Page 4 of Scorched King

Tel was right. I had little information on these nomad assholes that had invaded our territory and whether they were organized or not. It didn’t seem likely amongst this ragtag bunch of dicks, but I couldn’t risk retaliation. And unless I killed every one of these fuckers and their associates, word would get out about me losing my fucking mind over this woman. If we cut her loose now, our enemies would snatch her on day one.

“Fuck,” I swore again as I picked up a chair and slammed it against the wall.

“I don’t need you to do any favors for me. I’m out of here,” Sasha said from her perch on the stage next to me.

I turned and steadied my gaze on Tel, ignoring her and her outburst. “Fine,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. “But keep her the hell away from me. I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to hear about her. Keeping an eye on her is officially your job now.”

“Fuck you,” she spat from behind my back. “I don’t want anything from?—”

I jerked around so fast, the words coming out of her smart mouth died instantly, my hand going for her throat. I walked her backwards until her body crashed against the nearby wall.

“You don’t have a say in this, do you hear me? You do whatever he tells you to do. Nothing more and nothing less and he’ll keep you alive. Do. You. Understand?”

The fear in her eyes had grown exponentially, but I could see the moment my words sank in. Like it or not, she would be a part ofour club until I could figure out how to get her loose. She tried to nod, but my grip around her neck was still too tight.

“Say the words,” I hissed.

“Yes.” Her bottom lip wobbled under the force. “I understand,” she whispered.

A sick smile twisted my lips. Despite the situation, I took too much pleasure in watching her lips tremble while her eyes shot daggers at me.

Whatever innocence she had inside her would soon die. Nothing sweet or good could survive in our world…

“Hey, Boss. Are you listening?”

Axel’s words yanked me from the past and pulled me back into the present. Everyone wanted to know when Sasha was coming home. It was a fair question. Only one I didn’t have the answer to. Remembering the first time I’d nearly got her killed didn’t help.

“I don’t know when she’s coming back.” Luckily, I managed to end my sentence there. Because if she was smart, she’d find a way to put us all in her rear view. Not that I wanted to get into the details of this conversation, but I had a feeling Axel was going to push no matter how little I said.

He nodded. “She’s been through a lot. I’m still so fucking pissed I didn’t get to her sooner. Maybe I could have saved her from some of this.”

“Don’t do that. No one could have predicted that a serial douchebag would get past our five layers of security, let alone blow up our fucking club with her in it. You saved her.”

And I would forever be grateful. Even if she hated me now. I scrubbed my hands over my face again, attempting to wipe away some of the nightmares of her trapped in that burning building.

“Still. I’ll feel a lot better when she gets back to where she belongs.”

I winced again.

Truth be told, she was too good for us. The best thing for her would be to get as far and as fast away from us as she could.

It was convenient for me to sayus, and claim club life wasn’t for her, when in all actuality she only needed to get away from me. I wasn’t ever going to be good enough for her. I just wish she understood that. But like many of the women in our lives, she had a stubborn streak a mile wide.

One who never fucking listened.

I was a predator and the more time she spent with me meant the more likely she would become the prey. She was my weakness and I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable ever again.

“The doctors say she should have left the hospital a week ago.”

“What?!”

My head swiveled so sharply, another wave of pain stabbed at the back of my eyeballs.

Axel nodded. “I had a feeling you didn’t know. Patty says Sasha’s too scared to come back here and she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. No family. Apparently, she was a foster kid right up until she aged out.”

“I know.” I knew everything about my employees. Tel made sure of that. That man was a fucking genius on a computer and therewasn’t a firewall in existence that he couldn’t get through, or a sealed juvenile record for that matter, that he couldn’t open.

Reading hers had made me sick to my stomach. One foster home after another, all with the same results. No one had wanted to keep her. On paper she might have come across as a troublemaker, but the petty things she pulled weren’t likely to get her in much trouble. There was nothing wrong with doing whatever you had to in order to keep food in your stomach or a shelter over your head. The fact that my situation with her might seem eerily familiar jolted through me like a kick to the gut.

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