Owned & Untamed (Back Down Devil MC #11)(8)

I swallowed hard. “It looks like shit. And that’s my side of the yard.”

Jim grinned. “We have sides?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Wow, if Mom and Dad could see us now. Fighting over the yard they wanted so badly to fill with kids and grandkids.”

I felt like someone sucked the wind out of my lungs. I lurched forward and my eyes went wide. That comment really hit home. Bad enough I had lost my parents, I felt terrible that their later-in-life dreams never came true.

“What?” Jim asked. “You don’t like the truth? Poor thing.”

“Fuck you, Jim,” I said. I stood up. “I’m not bailing you out anymore then. If you don’t want to cut down the tree, I’ll call someone to do it. If you don’t want to do the dishes in your place, I’ll pay someone to come clean. The loudest person ever. Anything to piss you off.”

“Piss me off?” he asked. He showed his teeth. “You’re doing a great job now, sis.”

“Glad I could do something right,” I said.

“I’ll go get an award,” Jim said.

That’s when I had to get out of the kitchen. There was no use in trying to argue with Jim. He would just get nastier until he got what he wanted - which was for me to cry.

I saved the tears for my own privacy.

I went to my part of the house, up to my bedroom, and I took a shower.

After showering and getting dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror, brushing my hair, my stomach growling. I was freaking starving and coffee for breakfast wasn’t doing the trick.

I had a text from Maggie.

She wanted to meet up.

I texted her back and said I’d meet her at a diner in thirty minutes.

I walked to the window and looked out at the damn fallen tree. Some random thunderstorm had taken it down. Jim said he’d take care of it. That he’d make firewood out of it. We didn’t get cold weather. We didn’t get snow. We were in California. Having a fireplace was not necessary but my father put one in the house. For the ambiance of Christmas and Santa Claus. More so, we used to have big fires outside.

Not that any of it mattered as the fallen tree was still intact, just fallen.

Jim was outside, staring at the tree. He reached for a thick branch and pushed at it. He took a stuttering step back and grabbed for an ax. He lifted it up and looked wobbly. He brought it down, hit the tree, and then fell to his right. I gasped, thinking he was going to hit the ground. He kept his balance but grabbed at his right leg - his prosthetic leg. Jim was supposed to go to therapy and learn how to use his leg, but he never did. Too stubborn to do that.

He stepped toward the tree and shook a fist at it. Then he raised his middle finger and turned away. I watched him walk back to the house and I lowered my head.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

It was sickly ironic how Jim went to war to protect freedom at home, yet I was the one now at war and stripped of freedom.

Life… sometimes it just didn’t make sense.





five.



(duke)



I opened the door to the conference room and everyone was already at the table. I had been back in my room getting my shoulder patched up again. And, yeah, the reliever might have stayed on her knees for a few extra minutes as I gave her a mouthful of a reward for helping me out.

Everyone at the table rose up and started to applaud me.

I stood there like I had won some f*cking movie award or some bullshit.

I walked into the room and Max made a fist and punched me in my good shoulder. Austin patted me on the back and nodded. I stepped around the table and Cade grabbed my chair and pulled it back for me.

“Wait,” Trev called out. He whistled to stop the applause. “Everyone sit but Duke.”

Everyone took their seats except for me and Trev. I felt really uncomfortable. It was goddamn unsettling with all eyes on me. Reminded me of when I got pinned that medal after coming home. My so-called heroic actions of dragging my old buddy out of his blown up convoy, along with returning back on enemy fire to prevent further attacks on the rest of us, helped to save hundreds of lives. Standing there listening to the words being tossed around, a medal pinned on me, people clapping, taking my f*cking picture… hell no. I went home that night and never put my uniform back on. I hit the streets, got piss drunk, picked a bar fight with some *, and knocked him out cold. I got arrested, tossed into jail, and ended up sharing a cell with Hudson.

That wasn’t quite the start with Back Down Devil though.

That started after I saved Hudson’s ass from getting shanked. Then I got into a fight with him, almost knocking him out too.

“Our crazy brother here,” Trev said, stealing my thoughts, “stood up to the f*cking Russians and took a bullet to the shoulder. I couldn’t stop this prick from running his mouth. But Ivan respected it. So did Peter. I got a call this morning letting me know that they send their condolences for shooting you, Duke. But it had to be done.”

“Great,” I said.

“He’s not worried,” Cash said. “He’s eating up all that pity *.”

“They’re eating me up,” I said.

“That’s why he’s late to the meeting,” Tristan said.

“You saw the tits on that new one,” I said.