Page 316
“Hey, man. Where’s Silas?”
Brody came sauntering out of the office with a mug of coffee in hand. Catching my question, he cocked a frivolous grin.
“Nowhere to be found. Considering Brinley is also MIA, think we can rest assured that the two of them are naked and breaking another poor bed somewhere. Assholes going at it twenty-four seven. Gonna have to move out to give those two fiends a little loving up space.”
Pyke laughed as he worked a wrench where he stood under a small SUV that sat on a lift. “Coming from you?” he drew out. “That’s rich, man.”
“I’ll have you know I do no fucking in my own home. That’s reserved for the clubhouse and any other unassuming surface I can find. And I sure as hell don’t subject my poor meems to it.”
Brody played up a repulsed shudder.
Pyke grinned. “That man is down bad, that’s for sure.”
“Need to talk to him,” I said, voice void of any humor. “Told him I was going to be stopping by.”
My tone piqued Phoenix’s attention, and his sharp gaze dimmed into daggers.
Brody waltzed over to an old Harley he was working on. “Would check the house. Guessing he’s still there.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I started to dip back out, figuring I’d take the short hike to the house.
Buying time, no doubt. Trying to play out what the fuck I was going to say. How to explain and how to get him to see.
Only when I turned around, Silas was standing ten feet away.
The fury in his hazel eyes burned a hole right through the middle of me.
Sinewy body rippling with tapped rage.
A violent gathering of hurt and hate.
Every speck of it was directed at me.
Fuck.
He knew.
He fucking knew, and I fucking swore that I could see all of our history spread out between us in the flash of a second.
The past. The present. The chronicles of who we’d been and who we’d become.
Our friendship. Our loyalty. My betrayal with his mother and the trust that I’d earned.
Trust that had been demolished.
Then he charged, and his right fist connected with my jaw.
Pain exploded at the collision site.
“You piece of shit.” It was a snarl of affliction.
Guilt and determination lined my insides. Accepting his rage and his anger and knowing I wouldn’t change it.
He threw the opposite fist, this blow delivered to my cheek.
As fast and deadly as a strike of lightning.
I felt my skin split open, and my head snapped to the side. Blood pouring hot. Gasoline dumped on Silas’s flame.
