I think I roared like a wild fucking animal and shoved through bodies, using every ounce of strength I possessed to reach her, charging like a goddamn bull. Her frightened whimper increased my rage, and I felt the wild beast inside me thirst for fucking blood.
I saw red.
Nobody was going to hurt my old lady.
The next thing I knew I was on the ground, the stupid fucker beneath me as I let loose. Rae was huddled with her friends, crying, and calling my name but I couldn’t stop.
“Pete!” Fuck, she was the only one that called me by my real name anymore. It nearly brought me back from the . . . edge, but screw this shit. She was the most important person in my life.
I had to save her. I had to make sure this fucker didn’t go after her again. I had to –
“Edge!”
Jake and R.J. yanked me off the guy as I dripped his blood from my knuckles and heaved, my chest tight with the lack of oxygen. It’s a wonder I didn’t have a fucking heart attack. Pumped full of adrenaline and seething anger, I was a ticking time bomb. I fought them off, cursing and shouting, trying to run for Rae. Her doe-like brown eyes were like smooth melted chocolate and seriously frightened . . .
Of me.
Fuck!
The front doors burst open and cops filed into the bar, guns drawn. Someone must have called. No doubt the presence of two rival MC’s amped shit up a bit. I was shoved to the ground with the rest of my brothers and the Outlaw MC members, as well as several rowdy citizens. Cuffed and trying to crane my head around to find my girl, I nearly panicked.
I couldn’t find her.
Where the fuck was Rae?
It wasn’t until I was shoved roughly into the back of a squad car that I caught a glimpse of her, her slim frame illuminated in the dark misty night by blue and red flashing lights. The rain had soaked her to the bone and she was wrapped in a blanket, near a few of her friends, crying and trembling, shaking her head at an officer as he indicated she should get in the waiting ambulance.
For a few brief seconds our eyes met . . .
And all I saw was her f
ace pinched in pain.
My heart nearly stopped.
The words ‘I love you’ died on my tongue as I whispered her name and she turned away, the tears glistening on her pale cheeks. I knew at that moment that nothing I could say or do would change the way she thought of me. Her gaze spoke the words even if she never voiced them aloud.
Monster.
She was right.
I was a fucking monster, a demon, a broken man with nothing left to lose.
And now I knew I was every bit the haunted and dangerous criminal I had become.
Edge.
My name and my fate.
That’s where I lived and played, where I was dumped and broken, where I’d continue to stay until this life finally claimed me . . . and only then would I be free.
Five years earlier . . .
Chapter 3
I highly dislike high school boys. They are utterly awful, completely disgusting, and totally ridiculous. In that order. Their immaturity and tendency to flaunt their bodily functions sickened me. If I had a choice, I would go to an all-girls school. Of course, I don’t. My dear mother would never stoop to actually paying for my education. That might deter her funds from worthy expenditures; my scholarly needs held lower rank than her luxury lifestyle. And so I reside in the public school education system, doomed to spend the rest of my high school days watching Peter Harding and his friends belch the pledge of allegiance.
I sighed inwardly, trying not to watch, and yet boredom couldn’t tear my eyes away. It was truly a shame. Peter had such potential. He was cute, in that boy next door kind of way. Soft dark curls that hung over his forehead and warm hazel eyes with flecks of amber and green. I actually had a crush on him in junior high. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. Especially him. His mouth was as big as his propensity to embarrass the fairer sex.