Page 32 of Dark Seduction

“It was time. Time to put all that shit in my past to rest. This place was my salvation until Marty died. It was where I came to just be a kid. I didn’t have to worry about what happened after I turned eighteen and was no longer the state’s problem. My parents weren’t model citizens, which is why I was with my grandma. The building blocks were there that I would follow in their footsteps.”

V and Mack both continue to listen as I unpack my past. The safe-guarded secret that I had told no one about at the club. Until now. Until Mack and V.

“How did you find the club?” Mack asks.

“Mom found me,” I admit. “Working as a bouncer for a local bar.”

“And you?” she directs to V.

“Mom,” he shrugs. “I was a member of another chapter in California. Shit went south, and he brought me back with him.”

“What about you?” I ask Mack.

“There’s not much to tell, really. Parents are still living back in Ohio. My mom teaches and my dad works in a factory. No siblings.”

“Come on,” I tease. “There has to be more to you than that.”

“Why are you so guarded about your career?” V interjects.

Mack’s eyes fall. Her lips curving into a deep frown. “My ex-husband, Ryan.”

“What did he do?”

“Ryan opened up a garage right before we met. I was hunting for my first gig doing custom paint jobs, and he had a space. I started working for him. Things were great for a couple of years. The business grew. We got married. It was picture perfect until it wasn’t.”

Neither V nor I speak.

“I found out he was using the garage as a front for his drug business. He thought I was too dumb to figure it out.” Mack’s voice trembles with emotion as she continues. “When I confronted him, he beat me to within an inch of my life. He left me on the shop floor bleeding and broken until I crawled into the office. I called the cops, and he got arrested. The garage got shut down. It was all over the news. It was humiliating,” Mack says, her eyes shining with tears. “I didn’t know what to do. The cops thought I was involved with his business. It took months for them to clear my name because Ryan had forged documents and put most of the business in my name. After that, I just left Ohio. I started fresh in California and I’ve been rebuilding my business reputation ever since.”

We fall into silence, the weight of our pasts hanging heavily in the air. But in that silence, I find comfort. It’s the comfort that comes from knowing you’re not alone.

V, however, stares off angrily in the distance. “He hit you?”

“Leave it." Mack demands. “It’s in the past.”

“He still alive?”

“Ryan’s in jail. He still has a couple of years left in his sentence the last time I checked.”

V looks at me, anger clear in face.

Mack notices, her shoulders slumping in embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“We needed to know.”

“Damn right, we did. What do you say, brother? Do we pay him a visit?” V asks, his tone low and dangerous. “Stoneface infiltrated a prison. We could, too.”

I shake my head, placing a calming hand on his shoulder. “No.”

“But he hit her,” V growls, clenching his fists. “He deserves to know what that feels like.”

“She doesn’t need us to fight her battles.”

Mack gives me a grateful smile and squeezes my hand. “Thank you,” she whispers.

I nod, giving her hand a gentle squeeze in return. “We’ve all been through some shit. We’ve got each other now.”

V grumbles, but nods his agreement. “Alright. We’ll leave it alone for now.” Mack may not realize it, but telling us just signed his death warrant. V will take his pound of flesh. With or without her blessing.

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