Page 58 of What Lies Within

The squeal of tires as Deo leaves the yard doesn’t faze her.Should probably give Marco the heads-up.His boy is on an adrenalin-fueled revenge kick—the sort that gets you killed.

“Don’t need to tell you she’s in shock,” Cassidy says. “As for how long? Couldn’t say.” She touches my arm lightly, cautious as well as comforting. “All she needs is some loving care and a reminder she’s safe now.”

"I'll stay with her," Jamie offers, legs folded beneath her. "I can try to get her to her own room if you like, but it's hard to get her up the stairs like this."

I shake my head. "Leave her here. I want her comfortable." I glance behind me toward Turnip and then back at the two women on either side of my daughter. "Where's Rae? Why ain't she in here?"

The silence is telling, as is the lack of fucking eye contact from any of the fuckers.

“Speak,” I growl, praying one of these assholes has the gall to tell me what’s up before I get to banging heads together.

“She’s, uh, with Digger,” Turnip hedges. “You want me to let them know you’re back?”

“Tell the fucking pair of them I want their asses in my fuckin’ office before I get there myself.” They better have a fucking good explanation as to why—when my beautiful girl sits catatonic on my bed—they find it pertinent to be wherever the fuck they are,doing whatever the hell it is they deem more important than comforting Maddie.

I rise from the bed, pent-up frustration, anger, and grief all surging for an outlet as I stride for the door.

Turnip catches me by the shoulder, palm to the collarbone to stall me in my tracks. Fucking size of his eyes tells me my face relays my urge to snap his goddamn wrist for stopping me. “You might want to holster that anger, Tyke. At least until you hear what they have to say.”

My eye twitches, gaze darting back to my daughter as my heart breaks all over again.

Why the fuck was I the last to know what’s going on around here? Why the fuck ain’t anyone keeping me in the loop?

Is this how it starts? The coup?

Is that how little my club thinks of me now?

I close my eyes and draw a deep breath.Fuck. Not now. Not when I’ve got a fucking score to even and a blazing desire to right all my previous wrongs in doing so.

I jerk my phone free and thumb through to Marco’s number.

The day may come when I leave this fucking club in the hands of another man, but this ain't the time.

Hell, it probably ain’t even the year.

I won’t be going anywhere until I leave one last mark on my legacy: Terry fucking Creed’s death.

24

RAE

Tyke enters the room, the bitter tang of fresh smoke following in his wake when he strides past Digger and I seated on the foremost sofa, toward his desk.

"I want you to tell me what the fuck happened while I was gone," he orders, low and foreboding. "Starting with the second you walked away from me, Dig, and endin' with now."

He's mad, and I don't know why. Besides knowing I was with Digger without him, I don't understand what I've done. I draw my legs up, tucking them beneath the over-sized T-shirt of Digger's that I wear, and hug my knees to my chest.

Tyke tracks the movement out of the corner of his eye, fussing with papers on the edge of his desk as a distraction. Or maybe an outlet, given the menace that comes off him in waves.

"You need to fuckin' take a deep breath, brother." Digger scoots forward on his cushion, hands clasped and elbows on knees as he leans forward. "Don't know what's got you like a fuckin' bear with a sore head, but I promise it ain't worth it."

“You don’t know, huh?” He nods slowly, lips pressed into a flat line.

My breaths come quicker. I can’t handle this. Not more anger at something I’ve done without fucking meaning to. Another goddamn mistake I’ve made from sheer ignorance.Fuck.

"My beautiful, precious girl is in there," he says, voice hoarse with emotion as he gestures toward his room, "and neither of you is with her."

“Rae asked?—”

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