This motel wasn’t somewhere a child belonged.
Simply because it was a motel where men took whores to fuck.
In fact, the motel even asked me when I booked how many hours I needed it.
So, bringing Tess here wasn’t ideal. It was far from it.
We were cuddled up on the one mattress, which I had covered with a new blanket that took the last of my pay.
But I couldn’t have Tess sleeping on a stained mattress.
I could put up with it, but an eleven-year-old shouldn’t have to.
Papa wouldn’t give me another advance on shifts I now wouldn’t have the time to do. My credit was nonexistent, thanks to Elliot.
Tess needed to get into a school, a good one, because Charlotte once told me that Tess had the brains of her grandfather, which meant that she was extremely clever.
But being Charlotte’s blood, as well as Scorp’s, if Tess wasn’t challenged, she would act up.
I ran my hand through Tess’s hair and was trying to read her a book.
“Come on, Tess, you do the next line.”
Her little finger went to it, and she started sounding it out, and that was when my fear was confirmed.
Tess was either extremely traumatized by the events, or Charlotte had lied about Tess being ahead in her classes.
’Cause the Tess sitting with me right now couldn’t even read one line.
I heard the banging of a headboard in the next room, and I gritted my teeth.
I pulled out my phone and played a video of a show that Tess used to like.
“Here, Tess, you listen to this. I’m just going to get us a drink.”
I placed the headphones over her ears and kept a smile on my face till I closed the door, and my expression hardened.
Walked to the room next door and banged on their door.
No answer.
I knew I was interrupting their current bang. But I didn’t give a fuck.
I knocked again, loudly.
Finally, the door opened.
“What the fuck do you want?”
A guy that wasn’t half-bad-looking answered the door.
“I have an eleven-year-old in the room with me, and I don’t want her hearing you moaning and the whore screaming. So can you refrain from the bed and move to the couch?”
I was direct and rude to a man that could snap me in half.
A smirk spread across his lips, which wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.
“Want to take her place?” He looked me up and down. “I pay well, doll face.”
I wanted to spit in his face for saying it to me.
I wanted to scream that I was no whore.
But instead, I was lingering in his doorway, knowing I needed the money and had no other source of income.
I paid for ice cream with the change from Scorp’s ashtray, and it was the first smile Tess had given me since I’d taken her from Scorp’s house.
Didn’t help that we were sleeping in Scorp’s truck, since the offer at the motel.
I had to move out, as the man was extremely creepy and kept offering.
Not to mention I couldn’t afford the room any longer, and I refused to be a common slut.
I had told Tess we were camping out, having a sleepover in the truck.
I made it sound like so much fun even I believed it for a moment, until I pulled out my wallet and was reminded I had no money.
A fancy car pulled up in front of us, and out of protection mode, I pulled Tess back to me, away from the road.
The window went down, and I was face to face with Rosemary, Elliot’s mother.
She had a soft smile on her face. The crazy tea lady.
“Beautiful day for ice cream.” She smiled, cracked her door open, and got out.
Her heels, I knew, cost more than Scorp’s truck.
For some reason Tess took her hand when we went to cross the road. It annoyed me, but I didn’t say anything.
Rosemary pointed to a doll shop, walking in. Tess bolted for the dolls.
I couldn’t afford anything in the shop.
“You know what I always loved about you, Summer?” Rosemary spoke to me. And I gave her a sideways glance.
“You were always stronger than him. You had the abilities and the skills to make him a better man. He was blind not to see that.”
A soft smile captured her features, and she took my hand.
“Tess deserves to want for nothing. I’m speaking from a mother’s perspective. I don’t want to see you struggling. You don’t need to.”
I frowned. Again, I wondered why she would want to help me. I wasn’t her daughter-in-law anymore, nor was I ever going to be again.
“I won’t marry Elliot again,” I blurted out and shook my head.
“Nope, never.” Rosemary’s lip twitched up. “I would never ask you to marry such a weak man.”
Her eyes were on Tess. “Tess is much like a doll, isn’t she? Looks so beautiful, some would think she was your child.”
Tingles of fear spread through me.
Something wasn’t right. “Tess looks like Scorp and her mother, Charlotte.”
Rosemary nodded her head. “Still, she is perfect like a doll, and you, Summer, have the ability to give that little doll a doll house.”
I was beyond creeped out by that.
“Tess, we’re leaving,” I sang out.
No way were we staying here with Rosemary and her creepy dolls. I grabbed Tess’s hand.
She started crying, her hands on a doll. I saw the price tag. I couldn’t afford it.
“Come on, Tess, let’s go.”
I pulled on her hand and finally got her to let go of the doll, and we took off, leaving Rosemary with her creepy dolls.
Lords of Chaos was built by Colt for the purpose of redeeming his image, to create a legacy that would go on for generations.
I walked from the Devil’s Henchmen, or at least we let the patchover happen, even though we had that history that Colt wasn’t wanting to put the work in to build.
Now Colt had walked, and the men were pissed.
Most patched over because of their fear of Colt.
No Colt meant someone had to step up. And right now, as I sat at the table, everyone was waiting for me to raise my hand to fill the role.
The vote was about to commence. Everyone had said their piece, and one name was circling. Mine.
One would wonder why a man who had been brought up for the position of taking over his father’s club would not want to step up when the time came.
But the reality was I loved the club for reasons presidents couldn’t love.
I loved freedom.
I rode for it, and I’d fucking die for it.
A president was a father figure to the club.
That freedom doesn’t exist.
Not only that but your family becomes a target, one that you can’t come back from.
My mother paid the price for my dad’s sins.
If Scarlett was the price I’d pay to sit in that seat, at the top of that table, I didn’t fucking want it.
Colt lost Summer due to that chair, as well as many other fucked-up reasons, but that chair was a contributing factor.
Told my old man last night if I was voted in, my patch would be thrown on the table.
The disappointment and the rage that followed that statement, well, it wasn’t pretty.
Which was one of the reasons I waited till after our dinner with Priest and Scarlett.
Dad said I was no son of his, because no son of his was a coward.
He then went on a rant about how Scarlett had ruined me, made me a pussy.
Didn’t give a fuck, because I wouldn’t be missing out on any more time with her in the name of a club that the founding member had abandoned.
“I’m taking the role, boys.” Dad finally spoke just before voting because he knew I hadn’t been bluffing when I said that I would throw the patch in.
For some fucked reason, he thought time would change my mind.
The hammer went down, finishing the conversation.
Dad was stepping up, and I was free to do whatever the fuck I wanted again.
“Now we need to deal with these Red Crows.” Dad brought up the agenda for the day.
“Vipers are patching over.” Jace spoke with a cigarette in his mouth. “Caught wind of it from the street dealers.”
“Which means we can’t move the guns until we deal with them,” Scorp added and then leaned back.
He had stepped up to the vice president role, but he refused to be president because, and I quote, “I’ll never sit in the chair of that spineless motherfucker,” referring to Colt.
“You hear that?” Fly blurted out, interrupting our serious conversation. “Sounds like sports bikes.”
There were a few eyerolls and grunts of annoyance.
The boys wanted to work out when we were to get paid again, get another form of earning in, not listen to Fly and his obsession of picking a bike by the motor.
“War is coming, boys, and that should be our focus.” Dad spoke up, his eyes on Fly, telling him off for interrupting the conversation before anyone could agree or disagree.
Dad looked at Priest, Scorp, Jace, Thanatos, and then me.
Just before the glass started shattering, bullets flying from every direction.
Everyone at the table went to ground, but one man, the man who stepped up when I wouldn’t, stood up, and I watched as the bullet went through his neck and his body slumped backward.
