Page 38 of Stripping Keys
“That’s because they haven’t,” Sniper growls and punches the drywall.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“After your drunken gut spill and not remembering any of it, Baller and I came out here, shut the place down. The bitch thought it was funny that he would come to defend you when she’d done what she’d done. Baller killed her. Right in the livingroom downstairs. We shut this place down, kicked the rest of the bitches out, and left it,” Sniper explains.
I get to my feet, shaking my head. This is all more than I thought. They’d known. All this time, someone knew my secrets.
Clearing my throat, I look between my brothers, needing to change the subject. “You said on the phone they made a move, what did they do?”
“They called Olive.” Shiner growls. “They told her that she’d be their toy again. Just as all the women will be. Including Marla.”
Rage pours back into my veins at the mention of Marla’s name. “They know.”
“Yeah.” Nines sneers. “They fuckin’ know. Now, we need to get back to the clubhouse and get this shit handled once and for all. No one is taking my Meadow from me.”
“No one is taking her from you,” I tell him, and look to Shiner. “Olive okay?” After the ordeal she went through at the hands of these men, I’m sure it’s fucking with her head.
“She’s freaked the fuck out. I had to calm her ass down enough to keep her from losing it. Kept saying she’d die before letting them get her again. Thankfully, Milo was at Sniper and Rain’s place. Now, he’s back with her and keeping her grounded. Kid doesn’t even know it, but he’s saving her sanity and keeping the light in her without realizing it.”
Fucking hate that for him.
“Come on, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Blow snaps
“Wait a minute,” Nines says, his eyes still on my notebook.
“What?” I ask.
“You wrote ‘The Crimson Blood Clan’ in this thing?” he says.
“I did?” My brows furrow, and I take the notebook from him and stare at the page he’d turned to. Fuck me, I had written the name. “Must have been who my mom worked for at the time.”
“This shit goes back further than we even thought.” Shiner snarls.
“Could be when it started. They could have been pissed Baller interfered in their work,” Nines growls.
“Makes sense.” I nod. “She had an office on the first floor right beneath this room. I used to be able to hear her through the air vents whenever she was in there.”
I make my way out of the room, a new purpose in my step. My mind is racing. Memories I hadn’t thought about in years were flooding in. Me lying on the floor, ear to the vent listening. Me scattering away, knowing she was coming for me. Me listening to her getting fucked. Me hearing her laughter as her bosses took turns with me.
Fuck.
I hadn’t thought about those moments in years, not since the beginning.
A new thought pops into my head, and I realize something else. My mom was still winning. Even in death, she was winning because I refused to have what I want.
I can’t let that continue. Marla is mine. Not just mine, butMine. I was claiming her. Claiming her in every way possible. I was gonna put a ring on her finger. She was gonna wear my property cut. She was gonna carry my kid.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MARLA
I was going to lose my mind. All I keep thinking about is how Keys left me in his room when he stormed out. I asked him a simple question, and suddenly he was gone.
Blow and Nines had asked me what happened, and I told them. I don’t know why I did, but I told them. Keys was their brother. He trusted them with his life. Just as he does with all the others in this club, but these two men hold the highest ranks in the club here. They would do more to protect their brother if need be. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t really know how clubs work.
All I know is, right now, I’m not sure what happened, and that I’m freaking out.
Why?
