Page 63 of Petty's Crime

“She didn’t have to say anything,” Red sneers. “Though she confirmed it was you when we asked her. And if you want to know where she is, Rosa and Cher have taken her to the emergency room.” He stops talking to me and addresses Hammer instead. “I thought I told you to get him out of here?”

Hammer and fucking Cobra take each of my arms and roughly pull me forward. It takes everything in me to stop crying out at the pain that they cause.

I can’t compute what’s happening to me, how Britney got here, or how she told her fabricated story. Or, what it’s going to mean to me.

Suddenly Red’s voice bellows out, stopping our progress. “Nearly took your patch once, Petty. Kind of regretting I didn’t now.”

He’s going to take my patch?

Bemused, befuddled, pain throbbing through me, I don’t resist as Hammer and Cobra drag me to the basement. Without speaking, they zip tie my hands and my feet to the chair, and then, with dual looks of disgust, they leave me.

It’s not the first time in my life I’ve been in this exact position, but this time I’ve got the feeling that Zeke won’t be freeing me.

Only the truth is going to save me. That’s if they believe anything that I say. And is it worse if they do? Real men don’t let their wives beat on them.

Maybe I’ll just let them do their worst without ever knowing the truth.

That disappointment in Red’s eyes, in Roller’s eyes, fuck, in everyone’s, was so hard to see.

I can’t even imagine how they’d react if they knew the truth.

That I’m a pussy.

I’m weak.

I should never have been patched in to ride by their side.

A groan reaches my ears.What the fuck?

I look up and see a man who’s in even a worse state than me. He’s strung up by his arms, blood pooling on the floor beneath him.

He looks more dead than alive, and I realise who he must be.

It’s Saul.RoseLyn’s ex who abused her, tortured her and stalked her.

If I wasn’t in so much pain, I’d laugh at the situation. The club must think they’ve put two abusers together.

Fact is though, only one of us is guilty, and it sure isn’t me.

CHAPTERTWENTY

RoseLyn

Itry to tell myself I’m glad to be back in my own home, but I fail. The factors against me feeling comfortable add up. Foremost is my fear that there’s still a snake lying waiting for me, and my ears are attuned for the slightest rattle. I’m tiptoeing around the house, watching where I put my feet, gently removing the couch cushions before replacing them and sitting. I can’t get rid of that pricking feeling that somewhere, unfound and unseen, one of the slithery monsters is lurking.

I’ve returned to an utter mess.

In their efforts to locate and remove any and hopefully all of the snakes, every drawer has been opened and its contents upended. All my kitchen cupboards have had their contents emptied out, the beds have been stripped, and my wardrobes have been cleared.

It's no wonder I can’t settle surrounded by everything not in its place.

The task is so big it’s overwhelming. But I’ve got to start somewhere. First, I unpack the few things I’d taken to Texas, putting my toiletries back in the bathroom and straightening everything in there, and then starting a load of laundry. I’ve only begun to make a slight dent in tidying up when I can’t stop yawning.

I’m feeling sorry for myself. I’ve just returned from my parents, and am missing their company. It’s normal for me to feel discombobulated once I’m home after a visit.

Then there’s the fact that for the last few weeks I’ve never been alone, and the silence feels oppressive and heavy. Even though I know Saul’s no longer a threat, it’s not easy to shake the feeling of having to always look behind me.

I’m also trying to deal with my mixed-up feelings about Petty. I’ve gone from hating the man, to tentatively liking the side of him he showed in Texas, to developing a fondness for him when he exposed his flaws in our middle-of-the-night conversation. That fondness started to turn into something more. Then, like a switch being thrown, I’d lost the man I was becoming to know, and he turned into a complete asshole again.

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