Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“He’s never going to hurt you again, I promise.”
“I know. Finally, I think all the bad shit is behind us, don’t you?”
LILY
Ten days later, I leave the hospital, and I’m more than ready. I’m beginning to climb the walls with boredom.
Doc takes me back to the clubhouse where the Kings are all gathered in the bar, and they all cheer when we walk in. Everyone is there, and Dolly has hung a giant ‘WELCOME HOME’ sign above the jukebox.
I try to fight them, but tears sting my eyes. Besides my close relationship with my brother, I’ve never had a proper family, but it appears I do now.
“You should probably take it easy,” Doc says protectively.
“I’m sitting down, drinking a big glass of water. How much easier do you want me to take it?”
“Yeah, stop fussin’, Doc. Our little lady is badass and can handle a teensy tiny celebration. Let her have some fun.” Bronte gives me a wink. “So pleased to have you home, honey.”
Home.
Warmth spreads through my chest as I look around me.
Yeah, I’m home.
“It’s good to have you back, Lily,” Jack says with a wink.
Since helping the club take down the Inferno, not to mention protecting his son during the explosion, Jack and I have formed a strange bond.
“It’s not fair that Max gets away with it,” I say.
“He doesn’t,” Doc replies. “Turns out Terrence Belyou didn’t trust the Inferno. When he had his girlfriend listen in to the conversation in the next room, he had the good sense to record it on his phone. It’s all on record. How Max wanted him to make a special delivery to the Kings of Mayhem clubhouse. How he knew a bomb was in the delivery van, but he needed the money and agreed to help them. The girlfriend has agreed to testify to all of it.”
“She’s not afraid of the Inferno coming after her?”
The Inferno is notorious for intimidating witnesses.
And for blowing up courthouses.
“Not much of the Inferno is left,” Jack says. “Without their leader, their numbers have dwindled.”
“Besides, she wants to get out of town and start a new life, and she’ll get it in witness protection. She’s got nothing to lose.” Doc takes my hand. “Max is going away for a very long time. He and Otto.”
The news sinks in, and I feel a gigantic weight lift from my shoulders.
For them, being locked up will be worse than dying.
“It’s what they deserve,” I whisper, my mind still processing what it means. I look over to Doc. “It’s over… it’s really over.”
He nods. “Yeah, baby, it’s really over.”
Doc squeezes my hand, and I suddenly feel deliriously happy.
“Paw said he won’t be long,” Jack says to Doc.
“Who won’t be long?” I ask, just as Paw walks into the clubhouse with a handsome man walking beside him.
I look over at Doc and Jack, who are both smiling at me.
“Okay, what are you two up to? Why do you both look so guilty, and who is that with Paw?”
My eyes wander back to the guy. He’s cautious and a little nervous, and when his eyes land on me from across the room, he hesitates and stops walking.
Doc takes my hand. “It took a while, but we found him, baby.”
My brows pull together as I give him a confused look. “Stop being so mysterious. What are you talking about?”
“Take a closer look,” Jack says.
I turn back to Paw and the man beside him.
And that’s when it hits me.
The eyes.
The nose.
The mouth.
They’re the same.
He’s older, with a beard, and his hair is short, where it had been long the last time I saw him.
Valentine.
My brother.
Frozen by emotion, I stop breathing because it can’t be true.
Valentine is dead.
I look back to Doc, and he nods, smiling.
“Valentine?” I ask in disbelief.
When Doc nods, I start crying. “Yeah, baby, that’s your brother.”
I look back to the stranger, then back to Doc because I don’t trust my own eyes. “He’s not dead?”
“No, baby, he’s not dead.”
I don’t waste another second.
Letting go of Doc’s hand, I leave the booth and start walking across the room as Valentine walks towards me. We both break into a run, but when we meet in the middle of the room, we come to an abrupt stop.
“Lily,” he says my name, and I want to cry because it’s been thirteen years since I’ve heard him say it, and it sounds just as magical as it did back then.
More so because I never thought I would hear it again.
With a cry, I throw my arms around him, and he lifts me off the ground just like he’d done a hundred times before when we were growing up.
Valentine lets me down so I can get a good look at him.
“You’re alive,” I say through my tears.
“Yes.”
“They told me you were dead.”
“Paw explained to me what happened. I’m sorry, Lily. I never knew you left when you were a teenager, or I would’ve come looking for you.”