Diesel opens his mouth and Axe cuts him off. “She’s a good fucking woman. I don’t know exactly what her deal is but, fuck, she’s done nothing but strip. I get she lied about her age but she keeps her mouth shut, her head down, and the second trouble came knocking she manned the fuck up and protected her family. That’s what Poe has become to her and this club swore an oath to protect that kid for Alby. Simple as that, shut your fucking mouth before running it gets you dead.”
The topic moves the hell away from my girl after that, thank fuck, because I’m struggling to keep my cool. I’m fucking angry about the whole thing but… I’m not angry at her.
I’m angry at whatever the fuck happened to her that had her living on the fucking streets. I need that file that Thorn handed over to King and I need it the fuck now. I might be heading out to kill some cunt tonight before I can sleep.
The meeting goes on and on for another hour before King finally sends everyone away.
I keep my ass planted in my chair.
Rue does too, his eyes on me like he’s getting ready to either back me up or put me down depending on how I react.
King looks between us both and then sighs at me. “You can have the fucking file but don’t make me regret handing it over. Go get some whiskey in your belly first.”
I shake my head and grab it from him, waiting until he leaves before I open it.
Then I slowly but surely lose my goddamn mind.
It’s pages and pages of abuse. Physical. Mental. Sexual. She’s run away from hell and she slept on the motherfucking streets to get away from her stepfather.
A cop.
He’s on trial for raping another little girl after Angel left him.
I close the file and then slide it across the table to Rue. I wouldn’t except I’m going to need backup when I go to find the fucking piece of shit and there’s no better backup than your blood with the same exact need for vengeance.
“I know a guy in Maryland. Lemme get the ball moving on this, we’ll get him. You just worry about getting her healed up and safe, brother.”
I give him a nod and get my ass moving. I take two steps out of the chapel to have a hand clamp over the back of my neck and my body yanked towards the Callaghan booth by Hawk.
I feel about five years old when he does it.
“Is there something you’ve forgotten to tell me?”
Christ. “I didn’t know I had to tell you everything that’s going on in my life.”
Hawk shoves me into the seat and jerks his head at Monroe to bring us both drinks. I really don’t want to sit here while Angel is hurt and alone but Hawk pegs me with a dark look when I try to get back up.
“One drink and you’ll tell me what the fuck has been going on so I have an answer when Keely asks me.”
So I have one drink and I tell my pops about the girl who ‘struck me. The girl I judged badly from day fucking one while she was trying to survive, coming straight outta hell into the big, cruel world of Coldstone.
I need a helluva lot more than one fucking drink.
But I leave as soon as the whiskey in my glass is finished and Hawk looks a little less pissed off. “Bring her home for family dinner on Sunday. No excuses, Keely is gonna get all fucking weepy over this and after this Demon bullshit she deserves some joy.”
No truer words have ever been spoken, my mom is a fucking saint for dealing with all of us assholes and I know just how happy this shit will make her so it’s as easy as breathing to agree to it.
I get back to my room to find the door open and Rue snarling at Poe but nothing fucking registers except that Angel is gone.
Fucking gone.
“Posey, where the fuck is she?”
She shrugs at me. “She’s safe. She’s making plans and getting her shit together.”
I grab her and yank her around, ignoring the snarl Rue lets out at me because he might be pissed but she’s still his little fucking flower. “What the fuck does that mean?”
She tips her head back so she can stare me down, unflinching in that way that she has. Hawk says it’s a Graves’ thing, those eyes of hers, and it makes her look fucking fierce. “I ain’t telling you a goddamn thing. She’s my friend and she’s a good person, but something’s happened to spook her and you’ll only make shit worse if you go after her, guns blazing.”
How much worse could shit get?
My girl is running away again, only this time, I’m not going to fucking let her go.
I manage to stay calm, only because Angel took her phone with her and I have a GPS tracker on it so I know exactly where she is.
She drives for hours before checking into a hotel and I drive over there to drag her home but Poe’s words just keep fucking ringing in my ears.
I have time to feel her out before I drag her home with me.
So I get a hotel room too, and sleep in the room next to hers all night. Well, I don’t fucking sleep. I lay there in the bed and listen out for any little thing that might tell me what's going through her head right now or any signs of something bad happening. I feel like a pile of shit when she finally gets up the next morning and I’m careful about tailing her.
She buys a house.
It’s a shitty little thing but she buys it in cash, signs paperwork on the front lawn leaning against the Chevy and she looks so fucking happy, I’ve never seen her grin so wide.
I’m definitely fucking lovestruck and an idiot about it.
I follow her around Coldstone as she picks out furniture and paint supplies. I call Rue to come help me because there’s no fucking way I’m going to stay back and watch her lift that shit down herself with her busted fucking ribs and when he meets me outside the grocery store on the other side of town he scowls at me.
“You told her you’re here yet?”
I shake my head. “I’m going to now. You good?”
He shrugs and scowls up at the store again. “This place is about as far away from her new place as she could possibly fucking get.”
When I get in there and see her fucking terrified of me something fucking snaps in my brain and I almost rage the fuck out in the grocery store like an asshole, right up until she says who the fuck told her I wanted her dead.
Fucking Diamond.
I’ve always known she was a scheming bitch but this? She fucking knows Angel is mine, I’ve made it fucking clear.
We get Angel back to her new place. She fumbles around with her words and shakes the whole damn time but we get everything unloaded into her house and where she wants it before I stalk back out to my hog.
Rue stays behind to watch over my girl which is good because she still looks like she’s gonna have a fucking heart attack and that only riles me up more.
I get to The Boulevard ready to commit murder. Cold-blooded murder because I’m not coming down here in a rage. Nope, I feel fucking nothing right now except the need to bleed out every jealous fucking slut in this building.
Axe and Cole are both already here for the night and at the sight of my face Cole starts cursing up a storm. Axe doesn’t utter a word, just rolls his shoulders back like he’s about to jump into a fight which is good.
I’m going to fucking gut someone.
“Asses in the locker room right the fuck now!” I roar and every single body in the room freezes.
I never raise my voice like that.