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“As much as I goddamn need to, and you can accept my help without a word of complaint. Unlike that Shark earlier.”

“I'll let him know you said that,” I laughed and then clenched my jaw as the pain shot through my head and around my back.

I had been running off adrenaline. I had been so fucking pissed at Callum and his ridiculous henchmen; I hadn't stopped to think about the pain. My anger kept me going and kept the pain at bay. But now that the anger was ebbing away, and the adrenaline high was wearing off, I was man enough to admit that I hurt like a motherfucker.

My head felt like someone had jumped on it for an Olympic sporting event, and my back felt… it felt like exactly what had happened. As though someone had run me through with a crude, rusty blade.

“That girl doesn't have a lot going for her, but she certainly has all the audacity,” my mother said. I was about to snap back at her, but one look at her face stopped me.

Her eyes were puffy and red, with mascara still smudged underneath them. She looked as though she had aged five years in five hours.

“Leave her alone,” I said with a sigh. “We're all on edge tonight.”

“It’s no excuse, Dante. She speaks to us all as though we’re beneath her.”

“And how have you spoken to her? You haven’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat either.”

“Do any other members get the royal treatment when they join?”

“Yes, actually. You know we’ve thrown a party for every member here. Crash has always made a speech. You’ve always done the cooking. One of your first words to Rachel was to call her a whore.”

“Skank. And she was behaving like a skank.”

“We were kissing at the top of the stairs.”

“A bit more than kissing,” she scoffed back.

“And I suppose you and Crash have always had sex in a bed, have you? Give over, Mother.”

“Me and your father have always had the decency to keep our sex lives private. We’ve never entertained an audience.”

“You’re being ridiculous. Admit you don’t like Rachel because she’s not Laura. Newsflash – you might have liked her, but I didn’t. And she’s no longer here. You can’t blame Rachel because I’ve moved on.”

“That is the most—”

“Who's the guy?” My dad interrupted, getting straight to business and changing the topic before this could escalate into an argument.

“Remember the guy I told you about that groomed Rachel? Alex?” I replied, gritting my teeth as Doc set to work stitching up my stab wound. He tapped my side, silently telling me to roll over a little so he could inspect my back further.

“Yeah?”

“It's his brother.”

“Okay…” he frowned. “And what does that have to do with Macbeth?”

“Macbeth was working with them. And the Riders. They were all plotting together to bring about the downfall of the Devil's.”

“For fuck's sake,” my dad snapped, whilst my mother simply sat on the end of my bed and looked sad. “You heard this from Macbeth?”

“Callum did most of the talking, but Macbeth was there the entire time. He didn’t deny a thing; In fact, he found it funny. He was laughing at Callum when he said he liked younger girls. Callum said the plan was for Macbeth to kill me there and thenonce he was done with his introduction speech. Macbeth hasn’t been led astray, Dad. He’s the one who’s orchestrated the entire thing.”

“So, what do we do from here?”

“Church,” I said simply, nodding my head at my mother's back. Crash nodded in response, instantly knowing what I meant.

My mother was a strong woman, and come the morning, she would dust herself off, and Macbeth would be dead to her. But tonight, she was raw, and she was emotional. She needed to process what had happened.

“I've told Vienna to take Callum to the garage.”

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