Page 11 of Always Mine

“They have you,” Anthony said.

“And who are they going to have after me?Conner?Miles?Markus?Huh, who will lead them?”Lash shook his head.“Do you even hear yourself right now?I thought you were a guy I could count on.I get it, okay, I get the fucking darkness.I’ve been there.”

Anthony stared at his father.“You’ve been in the darkness, but have you lived there?When you kill a man or a woman, does it bother you?Do you feel anything?Or do you feel nothing as long as the people you kill are hurting your people?”

Lash held his gaze.“I get you.”He spoke the words slowly.“The difference between you and me is I hid it a lot fucking easier, and I also know you’ve got to live.Hiding behind it only lasts so long.I get it, Daisy is the only thing you care about.She is the only one you want.She makes the whole world feel a little brighter, seem a little ...easier to play the rules.She wouldn’t want you to die.”

“What’s the point?”Anthony asked.

“There is every point, because you’ll do everything in her name.”

And with that, Lash pulled the car back onto the main road, and Anthony expected them to go to the clubhouse.They didn’t.They went all the way back to their main home.

“I don’t want to see Mom right now,” Lash said.

“Your mom’s at the clubhouse, dealing with shit.She knows you need your time.”Lash pulled the car into park.“I think what you need to do is give your mother the benefit of the doubt.She’s not there to make your life hard, okay?”

Anthony nodded.He did, in fact, love his mother.He knew Angel was special, not someone to be hurt or messed with.Angel had always been sweet and kind.When Lash had to take over, several people didn’t think she had what it took to lead, but Angel proved you didn’t need to be cruel or mean to lead.

With the help she had given over the years, the loyalty built.Angel didn’t make enemies.She made friends.She made people want to stand by her, and in turn, stand by Lash.They knew she would always have their best interests at heart.

Anthony also knew that deep down, Daisy adored Angel.The woman was a beacon of life, hope, and joy.The darkness that had once swallowed the club was no more, and Angel never once allowed it to take her—apart from a small fraction of time, but no one held that against her.

Losing a child had broken Angel, but it hadn’t kept her down.The club had been there for her.Everyone would always be there for her, and so would Anthony.

In the back of his mind, it was like he could feel Daisy telling him to stop being a dick.To get himself together, to get himself clean, so when she woke up, she wouldn’t have to hug a stink bomb.

****

ATime No One KnowsAbout

“Tabitha knows?”Daisy asked.

Anthony looked out toward Daisy.She had sent him a text asking to meet at the lake.It was cold as fuck, but that didn’t seem to bother her.She had wrapped up in a thick jacket, boots, gloves, and even a scarf.

“She knows he had a little visit by me.Other than that, she doesn’t know anything, unless you tell her.”

He watched as her gaze fell to his lips, and then she looked down at the ground.Was she thinking about their first kiss?

The moment he got the text to meet her here, he had put aside his homework and simply climbed out of his window.

It was a cold night, and he tilted his head back and breathed in the icy-cold air.Nights like this were a comfort to him.The sting of cold air made him feel alive.Also, it helped that the brunette before him always made him to feel that way as well.

Her father was dead, gone, and he wouldn’t be hurting her anymore.Daisy being a bitch was not natural to her.The stress of her father’s blackmail had been clinging to her for far too long, and Anthony had a suspicion she also tried to hide that he would hurt her.The very thought of it was enough to anger him, and he wished the bastard wasn’t dead just so he could enjoy hurting him.Unlike Daisy who took a shovel to the back of the head, he would gladly have kept him alive and torn him apart piece by piece.Then again, Anthony always had the patience when it came to that shit.

“Do you think we should tell your parents?”

“No.”

“They found him.”

“I know, and as far as anyone is aware, the man shot himself in the head while drunk and cleaning his gun.Stop worrying about it.”He got off his ass and went to her.Much like that day, he captured her face and forced her to look at him.“Stop.I’m telling you, he is not worth you worrying for a second.”

“It was wrong.”

Anthony shrugged.“It was wrong of him to sell his daughter to an MC club because he couldn’t be bothered to take care of you.It was wrong of him and your mother to always send you to school in dirty clothes, and hair that wasn’t even brushed.”He reached up and stroked her hair, which was nicely brushed and smooth to the touch, back behind her ear.“There is a lot they shouldn’t have done, but they did it, because they are evil fucks and didn’t give a shit.He was going to keep using you, Daisy.He was going to keep exploiting you.”

He saw the tears in her eyes.“But I shouldn’t have gotten the shov—”

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