Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“She’ll be OK, you know.” Ringo squeezed my hand as he pulled the truck outside what I could only assume was Bullet’s place. “Bullet wouldn’t take a chance with her life. If she needs more care than she can get here, he’ll make sure she has the best. She’s strong.”
“I shouldn’t have called him Peckerwood,” I muttered, inanely. “Then maybe he wouldn’t have done this.” It was a stupid thing to say, but it was the only thought ringing in my head. No matter what Ringo said, this felt like my fault. On multiple counts. “I forced my way in here, I insulted a member of your club. If Apple dies --”
“Stop!” Ringo barked out the command, then pulled me onto his lap to straddle him. I went back to burying my face in his neck because it was comforting. And because I didn’t want to face the recrimination in his eyes. I should have realized at this point that Ringo wouldn’t let me get away with hiding from him. He gently forced my face up, so I had to look at him. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do. Dom gave your mom the information to get you here and you used it. If anyone is to blame for that, it’s Dom. What you don’t seem to get is that Dom did exactly what he was supposed to do, too. If that means bringing danger to our door, you’re most certainly worth it. To Dom. To me. Apple, too. I guarantee you, no one blames anyone but Illivitch and Redwood. Certainly not you.”
I shook my head hard. “You don’t know that.”
He gripped my shoulders, giving me a little shake back. “I do. I absolutely do. This is my club. I’ve known most of these men my whole adult life. Since I was in the service. Certainly after coming here.”
“But Redwood --”
“Was a rat bastard. Look.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m going to tell you something. Should have before, but we’ve been getting to know each other. I had no desire to interrupt bonding with you. I wanted you solidly in my corner before we went into why this club is even here.”
“I don’t understand.”
He gave me a gentle smile as he wiped tears from under my eyes with his thumbs. “We’re not good guys, Calista. We have our own moral codes. Not everyone is the same. Some of us are OK with doing shit others aren’t. But we’ve all done shit that could land us in prison or shot.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“Every single person in this place -- including Redwood -- are black ops. Nothing we do is on the books. Some of it was questionable to begin with. The only universal line we have is that we don’t hurt children. If we torture someone, there has to be a good reason. And, yes, a few of us have tortured and killed women.”
I just looked at him, waiting for… something. Something more from him to disgust me, something that made me cringe that he’d just admitted to torturing women. He’d said there had to be a good reason.
“You’re not a bad person, Ringo. I believe that Redwood is the exception rather than the rule. Otherwise, there’d be more people here trying to either kill me or help Borris get me back. You know your club better than me and know if you have doubts about any of them, but everyone I’ve had significant interaction with support each other.” This was the one conversation he could have started to bring me out of the panic gripping me since Redwood’s attack. “I believe in you, Ringo. I believe in Apple and Lemon and Dom. And I believe Rocket is not the type of man to let this go. I’m betting Rocket is currently raising hell because he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to let anything go down in his club he doesn’t sanction.”
“He is scouring every single person in this club right now. He’d already had our tech guys working on it because of things that happened when Lemon got here, but he’s pulled everyone in to work only on this. I’ve never heard him so angry. And that was only from the short interaction I had with him after I killed Redwood.
“I’ve done bad things, Calista. Killed more people that I care to think about. Some of the things I’ve done for the government would get me killed and probably rightly so. Though I would never hurt an innocent, especially a child, I can’t honestly say that some of what I’ve done didn’t have collateral damage. Maybe not directly, but anytime government upheaval happens, someone innocent gets hurt. So, don’t even think I’m a good guy. I’m not.”