Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 121153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Just . . . return to me,” I begged again. “I . . . I need you to survive. I need you to return home.”
“I . . . ” Rider went to speak, but his raw voice cut out. “I . . . I have no home,” he said sadly.
Taking his hand from my face, I placed it over my racing heart. “Yes you do. Your home is right here.”
Lost for words, Rider leaned forward and took my mouth with his lips. He kissed me hard and long and deep. “You should go before you are caught. I could not bear for you to be hurt over this,” he said.
I did not move for a few moments, then I forced myself to lift from his lap. Rider’s hand immediately reached for my own. I smiled. His body begged me to stay even though his head told me to go.
But what Rider had not yet realized about me was that I rarely did as I was told. It was how all my personal strife had been caused. I had never been able to toe the line.
With my free hand, I pushed on Rider’s chest and lowered him to the ground. He tried to resist, but one look at my face made him obey. I settled down over his body and wrapped my arms around his waist. My head lay over his heart; it instantly called to my own.
The chains rattled as Rider’s hands threaded through my hair. Then nothing was said, and the sound of the chains was quieted by stillness. I knew what I felt for him. And by the way that Rider’s hands held me close and cherished me with their touch, I knew he felt the same way too.
But I refused to confess my love yet. That would only come when he was freed from the heavy guilt that held him in its grip. It would come when he returned to my arms.
Because tomorrow, if he managed to save our innocent people and rid the world of Judah’s cruelty, then that would make Rider a savior . . .
. . . no longer a destined false prophet, but a redeemed, liberated soul instead.
Chapter Fifteen
Rider
I watched the sun rise through the slits in the barn’s wooden walls . . . alone. Bella had left just before sunrise. She’d had to. It wasn’t safe for her to be here with me.
Though she seemed to not care. I felt a smile pull on my mouth at how defiant I had discovered she was. When I had awoken this morning, it was to Bella peppering kisses on my face.
I loved her. If I had not realized it before, I would have in that moment. But I’d already known. I had known it from the moment she discovered who I was and didn’t run. She wanted me, despite my transgressions.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Return to me,” she had said as her goodbye. I had wanted to promise her I would, but deep down, I knew I couldn’t give her that vow.
I didn’t know how long I sat watching the sun rise slowly into the sky. I heard the sound of voices outside. The lock was turned, and the door opened. I braced, ready to see the prez or VP . . . but it was neither.
It was the brother I dreaded seeing most. It was the guy I had lied to worst . . . the one I couldn’t ever forgive myself for deceiving.
Smiler.
My former road brother shut the door of the barn, a bundle of black leather in his hands. I watched him walk toward me with a blank expression on his face. His hair was tied back, and he was dressed as he always was—white shirt, leathers and his Hangmen cut.
He stopped before me and dropped the leathers to the ground. There was no cut in the jumbled mess, just a jacket, pants, boots and a black shirt.
“Get dressed. Prez will be here in a few. You’re goin’ in first like you wanted.”
“I know,” I replied. “AK came and told me the plan last night.”
Smiler glared at me, then bent down and freed me from the shackles. He turned on his heel. Guilt and shame cut me down as he walked away, a stranger to me now. As he was about to reach the door, I said, “I’m sorry.”
Smiler stopped dead in his tracks. He didn’t turn around, but he was listening.
It was something.
I stood, kicking the heavy shackles to the floor. “I’m so fucking sorry . . . brother.”
Smiler’s shoulders rose and fell and, shocking me all to hell, he turned and walked back toward me. His expression was stone cold, but when he stopped in front of me, he asked, “Why the fuck did you do it? Why the fuck did you give all this up, give us up? I vouched for you, man. I brought you into this club. You have any idea how fuckin’ stupid I looked when you turned out to be a rat? So why?”