Page 49 of All's Fair in Love & Chaos
We spend the next hour looking at all the information we have on the hits out for Saige. We assumed it would be all different clubs, but as it turns out, it’s only two. The majority of them come from the Widowmakers, and then a smaller club withaffiliation to the Widowmakers, The Jackals. They are both involved in human trafficking, and most of the members have rap sheets pages long. Why they’re still roaming around free is only because of one damn thing.
Money.
Since we were able to temporarily stop their cash flow, they should be a little bit easier to take down. But it’s gonna be a bloodbath. We get our plan together, everyone feeling solid about continuing to break down their defenses, before we go in with one final blow. After the meeting, everyone clears out except Rogue. We stare at each other for a long moment, while I wait to see what he’s got to say. It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, our positions were flipped.
When Kinsey was taken, she was just his friend’s sister, even if he was starting to have feelings for her. But the desperation to keep her safe, to protect her, was raw, and I can relate to it now. I’d do anything to keep Saige safe, to have just one more day to show her how I feel.
“Well, you got her here. Now what are you goin’ to do?”
“Get her to fall in love with me.”
The lightfrom the hallway bleeds into the bedroom as Saige enters. I sit on the bed with my laptop in front of me, reviewing numbers that Rolo sent me, when she stops at the foot of the bed, looking at me with that fierce stare of hers.
“When were you going to tell me about Ace?” Hearing his name nearly takes my breath away.Especially since I haven’t told her a single thing about him.
“How’d you find out?”
“I put it together on my own after Kinsey mentioned you had suffered a loss. The first day you put me in here, I read all the name tags, and Ace was one of them. Then I remembered my fingers tracing over the tattoo on your chest. I figured he was important enough to you to get it permanently inked onto your skin, so that had to be the loss. Who is he?”
“I didn’t want to tell you to use it as an excuse for what happened to your family. It doesn’t matter what I was going through; there’s nothing that’s redeemable or forgivable about what happened that night.”
“Tell me anyway, Camden. I need to know.” There’s a demand in her tone, but it’s soft, encouraging. She takes a seat in front of me as I move my laptop off to the side.
“Ace was his road name, but Lucas is—was—my brother. He was in a secret relationship with Rogue’s younger sister, and neither of us had any idea it was going on. One night, while we were all partying here, Lucas and Lena snuck out to meet up. We had been having an ongoing turf war with a rival club, the Iron Wolves, and when opportunity struck, they picked up Lucas and Lena. They brutally tortured Lucas before stringing him up, took turns raping Lena in front of him, then lit him on fire before they killed her.”
“Jesus Christ, Camden,” she gasps as she grabs her stomach.
“I saw the aftermath. Was able to keep Rogue from having tosee it, something in the pit of my stomach telling me to keep him back.”
“But you saw it. That’s why you have nightmares.” I nod, confirming what she already knows.
“Every brutal, heinous detail. After that, I was in a blood rage. All I could see was Lucas’ mangled body, and Lena lying on the floor, covered in bruises and blood. Vengeance was all I wanted, Saige. A few nights later, we took our shot. The entire club rode together, heading toward their compound, but I was hanging back in formation, my vision was blurry, and I just remember seeing flashes of Lucas behind my eyes. Everyone made it through the light, and I couldn’t be separated from my brothers, so I gunned it through a red. Your parents’ car flew through their green from the side, and we narrowly missed each other, but the jerk of the wheel caused their car to flip. I stopped, Saige, and so did my brothers. I was the first one to their car, and I pulled out your mom first. I did chest compressions until others made it down the hill, then I crawled through the front seat to get your sister. They were all already gone, baby. We called 9-1-1, but there was nothing that could save them.” I tell the story without the blood and gore, and I don’t realize I’m crying until the tears wet my face. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m responsible for their deaths, for ruining your life, and I understand your hate now; you’ve been right all along to hate me. I get it and I welcome it.”
Chapter Nineteen
SAIGE
Tears pour down my face, soaking my neck and shirt. Camden is quick to reach for me, gathering me up like a child and pulling me into his lap. Camden’s tears cascade down his cheeks and dampen my hair, my tears coming harder because of it.
“Sweetheart, please don’t cry, it’s killing me.”
“All this time, Camden,” I hiccup. “All this time I’ve hated you, and you were going through the same thing. We’re the same. Two people who had their lives ruined and were looking for vengeance because of it.”
“But I’m the one who ruined yours.”
“It was an accident. I could have easily done the same thing any number of times I’ve gone after someone.” Camden turns me in his lap so my legs straddle him, his hands gripping my face betweenhis palms.
“Listen to me, you will not justify what I did to you. What I took. I could have stopped, Saige. I may skate the law, hell, I walk right over the damn line and draw a new one when needed, but I don’t hurt innocent people. It was an accident, a terrible, horrible fucking accident, caused by my blind rage, but it doesn’t erase the past. My guilt? Our pain? No amount of it can change the past.”
“Your pain matters, too, Camden. You lost your brother; you saw him in a state no person should ever be exposed to. Holy shit, I can’t even imagine what you saw, how you felt. I’m so sorry. Did you kill them?”
“Slowly and painfully. But it didn’t bring back Lucas.”
“I’m not going to kill you, Camden.”
“I’d deserve it, baby, and I’d understand if you did.”
“It won’t bring back my parents and Willow. That’s not to say I don’t still want to from time to time,” I say with a dark, pitiful laugh.
