Page 64 of Fractured Souls

Linc sighs and goes to the living room and dramatically falls back on the couch flinging his arms out. "I quit!" he says.

I start laughing again, but it's quickly cut off by the glare on Bri's face. I sober up quick. Uh oh.

She holds up the pan I made chili in. "Harls, how long did you leave the chili on the burner?"

I shrug. "Until the corn bread was done."

"Harley, you only have to heat it untill it's warm. You left it too long and didn't stir it enough. So what we ate on the top was fine, but the pan is trash now that you burnt the bottom of it up." She shows me the pan and the bottom is completely black.

I wince. Oops? "Am I banned from the kitchen too?"

She shakes her head. "No, I still have hope for you. But I need to be here with you."

"Well, dang, kinda hoped you'd just give up on trying to teach me." I sigh dramatically.

Bri rolls her eyes. "Children. All of you. Children. Lord, help me."

Linc and I snicker as she keeps going on mumbling to herself about stupid children.

The next morning, I get up and go to the gym with Atlas for training. By the time I get back, Bri is gone for work already. I lock up the house, shower, eat, and get back to work on researching.

I decide to take a break from looking at the MCs and look into Tammy and Richard. The first thing I do is look up Rob and Tabby on social media. Rob has nothing I can find. But Tabby has just about every social media platform there is. I don't even know what the point of some of these are… There is nothing I can use on here; it’s all just her being stupid. She posts the most stupid shit every day.

I spend the next three hours looking into Tammy and Richard but unfortunately, I can't find anything. It's really starting to piss me off. I'm not tech savvy, so that makes it even harder because where the hell am I supposed to look? I know they are into bad shit. I've heard small things said over the years, and Brielle said something about my mom saying Tammy and Richard were going to work with Killer, who has been dead for five years, so who knows what they are up to now? As I get more frustrated, I decide to stop for the day.

I go through Bri’s books; she is a huge bookworm and reads a lot, so she has quite the collection. I pick one out that I saw her reading not that long ago called Untamed Vixen by Luna Pierce.

A few hours later, I am a good chunk in and holy dirty, Bri has a naughty side. My face flames thinking of all things I just read. Reverse harem? This girl has more than one man. I mean, wow. The things I just read… I am fully innocent. I know nothing and have no experience, but shit my, well, I'm throbbing somewhere I've never throbbed before. I have this intense need to touch myself, and when I stick a hand in my pants and run a finger over my panties, I realize they are soaking wet…

Wow, that's kind of embarrassing. I lightly touch myself, and it feels like jolts of electricity go through me. I think about what I was just reading, and my mind automatically goes to the three hottest guys I've ever seen: Cayden, Ryker, and Grayson—

Oh shit! No, no, no. I rip my hand out of my pants and stand up and pace the room. What the fuck am I doing?

I sprint upstairs and take a cold shower and wash away all those thoughts. Holy shit, I can't believe that's where my mind went. Thank god I never have to see them again. That would be extremely embarrassing.

* * *

The next day, Atlas texts me to let me know we will train later in the day today because he has some other stuff to deal with this morning. So I get to work with my research. My biggest goal right now is to take down my dad, so I put Tammy and Richard aside and focus on him. I need to make 100% sure that he is involved in the club.

I go back to news articles and researching the name of the club and looking at every picture I can find. I search his name and try to find anything that way too. It takes a few hours, but I finally get it. Fuck. I finally know who he is. Fuck this, I need to just get it over with. I’m not that stupid; I know the chances of me living are slim, but it's not like I have much to live for anyways. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to run away. All I know is I need to take him out, and it needs to happen soon. Now comes the part where things get tricky.

I have the $200 that was left from pickpocketing when I came here that I never had to use. Bri didn't let me use it; she wanted me to save it. She also gives me cash all the time that I don't need, so I have an extra $200 from her. So I have $400 total. I don't know if I can come back here after I do it,if I survive.So I pack a bag. Bri has bought me a lot of clothes since I've been here, so I pack enough for a few days.

I don't want to carry too much on me. It feels like I get punched in the gut thinking about Bri and what this is going to do to her. I love her. She is like the aunt I never got to have, but I have to do this. I'll leave her a letter and hope she doesn't hate me.

After I am done packing my backpack, I stash it under my bed and get ready for the gym with Atlas. Here is the next part: Guess it's time to put my pickpocketing skills to the real test on a much bigger scale now.

Ryan has a small collection of guns at the gym where he helps people learn and get their carry permit. He was going to help me get mine when I turn eighteen, and this is probably ruining that now. Anyways, I know the code into the room because he had me go in there once to grab something. So I just have to get away from Atlas long enough to get in there and grab one and hope no one notices it's gone until it's too late.

A while later, Atlas shows up. He can tell something is off. I am doing a terrible job at hiding how nervous I am right now. Shit. I need to come up with something to tell him. So what do I do? I blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind.

“I read one of Bri’s books today. It's one I saw her reading a while ago, and uh, it was uh… I don't even know, in a way like reading porn? But also with a good story that was interesting and, um, it had three dudes who all loved the same girl and they all ended up together. Anyways, I'm nervous for Bri to get home. I feel like I accidentally found a side to her I didn't want to… Oh my god, I can't believe I just blurted all of that out.” I put my hands over my face as my cheeks turn bright red.Well, at least that worked as a distraction.

Atlas doesn't say anything, but I feel him put the truck in park. I look up and see we are at the gym. When I glance over at him, he raises his eyebrows and smirks.

“Well, Harls, thanks for that interesting tidbit of information on Bri. But also, reading is something we do to escape our lives. It's a place to go when things suck or just when you want to pretend to be someone else. Don’t worry about it. If you enjoyed the book, that's all that matters. So Bri likes a little erotica and multiple men? Who cares? I know I don't…” He chortles. “I doubt Bri will care. She'll probably be as embarrassed as you are, but it's really not a big deal. I'm glad you read today. Reading is good for the soul.”

He gets a faraway look on his face that I can't quite understand.

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