Page 29 of Vendetta
Her chest tightened at the forceful way he spoke.“But Eli’s my family.He’s the only family I really have left… I mean, maybe he didn’t know what that guy’s real intentions were.”
Jason’s gaze met hers, steady and calm.There was steel beneath it.“Hedidfucking know, Dylan.That man handed you over like you were inventory.Family doesn’t do that.”
Dylan didn’t argue, but she blinked back tears.“I just moved back to Oak Grove.Now I have to leave again?And if I leave, won’t he come looking for me?”
Jason nodded.“He will.That fucking guy he had you delivered to won’t do business with him again until he fixes the situation with you.And if he can’t fix it, well, they can’t have you out there talking about any of it.”
Shaking her head, she snorted, though it really wasn’t funny.“Eli took my phone.Said I’d get it back later.”
Jason didn’t say anything, but she saw a shift in his expression.
“Now what happens?”she asked.“What’s he going to do when I don’t show up for my phone -- or my job?”
“He’s got his club out looking for you,” Jason explained.“Right now.”
That froze her to the spot.
Jason’s gaze pinned her in place.“Eli Crizer doesn’t let things go.And he values his reputation more than most in our world.”
“You talk like you know him,” Dylan said.It wasn’t the first time she’d thought that.
“I know the type,” he said, staring at the floor.
No, it’s more than that.
“That’s not an answer.”She stared at him, instinct driving her on.“Jason… how doyouknow what Eli’s capable of?”
His gaze returned to her, and he didn’t blink.“Because I used to wear the same patch.”
Dylan just stared at him, her heart thudding, with every muscle in her body going still.Of all the things she expected to hear, she wasn’t ready for that.“What did you just say?”
Jason didn’t move, didn’t try to soften it.“I used to be one of them, Dylan.A Cottonmouth.I came from the Abingdon chapter.”
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head like she could rewind the last ten seconds.“No, you can’t be.That doesn’t make any sense…”
“It makes perfect sense,” he said slowly.“Doesn’t it?”
She looked at him,reallylooked at him.Jason had never conducted himself like a man trying to prove something.He didn’t try any false bravado while he was meeting her stare head-on.He just looked so tired, like each word cost him more than he’d expected.
Dylan’s gaze immediately went to the scar at his neck, and he knew it.His fingers lifted, tracing it like it still burned after all this time.It was a deep wound that had healed physically.Emotionally?Maybe not.Jason lived with it every day, saw it in the mirror each morning.It made her realize something.For all Jason’s strength, all his control, he was trying to figure out what to say to her, and it wasn’t easy for him.
“I didn’t know what wasreallygoing on when I came to Oak Grove last year,” he said quietly.“The Oak Grove chapter said they needed help with expansion.New chapters, bigger ops.I believed them, and a couple of others from Abingdon came over with me.”
Rising from the bed, he stood before her, grabbing the hem of his hoodie and pulling it off.After he dropped that to the floor, he pulled off the dim white T-shirt he wore beneath and turned his back to her.
There, tattooed across his back, bold and brutal, was the mark of the Cottonmouth MC.A coiled cottonmouth, its body thick and twisted in strike position, fangs bared, tongue extended like it was hissing at the world.The detail was vicious and every scale, every shadow was inked with a precision that felt more like a warning than a design.It stretched between his shoulders like a brand, set deep into skin marred by scars, some fresh, others older.Some had healed wrong.It wasn’t art.It was history carved in ink and blood.
“I didn’t come down here to be part of what they’re actually doing,” Jason said, pulling his T-shirt back on.“But once I saw…reallysaw it?The girls kept in warehouses like animals, the deals.All the fucking lies?Well, I pushed back.”His voice dropped to a near whisper.“They called it betrayal when I told them I didn’t want to be part of it.Said I was soft.I wasn’t patched in to Oak Grove, just sent in to help… so they used me to send a message to anyone else getting cold feet.”
He sat down next to her again, but a little farther away this time.Slowly, Jason lifted his chin.The motion was quiet but deliberate, a man exposing the most vulnerable part of himself.And when the dim light hit it, Dylan saw all of it.The jagged, raised line that circled the front of his throat, uneven in places, discolored in others, the kind of mark that didn’t come from an accident or a bar fight.It looked like a cord or rope caused it.Like some tried to choke him or hang him.
“Oh my God,” Dylan whispered, her voice cracking.She felt her stomach turn, tears stinging her eyes.It wasn’t pity, just realization of the raw horror of it.Jason hadn’t just been betrayed.They’d tried to erase him entirely.She didn’t realize she was moving until one hand reached out, hovering inches from his skin.Her voice trembled.“They did that to you.”
“Yeah,” he said, holding her gaze, so much emotion in his dark eyes.“I’ll be honest, I’ve helped move guns.Drugs here and there, but I hate that shit, especially when dumb fucks try to sell it to kids.But human trafficking?I want no fucking part of that.”
“Human trafficking?”Dylan’s heart dropped.That’s what her uncle was into these days?Her evening was making a little more sense now.“My uncle?Did he have anything to do with the…” She pointed to the scar encircling his neck.
“Eli gave the order,” he said.
