My breath catches in my throat and I sit up in his bed as my eyes land on the door. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Her laughter is like shards of glass down the line. “An underage whore shaking her titties in his club? Sucking him off in full view of the security cameras? Shit, he’s ready to kill you with his bare hands. Cops catch wind of that with how bad they’re gunning for the MC? You’d better stay the fuck away from the club and the rest of the MC-owned businesses if you wanna make it out of this alive because they’re out for blood.”
I hang up before she can say another thing to me, panic climbing up my throat.
I think my heart is fucking breaking in my chest and this, this feeling is the reason I didn’t want to let anyone too close because I haven’t felt pain like this since Paul.
The good news is the beating I just took must have knocked some sense into me because I definitely don’t want to die anymore. I think dying at Tomi’s hands… fuck, my soul would never find rest that way. I’d always be tortured knowing he was the one to do it.
I need to leave.
Every inch of my body hurts but I get off of the bed and rummage around in my bag until I find my phone and I dial Poe’s number.
“Hey! I was just about to come fight Cole until he let me in to see you!”
My voice is all sorts of fucked up. “Poe, I’m in danger. I need to leave right now, can you just like… make sure Tomi doesn’t make it back to his room for the next five minutes?”
She gasps a little. “What danger? I’ll call my sister, hell or my brother again. What’s happened?”
“It’s—no, it’s fine. I just need to get a hotel for the night. Tomi’s… the club isn’t going to be happy with me. They know… they know I lied about… something and—Poe, I have to get out of this place before they kill me.”
She starts moving, the sounds of her shuffling around loud down the other end of the line. “Okay, we need to talk about this like now but I’ll distract him if you promise not to disappear. Where are you going?”
I swallow. “I’ll get a room for the night, in the next town over. I’ll call you once I’m there and we can talk about it. Please just do this, Poe. Please.”
I sound fucking desperate even to my own ears and she agrees, thank God. My ribs are screaming when I have to bend to pull some tights up my legs and the weight of my bag across my shoulders is like torture, pure fucking torture.
Thank fuck for the side door, thank fuck my truck is parked up close and no one even notices me creep over to it.
I get the Chevy started and out of the parking lot in no time at all, the weird noise gone completely thanks to Poe and I make it out of the suburbs and onto the highway before the tears start but they come in so fucking strong that I have to pull over, the sobs wracking my body like someone fucking died.
Oh.
Right.
The future I thought I might actually get to have just died.
The future I never let myself even hope for until Tomi stomped into my life and rearranged shit. All I ever wanted before was a quiet life, one where I lived alone and had friends but never let anyone close to me. I wanted a roof over my head that no one could take from me, a job, a boring life but now that just feels fucking… empty.
He’s fucking ruined it.
I drive for hours until I’m calm enough to stop at a hotel. I find one that looks safe and clean, very aware of the exact amount of money I’m now carrying and I can’t afford to sleep in my car right now.
I need some help.
I get set up there before I call Poe and tell her the whole story. I mean, not everything, but I tell her why I ran and then I swallow my pride and I ask for some goddamn help.
“Do you know anything about laundering money and offshore accounts?”
She hums down the line. “You met Lips right? Aves can do that shit easier than breathing, lemme get ahold of her. What are you gonna do with the money? If you need someplace