Sin’s no longer grinning.

Rav’s expression is darker than a full-blown storm.

The next thing I know, I’m looking down the barrel of a gun. Fear dances across my skin, but I hold firm, my chin high, as I meet Rav’s gaze unflinchingly.

“My daughter,” I emphasise the ‘my’, letting them know who she belongs to, that she is nothing to them, “has leukaemia. She’s dying. She needs a bone marrow transplant like yesterday. There’s an appointment booked tomorrow at ten-thirty a.m. at Kessington General Hospital in the children’s department to see if one of you is a match.” I pull a photograph from my wallet of her three months ago and hold it against the fence. She’s smiling, her red toddler cheeks blown out as she laughs at something. Her blonde hair makes her look angelic. She’s also in a hospital bed, which is where she’s spent most of the last few months.

Rav’s arm shakes, his finger sliding on the trigger. I don’t cower, instead, I take a step back. I know he won’t shoot me. At least the old Rav wouldn’t have.

“Be there, or I’ll come back.” I let the threat hang in the air between the men, my expression telling them how serious I am.

“Move again and I’ll fucking shoot,” Rav warns, but I ignore him.

I hope that I still know these men, that no matter how much blood covers their hands, how many people they’ve made disappear, I hope they still hold to the fact they don’t hurt women—not without a solid reason.

“Deceitful whore,” Rav hisses at me. I don’t even flinch at his words, although they have the power to wound like bullets to the chest. Three years ago they might have.

I let my eyes slide to Sin, letting my disgust for the man pour out of me. I don’t miss Nox watching us, his shrewd eyes intent. Let him think what he wants. I don’t care.

When I bring my gaze back to Rav, I repeat, “Be there tomorrow.”

“We’re not done here,” he growls at me. “Fucking explain this.”

“You come tomorrow and I’ll tell you everything.” I glare at Sin then I stare at Rav a beat. Then I do what I did three years ago. I turn my back on him and on the club.

4

Ravage

I feel my knuckles crack as the next punch lands. Sin doesn’t beg me to stop, doesn’t say a word, but takes his beating like a good little cunt. The rage flaring through me is so electric, so heavy, I can’t stop it. I want to kill him—brother or not—for taking something that belonged to me, for throwing loyalty aside and shitting all over it.

After Sasha left the compound, I dragged him into the clubhouse and let my temper unleash. He’s lucky I didn’t put a bullet straight between his eyes, although I still might.

I’ve gathered an audience, no doubt all wondering why their president has gone off the deep end and is beating the shit out of his kid brother, but no one moves to intervene, no one asks why I’m suddenly giving Sin a beat down either.

This is the way of our world. My word is law and if I’m hitting him there’s a good reason.

And this time there’s a very good reason.

He and Sasha betrayed me and Sin is getting the brunt of the anger raging through me like a speeding train. The urge to pull the trigger on her had been a battle too, but no matter how much she’s destroyed me, I can’t play tit-for-tat with her.

I level a punch at my brother’s stomach, relishing the grunt he makes in response. Sin is already a bloodied mess—so am I. He strikes my jaw with enough force to snap my head back and I retaliate with another uppercut to the gut that nearly takes him off his feet.

No one touches what’s mine.

He doesn’t get a pass because he’s family.

“She ain’t exactly innocent in this, Rav,” he says through mushy lips. “I was drunk off my head. I didn’t know what day of the week it was.”

The idea of Sasha taking advantage of him is laughable, but doubt clings at his words—doubt I don’t want to feel. Did she do this? Who do I believe? Her or him?

“You still fell into bed with her,” I growl, circling him, my fists ready. Blood is spurting down the side of my face, soaking the collar of my kutte.

“It was dark. How the fuck was I meant to know! I wish it never fucking happened. I wish I could undo it. I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d take her side.”

I laugh at his words even as uncertainty attacks my mind. My fist flashes out, catching him in the side of the head as his reflexes slow.

He absorbs the blow, weaving on his feet a little. “These bitches just want one thing. They’re all kutte sluts. She thought she could have the Prez and the VP eating out of her fucking palm.”

His words eviscerate me. It doesn’t match with the Sasha I know, but the evidence doesn’t suggest it could be otherwise.

Whether he seduced her or she took advantage of him, the outcome was still the same. Them fucking, her having a kid she can’t put a father to.

I seize the lapels of Sin’s kutte, dragging him closer. He hangs in my grip like a rag doll, his eyes rolling in his head. Without remorse, I pull my fist back and slam it into his face again. My brother grins dazedly at me through bloodied teeth and I want to wipe that fucking smirk off his face. I want to wrap my fingers around his scrawny neck for daring to touch her—even though I shouldn’t care.

It’s been three years since Sasha left me.

Three years and yet that bitch can still elicit a nuclear level of anger from me.

I hate her for that. I don’t want to feel anything for her, but knowing she fucked my brother before she left makes my temper boil over. Knowing she might have a kid with him makes me positively homicidal.

She’s the only woman I’ve ever let in and her betrayal cuts like a thousand knives.

Sin’s hardly moving now, and as I go in for another shot, Nox wraps an arm around my throat and pulls me back. I fight him. Hell, I’ll fight any fucker in this room right now, but his grip on my neck is like a vice. It’s enough to stop me in my tracks.

“He’s had enough, Prez,” he hisses in my ear.

“He’s had enough when I say he’s had enough,” I growl, bucking against the hold on me.

Nox is a big guy, but I’m bigger. Right now, though, he has a solid hold, and he’s not letting go, and my reflexes are slowed by the return beating I took from Sin.

“You’re going to kill him.”

He says that like it’s not my intention.

“I don’t care.”

I try to pull away from him, but Daimon gets the other side of me, and together both men manage to drag me back. Frustration roars through me and I pull out of their grasps, shoving the guy who happens to be nearest—Daimon—as my breath saws out of me.

I glance at the lump of meat on the floor behind them, my lips curled into a snarl.

Sin lies still, staring up at the ceiling with glassy eyes, blood covering every inch of his face. His breath sounds wet when he inhales and I’m sure I’ve done internal damage somewhere. I don’t give a fuck about that.

“You touched something that belongs to me!” I roar in his direction.

Day and Nox stand between me and him, stopping me from inflicting any more damage.