I needed to know what the fuck made her blow up at Sabbath in his office, and something in the back of my mind was telling me that whatever she was hiding was going to change everything.
There was a revolution waiting on the horizon, and Shasta Hall was the key to it all; I just needed her to unlock the door and let me in.
Her eyes dripped with emotion as she blinked away those pesky tears and tried to meet the concern swirling in my eyes. She was so hesitant to tell me anything, but also dying to let it all out.
What the fuck did Sabbath do to her?
“Sabbath’s lies have gone back further than you probably realize. None of you know what he’s capable of, and nobody knows what the fuck he has done. He’s betrayed all of you so many times, but has always managed to cover his tracks so you didn’t see it. But some things…” She paused, sucking in a shuddering breath. “Some things just can’t stay hidden anymore.”
My lips dragged across her cheek, warming my pout on the softness of her delicate skin. She smelled so fucking good, and her vulnerability had my dick hardening again, despite the seriousness of the conversation. But I had to suppress my urge for more. I had to let her get everything out. She needed this—that was something I could feel in my bones.
“It all started with Leppard,” she claimed, meeting my eyes for approval. “He lied about why he killed him. He lied to protect me.”
Hearing my former Prez’s name had my back straightening and all of my attention. Nothing ever seemed to line up about Leppard’s death, and it seemed she had the missing pieces to put it all together.
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “When I first was brought to the club and claimed as Sabbath’s girl, it seemed like everyone respected it. But then, Leppard got jealous. He always had a thing for me, and he didn’t like the fact that his brother had me and I turned him down. Two months after I got here, he sent Sabbath and the rest of the club on a run, leaving me and the sweet butts alone with him. I found it kind of odd that he did that, but then I figured out why.”
More tears pooled in her eyes, and my thumb couldn’t keep up with the constant leak. They just kept building and falling like a wet game ofJenga.
“The sweet butts were on the other side of the house, and I was doing laundry. I was singing a song while dancing around the room like a crazy person, distracted by my own personal happiness that Adam and I were together and thriving. I never saw Leppard come in. The door locking was lost on me. Hell, I didn’t even know he was there until his hand covered my mouth and my pants were ripped down my body.”
There was no containing the amount of fury her words built in my bones. I was a mountain of hostile rage, and I was ready to go cataclysmic on Leppard’s fucking ghost for doing what I think she was about to say.
“It caught me so off guard. When he pressed the gun to my head and told me to be a good fucking bitch and take his cock without making a sound, I eternalized all the fear and repulsion his intrusion evoked in me. Everything changed in that moment. Everything. My happiness died the second his cock entered me, and I knew that I had to stay quiet, or he’d kill me. For thirty minutes, he raped me on that washing machine, manhandling me in ways no man ever had. Dry tears clogged my throat with emotion, but I didn’t make a sound. I just took it because he threatened my life as well as his own brother’s. In that moment, my own life meant nothing to me. All I wanted was to protect the man I loved from the monster who was there to rape and pillage the happiness we both shared and burn it to the ground.”
Haunted, that’s the only thing I could say to describe her. She looked utterly devastated and haunted by her own fucking words. Damn Leppard for fucking stealing her soul the way he did. That bastard will rot in hell for the rest of eternity for what he did to Shasta.
“Darlin’, I—I don’t know what to say.”
She clutched and held my arm and brought me in closer, resting her head against my chest, directly over my thundering heart that was creating its own war song inside my body. If that man was still alive, I would be killing him myself.
“For three months, Leppard took me whenever he wanted, sometimes with Sabbath still in the clubhouse. One day, he made the mistake of getting too cocky, and he fucked me right in that tiny little apartment I shared with his brother. I was screaming at him to stop, telling him to get off me, but Leppard never stopped. He just kept going, beating and fucking me until I was nothing but screams and a vacant shell of the human I once was. But my screams weren’t quiet enough because Sabbath came rushing in. He tried to pull him off me, but Leppard was much bigger than him, and told him to fuck off. He said he’d take me whenever he damn well pleased because he was the Prez of the club. He told Adam that he needed to learn his place, and that claiming me only made me club property and he was taking his share.”
My eyes pinched shut as I fought the urge to roar out my frustration. Fuck Leppard for doing this to Shasta, and fuck Sabbath for not catching it sooner. “That’s not how the club works, Darlin’. Being claimed doesn’t make you club property,” I tried to assure her. But we both knew the rules had changed, especially since both Clash and Snyder already had their taste of her. She may have been Sabbath’s property back then, but with all the bullshit going on, claiming her on behalf of the club was a badge of honor I would wear proudly if she let me.
“I know, but Leppard didn’t give a shit.” She sniffed, rubbing at her nose as she tried to look me in the eye. But the difficulty she had even speaking, spoke volumes about the emotional baggage she’d been carting around all these years. This woman had been dragged through hell, and it amazed me that she was still hanging on, despite how broken she truly was.
“They fought. Blood was everywhere. Sabbath had a tooth knocked out, Leppard had a bloodied lip and black eye. It wasn’t until Leppard said that he was going to rape me until he killed me and there was nothing that Sabbath could do about it that Sabbath pulled out his gun and squeezed the trigger.” She went dead quiet, letting the words sink between us.
Two years of silence. Two years this woman held onto this fucking monumental secret that changed the fate of our club.
“A month later, I found out I was pregnant,” she whispered, looking toward the ground. “And the conception date wasn’t during a time I was with Adam. Not even close. It was the week you guys went to Atlanta and took care of business with another club.”
I remembered the date well. That whole run turned into a shitshow, and when we returned, I barely saw Shasta around the club.Was that why she was hiding out?The shame she must’ve felt in that moment… fuck, I can’t even imagine all she’s been through. My heart breaks for this beautifully fractured woman.
She fell apart in my arms, clinging to me as her tears splashed against our bare skin. I wanted to make her feel better, but I could tell she wanted to get it all out, and when she was done, I would give her whatever she wanted… love… sex… hell, I’d give her the world if she let me.
“Sabbath demanded I go with him to Mexico. He said he knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a doctor that performed abortions. I wasn’t given a choice. He said after what I did to him and what he did for me by killing his own flesh and blood to protect me, that I owed him this. Then he left me on the doorstep of the clinic, and didn’t return until almost four hours later, reeking of alcohol, pussy, and glitter. The bastard went to a strip club and got a lap dance and God knows what else while I suffered the worst surgery ever performed and almost died on the table. I’ve never forgiven him for that. I don’t think I ever will.” She shuddered, obviously wrapped up in the horrors she went through that day.
“When Nina revealed her little secret and the bastard flat out told me that he was planning on keeping the baby, I lost it. That’s the fight you walked into in his office—Sabbath telling me that Nina was keeping the baby. Hearing that was like a slap to the face, and my cheek is still throbbing from the sting.”
My heart bled for her, and in that moment, I knew I’d protect this woman from anymore harm. I’d do anything to stop her tears. Anything to keep her from hurting like she did that day.
Fuck Sabbath for what he did to her.
Fuck him for lying to the club. He started a war with the Crows for no fucking reason, and this whole time we believed that Leppard had betrayed us, when in reality, he never betrayed the club just his brother and most of all Shasta.