Chapter Ten
Sydney
The moment I finally close my eyes, the yelling starts in the other room. I heard the bikes in the distance, and I knew they were coming. The Wayward Saints would never leave their men unprotected and right now, Ryder, Hendrix, and Brantley are just that. They are too worried about me being hurt and Callen being here to go anywhere else.
I still don’t know what the big deal is with them and her. She doesn’t even know why they acted the way that they did when they figured out her name.
Lying back against my pillows, I try to fall asleep, but it’s no use. The shouts just continue to get worse, and when I look toward the door, it never opens or magically tells me what they are talking about.
“Do you think that they are going to hurt me too?” Callen finally asks.
I shake my head no, and she bites her bottom lip. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I hope that Ryder or Hendrix protects us both.
My stomach turns, and I'm not sure if it’s because of the miscarriage or everything that is going on around me. The cramps get worse, and I fight the urge to throw up. I cry out in pain, and it takes no time at all for the bedroom door to open.
Hendrix rushes to my side, and I curl into a little ball against him. The pain is worse than any of the normal cramps that I’ve ever had, and I just want it to end. Hendrix rubs my back, trying to do something to make me feel better but nothing helps. I just want to sleep for the next week and hope that when I wake up this nightmare will be over and I can be back in his bed, wrapped around his body after he fucks me hard.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispers against my skin. Callen has been lying on a blow-up mattress that Brant found in the garage since the doctor looked her over and bandaged her up. Most of her cuts and bruises would heal after time, and I just hope that she doesn’t hate me after this.
She was the only friend I really had in college. We were both kind of nerdy and awkward compared to the rest of the girls we went to school with, so we just kind of fit.
“How are you?” His voice is small, and I have a feeling it’s because Callen is only a few feet away.
“I’ve been better.” I look up at him and slowly uncurl my body and press against him completely. His hand slowly runs up and down my side. He’s so gentle that I barely even feel his fingertips as they move.
“I wish I could change the shit that happened today. I should have come sooner, moved you to another place or something.” I move closer and press my face into his chest, careful not to hit the bruise on my forehead.
“You didn’t do this to me, Hendrix. Don’t blame yourself. I should have told you the truth from the beginning.” A tear falls down my cheek but is quickly soaked up by his shirt. He runs his hand through my still wet hair, and I continue to hold on to him.
I never want to let him go.
“I just hate that I could have been here to stop him. I should have been here to gut that bastard where he stood.” He clenches his fists, and I try like hell not to flinch as he does it. I don’t want to come off weak anymore. I want to be able to fight back, but in my condition, I can’t, and I doubt that Hendrix would let me.
When the anger in him subsides, he runs his hand up and down my spine in a soothing motion that practically puts me to sleep. Well, that is until my brother’s voice enters the room.
“You need to get out here, Hendrix.” When I lift my head up, I see him standing in the doorway watching us. He stands there for a few minutes not saying anything before he turns and walks away.
I look back at Hendrix, and he reaches forward to move the hair from my face. “Don’t worry. Everything will be just fine.”
I bite the inside of my cheek and keep my thoughts to myself. Everything is not going to be okay. Their president hates me and the problems I brought to their doorstep. If he had his way, I would still be alone in this house with Sampson.
“Hallum will never hurt you again.”
I stare at him, wondering who Hallum is and before I can ask, he grins. “Hallum is his real name. He’s gone by Sampson for a while now, something about that dude from the Bible.”
“Sampson and Delilah.” My voice is hoarse from all the crying I’ve done today, and it sounds so unlike me.
“You were his Delilah. In a way, you were going to be the one to help him extract his revenge, but instead, you failed, betrayed him in a way.”
“I never wanted any of this. I just wanted to finally move out of the shell of a girl I once was. To be seen for the person I am, not who I was related to.” A tear slides down my cheek, and Hendrix wipes it up.
“I see you.” He sits up, taking me with him. “I see exactly who you are. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for, and the only woman I want by my side.”
He kisses me softly before changing our positions and laying me back against the pillows. “I need to find out what they need from me. I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.”
I nod my head because I’m too choked up to say a word to him. After everything that I’ve put him through already, I can’t believe that he would still feel that way about me.
---
Hendrix
As I make my way out of the room, I scan their faces. This place isn’t safe, and I don’t know why we are even still here other than the fact that Prez doesn’t want to help her any more than we have already.
“You have a plan?” Prez asks when I come to a stop in front of him. The others watch from their positions, not one of them deciding that they should step up and say something, not even Ryder.
“I want to say I’m wrong, but I don’t think Hallum is coming back here. He got what he wanted. Revenge was the only thing on his mind, and he already did what he set out to do.” Prez raises an eyebrow at me, and I know he doesn’t agree.
“What makes you so sure?”
“An eye for an eye. Blood for blood,” I state. It’s that fucking simple.
“Ryder took the one other thing my brother cared about from him. He’s pissed he lost me too, but I don’t mean as much to him as she did.”
All attention goes to Ryder, and he runs his hand over his face, muttering under his breath.
“You really think that bastard brother of yours went after Sydney because of what I did three years ago?”
I shrug my shoulders. “He’s capable of anything. It might have been a stressor, and when I got patched in, he moved forward with it. Fuck, I don’t know what is running through his head right now, but I am going to find that son of a bitch and kill the bastard for even touching her. He killed my unborn child.”
“Fuck,” Dom mutters under his breath.
The others mutter under their breath too, but I ignore it. I only have one thing on my mind, and that is finding Hallum and making him pay for what he did, for what he took from me.
Prez goes to say something, but my phone starts ringing. He stops and watches me as I pull it out of my pocket to check the screen.
Unknown is calling…
I hit the button to answer it and put it on speaker. The moment I grunt out a greeting, his voice comes on the line.
“I never meant for you to lose, big brother. I only wanted you back on my side and that piece of shit brother of hers to pay.” I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from saying something to piss him off more.
“You stole something from me, and I’ll never forgive. You and I are done. You’re dead to me, and if you come near her again, I’ll kill you myself. I don’t give a shit what problems you have with the Saints anymore. End it all or I will hunt you down myself and put you down like the dog you are.”
His breathing deepens over the line and I know I pissed him off, but I’m way past caring.
“You don’t mean that, big brother.” His voice is lower now, and when I look around the room, I see everyone watching me.
“I do. I will protect my family. You are nothing to me.”
“I am your family! Those fucking assholes aren’t your blood, I am. You give it all up because they are your brothers. Fuck that. They weren’t there for you when we were kids, I was. I was the one who made sure we ate every night. It was me who looked after you and took care of you the night you got a knife in the side. It was all me!”
He’s pissed now, and I’m glad. Now he can see the pain that he is putting on himself. He thinks I owe him something and I don’t. I don’t owe him a goddamn thing.
I hear a whimper behind me, and when I turn, I catch sight of Sydney falling down. I set my phone on the table and rush to her side, helping her up and pulling her into me. Her body is still weak from the blood loss, and she’s cold.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“Don’t be. You did nothing wrong.” I can still hear my brother’s tangent as he continues to yell into the phone, telling me all the shit that I already know from our youth. Hell, Prez and Nick already know it all as well. It was one of the conditions of me joining as a prospect, airing out all my dirty laundry.
They know the worst moments of my life, the ones that only Hallum and I know.
I hold her to my chest as Prez comes over to us. “He’s going postal. This isn’t done,” he says as he stands next to me with his back to the rest of the brothers. “What do you want to do?”
“I want him dead.”
I feel Sydney flinch and hold onto me tighter with my words. She doesn’t say anything about it, and I don’t think she will until we are behind closed doors.
She won’t like the man I really am. I keep it buried for a reason, and that reason is because once I let it all show, it’s hard for me to rein it back. The anger and hurt will eat away at me until I finally snap and kill someone.
The life I lived before the Saints is not one that I am proud of. I hated the man I had become and wanted to have a purpose of sorts. The Wayward Saints gave me that purpose – a family that I never had growing up.
They showed me what real family was and now there is no way I’ll ever turn my back on them except to protect Sydney. Ryder Stark may be one of the Saints’ best weapons, but I’d go to hell in back to protect Sydney Stark from anything, even him.