test," he tells Elias. "Then we'll find out the truth." He shoots a skeptical glance toward me and Phoenix.

Her resulting cringe only pisses me off. "Fucking asshole," I mumble under my breath, earning a hateful sneer from Elias's crony. I guess that wasn't as quiet as I thought.

Whoops.

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