War (Kings of Sin MC #2)

5. Home?

CHAPTER 5

HOME?

There’s no warm feeling when I pull up at the Devil’s gate. This place contained my entire life at one time. Coming here would be the highlight of my day. Now, I feel dirty. Lies are piling up. It’s hard to know what the truth is from everything fabricated.

I can’t believe Tyler would be capable of killing his father or mine, but something isn’t adding up, and I need answers. Tyler is my history. I’ve been blindly loyal to him for so long, but no more.

The gates open, and I drive inside. Bear meets me at the door, wrapping me in his arms. His scent is familiar, overwhelming me. If Tyler is lying, has Bear been lying to me too? Who can I trust?

“You’re home,” he booms.

“I’ve missed you,” I say into his neck. Bear became my father figure after Harley and I lost our dad. He was the one who taught me how to drive and helped with filling out my college applications. Hell, he was going to walk me down the aisle. My emotions are so conflicted. It’s like I’m caught in a storm, being blown in every direction with no anchor. Callan’s your anchor.

“Is Tyler here?” I ask once he releases me.

“He went out but will be back soon. Come inside. We’ve missed you around here.” I hesitate, eyeing the door with the skull and devil horn insignia painted on it. I fear going inside now that I’m here. It’s the oddest feeling. This place should be a haven for me.

“I need to ask you something, and I want the truth.” I shove my hands into my pockets so Bear doesn’t see them shake.

“What’s this about, Rogue?” He places his meaty hands on my shoulder, and I hiss and jerk away. A crease blemishes his forehead.

“What was that? Are you injured?”

“It’s nothing,” I pant, regaining my composure. “I don’t want to speak about that. I want you to tell me about when my dad died.” I push past the lump forming in my throat. This is harder than I thought it would be. I left the Kings compound like a bat out of hell, angry and determined to get answers. Now, standing here, it’s like I’ve leaped from a cliff edge into the turbulent sea, sinking to the bottom with no way back to the surface.

“What do you mean, Rogue? Talk to me,” he encourages.

Dragging in a ragged breath, I say, “I want to know everything that happened.” The door opens, and a couple club members tip out, chuckling to each other. They still when they notice us.

“Bear.” They jerk their heads in acknowledgment. “Oh, Princess, you’re back.”

“Not now,” Bear barks at them. Holding their hands in surrender, they take off in the other direction.

“Let’s go over here.” Bear nods for me to follow him around the side of the building.

Folding his arms, he stands like a bodyguard at a club entrance waiting to allow us inside. “You know what happened. Kings killed him and our pres.” There’s no ounce of untruth in his tone. He stares me unswervingly in the eye. That’s what he believes, I’m sure of it.

“Why?” I ask. “Why would they kill them?”

Releasing a puff of air, he looks down at the ground. “We planned to do some work for them, but they betrayed us.”

“Why would they do that?” I implore him to make it make sense.

He scratches his head. “I don’t know. It was all fucking ugly business back then. What’s this all about?”

“Was anyone else there that night?” I ignore his question, continuing with my own.

“Just Ty. He barely got away. His bike was shot up, and he had a bullet wound in his leg. What’s with all the questions? What’s going on?” I know that scar on his leg like the back of my hand. But he never told me where it came from.

“Nothing. Forget I asked.” I move past him and slip around the building, entering the club at a side entrance.

It’s so much smaller than the King’s. The wood structure looks old and in disrepair with dingy decor and zero love and attention. No money has been spent on its upkeep. The wood floor creaks with every step I take. It’s worn so badly in some places that it’s a completely different shade than the rest.

“Princess, you’re home.” When I enter the main room, Jenna leaps to her feet from a table surrounded by other club sluts, wearing her usual tiny skirt and tit-showing top. I never really looked at her up-close, but she appears older than her twenty-nine years. Her eyes crinkle, spiderwebs stretching out from the corners. It must take its toll, alcohol and drugs every night, spreading your legs for a brutal bastard who doesn’t give two shits about you.

Tyler loves me, I do not doubt that—and yet he still treats me like an object he owns. I’m the shiny trophy he likes to polish now and again. I can only imagine how poorly he treats her.

“We’re not friends,” I tell her blatantly. “I’m grateful you handled a lot of the wedding shit when everything happened, and I want to tell you I know you’re in love with Ty. But for fuck’s sake, don’t waste your life on him, Jenna. He will fuck you and use you. He will never put a ring on your finger or put you on the back of his bike.” Water pebbles in the corners of her eyes, but I don’t care. Let her cry. “You will never bear his kids. And one day, you’ll wake up with your best years behind you, wondering why you stuck around a fucking asshole for so long.”

Her mouth opens and closes like a trout, then she says, “Why are you with him if he’s such a bad guy?”

I shake my head, tightening my lips. “I’m not with him. I woke up.” I move around her and head for Tyler’s office.

Even though Bear said Tyler is not here, my stomach tightens when I turn the handle and push into his office. It’s empty, and I rush to close the door and take a deep breath. It smells of dampness mixed with cigarette smoke in here. The drab wooden walls still hold the old pictures of dogs dressed like humans around a card table on them. They’ve been here since before Tyler took over the space. The beaten, dark tan leather couch I spent years studying on mocks me from the back of the room. His desk has one leg propped up with a folded piece of cardboard, our initials carved into the wood from when I turned sixteen, and he gave me my first switchblade for my birthday. Memory after memory assaults me. It’s enough to make me lose my damn mind.

Lowering myself onto the couch, I sit for over two hours, waiting. Everything Callan showed me and told me whirls through my head. I attempt to make sense of it all. My heart gallops when Tyler finally enters the room, trying to escape him. I can’t do this. I’ve never really dissected how fucked up our relationship is. My senses fooled me into thinking it was normal, the proper progression. But when he first took me to his bed, he was double my age. Why did everyone let all this come to pass? Anger eats away at me, rotting my core. I’m infected with Tyler’s poison. It’s seeping into the fabric of my being, corroding me from the inside out.

“Princess, you finally came to your senses.” There’s a grin on his lips, his eyes devouring me as if he can see beneath my clothes.

A deadly calm settles in my chest. “You know what? I think you’re right. I have come to my senses.” I notice someone else enter the room behind him, a man looking well out of his depth. Sweat beads at his hairline, his face is pale, and he wears a sweater over his shirt and dress pants. Ty’s VP, Carver, pushes him into the room and locks the door with us inside.

“Who is that?” I jerk my chin, nerves clutching at my stomach muscles.

“This is one of those marriage people.” Tyler waves a hand, jutting out his bottom lip.

“Officiant,” the man murmurs, clasping his hands in front of him.

“Yeah, that.” Tyler waves a hand in the air, jabbing a finger at the man. “Not how we planned it, but the end goal is the same, right?” He’s so animated with his gestures, I narrow my gaze on him. He’s high.

“I’m not marrying you,” I state. My eyes dart to the door Carver locked.

“You are, Princess. You’ve played detective long enough.” He moves closer, his eyes narrowing on the bruise on my jaw. He doesn’t say anything because he no doubt thinks it’s the one he put there.

“Come here,” he demands, pointing to the spot in front of him.

I can’t believe I’ve been choosing darkness over light this whole time. I’ve been so fucking blind. Callan’s image forces its way into my head. This entire time, he’s been out there waiting for me, and I wasted so many years being treated like shit by this asshole.

“I’m not marrying you, Tyler.”

“I can’t marry you if she declines,” the guy says, his voice wobbling. How the hell did they find this guy?

“You’ll do as you’re told or I’ll carve your eyes out and send them to your mother. I’m assuming you don’t have a wife.” Carver snorts. The guy whimpers, turning ghost white.

“Princess, you’re testing my patience,” Tyler says, pushing his fingers into his temples.

“I don’t love you,” I spit out. The guy squeaks, Carver gripping his forearm.

Tyler stalks me across the room, his teeth gritted and fists clenched. I shouldn’t have come back. I didn’t even bring my gun. Foolish girl . His hand wraps around my throat, drawing my body to his, looking down on me with so much rage that he doesn’t seem human.

“I fucking own you. You’re mine. And I’d rather put you in the ground than have you walking around without my last name.” A rattle shudders through my bones at his cold, unforgiving cruelty.

“You want me to have my dad’s killers name?” I choke out, my hands smacking at his arms. He releases me as if I scalded him.

“What the fuck did you say?”

“You heard me.” I shove at his chest and slap his face.

A roar climbs through him and unleashes at me. “Out,” he barks to Carver, jerking his chin to the door.

Without question, Carver unlocks the door and pushes the guy through it, following behind him.

“I know your dad was a rat,” I blurt out. The sting as his hand connects with my face brings tears to my eyes. He’s immediately in my space, cupping my bruised jaw, gripping a fistful of my hair in his other palm.

“I fucking love you. Why the fuck are you doing this to me—to us?” he yells, spittle spraying over my face. “I have never loved anyone or anything but you in this life, and you betray me like this?”

“How am I betraying you?” I cry out.

“You let those King bastards get in your head and feed you bullshit, Princess. You let them turn you against your own club—against me.” He releases my hair and slams a hand against his chest.

Grief grips my throat. “Did you kill my dad?”

“What?” He pushes me away and paces, rubbing at his brow. “Who told you that shit?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just give me the damn truth.”

“You want the truth?” He’s back in my space, a hand in my hair, yanking my head back. “Your dad killed mine.”

No. He wouldn’t. He would if he knew about him being a rat. Then Tyler killed him. Blood paid in blood. “Despite all that, I took care of you, loved you and Harley. I even took care of your mom—and this is how you repay me!”

“I don’t owe you shit,” I snap, smacking my fists into his shoulder. I may as well be a bunny rabbit hitting him with my tail. He doesn’t flinch, doesn’t move, doesn’t release me.

“You’re going to do as you’re told. We’re going to bring that officiant back in here and do what should have been done ages ago. Everything else, we can get past.”

“No!” I holler.

“You’re a fucking traitor,” he bites. “You think you’re going to walk out of here? Everyone is going to know. They’ll all take turns punishing you until you’re nothing more than a whimpering cum slut begging for my mercy.”

“Fuck you.” I bring phlegm to my lips and spit it in his face. His hand raises, but he doesn’t strike me. Instead, he swipes it up and sucks it into his mouth. “I’ve missed your taste, Princess.”

“It’s over between us, Ty.” I don’t blink. Don’t hesitate. I wrap my words in truth.

“It will never be over between us.” Leaning in, he inhales me, rubbing his cheek against mine. “Too much history, babe.”

“Fake, fucked-up history. That’s all it will ever be now.”

“I’m never going to let you leave here.” Pushing his body flush with mine, I cower beneath his menacing stature. “You just forgot how good we are together, babe. Harley’s death hurt us both so fucking much. It was abrupt and unfair. She took part of us with her, but we can find our way back to each other. You’ve just got to let us try.”

Sorrow expands in my chest. Tears fall unbridled from my eyes. His hands are everywhere, stroking over my face, my neck, my chest, pawing at me. “It’s over, Ty.” He looks at me like I’m some strange creature at an exhibit. Deep lines etch his brow. “If you ever loved me, show me some decency, some humanity, and accept that,” I plead.

The door bursts open, jarring me. Tyler’s eyes don’t move. He barely breathes.

Bear stands there, wheezing, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

“What is it?” Tyler demands.

Looking between us, Bear swallows. “Kings are at the gate…”