Page 92 of Roses and Skulls

“Yes, because then maybe you would listen to me. I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go away this weekend. In fact, if you were my daughter, I’d lock you in your goddamn room. I thought Dirk was smarter than this.”

Lanie is busy plotting ways to stab me in the back, maybe you should worry about that.

But I don’t say this to him.

“I’ll be fine. Elijah would never hurt me. You know this,” I offer quietly. “And as far as my dad is concerned, it’s none of his business where I go. I’ll be twenty in a few months. I’m an adult, remember?”

He eyes me for several long minutes as I ponder what is going on in his head.

“I’m sorry, I just worry about you is all.” He waves it off, pretending that the last few minutes never happened.

“Are you worried about me because of Lanie?” I ask.

He runs his hands through his dark hair, laying his head back on the couch to stare up at the ceiling. “No.”

“Then what is it?”

“Nothing,” he jumps to his feet. “I just wanted you to be here for the band this weekend. It’s going to be crazy, and I need you.”

I stand up and head towards the door. “I’m sorry, Draven, but Elijah has been planning this trip for a while now. I don’t want to disappoint him.”

Life has been clicking along for so long that sometimes, I forget who Draven really is. And actually, I’m not really sure I know him at all. Is he Crow’s son? Grandpa’s? No, he couldn’t be grandpas. Bell all but confirmed it.

But I’ve been studying Draven when he isn’t looking and there are moments of familiarity. His mannerisms sometimes remind me of my mother. They have the same dark hair too. I shake my head and sigh.

When I walk into the main bar, Elijah spots me and waves me over. He finally got the new part in for the jukebox. I’m glad he was able to fix it. “Are you almost done?” I ask, looking at the clock on the wall. I’m ready to get out of here. Draven’s mood has me rattled.

“Yep.” He stands behind me as I look at the music selections, his breath hot on my ear. “When you walk by the table behind us, look at their jackets. They have a new patch.”

I nod slightly and turn around to face him. He stares down at me, and I can see anger simmering in his brown eyes.

“I’m going to go wash up and I’ll meet you out back,” he says, grabbing me by my shoulders and placing a kiss to my forehead.

He walks away from me, and I allow my gaze to follow him until he disappears. Slowly, I let my eyes fall over the leather jacket that is draped on the back of a chair.

My heart drops to my stomach. The new patch is of a woman held hostage by a devil, his tail wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her side.

A woman who looks an awful lot like me.

No.

Jesus Christ, is this just another way to taunt my mother?

Draven meets my gaze from behind the bar. One of the men at the table whistles, drawing my attention to him. “Hey, princess, you gunna let your boy prospect for us?”

It’s Draven’s second, his VP. And he’s always looked at me with a loathing that makes my skin crawl. “You mean, Elijah?” I ask.

He nods, leaning back and pulling his cigarettes out of his pocket. “We’d take real good care of him.”

“He’s a grown ass man. Ask him yourself,” I say on my way past him.

The man reaches out and grabs my arm. As I begin to pry his fat fingers from my elbow, he releases me. I stumble back and see why the asshole let go so fast. Draven has a gun pressed to the man’s temple.

“What did I say about her?”

The man laughs, a gold tooth shining against the lights from the bar. “Yeah, yeah, don’t touch the little MC princess.”

Draven lifts the gun away from the man’s head and slowly moves it across the room, making sure to run it over every member of his club that is here. “Never. Never touch her or I will paint the walls of this bar with your blood.”

---