Page 22 of Vendetta
Some emotion flashed in Jason’s eyes.
“He’s the only family I have left.”She shook her head, feeling stupid.“I always thought that even if he didn’t like my choices, he cared.That somewhere under the biker persona, he still saw me.You know, he was there for me when my mom passed.And now?”
Jason slowly sets his food aside and leaned forward next to her.
“You’re not nothing,” he said, voice rougher now, like it cost him something to say it.“Not even close.”
When her gaze met his, she saw it again.Anger held in check, protectiveness he didn’t voice.The tension in her body eased.Even if her uncle had forgotten who she was, Jason hadn’t.
“Is it just your uncle?”Jason asked.“Or is there an aunt?Cousins?”
Dylan blew out another breath.“There wasn’t an aunt.Just a baby mama, my cousin’s mother.Not sure I ever even met her.”
“You know your cousin?”
“Jared?”Dylan nodded.“Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times.He’s really intense.He became a biker like his dad, but he ran off somewhere a couple of years ago.”
“Did he?”Jason asked.
She shrugged.“I heard something about gambling debts.Probably a good thing he moved on, really.Him and Eli didn’t get along.”
The silence stretched between them for a long moment.Dylan tucked her legs up under her, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders.She studied Jason, really studied him now -- the quiet strength, the patience, the way he never looked away when she needed him most.
It was then that she noticed the scar on his neck.It was long and pale, twisting beneath his jaw.It wasn’t really obvious unless you were close to him, in the light.Now that she saw it, looking away was hard.It didn’t look that old, but it had healed.The skin around it looked tight in places, uneven.What happened to you?But she wasn’t going to ask.Instead, she looked back into his eyes and softened her tone, like maybe if she offered him trust, he’d offer her the truth one day.
“You’ve seen your share of bad, haven’t you?”she asked quietly.
Jason’s gaze held hers, a shadow behind his eyes now.And even though he didn’t say it out loud, she saw it clear as day.Yes, he’d seen bad.And maybe done worse.It wasn’t her right to ask what it was or how close it had come to killing him.She couldn’t help but feel that whatever left that scar on his neck didn’t just tear skin.It took something else too.Something he hadn’t gotten back.
She traced the rim of her soda can with her fingertip, her voice hesitant.“Can I ask you something?”
Jason’s mouth twitched at the corner, almost a smile.“You can ask,” he said.
“Who are you?Really?”
His gaze didn’t waver.But something in his posture stiffened, a barely-there tension she wouldn’t have caught from nights spent together.“Someone who knows what it’s like to look around and realize the people you trusted the most… aren’t who you thought they were.”
Her heart skipped a beat.It wasn’t the full answer, but it was enough for tonight.“Okay,” she whispered.
Jason leaned back against the couch, one arm draped over its back.“You don’t have to figure all this out tonight,” he said.“I’m not telling you what to do but I’d think really hard before I walked back in that bar.”
There was an underlying warning to his words.Instinct told her that maybe he was right.
“But whatever you decide to do, I’ll be right here,” he said.
Dylan let herself believe it, just for tonight.Let herself believe that not everyone would look away when it counted.Moving closer to him on the couch, she snuggled into his side, and he just held her.When she closed her eyes, the darkness didn’t feel so lonely.
Chapter Five
Vendetta
The town of Oak Grove hadn’t changed, at least not on the outside.The sidewalks were still cracked, the same boarded-up storefronts were trying to look like they hadn’t completely given up.The people still went about their days, heads bowed, eyes cast down.Like maybe if they pretended not to notice the rot crawling beneath the surface, it didn’t really exist.
But it did exist, and Vendetta was done watching it spread.
He leaned against the hood of his van behind theINeedawarehouse, a cigarette burning low between his fingers.It had been a while since he’d smoked, and today he only did it for the small shot of comfort.He’d already reviewed his manifest copies twice today.The sedatives, syringes, and wound kits were all ordered through shell accounts and rerouted to drop points that didn’t exist on public maps.All were ordered under vague supplier aliases, but the trail led back to one name buried in the purchase routing: SS Holdings.He’d seen that name too many times to count now.
The same name was tied to a false construction permit in Mercy.The same name that popped up onNed’s “cleaning supply” invoices, and on more than one rerouted delivery that didn’t match what was logged.SS wasn’t a company; it was a shield.A front for the real operation that was slowly poisoning Oak Grove every damn day.
