Page 114 of Property of Chaos

I stare at my phone and lick my lips. “She told me I make everything worse.”

“They always do.” He slams the last of his drink back. “But you got to listen to their actions, not their words.”

“How do you mean?” Ness went to the house and taunted me with a video there. She told me I made things worse, but then she sought comfort in things that were mine. What does that mean?

“Elena told me to stay the fuck away. Took our kid and hid from me for years. But you know what happened when I showed up at her door?”

I stay quiet, allowing him to continue.

“It felt like nothing had changed,” he grits out. “That fucking fire was there, hotter than ever. She pushed me away from a place of fear, Chaos, and all I had to do was prove she was safe with me. That everything that had happened to her before we met meant shit. All I wanted was what she had to give me; however, that came packaged. That she,” he says, jabbing a hand in his old lady’s direction, “is everything I want and need.”

He speaks with such fucking conviction. The man is goddamn sick with obsession for her.

And he doesn’t find a fucking thing wrong with that.

“I was supposed to case her out,” I admit. “Make sure she wasn’t a threat to the club. But the closer I got, the more she fascinated me. I took her fucking journal and read that thing cover to cover like a goddamn bible,” I say with a laugh. “Like, what the fuck, man?”

“What did she do?”

“Huh?”

“When she found out what you did?”

I stare at him, swallow, and answer. “She asked me to stay for dinner.”

His brow lifts, King’s smile widening before he erupts into laughter. “And you’re worried she doesn’t want our brand of trouble around?”

“She told me she didn’t.”

“How?” he challenges. “What happened? Lay it all on me.”

He thrives off this conversation, and the connection boosts my confidence. “A doctor threatened her, so I paid him a visit. Might have punched the guy a few times. Choked him.”

He sucks a breath between his teeth.

“She said it makes things worse because her stepfather, her abuser, the reason the guy threatened her, will just retaliate.”

“So kill him.” He doesn’t flinch as he says the words.

“I mean, I’d thought about it.” I wake up the phone again and navigate to one of my favorite screenshots from the cameras. “Tell me she ain’t something to worship.”

He leans closer to look at the screen and nods. “She’s pretty.”

“But she’s so much more,” I explain. “The shit she went through, man, and how fucking strong she is for getting out of that, for surviving.” I shake my head, staring at her image. “She makes me feel like a coward in comparison.”

King nudges my arm to get my attention and then points to Elena. “I feel you, brother.”

“So what do I do?” I ask. “How do I change her mind?”

An arm slides around my shoulders as Highway joins the conversation. “You stop jerking off to the recordings of her, and you fucking tell her the shit you’re too pussy to say out loud.”

“Fuck off.” I give him a shove.

He cinches me tighter, laughing, as King says, “He’s right. But I’d add to that. She understands actions over words, right?”

I nod.

“So use your goddamn actions to show her what you’ve been saying.”

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