son out too. I wanted him away from Reaper and the club, period.
Sanchez stared at me for a while. I panicked, wondering if I had done the wrong thing. If I had just signed my own death warrant. But then Raul smiled and told me he would help me. I didn’t know if that was true. But I was desperate, and I had nowhere else to turn. Reaper had the police and local government on his payroll. My only choice had been his number-one enemy. Sanchez was going to help me save River. I was going to save my little boy . . .
“Styx?” Ky’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I rubbed my hand down my face. I had to get my fucking self together. A wave of anger crashed through me. I should never have started reading those fucking journals. I never thought anything of my mother. Nothing, but the fact she’d been a slut who’d cut and run. Now, all I fucking did was think about her. About how she was raped over and over by her fucktard of a brother. About how shitty my old man had treated her. And how she’d run away to save me. Not ran because she wanted to fuck Sanchez, like my old man had told me over and over again. You’re about as fucking good to me as your piece-of-shit whore mama was, boy. Fucking retarded pussy.
She’d wanted me away from him. From this club. A crowbar hit my stomach when I thought about it all. Because she’d only been a kid. A teen when she had me. Still too fucking young when she’d left and got in with Sanchez.
“Styx!” Ky’s elbow digging into my ribs made me snap my head his way and grab his wrist. He rolled his eyes as I threw his arm away. “What the fuck is up with you?” I looked across the table to see Chavez and Shadow were gone. When the hell did they fucking leave? “They left,” Ky said, reading my mind. He stared at me weird. “You sleeping?”
“Fuck off.”
Ky smiled. He got to his feet. “I gotta go. Li has an appointment at the hospital.” When I didn’t move, he asked, “You coming?”
I made to get to my feet, then looked round the empty diner we’d eaten at and shook my head. “You go.”
Ky frowned. This time there was no fucking smile on his face. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“N-nothing.”
“It ain’t safe for you to ride back alone.”
I pointed at the place Shadow had been sitting. “You h-heard him, th-there’s no s-sign of an attack y-yet. Or even th-that Quintana kn-knows we have h-her.”
“Yeah, and he also said them going quiet ain’t good.”
“G-go.”
Ky hesitated, but then his cell started going off in his jeans. “Fuck!” He pulled it out and looked at the screen. “It’s Li. I gotta go. Bitch’ll have my balls if I’m late.” I flicked my hand, telling him to get the fuck on then. Ky held the cell to his ear and hightailed it from the diner. “I’m on my way, sweetcheeks.”
I watched my VP pull out on his Harley, before I got a refill of coffee. I pulled out the journal from the inner pocket of my cut. No one would fuck with me here. The owners here knew I didn’t speak for shit. The place was a ghost town. I had to get back to the club. But I needed a fucking minute.
Opening the journal, I carried on reading.
He got me a house. Raul took me to the place he bought us. It’s away on its own. Far from the club and away from any threats. When I stepped through the door, I smiled. Because I’ve never had a real home before. I had a room at the Hangmen and grew up in a trailer. This is a real home built of wood.
And there’s a room for River too. River and whoever sits in my stomach. I’m pregnant to Raul, and I am so so happy. Raul already has a kid, but he’s left his old lady and promises we’ll make our family work somehow. I’ll get River back, and he’ll have a brother or sister.
We’ll be a family.
And for once, I will be happy.
My heart was threatening to break out of my motherfucking chest with how fast it was pounding. She had another kid? Or at least was pregnant with one?