Page 108 of Cold Hard Truth

I’m still not sure how I walked away from her and got on my bike tonight. I could have stayed buried inside her until the end of time. Nothing between us, every pulse of her pleasure wrapping around me.

In my arms, she’s safe.

Even if Jude and Crew swore on their souls they’d watch over the girls while I’m gone, I still fucking hateit. No one can protect her like I can when no one cares about her like I do.

But that’s not even what rips me up inside. I hate leaving her when I feel like I’m finally getting pieces of her again. When I’m finally breaking through the walls she built between us. I didn’t think there was a light at the end of the tunnel from her leaving, and now I’ve got a pinprick of hope shining through.

The last place I want to be if I’m not around Lyla is with her father.

Blaze leans back in the chair next to me. He’s more twisted than Kane and actually enjoys watching this shit. I don’t mind it one way or another. But I’m here out of curiosity. Because if Bullet does know anything, I need to be here when he admits it.

“We saw you on camera.” Kane flips his blade around in his hand, circling Bullet and taunting him with a graze of the blade each time he pauses.

Bullet’s already bloody, and one eye is swollen shut. Steel took the last round, and he’s giving his knuckles a break so Kane can have a turn.

Everyone has their own weapon preference. Kane likes knives, Steel uses his fists, Blaze enjoys fire. I don’t know what I would have mastered if I’d stuck around, and maybe it’s for the best I never found out. Now I just carry my father’s gun because it gets the job done.

It’s effective.

Steel walks over to a table at the side of the room and pours antiseptic on his bleeding wounds. It probably burns. But if it does, he doesn’t show it.

“I told you; I didn’t do shit.” Bullet spits a hunk of blood onto the ground. “I was riding through the area, that’s all.”

Bullet has been a member of the Twisted Kings for a decade. He knows better than to lie to Kane, especially since we have him on camera dropping off the gift outside my apartment. But whoever has convinced him to turn on his club clearly has a stronger hold.

Kane spins the knife around, and it’s so quiet in the stalls, the whizzing of it spinning in the air fills the silence. When he grips the handle again, he swiftly buries the blade into Bullet’s thigh.

Bullet screams through his cries, trying to hold it back, even as blood shoots out between his teeth.

Twisting the knife, Kane slowly pulls it out. “The longer you lie, the longer I’ll drag this out.”

Either way, Bullet isn’t walking away. You don’t stab Kane in the back and expect to walk away from it—much less Steel.

“I didn’t—”

Steel shuts Bullet up with a solid punch to the jaw before he finishes his sentence. Bone cracks and it could be Bullet’s face or Steel’s hand. He hits him again and again, and I swear I catch him smiling.

“You turned on your fucking brothers.” Steel hits him again. “Your club.”

Blood is flying, and this far away from the clubhouse, no one will hear the screams.

“You don’t deserve to carry the name of the Twisted Kings.” Steel holds out his hand and Kane gives him his knife.

Steel grabs it and cuts through the length of Bullet’s sleeve, exposing his arm, all the way up to the Twisted Kings tattoo on his shoulder. He drags the knife down Bullet’s skin, flaying it off.

At that, Bullet finally does scream, and for the first time since we sat down, Blaze leans forward, smirking.

Sick fuck.

Steel holds the skin up in front of Bullet’s face before tossing it to the side.

“Do what you want.” Bullet tips his head back, a bloody smile stretching his face. “I’m not telling you shit. Your slut daughter deserves what she’s going to get. Just like you.”

Rage chills my spine, and I snap to standing. I’m not often tempted to get involved in this shit because I have my own outlets for my aggression.

But he mentioned Lyla.

Kane steps aside as I walk up and kick Bullet in the fucking chest, which has him landing on his back, still tied to the chair.

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