Page 13 of Bound by Vengeance
“Yeah, thanks.” I don’t miss the sarcastic tone in his voice. “What that fucker did to you is on me. Your dad tell you what happened and the reasons?”
I nod, feeling the punch. “A little. Just that you were young, and he was your dealer. He threatened us kids if you didn’t go away and stay away.”
“Exactly. I came back, and this is what happens.” He shakes his head.
It feels like there is a lead weight in my stomach, threatening to take me down to the ground. I want to throw up. I want to scream. He’s wrong. So very wrong. But if I tell him what happened before, he’ll carry more on his shoulders. He doesn’t need that. I can carry that for him. He’s already held too much for too long.
“No, Deke, you can’t blame yourself for this shit. He’s a sick sonofabitch.”
His eyes turn scary. So much so I take a breath and arch my back toward the window.
“I’ll find him, and when I do, I’ll fuckin’ destroy him.”
I understand exactly where he’s coming from, just in a different way. While I want Deke to get his revenge, there’s something I need too. I have to close this once and for all.
“You have to promise me that you won’t blame yourself for what happened. It’s over and done with. No more of that shit.”
Guilt slams its ugly head at not telling him everything, but I’ve already made my decision on that.
He shakes his head. “Not how this works, Austyn. You know it. I know it. Eye for an eye. Until I have him on a bed, spread eagle with my knife going into his flesh, it’s not over.”
I full-out cringe at the thought, and the slight scars on my body begin to tingle just knowing he’s talking about them. “I’m sorry, Deke.”
“Not one damn thing for you to be sorry for, Austyn. Just don’t hide from me anymore. Family sticks together, no matter what.”
“Right.” It kills me that I’m hiding something.
This may have to be a race. One against time. One I intend to win. I have to find JK first.
C H A P T E R F I V E
The clubhouse is exactly the same as before my life was flipped upside down for the second time. Not one thing has changed.
It’s home. Even as I think that, a small part of me is apprehensive about how people will treat me or what they will say.
Pulling up, I wave out the car window, and then the gates glide open. The lot is filled with cars and trucks on the right and bikes on the left. The shop, Banner Automotive, sits off to the back right while the clubhouse sits off to the left.
I park the car, and Emery bounces up. She had family things to do and needed to come early, which is why I’m driving myself. Me, I really didn’t want to come early.
Emery wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a hug as soon as my feet hit the pavement. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
“Girl, I told you I was coming.”
“I know.” She pulls away and looks deeply into my eyes, showing her meaning. She’s happy I’m back. That after I’d been lost for a while and between my job, apartment and this, I was back. “Come on.”
I follow her into the clubhouse, getting hugs on the way, but not stopping for too much chitchat. The hard shell I placed over myself is in full-swing, but answering questions isn’t something I want to do. To be asked anything isn’t something my time needs to be spent on.
“You came,” my mother states, coming out from around the bar, wearing tight, ripped jeans and a black Harley tank. Her hair is down, flowing around her, as beautiful as ever.
“You act like I’m going to bail on you or something.”
She places her hand on her hip, in the don’t-mess-with-me mom move. “Yeah. Like the other times I asked you to come and you bailed. Let’s go find your father.”
My dad stands just inside the main room of the clubhouse, his arms stretched open wide. I walk right into them, and he wraps them around me.
My father is a big man, tall and bulky, but in a muscular way. Even with the years he’s packed on and dealing with three children, he looks good. I’m not saying that in a sick way, but in an I’m female and have eyes way.
“How’s my baby girl doin’?” He kisses the top of my head.
