As I come out of the memory, I realize someone has their arms around me. I scream and start fighting them off, before the voices register in my head. This isn't there, I am not there anymore. I got out.Breathe, Harley.
My eyes focus again to register everyone staring at me. All of them look angry and all four of them have tears in their eyes.Why?
“Because, honey, you said all that out loud. Everything about running away and trying to... Oh, honey,” Bri sobs and drops to her knees, letting out a broken sound as she cries.
I can't handle this…This isn't what I wanted. This just pisses me off even more.
“Are you happy?” I snap as I look around at everyone to see shocked and confused expressions. “Is this what you wanted?” I point to Bri. I'm being horrible, and I don't even care right now. “This is why I didn't want to talk about it. This is why I wanted to keep it from you guys.”
“But Harley, now we can help you better. We can help you heal. We can go to the police and figure this all out,” Linc says with what almost looks like hope in his eyes. I'm about to crush that.
“No. No, we will not go to the cops. I want revenge.” Bri gasps from her spot on the floor. I steel my spine, ready to face off with them. “I am going to look into everything. I am going to dig and dig. I won't stop until I find everything I need to know. Then I will destroy every person who hurt me and hurt my mom. So you can either back me up or I do it alone even if it means leaving the only family I've had since my mom was alive.”
I try to keep the worry from my voice that they may actually not want anything to do with me. But I have to take the risk. It's the only thing that's going to get me past everything, destroying every one of them.
Starting with the man who should have been my dad.
I can’t be weak anymore.
I can’t be pathetic.
I will prove my worth by getting revenge.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Two Weeks Later
Harley
It's been two weeks since I admitted I wanted revenge. Things have been tense. I still spar and workout with the guys twice every day. Ryan is teaching me how to shoot; he was in the military, so he has a lot of experience. Linc likes throwing knives, so he has been teaching me how to do that, as well. I pick up on things fast and don't stop practicing until I have it down.
Atlas trains me hard. I run at least two miles every day now. My body is building muscle, and I am getting stronger. I eat a lot more food now; I've come to love food again, so I eat all the time.
Bri has been distant. She hates all of this. She's still kind and is always telling me she wants me in her home and loves me. It helps reassure me because I'm still insecure. Very badly. It's stupid, but I don't know how to fix that. She told me that she wants me studying to get my GED while also looking into things and training. I gave in and have been studying. It's the only thing she's come down on, so I'll do it for her.
She's scared. She's worried someone is going to show up here, so she never lets me leave alone. She's also worried I'm going to get myself killed going down this path. I want to reassure her, but I can't when I don't know how this'll end.
I've been digging over the last two weeks but have hit a wall. My anger has gotten the best of me quite a few times. I use Bri’s home office when she's at work because she works twelve-hour shifts at the hospital. I'm trying to dig into Sons of Silence again, which is what Brielle mentioned when she told me about my mom. I have been searching for them online, and today I have finally found something.
They hosted a charity event last year.Charity event? What, to cover all the raping of women they do?And there are pictures from a news article of some of them, so I have been able to search through the pictures and get some names. They shouldn't be allowed around kids! It's insane.
I'm able to get what is called their road names and what their job is from what it says on the vests they wear. The vests look familiar, but I can't think of why, so I push that thought aside.
Right now, I am going through pictures of the SOS MC from the charity event they did trying to make out faces and match them to the names on their vest things. I zoom in on one guy who looks kind of familiar. I can't make out his face or his name, but his cut says Enforcer. I go to the next picture.
Holy fucking shit. Enforcer is Blade; this is the guy from the bus stop! That's why I recognize their vests! He was watching me.
Ugh, this cannot be good. If they know who I am then who knows what they want with me?Focus, Harley.My main goal is to find out who my dad is. I want to kill him.
I've never killed anyone, and Bri and the guys don't know that I want to. They think once I find out who he is I'm going to get information on everyone at the club to take to the cops. But no. I want revenge firsthand. I want him to see me. I want to face this man and shoot him and watch him die. I know the chances of me making it out alive from this are slim to none, so I won’t tell Bri. I'll leave her a letter when I'm ready to go find him and hope that she doesn't hate me.
I believe Bri when said she thinks my mom was misplacing love with Gabe when everything happened. She went through hell for most of her life, and it makes me question whether I might have done the same thing if I had stayed at Tammy’s and was going to school… I'll admit I thought those guys were attractive and I felt good when they gave me attention, so I am glad that I got away from them when I did.
What if the same thing had happened to me? That I took any attention I could get and thought it was love? I shudder at that thought.
Gabe, my dad, does not deserve to breathe anymore. My mom doesn't get to. Why should he? It angers me so much. My mom always told me growing up that my dad wasn't a bad man and one day I would understand my name. She said she named me after something meaningful and important to her. I know what Brielle means, but what about Harley?
I think she still loved him up until she died. I hate him for that. He stopped her from ever getting to fall in love again because she was so messed up from him.