“You’re all ready to go?” Millie comes out the front door holding my bag. I decided against going to the clubhouse for that hog roast.

“I am.” I search the ground around my feet. “I think. I don’t know, I feel as though I’m forgetting something.”

“Text us when you get there, okay?” Millie adds, wrapping her arm around Raze.

Raze grins. “I’m glad you’re going off to college, El. One of us needed to not live as an outlaw.

I smile slightly. “Very true. You know, since someone needs to make this family look sane.”

“And that person is definitely not going to be you,” Miles laughs, pulling me in for a hug.

“What?” Millie’s gaze swings between all of us, confused. I tense.

Raze shakes his head at her, brushing off Miles’ mistake. “Just banter, babe.”

“Oh!” Millie smiles at me. “Well, you better get on the road. It’s a long drive.”

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t just fucking fly, El. Seriously.” Joker tosses my bags into the trunk and then comes toward me. His palms come to my face. “I can come with you.”

I roll my eyes, tapping at his hands. I used to have the biggest crush on Joker. It’s hard not to with his boy-ish grin, pretty eyes, six-pack abs and let’s not forget the main reason—the man can dismantle a person’s face with his bare hands. He’s beautifully sick and twisted. Which is why he probably should not be touching me.

“I told you, I’m driving because I want my car.”

“In New York…” he adds dryly. “You don’t need your car there. No one has a car there.”

I pat his shoulder and then shove him. “You worry too much.”

“You give us a lot to worry over.” I can already feel everyone’s eyes watching me, and I’m not about to be questioned for the hundredth time today.

“I’ll be back in no time. Promise.”

Quickly jumping into the driver’s seat of the car, I fire her to life and look out my window for one more quick wave, but when my eyes connect with Miles, it feels as though I’ve been punched in the gut. His eyes shoot through mine, his jaw scarily relaxed and his shoulders stiff. A simple narrow of his eye has me putting the car in drive and flooring it out of there. “Turn left at the next exit…” the GPS voice yaps off from my dashboard. I roll the window down on my 911, sucking in the cool invading breeze. Hitting the volume up higher, I let Marshmello and Khalid’s song “Silence” seep into my soul. With each breath I inhale the lyrics and then exhale my bullshit, wrapping myself in the soothing bass of the song. Music has always been my escape. It’s like a different dimension of life. A world where your problems can be paused, good times can be rewound (or replayed), and the hard times can be fast-forwarded. If only I lived in that dimension. I’d dance my way through life, instead of killing my way through. But I live in this world. Which is why I don’t take that exit.

My phone vibrates against my back pocket and I lean up to grab it. Glancing between the road and the phone, I slide it unlocked, hitting hands-free.

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Change of plans. I have bikers asking questions,” Jada’s hushed whisper comes through the line.

I floor it faster. “Well get rid of them.”

“They’re bikers.” She keeps saying that like I should give a shit.

“They don’t scare me.”

“They should…”

I laugh. “Oh, there’s a lot you have to learn about me.”

Jada pauses, long enough to make me look down to the phone just to make sure it’s still connected. “Why do I feel like I’ve just conjured the reaper?”

My lip slowly curves. “That’s one way of putting it. So listen, if you don’t want to do this with me, you don’t have to. It’s something I need to do though.”

“You love him?”

My internal organs feel like they freeze and it’s not until sweat drips down between my fingers that I realize how tight I have been clutching the steering wheel.

“What?” I brush her off. “I don’t, like, I can’t. It’s not about him. It’s about my brothers.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I’ve just taken the exit. I’ll see you in a few.”

“Yeah, meet me at the end of the driveway. Don’t need any more questions being asked.”

I end the call and throw the phone in the back seat. What the fuck did she mean love? Love? Love had absolutely nothing to do with this. A bond? Yeah. Love—no. To feel love toward someone, one must feel as though she deserves it in return. I don’t. When all is done, then, I’ll go to college. Hopefully. If that fails, I can just make a living from what I’ve been doing. It pays well so why not. Even as I think that I instantly feel guilty. I know Raze wanted me to be that girl. He wanted me to be perfect and successful, not ruined like I am. But it’s too late. I’ve been ruined since the day my mother pushed me into a world of destruction, and then into my brother’s arms, the very arms to put people down were the same ones that carried me to my crib. I was doomed from the beginning.

Pulling up to the clubhouse, I do as Jada asks and park at the end of the long gravel road. Looking around the place to make sure no one is around, it’s the first time I get a chance to truly take in its landscape. The long trees that line the extensive gravel road, and the grass that bursts through the fields. I glance at the time, noting I needed to be at Headquarters in roughly seventy-eight minutes, and I cannot be late. As much as I hate the bitch, I need to tread carefully. Sort of. Lighter than usual. Which is still pretty heavy because I can never seem to control my mouth. Grabbing my phone, I’m about to send Jada a message when I hear the light rumble of a bike coming down the road. I expect to see one of the Devils coming down with Jada on the back, but I see Jada riding on a dark purple Harley with shiny chrome fittings. I can’t fight my beaming smile. The girl is a fucking bad ass. Cranking my window down farther, my smile deepens when she kicks up the stick and swings her leg off. She’s wearing a tight leather crop top and tight leather black pants. Her long black hair is ruffled all over the place, and when she smiles, her white teeth come on display. She has tattoos that cover her everywhere, even on her stomach, and honestly—“You’re drooling. Do I need to protect my womanhood around you?” She comes to my window.

“Har, har…” I roll my eyes. “Sorry to obviously disappoint, but I like dick. How ‘bout you? You like the dick, or you like the vag?”

Her face scrunches in disgust. “Do not ever say vag again. And I’m undecided.”

That shocks me a little. I mean, I don’t like to put people in stereotypical boxes, but I never would have pegged Jada to be bi-curious. She just seems… wild. Which I guess, adds to her appeal.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe. You’re not really my type,” she adds, unfazed.

My face falls. “Ok, now I’m offended.”

She laughs, pulling out a card and handing it to me. My face stills again. “This it?”

She explores my eyes while smiling weakly. “Yeah, well. It’s the address. Listen, it’s the last of the serum that we know of.”

“And you’ve had it all this time?” I ask, an eyebrow quirked.

“Well, I had a feeling I might need it one day.”

“Well, thank you. It might just allow me more trust with the bitch, but how did you come across it?”

She cackles. “Ah, well, that’s a story for a raven…”

“In other words, I don’t really want to know?”

She nods. “Precisely.”

“Shoot, I better get going. Thanks for…this.” I turn the key, but her hand halts me. “Be safe, Ella. I don’t really know what it is that you are skilled in, but I’ve gathered that there is a lot more than meets the eye with you. Something your brothers have hidden from the rest of us. Not sure why—”she doesn’t want to know why“ —but I’m sure they have their reasons. Please be safe. No one knows about this, and I don’t want to be liable for the princess of darkness getting 86’d.”

“Princess of darkness, huh?”

Her eyes narrow and a grin kicks up in the corner of her mouth. “Maybe you are my type. Frost better watch it.” She winks and then walks back to her bike.

Is she kidding? She must be kidding. This is just Jada and Ella banter. Was she kidding?

“Princess?” Her voice cuts through my thoughts.

“Yes?” I clear my throat.

“I was kidding.”

I laugh nervously, waving her off with an eye roll. “I know!”

I totally did not know.

Putting it into drive, I gun it out of there and make my way toward the other side of Las Vegas.