Page 12 of Healed

I barely heard any of it. None of it mattered to me, anyway. I wasn’t actually sure why I was here. I wasn’t needed—or wanted.

So I focused more on where I was instead. On what I was seeing.

Home.

Breathing heavily through my nose, I tried to remember what that was. The last time that statement had been true.

Home was never a place. It was a feeling. A sense of belonging. Comfort, love, and safety.

That feeling hadn’t been here since Nico had taken over.

But knowing what was coming tonight, knowing what would be destroyed in the aftermath of Vienna’s decisions, I couldn’t help but remember what used to be.

For one ridiculous, painful second, I didn’t see Nico’s club and what he had let it become. What it now stood for.

Instead, I saw my father’s.

I saw him standing outside the clubhouse with a smoke hanging from his mouth, shouting at Damien for doing something stupid with one of the bikes.

I saw Natalie sitting on the wall near my house, swinging her legs, her skirts far too short and her makeup far too heavy, rolling her eyes at whatever drama I was dragging her into that day.

I saw younger versions of myself running through the streets with scraped knees and tangled hair, believing with the unshakeable arrogance of childhood that this place would always belong to us, that the men who wore these patches would always protect what was ours.

Territories came and went. But this here, this estate in the rougher area of Leeds, had always been our stomping ground. This was where the Riders were founded and we fought fiercely to protect it. We belonged to it as much as it belonged to us.

And it hadn’t been stolen by our rivals like my dad had always feared. It had been seized by the enemy within, and no longer did I think this place would offer anyone anything even close to protection. And certainly not me.

“The goal here is to get Vienna out, and that’s the end of it. If you run into trouble, I expect you to handle it,” I heard Dante saying, and the mention of Vienna had me focusing on the conversation.

“Unlike the past, we are not here for blood. If you need to deal with a Rider, I trust that you will use your judgement and whatever force you feel is necessary. But try to remember that there are innocent people living here. The Riders are living amongst the community, and everything we do will have an impact. Let’s not bring more trouble than needed, understood?”

A chorus of ‘yes, boss’, ‘understood’, and other affirmatives rang out, and then Dante gave the go ahead to his brothers to do their job.

“You,” he said, snatching hold of the back of Rachel’s cut as she went to leave with the others. “You are to behave.”

“Why the fuck am I getting a separate lecture to everyone else?” she practically snarled at him, but he just laughed in response.

I barely heard his answer, though. My entire body flinched and recoiled at the sounds of shouts and gunshots firing off in the direction of where the Devil’s had gone.

“For fuck’s sake,” Dante hissed, and then he was gone, running alongside Rachel and into the chaos.

Jogging to catch up, I watched as the Devils spilled further into Rider territory like a storm that had finally found somewhere to break. Men shouted. Gunfire cracked through the air. Bodies moved too quickly for my eyes to follow, black cuts and Rider patches colliding in a brutal mess of fists, weapons, blood, and vengeance.

And I stood there and watched.

Frozen.

Horrified.

Useless.

My fingers curled into my palms, nails digging into my skin as my body refused to move.

Everything within me screamed to find Vienna. To show my allegiance to the man I loved and aid his club. The fighting didn’t bother me. I’d fought before—I’d been involved in the ambush on the Devil’s clubhouse that had cost Crash his life.

But there had been a reason for that. My dad had been murdered. I was hurt. And I hadn’t killed anyone. I’d sought Vienna out, finding him with Rachel, and I’d fired a shot into the distance so they could get away.

Blood wasn’t on my hands. But I’d accepted the blame alongside my club, because I had no loyalty to the Devils other than Vienna.