Page 31 of Unhinged
“I’m handling it.” I bite the words out, my jaw clenched tight.
“Uh-huh,” he says, pushing off the frame and stepping into the room. “You sure about that, Gears? You don’t look like you’re handling shit.”
The anger’s building inside me, a familiar heat that I can’t seem to put out. I stand up, the chair scraping back hard against the floor. I face Acid, eyes locked, and for a moment, I let the walls come down. I let him see the struggle, the frustration, the pull toward her that’s stronger than I want to admit.
“I’m torn, Acid.” The rawness is there, the honesty. “I should want her dead, you know? Should want her gone because she’s now a threat to the club, to everything we’ve worked for. But I can’t stop thinking about her. About what it would be like to have her. Hell, to own her. She’s the kind of omega that makes a man want to burn everything to the ground just to claim her.”
Acid's silent for a beat, his gaze steady, unreadable. Then, he chuckles, but it's not the usual humor I’m used to. It’s dark.
“You know she won’t make it easy for us, right?” he says, a knowing edge in his words.
I don’t need him to tell me that. I already know. She’s the kind of woman who fights, who tears things apart because she’s been doing it her whole life. And I don’t fucking know if I want to tame her, break her, or just let her burn me alive.
“I’m not asking for easy,” I reply, the words sounding more like a warning than anything else.
He nods and steps closer, leaning in like he’s about to tell me a secret. “Just don’t lose yourself in this, Gears. Don’t let her make you forget what we are. What you are. This club needs its president, not some lovesick alpha chasing an omega who’s already shown she’ll cut us to pieces.”
His words hit hard, like a slap to the face. He’s right. I know it, deep down. But the more I think about her, the more I feel the pull of that fucking omega, the harder it is to keep the pieces of myself together.
“Like you're any better,” I growl, laced with a dangerous edge. “You think I’m the only one feeling this? You need to want her just as much as I do. Don’t act like you’re above it. You can feel it too, Acid.”
Acid’s eyes flicker with something that looks like frustration, or maybe it’s regret. Either way, he takes a deep breath, running a hand through his hair before sighing like he’s letting go of some damn burden.
“I do,” he mutters, the words heavy between us. “I want her. I fucking want her more than I can stand. But we have to keep it together, Gears. We can’t let this break us. If we fall apart, the whole damn club does, and that’s the last thing any of us need right now.”
He pauses, the weight of his words sinking in, before his gaze sharpens, locking onto mine. “We already have enough shit going on. We need to figure out who the fuck is getting tar all over our territory, or we won’t have a fucking club left to run, let alone a woman to fight over.”
His words cut through the fog in my head, slamming into me like a fucking truck. He’s right. There’s a hundred things we need to deal with. Our territory’s being fucked with, people are stepping on our turf, and the Renegades aren’t a charity—they don’t take kindly to outsiders thinking they can step in and claim what’s ours.
“We need to find her,” I grit out, barely hearing my own words.
We have to be close. Arrow’s relentless. But that doesn’t make me feel better about it. I’ll have to hunt her down, drag her back kicking and screaming, and force her to accept what’s happening. But in the back of my mind, a darker part of me wants her to fight me. Wants her to challenge me every step of the way, because that’s the only thing that makes sense anymore.
I don’t know if I can keep holding it together.
I don’t know if I want to.
But I will.
For the club.
For the brotherhood.
And maybe, just maybe, for her.
BRYDGETT
The air in Ike’s house is thick with old leather, sweat, and the kind of silence that wraps around you like a heavy blanket. A place you don’t need to talk much in—there’s a calmness here that Ike’s presence seems to command. I can still feel the echo of his lessons in the walls, the weight of every move he taught me.
I inhale deeply as I stand in the dim hallway, my fingers trailing across the edge of the old wooden banister. Every step I take here feels like I’m walking in the shadow of my past, and a part of me wants to turn around and run back out the door. But I can’t.
Judge is in the living room, eyes glued to his game console. He’s only eight but already, he’s glued to technology like it’s the only thing that’ll keep him safe in a world full of things that want to tear us apart. I glance at him, my chest tightening. He doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know about the man who we are always hiding from. He’s just a kid. My kid. And I’ll die before I let him get anywhere near him.
My thoughts slide back to Gears, Arrow, and Acid. I’ve never felt the pull of anything like I do with those three. It’s like there’s a thread tying me to them, invisible but strong. Gears’ voicehaunts me. Acid’s eyes scorch me with a heat that I swear leaves marks on my skin. Arrow… Arrow’s touch is like fire and ice at once, a contradiction that makes my heart stutter in my chest.
But it’s a danger I can’t let myself get tangled in. I won’t let them pull me back into their world. Not with Judge depending on me.
Not after struggling most of my life and what I learned from Ike.
