Page 54 of Pike
“Chloe, stop this,” Faith began. “There is no fucking way—”
“I’m not asking,” I shot back in a firm voice I felt down to my bones. “I won’t let anyone else get hurt because of me.”
T-Bone sat taller, resisting the urge to stand and tower over me. “Chloe.”
I was settled. This plan that had barely formed in my head suddenly seemed like the best idea I’d ever had. I turned to T-Bone. “Tell Diesel to give me up.”
“Fuck that,” Faith shouted. “We arenotdoing that.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we are.” There was a tingle humming through my veins that I’d never experienced before and couldn’t explain. “We have to.” This was the only way. I knew it. “If there’s a chance that Pike is still alive, this is the way. Take Gemma back to Steel City, then tell them she’s here, or better yet tell the Ghost Riders that Marcus’ killer is here. It’s me they want.” I said, feeling powerful and strong that finally I had some control over my destiny.
How could I keep hiding when everyone who’d ever been nice to me, who was ever kind to me, ended up dead? I couldn’t. “Just do it. Please.”
“That’s crazy. You think I’m going to stand back while you offer yourself to them? What about Gemma? She needs her mom.”
“She needs to live her life in peace without having to move every few months. As long as the Ghost Riders are after us, that will never happen. No matter what happens, Gemma will live. She’ll get to be free to live a long, happy life.”
“Without you.” Faith’s voice broke and tears pooled in her eyes.
“She’ll have you and you’ll let her know that I didn’t fuck up everything. Let her know that for once, I died a hero. That I did this for her.” Tears stung my eyes and the idea of never seeing my sweet girl again made me want to fall apart completely, but I refused to let them fall.
“Diesel will never allow it,” T-Bone spat out.
“Then make him see it’s the only way!” I pleaded.
“You can’t do this,” Faith said. I hated to see the pain in my sister’s eyes. But I’d caused too much pain. Now was the time to end it.
“Maybe we can spare some men for backup…” T-Bone muttered.
“What? Set a trap?” Faith asked.
T-Bone shrugged, “Something like that. I don’t know if Diesel will go for it. But Ghost Riders need to be put down right now. I’ll take the idea to him and see what he says.”
This was the right course of action.
This was what I should’ve done sooner.
I should’ve left Marcus the first time he put his hands on me. After the first miscarriage. This was it, for all the times I kept quiet and remained docile, this was me fighting back.
“Please. We have to do this. Tonight.” Maybe it wasn’t too late to save Pike.
No matter what, this was the end.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pike
Iwasn’t sure how long I’d been hanging in that fucking abandoned building with three Ghost Riders watching me around the clock, but I knew my eyes hurt like a motherfucker from being plunged into darkness and then blinded by fluorescent lights. I knew my wrists were rubbed raw from the chains and my shoulders ached from hanging like a goddamn piece of meat. It had been at least one day, possibly more. Between the intermittent beatings, which annoyed me more than hurt, and the constant disorientation, it could’ve been a fucking week and I’d have been none the wiser.
Every inch of my body ached, and my mind had started to play tricks on me. There were times I thought I heard Gemma’s giggle, or that sharp intake of breath Chloe let out when I kissed that spot right behind her ear. I thought I heard T-Bone’s grunted complaints from under a car, Ashley’s heavy sigh when she asked me about settling down.
None of it was real, I knew that. They made sure I didn’t know the time of day or the passage of time because they played music, shouted nonsense at me, and turned the lights on and off whenever the fuck they felt like it. It was torture, plain and simple, and I wondered if they would keep this up until I pushed Vendetta far enough that he killed me. That all was bad enough, but worse than that was not knowing.
My mind never left Gemma or Chloe, wondering if they were okay. If the Ghost Riders had found them. If my MC had sent someone else to watch over them when I didn’t return toSteel City.Shit.My brothers would be going crazy trying to figure out what the hell happened to me.
So would Chloe. She would instantly go to worst case scenario, thinking I was dead. That would send her already fragile and paranoid mind reeling. Sure, she’d put on a good show for the kid, because she loved that little girl more than anything in the world and because she had more strength than she realized. But I knew that kind of fear well, I’d experienced back in the day when my own folks had disappeared into bottles and needles before they disappeared altogether. That was the kind of fear that ate at you until you were a shell of your former self.
It was soul-destroying and I just hoped Chloe didn’t worry too much about me. Gemma, too. There was this fear that always flashed in the little girl’s eyes when I left to check the property, and I hoped she wasn’t still worrying about me. I hoped that no matter how hard it was, that they moved on.
