“Fucking Christ,” he breathes, falling back in his seat as he closes his eyes and massages his temples with his fingers. I can see the stress of the past month weighing down on him and I wish I could do something to help. It’s my fucking job to find answers for this club and I can’t even fucking do that anymore. Finally, he opens his eyes again and sighs. “Keep digging, okay? Anything you can think of, go after it. There has to be answers or clues somewhere.”
I nod. “I will.”
He stands up and slaps my shoulder before walking out of the room like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders and I whisper a curse as I turn back to my computer and turn the screen off. I’ll keep digging into everything, just like he asked, as soon as I get some goddamn sleep. Grabbing my phone off of the desk, I unlock it to text Rowan and see if she wants to come take a nap with me when it starts ringing. A familiar number pops up on the screen and I grit my teeth as I press the green button.
“Warren.”
“You remembered me this time,” he answers, the sound of the smile in his voice grating on my nerves. God, what a cocky motherfucker. “I’m so honored, Travis.”
I scoff. “Don’t be.”
“Don’t be like that. I just wanted to call to catch up… and I heard you guys had an unexpected visitor last night,” he prompts and I press my lips into a thin line, my blood boiling. It’s all the confirmation I need that I was right - Warren was behind the police raid and the video but knowing that doesn’t really do me any good since I can’t prove it. “But then again, I suppose you’re used to late night police raids, aren’t you?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarl. There is a pounding in my ears and just like the last time Warren called, all I can think about is putting my fist through a fucking wall. He knows what he’s doing and his words hit the exact bullseye he wanted them to but knowing that doesn’t lessen my anger. In fact, it only amplifies it. The memories that have been haunting me all damn night, the memories I’ve been shoving back down, rise to the surface, resurrected by his words and I’m drowning in pain I’ve been ignoring for as long as I can remember.
“Or what? Face it… you don’t have a fucking leg to stand on. Tell me, how does it feel to know that you can’t stop me? To know that all you can do is sit back and watch as I tear this club apart?”
“I’m not going to let that happen, you fucking monster,” I shoot back but it only makes him laugh. It’s fucking condescending and infuriating. Raking my shaking hand through my hair, I blow out a breath as lights flash in my vision and the room spins. I fucking hate this. I’m never out of control, never this unstable, and all I want is to go back to the way things were before Warren ever walked into our lives, whenever that was.
“Funny thing about monsters, Travis, is that they are made, not born but then you already knew that, too, didn’t you? Your momma made your daddy what he was and your club has created me. You have no one to blame but yourselves for the pain and destruction that is coming.”
My heart hammers in my chest and it’s hard to breathe as the memories flood my mind again, pulling me down with the current and there is only one person in the world that can help me right now. Rowan’s face pops into my mind and just her memory soothes a part of me like the princess taming the dragon in all those stupid books my mom used to read me but it’s not enough. I need her. Opening my desk drawer, I grab my burner phone and punch in Rowan’s number, saving it in my contacts before I start typing out a text to her to ask her to come up to my room.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Warren says, the warning clear in his voice and I pause halfway through typing my message, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
He scoffs. “How dumb do you think I am? I’m talking about the second phone in your fucking hand that you’re trying to text someone on. Put it away… or I will take some of this anger I’ve been keeping a tight lid on and let it out. Didn’t I promise to pay a little visit to Rowan?”
“Don’t you even fucking mention her, you son of a bitch,” I growl, every single muscle in my body tightening as I think about him coming near my girl and he laughs, overjoyed by my outburst.
Fucking cool it, asshole.
You’re giving him what he wants.
“Again, I have to ask… or what? Are you going to stop me, Travis?” He scoffs. “I don’t think so. I’ve got you chasing your fucking tail and when I don’t… Rowan certainly does.”
I grit my teeth at the mention of her again as I imagine plunging a knife into this fucker’s chest, anything to keep him away from her, to keep her safe. My hands shake as other images enter my mind, images I thought I’d burned from my memory but this time, it’s Rowan in the center of it all – bruised, broken, and bloody.
No.
No.
No.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to force the horrific scene from my thoughts but the more I try to make it leave, the more prominent it seems to become, looming over me and taunting me with a collision of my past and my future and looking a whole lot like destiny
“I must say, it’s been entertaining to watch the two of you together,” he muses but his voice is just background noise now as the pictures in my head taunt me with the possibilities. Possibilities that make me want to throw up and rage all at the same time. “She certainly is talented, isn’t she? Think she’ll show me some of those moves she’s always promising you?”
Fuck no.
Those are our thing, you fucker.
Taking a deep breath, I shove the images back enough to gain a little bit of control but my knee still bounces as I look around the room, wondering how the hell he has been keeping tabs on me, how he knows so much about Rowan and me. I would have noticed new cameras around the clubhouse and there is no way in hell he got into my system so how the fuck is he doing it?
“No thoughts on us sharing sweet little Rowan, Travis?” Warren asks, his voice full of a sick glee that makes my stomach turn and a wave of heat rushes over me as I clench my fists again.
“Over my dead body.”
“Oh, that can be arranged, my friend,” he answers, laughing to himself. “In fact, I like that idea a whole lot. Want to know what I’ll do to her once you’re out of the picture? I’ve put a great deal of thought into it…”
Shoving myself out of my chair, I kick it and it skates across the floor as Warren laughs in my ear.
“Well, that made you mad, didn’t it?”
“Go fuck yourself, Warren,” I growl and the silence on the other end of the line is heavy as I wait for his response. Finally, he takes a deep breath.
“No, Travis. I’m not going to fuck myself but as soon as you’re out of the picture, I’ll be helping myself to your little firecracker as much as I damn well please and there won’t be a single thing you can do about it. I’ve spent most nights dreaming about the first time I’ll slide inside her sweet little pussy since the moment she got to town. Tell me, is it even better than I imagine it is?”
My chest aches as the pictures try to worm their way back into my thoughts and his words burrow underneath my skin. “I will fucking kill you myself before I ever let…”