Scars of Yesterday (Sons of Templar MC #8) - Anne Malcom Page 0,133

death. Who knows how long ago? She wanted to punish me. She wanted to kill me. I didn’t let that happen.”

Kace stared at me, fury melting off his face. He yanked me into his arms. “Fuck, baby,” he murmured into my hair.

He didn’t let me go for a long time.

Not until the police came back and needed more statements.

Kace let me go then. But he wouldn’t let go of my hand. Straight up refused to let me go anywhere without him. Normally, that wasn’t something that police would be down with. But this was Amber. Kace was wearing a Sons of Templar cut.

We found out much later who she was. Nicole Felix. Her Old Man had been a member of the Hell’s Renegades. Years ago, they’d tried to steal business from the Sons. The Sons hit back. There was blood. A lot of it.

It was likely I had washed the blood of her Old Man off my husband’s clothes.

There had been a peace treaty between the two clubs, only after the Sons made it clear they would exterminate them if they didn’t back down.

It seemed that she had held on to this for a long time. Let everything inside her fester and turn rotten. The Sons made a visit to the Hell’s Renegades and had been convinced Nicole was acting on their own. There was still a healthy fear for the Sons of Templar MC across the country.

As for me?

I survived.

Which was all that mattered.

Two Months Later

I was staring at my laptop when the knock came at the door.

It was done. I had absolutely no words left inside me. Not for this story, at least. I had plenty of other words, a mess that didn’t yet make sense on another document in my computer. But neither had this until now. Until it was done.

It was confronting to be done with the book. Just like it had been confronting to hear Kace say he loved me. While I was writing this, fuck, even when I got the publishing deal and was sitting in that fancy New York office, it hadn’t felt real yet. The book had been unfinished, I was still in its clutches. Still swept up in the world I was creating.

What did I do now? Send it off to some stranger? Send it out into the world?

The mere thought terrified me.

Luckily, the knock delayed me from thinking about all of this too hard. Once I looked through the peephole, I disarmed the alarm.

It was always armed when I was in the house alone. Though the kids and I were barely alone in the house these days. There were always after school events. Playdates. One or more of the women in our group coming over here or inviting us over there. Then Kace came straight home. To our home. Where he stayed every night. Where the kids now woke up to him being there, knowing he’d slept over. It didn’t seem to bother them whatsoever that he was all but living with us. He still had his place. Him and Jack were still rebuilding the car. Sometimes he’d work over there, though not very often, not with everything going on. It was not because the club was orchestrating things to make sure I was never alone. That’s just was life was like. That’s what life had been like before Ranger too. Busy. Full.

Everyone had been watching me, waiting. For the breakdown that they thought would come after me ending someone’s life. Having to clean up the blood of my would-be killer from my kitchen.

The police don’t do that. I hadn’t known that. Fortunately, Evie had. She’d arrived with a mop and bucket and a bottle of whisky. She’d helped me clean up the blood of the woman I killed.

Kace wanted to help too. But the biker queen had turned to him and cupped his cheek. “Baby, some things a woman needs to do herself. I got her.”

Kace didn’t want to leave me. That much was clear. It was burning inside of him. But he respected Evie. Every man did. On reflex. It was also reflex not to leave their woman with a pool of blood to clean up after she killed someone.

He nodded once, and Evie release him.

Kace then turned to me, kissing me hard and quick. “I love you, baby,” he murmured.

I didn’t say it back. Not with words at least.

He left and Evie and I got to cleaning.

When he came back that night with the kids, the house