Page 70 of Hate Mates

Bitter Devotion by Anja Barrons

Chapter One

My wrists chafe against the ropes binding me to a splintered beam. A dirty rag is stuffed in my mouth, soaking up my curses. I glare at the bastard responsible through the dusty shafts of light slicing into this godforsaken barn.

Fucking Blaze.

His golden hair gleams as he paces, all tense muscles and restless energy. Like a caged lion. Rich coming from me, trussed up like a damsel.

Everything is his fault. The fucking ambush. Daddy and my estranged uncle bleeding out on the concrete. I don’t even know if they lived, and now, the man I’ve hated all my life has me tied up.

Running for our lives, he said, but from who? Or what? He was the one behind the trigger, so why are we hiding out in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere?

I work my tongue to shove the gag out, and when it slips free, I attempt to spit. My mouth, though, is cottony.

“Bastard,” I rasp. “Untie me.”

Blaze whirls, sky-like eyes flashing. “Not a chance! I’m not letting you ride away and get yourself killed.”

“I’ll kill you myself, traitor!” Spittle flies from my lips.

My enemy’s kid. Crown City MC’s golden boy. A football player in school, disgustingly popular, and someone I’ve thrived on despising.

I bleed blue with the Blue Throttle MC, the daughter of Prez Dominic Nyx. The generations-long war between the clubs has boiled to a head, and here I am…Blaze Schwartz’s captive.

“Listen to yourself, Vina,” he purrs.

“We’re no longer in high school, asshole. Your pretty-boy voice won’t work.” I set my jaw. “Not that iteverworked on me.”

“How can you believe I had something to do with the ambush?” Blaze stalks closer, his boots thudding against the dusty floor. “That I would put a bullet in my own father?”

I lift my chin. “Wouldn’t be the first betrayal inyourMC.”

“Low fucking blow.”

“Just sayin’…maybe it runs in your side of the Schwartz line.”

He scoffs. “Wake up, Corvina. Someone’s playing us both.”

“Bullshit,” I croak, my mouth still parched. “CCMC set up the peace talk. You lured us there and then disappeared right before bullets started flying.”

Blaze brings his face level with mine. This close, I can see tiny gold flecks in his irises. He’s harder than the clean-cut quarterback he once was. True, his skin isn’t marked up like the others in the MCs, but there’s a rougher edge to him now.

“Funny thing about war,” he says. “You don’t realize you’re just another soldier in someone else’s fight until it’s too late.”

His fingers brush my cheek, and I flinch as he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I hate that his touch sets me on fire. Some twisted part of me has always been drawn to him, even though I’ve been raised to despise everything he represents. We come from different sides of everything, even at school.

Still, he’s always had something over me that I can’t afford to admit.

“You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” I sneer.

He hisses back, but I’m not backing down.

“So enlighten me.” I tilt my head to one side. “Who’s pulling the strings if you aren’t?”

Blaze rocks back on his heels. “That’s the problem. I don’t fucking know.”

I laugh, the sound grating against my parched throat. “Typical Blaze. All brawn, no brains.”

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