His Twisted Heart by Ellie R Hunter
Chapter Twenty-One
Luca
Being back in Mercy has soured my mood to new depths that even gets on my nerves. The fucking mountain comes into view, and my disgust for it is still as strong as the last time I was here.
I ride the narrow roads up the mountain behind Zachery, and in front of my mom’s car. The wind is bitterly cold, whipping against my face, and I pull my bandana up and over my nose. It takes the chill away, but I’m still too fucking cold.
Everyone pulls up to the cabin the Mercy chapter call a clubhouse, and we park in two arcs, with Mom and the other old ladies parking along the roadside.
By the time I climb off my bike and light a cigarette, I catch sight of Tor climbing out of her mom’s car, and sits her ass on the trunk. Dad calls me over, expecting me to greet these assholes and remind everyone I’m the son of the president.
The twins follow Tor as she skips off in between the trees, and I focus on Dad.
He’s looking so much better these days, and I’m glad for it. Once inside, I take a seat by the roaring fire and rub my hands together near the flames to warm up.
“Hey, I’m Rosie.”
A redhead slinks onto the chair at the next table. “You’re Luca, right? Cas’s son?”
Her eyes are so blue, they look like sunshine reflecting off of glass. Her button nose sits above her plump lips—lips made for sucking dick.
“You must be tired after your long journey?”
“Not really. Just cold.”
“Yes, well, the winters are hard here, but there are fun ways to keep warm.”
I hear the offer in her words, and I smirk.
“Yeah? I’ll keep that in mind.”
The bar soon fills up, and red-haired Rosie is beckoned over by Gabe. Turns out she’s his daughter, and fucking her would certainly piss him off. I got the hint last time we were here that he didn’t particularly like me, or the Willow’s Peak chapter.
It’s not long before Tor comes in with her brothers. She veers off toward her parents who are lingering by the bar.
I feel her eyes on me, but I refuse to look her way. I have no ties or loyalties to her now.
Rosie passes my table and I reach out, grabbing her wrist. Flicking my eyes over in Tor’s direction, making sure she’s still watching me, I smile up at Rosie with the red hair.
“I’ll see you around, yeah?”
Her smile grows. “Yeah, I’ll be around.”
It gets dark early here, and as I lean against the porch rail, I light a smoke and watch the twins park up, but they’re not alone. They have a girl with them. Mason and Myles throw shade my way as they pass. Turning around, I lean against the railing, getting a clear view inside the bar.
The Mercy chapter is throwing a party to welcome us, but the loud music doesn’t hide the tension.
Tor weaves through the guys and stops by her brothers. Her smile infuriates me. How can she be happy after what she’s done? She and the girl the twins brought around move to the bar, as Mason and Myles head over to my dad who’s sitting by the fire.
I keep my eyes on Tor while she chats it up with the girl. I’ve caught a couple of the Mercy brothers taking an interest. The brother I’ve seen who hasn’t taken his eyes off of her is named Angel.
When I see a guy bump into Tor, I straighten. With the guy quick to apologise, Tor smiles and turns back to her conversation.
The guy is arguing with a woman I assume is his old lady, and she shoves him again into Victoria, this time knocking her into the twins’ girl. Gritting her teeth, her cheeks redden with frustration.
The woman goes to throw her drink over the guy, but he sees it coming, and is quick to move out of the way.
The contents end up all over Tor, who stands there, frozen. When the guy puts his hand on her shoulder, she screams.
She screams so loud, she can be heard over the music. But it’s her fear that I hear the loudest.
My heart pounds as the girl goes to shove the guy’s hand away from Tor, but I’m already moving. I run at the guy, getting to him just as Mason knocks him to the floor. With Mason hovering over him, throwing his punches, I smash my boot into the side of the guy’s stomach, delivering kick after kick, while Mason delivers punch after punch.
But it’s over for Mason, who’s pulled away from the fight, but I continue to rain down blow after blow to the guy. I don’t give a shit that he doesn’t know the story behind Tor and whiskey. He should’ve kept his woman under control.
“Cas, call your boy off! We all wear the same here,” I faintly hear from somewhere behind me.
My assault doesn’t slow, and I feel every impact as much as he does. It feels so fucking good I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.
I manage to throw one last punch before Sparky’s wrapping his arms around me and locking me in place.
The music is no longer playing. I can only hear my breath coming in short, sharp pants. I look over to Tor, wrapped in Myles’ arms as he murmurs in her ear, but she isn’t listening. She’s fucking terrified.
“Luca, no more,” Dad orders, and my shoulders sag. “And as for who wears the patch, we’ll see about that. Shit with the Lost Souls is changing. It’s long overdue, and if our women and children aren’t shown the upmost fucking respect, I’ll be forgetting who wears the patch.” Dad turns to the twins. “Mason, Myles, get your sister out of here.”
Shrugging out of Sparky’s hold, I storm over and grab her hand. I’ll get her out of here, and fuck what anyone thinks about it.
She takes it, as I knew she would, and I breathe in enough fresh air to cool me down when we step outside.
“What cabin are you staying in?”
She points off to one up the road, and I tighten my grip around her hand as I lead us away from the clubhouse.
Fuck whatever trouble I caused back there. It’s not like I was on my own. Mason was right there, kicking the shit out of him too.
The door is unlocked, and I quickly look around and take the stairs up to the bathroom. The smell of whiskey is strong, and her hand is still shaking in mine.
Turning the shower on, I finally let her go. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take long for the water to warm up with the pipes rattling in the walls.
“Get in and get washed. I’ll get you something clean and dry to wear.”
I go to leave the bathroom, but she doesn’t move. “All I could see was Ellis, him holding a lighter… hear his laugh…”
Her voice trembles, and I swallow thickly, turning around to look at her.
“He’s dead, Tor. Don’t keep him alive in your head.”
Urging her to lift her arms, I pull her sweater over her head, and of course, she isn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples harden in the chill of the room, but look down and away to remove her skirt. I can’t bring myself to take off her panties. “Wash it off. Wash away the memories.”
As if it’s the easiest thing to do, but nothing else is helping her.
Leaving the bathroom, I hear the shower curtain being drawn. I go through all the rooms until I find the bag I recognise as hers sitting at the bottom of the bed and rifle through it, pulling out her sweats and another sweater. I doubt she’ll be leaving the cabin tonight, and it’s too fucking cold for her to sleep naked.
I turn on the lamp next to the bed to shoo the darkness away for her, knowing the night haunts her the most. Inspecting my knuckles, I press down on the open wounds. Hot pain shoots up into my wrists, and I hiss in delight.
We’re raised to believe pain equals bad, but I don’t find that to be the case. It’s not always a bad thing.
It can be a reminder of the power you can unleash.
Tor walks into the room, wrapped in a towel, with her hair snuggly wrapped in another towel.
I jerk my head at the sweats on the bed, and as usual, giving zero fucks, she bares her body and dresses in front of me.
Once she’s finished, she drops down onto the bed, and I see a little of the old Tor looking up at me.
“You beat that guy for me.”
“He was disrespectful. Don’t read anything into it.”
“Luca—”
“I’m still fucking angry. All I was doing was venting on someone because I can’t touch you.”
Her gasp feeds the monster in me, and I step closer to her.
“If I could do to you what you did to my kid, I would. But club politics has saved you.”
Leaving her as the tears begin to roll down her cheeks, I slam the door behind me and dig out my smokes.