Page 2 of Healing Souls

Harley Brielle St. James.

Your mother screamed so beautifully for me. Will you do the same?

Will you bleed like she did? Will you flinch at the feel of the cool knife when I run it along your cunt before I shove it deep inside you?

Will you beg me for mercy just like she did?

I groan and adjust my cock in my jeans, thinking about all the things I will do to Harley when she’s in my hands. She will be perfect, just like her mother.

Chapter One

Rage (Gabriel)

Present Day

It’snotpossible.Itjust can’t be. There’s a reason I’ve kept myself isolated all these years. The fear of losing someone again is too strong. To have something ripped away in front of my eyes, the guilt sits heavy on my chest. It’s never gone away. I should’ve done more. Icould’vedone more.

Why the fuck didn’t I do more?How is it possible to find out my daughter is alive within the same hour she shows up here, gun in hand, and murder in her eyes?

There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by where I haven’t thought aboutthem.Lilian Thomas. The only person besides my brothers that I ever felt a connection to. She understood me on a different level. Just from one weekend I knew without a doubt that Lilian was the one for me. And then she was ruthlessly ripped away by my father.

Except she wasn’t. She outsmarted him. She got away and ran. She had our baby and raised her. She died three years ago, leaving our little one with no parents. How is any of this real? It can’t be.

“Rage! Come on, brother. I really need ya to pull it together right now. You can process this all later!” The slap to my cheek is enough to draw me back into the now and the chaos ensuing around me. “I know this is a lot to process, but you’ve gotta pull it together, brother.” My eyes blink as I focus on Sugar, who stands in front of me gripping my shoulders. “Good. Get it together.”

I nod slowly and take in everything happening. The second the gun went off, my ears began ringing, and I was frozen to the spot as I watched Grayson run forward and help lower Harley to the ground.

But now, everyone is frantic around me even as I stand frozen in the center of the room. Ryker ripped Daniel out of the chair he was set up in while healing from his own wound—inflicted by Nerds—and is beating him to a bloody pulp, but I can’t make myself move my feet to stop it. The same fury courses through me as I watch everything play out. Enjoying each grunt of pain from Daniel.

My eyes find Grayson again, and when I see the mounds of red hair next to him, I finally get my legs moving and rush over to them, dropping to the other side of Harley across from Grayson.

He looks up at me, unshed tears turning his eyes glossy. His face is set in a deep frown as he looks back down at Harley. “She passed out. Sugar told me to put pressure on this and that Doc was on his way,” he says quietly, sullen.

Doc, our resident doctor who really is a doctor has been around for many, many years. He doesn’t technically work for the club anymore but is still always around to help us if we need it. Like now. And hell if we can’t be thankful for that.

My chest feels like a ton of bricks weighs down on it, making it hard to breathe, making it hard to feel anything other than anger, and even as I glance down at Harl—my daughter—the feeling doesn’t subside. My hand shakily moves up to her neck and presses in right at her pulse point, feeling the strong, steady beat of her heart. I exhale and let my eyes fall shut, processing that she’s alive, and she really is here.

“Rage?” a soft voice questions. Cracking open my eyes, I meet Grayson’s questioning gaze. He scans my face and opens his mouth a few times as if figuring out what to ask, so I speak first.

“She’s… she’s my daughter.” The words seem foreign to me as I speak them aloud.

I glance back down at the redheaded little spitball who came in here with a gun raised, ready to kill me. I shake my head, not prepared to figure that out yet, and instead really examine her for the first time.

She is tiny, five foot something, just like her mother was. She has her mom’s beautiful red wavy locks, but her face looks like mine. The same cheeks, nose, lips, the way her face contorted with fury when she saw me. It was almost like looking into a mirror but with Lilian’s eyes and hair instead of my own.

His brows dip in confusion. “What do you mean, she’s your daughter?” Grayson's hands falter for a split second before he applies pressure again.

I shake my head and sigh, a million different things running through my mind, but I can’t process it all right now. Not when all I really want is to fucking destroy the person who dared pull a trigger on my daughter.

“We will discuss it later. After Doc gets her stable, I want to take her to my home, and then I have a prospect to deal with.” Venom drips from my voice as I glance behind Grayson’s shoulder to see Stone holding Ryker back. He’s covered in blood, and the prospect is on the ground with Axe helping him clean his face. At that, my rage truly shows as I stand quickly to storm over to them. Shoving Axe away from Daniel, I glare at him. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Axe’s eyes narrow on me. “What do you mean, what the fuck am I doing? Ryker just beat the shit out of the poor kid, so I’m helping him.” He speaks slowly, like he is trying to calm a rabid animal.

“No,” I spit.

“No?” Axe tilts his head at me.

“He shot my fucking daughter. He deserves worse than a few punches from Ryker.”