Page 120 of The Grief We Hold

My bike is finely tuned. I’m gunning it at the absolute top of its speed. We hug the curves of the road, taking the racing line.

Fuck formations.

I blast past Tanner and don’t even look back to see if he’s getting in his cop car to follow us.

Might be better for Marco if he does. I have to avoid killing the fucker in front of a cop if I don’t want to serve time.

Hell, I’m willing to do time either way if he’s hurt Raven or Fen.

But beneath my mental bravado, I need to admit there is a part of me terrified I’m going to arrive to a bloodbath.

When we pull up outside, I abandon my bike and race to her door. I don’t need to knock. Though this is the first time I’ve used it, I kept the second key when I installed new locks on the door for her.

I let myself in and run up the stairs, only to find the man I assume is Marco sitting on the recliner, with no sign of Fen or Raven.

“Where the fuck are they?” I say, lunging at the man and getting three solid blows to his face before he has a chance to raise his fists to shield his head.

“What the?—”

I stand and tug him out of the chair, then drop him to the floor in time to see the bedroom door open and hear Fen cry out from the bathroom.

“Wraith,” Raven cries, and she hurries to me with such speed that I’m almost knocked off-balance when she throws her arms around me. “He has a gun.”

And he’s about to draw it when Smoke comes in and kicks Marco in the side of the head.

The man howls in pain.

“You okay?” I ask Raven as I press a kiss to the top of her head.

“This has nothing to do with you,” Marco cries out with a whimper.

I glare at him. “Pretty sure it does when you scare the shit out of my woman.”

“Mom,” Fen cries from the bathroom.

“Go to him,” I say. “He must be fucking terrified.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Raven asks.

“I’m going to have a little word. You and Fen don’t need to see it.”

“But I should?—”

“Do as I say, Blue.”

She looks as though she’s about to argue for a heartbeat, but then she turns to the bathroom.

“Good girl,” I say.

I wait until she’s gone, while the rest of my brothers appear at the top of the stairs.

“Do we need a tarp?” Smoke asks. “Because I’m too fucking tired to get blood out of floorboards today.”

I shake my head. I don’t know where the line is. Part of me wants to kill the fucker. Part of me wants to hand him over to the Bratva and hope for some peace for a while. Part of me remembers he’s Fen’s dad, and what kind of future am I going to have with Fen when he asks what happened to his father?

Marco climbs to his knees. He looks once, to take in who just hit him, then looks again, this time at my cut.

I can tell the moment he realizes he fucked with the wrong people.

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