Page 5 of Creed's Vengeance

Her eyes narrowed on me immediately.

“Do you think I’m that girl?” Her words came out like a deadly snarl, and she shoved me hard in the chest, trying to push me away—but failed. “That I would be dating Trey and fucking you behind his back? Is that what you think of me?” she scoffed sharply. “Wait, is that what you wanted?”

I blinked. Okay. This was taking a direction I hadn’t been expecting.

“Is that what you want, Creed? No commitment? Are you only fucking me because you thought I was with another man?” She then shook her head, but I saw the angry tears forming. “Of course it is! God, what was I thinking!”

“Holly…”

“No, don’t Holly me! You and I both know you wanted me to still be with him because you, Creed Winston, are scared shitless of possible commitments.” She pointed a finger into my chest. “I was stupid to think that this wasn’t like last time.”

“Holly, stop.” I gripped her shoulders, forcing her to calm down. But then I wasn’t sure what to say. I loved her. There was no doubt in my mind about that. But last time I admitted to loving her, I lost her.

“Tell me what happened with Trey,” I said, redirecting the conversation to why it started. “I’ve seen ya keep rejecting his calls. Is it about work? Can you not go in because of ya old man and brother? Because you know what they would say—”

“Don’t tell me what they would say. If Kobra knew Trey was calling me, he’d go kill him. My brother never had control over his temper.”

I frowned immediately. I was missing something.

“Kobra said he handled it, and I still don’t know what that means. All I know is Trey took me off the roster and then, suddenly, was lying to the board about misconduct.”

My frown deepened as I watched her melting down.

“I worked so fucking hard for this career, and now I’m losing it all because a bastard thought…” he trailed off, which caused my eyes to narrow on her.

“Because a bastard thought what, Holly?”

Her expression went blank.

A sickening feeling crept through me, slowly suffocating my blood cells from oxygen. My hand went off her shoulder, and I pushed her loose T-shirt up. My eyes looked at the faded bruise closer. I would be stupid to think it hadn’t been caused by a man’s hand.

“He touched you, didn’t he?” I asked the question, but I wasn’t prepared for my assumption to be correct. But I knew that I was right when I saw all the color drain from her face.

“Creed, Kobra handled it.” If she thought that was going to calm me down, she was wrong. “Just don’t, okay,” she added, her gaze locked with mine. “Don’t take on more when you are already handling enough with the club.”

Simmering rage flooded my system.

“Hols?” Ollie called out for her sister.

Holly’s hand went to my arm. “Just please leave it, Creed,” she basically begged me.

I could promise her I would, but she knew me better than that. So instead, I looked her in the eyes. “Darlin’, this ain’t like last time,” I said, and she frowned. “You said I was scared of possible commitments. I want it clear that this time, you and I…” Was this how I was going to ask her?

“Hols, Creed?” There was a small knock on the door.

Holly’s gaze remained locked on mine for a moment. She had to know what I was trying to say.

“Coming, Ollie,” Holly said, and I dropped my hand from her as she walked around me, opening the door and talking to her sister.

I wanted Holly as mine, but getting the courage to ask her was another thing. Asking her to be my girlfriend didn’t feel enough based on what I felt for her. But it would be an improvement on her just thinking she was my fuck buddy.

I ran my hand through my hair. I loved Holly, so why the fuck couldn’t I tell her that?

* * *

When an outlaw met his fate,they always turned to God. It didn’t matter that they’d never prayed days before my cold steel gun met their forehead. They always prayed. Alec was not a man of God, and I was sure he was with the devil now, no matter how much he prayed before I executed him.

My father trusted two men with his operations—Slater, my brother, and Alec, his right-hand man.

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