Page 29 of Brake's Intent

FAYE

My stomach is in knots, and I hold onto Lawson’s hand for dear life as I follow Brake’s brother, uncle, and cousins deeper into the house. This place is made up of nightmares, and I want nothing more than to run in the other direction. Actually, I take that back, there’s a massive snake out there ready to swallow me hole. Instead of the big bad wolf, it’s the big horrifying reptile ready and willing.

The moment we all hear the voices coming from deeper in the house, I feel the panic ready to swallow me whole. The tension that radiates off the men around is even worse. Something big is definitely happening here, and none of it is good.

I remember Brake telling me about his past with his mother—the drownings, the whippings, the rape. I don’t know the full extent, but they’d definitely tormented my man extensively growing up. I also don’t know if Tyres went through the harshness of what Brake did, but I’ve seen the scars on his arms from the cigarette burns. I’m willing to bet their mother hurt them in different ways that were just as prominent as the others. Torture is torture, and so is abuse, no matter the scale of it. When it comes to the things that happen in the past, there is no keeping score. It happens and it marks us all.

Lawson moves ahead of the others, and I walk at his side, needing to know what is going on.

My breath catches in my chest at the sight that we walk upon. Strapped to chains is Brake, and his chest is coated in blood.

“What the fuck?” Lawson snarls

“Oh my god.” I gasp, staring in horror.

Two figures step out of the shadows, and I step back as I meet their gazes.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Tyres roars, stepping forward.

“I wouldn’t come any closer,” one of the men says tauntingly. “You wouldn’t want us to put a bullet in your twin brother, would you?”

It’s then I notice the woman standing directly behind Brake as she steps around him tracing her fingers along his bloodied chest.

“You have some nerve coming here, Benoit,” Ryder snarls.

“Is that right?” Benoit snorts and looks to his side. “You hear this, Eugene?”

The other man steps forward and looks just like Benoit but holds a scar along his forehead, curls around his eye and down his cheek. Who are these men?

“I think it’s a matter of them having the nerve to show up here.” Eugene cackles and looks at Brake. “Considering he’s made the deal that kept you all from our wrath.”

“You want to explain?” Chains demands, his voice cold and hard.

“I think not.” Benoit chuckles and looks at me. “Would you like to watch your husband die?”

I nearly vomit in my mouth at the question and clench Lawson’s hand tighter.

The woman next to Brake starts to laugh and turns to Brake, licking his stomach, lapping her tongue along the blood.

“No?” He snickers. “Then you will leave along with everyone else. This is between us and our little cousin.”

“You are not anything to him or any of us,” Ryder snarls.

“Is that what you think?” Eugene laughs. “See, your dear sister didn’t fill you in on anything. She gave Brake to our momma, and in turn, she gave him to us as a toy. Each year we get to play with him. It’s that, or we come after the children that you all now have.” The look Eugene gives Ryder shoots chills down my spine. “That little girl of yours would definitely be a good toy for us to play with.”

No sooner those words leave Eugene’s lips, the room explodes into chaos, and I jump into the fray alongside them. I go after the woman. Yanking her by her hair and throwing her away from Brake. I don’t bother looking at the bitch as I cup either side of Brake’s face and pat his cheeks.

“Jax,” I cry out his name. “Wake up for me.”

He groans but doesn’t open his eyes.

The woman comes at me with a knife stained with Brake’s blood. I lose it and launch myself at her. She slashes out, and I avoid the blade using moves my brother and Finn taught me. I kick and tackle the woman down to the floor, then get her on her back, straddling her waist. I dislodge the knife from her hand, grip her head, and start bashing it against the flooring. I don’t stop until I’m pulled off her kicking and screaming.

“Calm down, baby,” Lawson commands. “Need you to get it together so we can get Brake back to the clubhouse.

I take a deep breath and glance around the room. The two men being held at gunpoint are still unconscious.

“Get my nephew back to the clubhouse,” Ryder snarls sinisterly.

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