Chapter Six
Sydney
As soon as Hendrix gets into the bar, my brother comes at him. I watch the first punch fly at him and catch him in the chin. It barely does anything to him as my brother swings again. The sound of Ryder’s fist connecting with Hendrix’s cheekbone radiates through the entire room, and it goes completely silent.
All eyes are on them as they start to fight. Hendrix throws a punch that gets Ryder in the eyebrow and blood starts gushing all over them, but even that doesn’t deter them from trying to kill each other.
My phone starts to buzz in my back pocket, and as much as I don’t want to check the screen, I know that it will probably be Sampson. He’ll expect me to do something, and I’ll end up crying myself to sleep like the last few weeks.
Sure enough, when I pull my phone out, his number flashes on the screen and I duck out of the crowd of people watching them fight to go somewhere more private.
“Hello?” I answer on the fifth ring.
“You are taking too fucking long. I need results, and you haven’t given me shit. Don’t forget I can always pay your mommy dearest a visit.” His words are like ice as they hit me.
“Don’t. Please leave her alone. Hendrix is falling for me. He and my brother are fighting right now. I’m doing what you asked.”
“Excellent.” His voice has a certain chill to it, and I just want to hang up and pray that he never calls again. The line goes dead, and I rest my head back against the wall in the hallway.
The sound of a door closing fills the hall, and when I look in the direction the sound came from, I see Bentley standing there. A look of concern or maybe frustration is written all over his face as he stares at me, studying me.
He starts to walk off, but he looks over at me once more before he disappears. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I whisper to myself.
When I head back over to where the guys were fighting, I see they are both standing there staring at each other, blood covering their faces and a few bruises that will look terrible if they don’t put ice on them now.
Hendrix’s eyes find mine, and I frown slightly as I take in his face. He has his hands on his hips while sucking in deep breaths.
Looking at Ryder next, I see the look of anger. He’s pissed at me, and I don’t really blame him. If it weren’t for Sampson, I would have never come back here, and I probably would have never got involved with Hendrix.
My heart is pounding in my chest as I think of not having Hendrix in my life. His brother may have been the reason I came here, but Hendrix is the reason I’ll fight like hell to save him. I need to tell him. Being honest is the only way that I can save him.
I notice Bentley walking over to his brother, and when he whispers something in his ear, they both stare at me. Fuck. He overheard me, I know he did.
Hendrix starts to move toward me and everyone freezes. “Don’t fucking move, Hendrix.” His shoulders tense, but he does as he’s told. All eyes move to their president, and I feel my heart sink into my stomach.
The president comes walking toward the crowd, his eyes never leaving me. “It seems to me that we may have a rat in our midst.” Ryder’s eyes narrow and he looks around the room, scanning over all the faces. When he lands on me again, his eyes widen slightly, but otherwise, he stays stoic.
“Secret conversations in the hallways of my clubhouse, pitting two of my men against each other.” He shakes his head as he comes to a stop between them both. “What else do you have planned for us, huh?”
My throat’s dry and my hands are now shaking. Everyone is staring at me, and I don’t know what to do. When I open my mouth to speak, nothing comes out. There isn’t anything I could say anyway, they all will listen to their president, not Ryder’s sister. I know my word won’t mean anything to them.
“Since she doesn’t have anything to say for herself, get her out of here,” he demands before motioning to both Ryder and Hendrix to follow him.
Biting the inside of my lip, I try like hell not to cry. Try not to think of how everything is falling apart and now, who knows what’s going to happen. Sampson can go after my parents, my friends, and everyone else that I love.
It’s going to be my entire fault, and there will be nothing I can do to protect them from him.
Brantley grabs my arm and all but drags me from the clubhouse. Once we are out in the parking lot, he finally says something. “What the fuck was you thinking?”
It’s no use now, the tears just stream down my face as I turn to face him. His eyes are burning right through me, and I want like hell for it all to go away. For me to be back to the girl I once was and not a rat.
“He threatened to kill everyone I love. I couldn’t let him go after my parents, Brantley. I had to do something.” He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Fucking hell,” he mutters under his breath. “I need to get you out of here. Prez doesn’t want you anywhere near the club, Ryder, or Hendrix.” He grabs my arm again and leads me to my car. I hit the button to unlock it, and as he opens the door, he states, “Don’t call, nothing. Go radio silent.”
I nod my head and get in the car. He shuts it roughly before tapping on the roof. I notice him not head back to the clubhouse, but instead, go to his bike. He starts the engine as I start mine. He’s going to follow me the whole way there, making sure I head straight home.
The tears fall down my face the whole ride. All I can think about is the look on my brother’s face as he heard what his president said. When I pull into my driveway, I shut off the engine and rest my head against the steering wheel for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and opening the door.
Brantley is sitting on his bike a few feet from the curb, his eyes trained on me the entire time. I give him a little wave of my hand as I lock my car and make my way to my front door. Fumbling with my keys, I finally get the door unlocked and pushed open. Once I close it behind me, I hear the roar of his motorcycle as he takes off. Collapsing back against the door, I let my body slide down it to the floor.
It feels like forever before I hear the roar of a motorcycle again. The closer it gets, the more terrified I become. If it’s Sampson, I don’t know what I’m going to do. He’ll kill me if he finds out that I failed. He will go after everyone I care about including my brother and Ellie. The tears fall harder as I think about the mess this has all become.
The booted footsteps get closer, and I suck in a breath, waiting for whoever it is to start banging on the door. Once the hand bangs on the door, I slowly rise to my feet.
“Open the fucking door, Syd.” I undo the locks as fast as my fingers will let me and swing the door open to see his face.
Hendrix is pissed. His expression tells me everything I need to know. He hates me.
He stalks inside, bumping into me hard as he goes. Shutting the door, I turn to face him, but he’s got his back to me. His body is tense, and most of the blood has been cleaned off of him.
“Who?” His voice is rough and demanding. “Who the fuck are you working with?” As he turns to face me, I take in every inch of his features. I’ve spent hours memorizing every detail of him, craving it more than the day before. I should have told him the truth from the start. Maybe then, this wouldn’t be happening.
“He threatened to kill everyone I care about. He threatened to kill you.” Fresh tears start to fall from my eyes. I watch his muscles flex as he runs a hand through his hair.
“Who Sydney. Give me a fucking name.”
I move the hair off of my neck and point to the scar on my skin. His eyes narrow because he remembers the lie I gave him. The one where I told him that I got that scar at a frat party – well it was partly right.
“I went to a frat party one night to blow off some steam… It was so out of my character, I regretted it the next day.” I blow out a breath and look at the floor. “He was there. I had no clue who he was or anything. I was drunk, and somehow I ended up in a bedroom with him. Everything that happened in there is hazy. I remember screaming when he pressed that knife into my skin and the blood that covered the bed, but I must have passed out afterward.”
Hendrix starts to pace in front of me, I can see his boots as they walk back and forth. I still refuse to look at him because I know he isn’t going to help me. He’s just a guy that I started to fall in love with even if I wasn’t supposed to. Maybe if I refused to help Sampson with his evil plan, none of this would be happening.
“Give me a name.” His voice booms through the entryway, and I take a step back, knocking into the door. He stalks toward me and puts his hands on either side of my head, blocking me in.
“Sampson.” Green eyes burn into me. He’s pissed; I don’t even need to look at him to know that. He knows exactly who Sampson is.
“You fucked my brother,” he states shaking his head and dropping it slightly. “I fucking knew that mark on your skin came from that son of a bitch. I fucking knew it.” I flinch slightly when he leans into me. “I’m going to kill that bastard.”
More tears fall down my cheeks, but he doesn’t move, so I don’t either. It’s like he’s waging war with himself right now. He stares at me, watching the tears as they trickle down my face.
“What does he want?”
“An eye for an eye, blood for blood. He wants to take down the Wayward Saints because they took you. I was supposed to make you fall in love with me. Bring you back to his side.”
He snorts at that. “Least you got one thing right,” he mutters under his breath.
His words hit me straight in the chest and everything inside of me aches. He was falling too. He felt what I felt.
He could have loved me if I didn’t betray him.
I watch him push away from the door and grab the doorknob. Pulling it open, like I weigh nothing and couldn’t stop him if I tried, he walks away. He doesn’t bother looking back, and part of me doesn’t blame him.
I lied.
I agreed out of fear to get him to fall in love with me to help his brother’s stupid plan, and now the only thing I am afraid of is never seeing Hendrix again.