Page 2 of Brake's Intent

Brake narrows his gaze to little slits and looks at his brother, who’s staring at him with wide eyes. Neither say anything, and I just stand back and observe to see what happen next. Instead of lashing out or coming at me as I expected, Brake stalks away, leaving things out in the open.

Tyres twists to look at me. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demands.

“I’ve already told you why I’m in town.” I shrug. “I’m in town opening a new club.”

“Then what the fuck are you fuckin’ with my brother for?”

I shove my hands in my pockets and stare at the other man, seeing the same eyes that belong to Brake, but different all the same. “That’s between your brother and me. And when we find Faye, it’ll be between the three of us. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a woman to find as well as needing to make sure Brake’s got his head on right, so we can do what we gotta do to get her back.”

I turn on my toes and head in the opposite direction of Brake while ignoring Tyres’s threats of wanting to beat the shit out of me. He might threaten it, and he can try, but it doesn’t mean he’ll stop me. Brake and Faye are mine, and it’s time to bring them together again. This time, it won’t be just for a few weeks.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about it all and I know what I want. Them. Both of them.

CHAPTERTWO

FAYE

My life has never been about what I want. It’s always had a map coursed out before me. Where I would go to school. What I would do. Who I’d marry. How I’d live the rest of my life.

This isn’t the life I’d ever wanted. It’s why I rebelled somewhat, and instead of going to school for what my parents picked for me, I became a nurse. Thanks to my brother, I was able to postpone what would surely be the end of my life. He convinced them, with the approval of Finn Brisbane, his best friend, boss, and cousin, that I would be allowed some time to be free of what I’m supposed to do for my family and live my life. However, there were stipulations in place. One being I was to not become involved with anyone . . . this I screwed up big time. The second was my job was to be only a short time . . . again, I mess up there too, massively.

I didn’t think it was a possibility to feel like a failure in this way, but it’s possible, and I’m a complete walking disaster in the making. Okay, who the hell am I kidding? I am a walking disaster—at the hurricane’s highest-level type of catastrophe.

The first disaster was when I met and fell for not one but two men. Lawson and Jax. The two of them couldn’t be more different yet the same dangerous vibes roll off them both.

Lawson runs a strip club and deals in some shady business I don’t even want to think about, but I know it because my family does the same. He was constantly handling business when the three of us were together and he didn’t hide what he did. However, when you wanted his attention, he gave it to you without getting frustrated. His piercing dark eyes always have this intensity to them that makes my stomach flutter with butterflies.

When it comes to Jax, he’s different. He’s part of an MC, the Inferno’s Clutch, out in Louisiana. He’s not one to be messed with. You can all but tell when he looks at you. His vibrant eyes may be dark like Lawson’s, but they hold so many secrets. I just want to get to the bottom of them, but it’s not easy. It’s like he keeps a wall around him to keep others out.

We all met in Florida. It was my life’s best time, and I wish we could’ve stayed there in our own little world. Alas, it could never be. I had to uphold my responsibilities to my family. It’s part of the deal I made, and I couldn’t go back on it. Not against my brother or Finn. Because of them, I got to have at least some freedom.

Thankfully, the man I was to marry had a bit more time. This meant I was able to agree to a favor Finn asked me all those months ago. I was sent to New Orleans and was helping keep a woman who was being held in a cell healthy. Finn and his brother-in-law explained things to me, though I knew it wasn’t my business and told them as such. But they told me about how the woman was a surrogate and they wanted to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid to the baby.

In the end, it was me who did something stupid. I thought I could do this job and be okay with it, but everything went to hell in a handbasket. We’d been in a wreck, and the babies she was carrying were born prematurely. Now, here I am, kidnapped by the same woman I was to take care of. I knew she was a psycho bitch with a vendetta, though I didn’t know to what extent. When we’d been taken from the hospital, I figured they would kill me.

Unfortunately for me, that’s not the case.

No.

Shawna, the psycho bitch, had the man who came for her and his men chain me up in a cell of my own.

“I hope you enjoy your stay as much as I enjoyed my own.” Shawna snickers, running the backs of her fingers along my cheek before pulling back and slapping me. “I intend to make sure of it.”

“Looking forward to it,” I mutter, meeting her gaze head-on.

I already know what to expect. I’m not dumb in any way. Besides, when I left Florida, I left my heart and soul behind as well. I’m all but dead inside as it is, so this shouldn’t be a hardship. I can take whatever this bitch throws at me.

“Good.” Shawna grins and steps even closer, her mouth near mine. “I know who you are,” she whispers, her lips brushing mine with each word. “Don’t think I didn’t hear them talking to you. And knowing that, I’ll be sure my man fetches a pretty penny for you. But first, he’s granting me my time with you to make you pay.”

My stomach tightens, but I don’t give away the fact her words affect me in any way. I won’t do it.

Instead, as her tormenting starts, I go into my head. I don’t scream out when she inflicts pain by whipping me with the leather belt in her hand. I keep my reactions to myself as she wraps it around my neck and chokes me with until my vision is peppered, and I can’t breathe. Only then is she satisfied as I gasp for breath.

The whole time she does all of these things, all I keep thinking about is Florida and the two men who hold my heart. The two men who I wish I could spend my life with. The very ones I saw at the clubhouse before I was kidnapped from the hospital.

They say the world is a small place, but it’s bigger than we all think. What makes it small is the fact fate always has a way of stepping in and making us all wish for things we can’t have. Things that would make our lives perfect.

By the time she finishes with me, I have a hard time keeping myself from collapsing onto the concrete floor.

---