Page 87 of I Was Born Ruined (Death by Daybreak MC 1)
“Beast!” I scream, as the bigger man knocks my brother to the ground and systematically keeps him there. It isn't hard, not for someone who used to make a living beating other people up. He puts his boot on Gaz's neck and holds him there. Wouldn't take much for Beast to shift his weight forward and kill my brother.
I grab his arm and wrap my fingers around his bicep. He's fucking bristling with rage, quivering with it, but his face is still stoic, and there's no sign of that anger in his expression. No, he looks calm, cold, like a wolf in the snow, going in for the kill.
He's not pissed off; he's calculating.
“Beast, listen to me,” I whisper, and then I hear the heavy sound of Cat's footsteps.
“What the fuck is going on out here?” His voice booms across the backyard as he pauses in the doorway and looks between his two men and me. Somehow, someway, I know I'm going to catch shit for this. Beast is going to catch shit. Gaz is going to walk away unscathed, as usual. Cat looks right into Beast's eyes and barks an order. “Get your foot off his fuckin' neck.”
Beast doesn't move.
He's not going to.
He's going to ignore his president and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Maybe all of that anger he keeps locked up so tight has escaped, and it's poisoning him? Turning his blood to fire? Or maybe he just doesn't like Gaz? I wouldn't blame him; I don't like the bastard either.
“Don't do this,” I whisper, the wind grabbing wet strands of my hair. I'm freezing cold, and I have cum soaking into my underwear. There's blood on Beast's arm, and it's smearing beneath my fingers. The sight of it makes me feel sick to my stomach. “Please, let go of him.”
Beast stares down at Gaz, and then after what feels like an eternity, he steps back.
I'm not sure Cat heard what I said, so he grunts in satisfaction, like Beast followed his order.
He didn't.
But only Beast and I know that.
“You get your ass upstairs,” Cat tells me, nostrils flaring. The way he looks at Beast bothers me, but what can I do? I can't protect myself from Cat or Gaz. I couldn't protect Fem. I couldn't protect my sisters.
Scowling, I turn away and march inside and up the stairs.
I don't see Beast again after that.I had no idea my loneliness could get worse, yawning open like a void beneath me. I feel like I might fall down that hole and tumble forever. Reba isn't bothering me anymore, just like I wanted. But now Dena, Chardou, and Amiya are ignoring me, too.
Beast's guard rotations have been taken over by Crown, and I know I'm running out of options here.
Next time Cat calls me to club property, that'll be it.
Blood in, blood out, right?
I'm leaning over the railing on the top floor of the high school, watching the sky bleed tears that I won't shed. My eye hurts, and my ass is bruised as hell. No matter where I go or what I do, I can't stop thinking about Beast and what he did for me.
Because that's what it was, huh? I might embrace denial like a long-lost relative, but I'm not stupid. Gaz beat me up, so Beast beat him up. But why? Does he have a crush on me?
I snort.
A crush.
Beast is a thirty-three year old ex-MMA fighter who kills people for a dangerous motorcycle club. A man like that doesn't have crushes. That's the seventeen year old girl hiding inside of me.
I get out a cigarette and light it, enjoying the dancing smoke.
“Those things will kill you,” Crown says from below me, leaning against one of the porch's decorative columns. I wonder what he paid the campus cop to keep him off his ass? Must've been something good because nobody in their right mind would let an asshole in a Death by Daybreak cut waltz around the halls like Crown does.
“That's the hope,” I say, exhaling slowly, glad I can't see his face. “Besides, do you really have the moral high ground to be giving me sage advice? You get drunk every weekend, smoke mountains of weed, and fuck anything you can get your hands on.” And you kill people, I think, but I guess I don’t know that for sure, so I don’t say it aloud.
Crown doesn’t answer me at first, but I know it’s all true.
Remember how he got his nickname?
“Do as I say, not as I do?” he offers, and I snort, smoking my cigarette and enjoying every puff. When I’m done, I flick the butt over the railing and watch as it tumbles through the air and sizzles out next to Crown’s boot. He glances up at me, and I smile tightly. “Come down here and talk to me for a minute?”
