“Those two didn’t have to go far to find me,” he stated. “I was already outside when they started to head back to the clubhouse. Good work out there, by the way. The bitch will never talk ever again.”
They kept saying that, but what exactly did that mean?
“Damn, Priest, you looked wrecked. Why don’t you head on out and take a breather? If I need you again, I’ll call.”
Priest stood up silently, staring down at the blood on his hands.
“I need some time to repent,” he told Sabbath. “Please honor my request for pardon.”
Sabbath waved a dismissive hand. “Sure. Sure. Whatever you want. You did good in there, Priest. You deserve some fucking time off.”
Priest, with his deep brown locks hanging heavy over his eyes, and his shuffling footsteps that sounded sullen and weak, silently left the room, leaving me alone with the man I’d grown to hate.
“Everything is going to end tonight, Shasta.”
“What do you mean?”
He moved forward, stopping inches away from me as he cupped my cheek. “You’re so fucking beautiful, baby.”
“Please don’t touch me,” I begged, stepping away from him.
His eyes darkened. “Shasta, when are you going to stop playing these stupid games with me? When will you realize that you’re mine, and I can do whatever I want to you whenever I please?”
He moved forward like he was going to take me without my permission, so I took a step back.
“Then you’re just as bad as Leppard.”
That stopped him in his tracks.
“Don’t fucking say that!”
“Why? Because you can’t handle the truth? You can’t make me love you anymore, Sabbath. Everything that’s happened lately has made it impossible for me to feel anything for you besides disdain. Face it, Sabbath. You’ve turned into a fucking monster. One that you don’t even recognize in the mirror anymore. How am I supposed to love a man who takes pleasure in torturing women? If what happened to Keelie is any indication of what happened to Nina, then I don’t even know who the fuck you are anymore.”
Pain filled his eyes, but he stayed quiet, which was unlike him.
“I’m doing this all for you,” he said quietly. “All of this... the war with the Crows, flushing out the rats, it’s to keep you safe. After what Hoax and his cronies did to you, I just can’t let them go on breathing anymore.”
“And Keelie? Is she not going to breathe anymore either?”
“It depends on if she survives her wounds. But why does it matter? She was working for the Crows. She was their informant. She’s the reason Hoax knows so much.”
My thoughts filtered back to when Hoax was admitting all the things he knew about me and the club. Was it Keelie feeding him the information? No. There was no way. How could she know those things?
“Keelie deserved everything that came to her.”
“And Nina? The baby?”
“She wasn’t pregnant,” Sabbath said quietly.
“What?”
“She wasn’t fucking pregnant. She lied to drive a wedge between us, and it fucking worked. When I found out that she was lying about everything, I lost it... she was the reason you couldn’t look at me with love in your eyes anymore. She was that proverbial nail in the coffin I created around me.”
He wasn’t wrong. Hearing that Nina was pregnant with Sabbath’s kid, and then hearing him say he wanted to keep it, was the reason I just couldn’t do this anymore.
“Shasta, do you ever think we can go back to before?” His eyes lifted to meet mine. “Before you started to despise my very existence?”
“I don’t know, Sabbath, but honestly, probably not.”