Healing Gabe (The Last Hangman MC #3)(57)
Sanders is going to be f*cking crushed that Jenny has been killed. He already felt guilty enough about her being targeted, but now? His world is going to fall apart. Nicole is staying strong and keeping her mouth shut, I need her to be strong for a little longer until help arrives.
We always take things for granted, especially when you’re in a MC. You think you’re untouchable, but it takes one motherf*cker with a god complex to shatter your world. In this case that motherf*cker is Jared. For the past fifteen years he’s been making sure to throw all the shit he can may way, but I’m still standing. Hurting Viv or Nicole would be the last straw and he f*cking knows it. There’s only so much a man can take before he has no purpose.
Jared really thought of every single little detail that would take me back twelve years ago. I can’t believe I’m going through this again. I need a different ending this time, I can’t lose Viv.
I wish I could free myself but I can’t slip the knots around my wrists. I’m unarmed but I could still take him by surprise. He’s clearly not stable, he’s already taken out one of his men. Only three are left and two of them are covering the two entrances to the warehouse. I manage to loosen the tie around one of my feet, but it’s not helping much.
I keep my eyes focused on Viv. I want to hold her again so badly. I feel like I’ve lost so much time with her these past couple of days. Our fights seem so stupid now. The *footing around because I didn’t want to tell her how I truly felt is biting me in the ass right now and I wish I could tell her how I feel. Mouthing it to her felt good, but I need to actually say it. I can’t bring myself to though, it will just anger an already enraged and crazy Jared and once those words slip out of my mouth then something terrible is going to happen, I can feel it. She’ll be taken away from me. I don’t regret a lot of things in life, only two: staying with Annie when I should’ve let her go and not telling Viv how I feel about her. Maybe because I only mouthed the words to her then my curse won’t come to light and we will both make it out of here.
I’ll always remember the look in Viv’s eyes when we first met. She was confused, scared and looked at me as if she hasn’t seen a man stand up for a woman in a long time, probably since her father was killed. That first look made me want her so f*cking badly.
Unfortunately, fate wasn’t too kind to us. I should’ve asked her to stay after we killed Trent. I should have told her that I would take care of her, protect her, but I was so angry and didn’t want to take my rage and frustration out on her. It wouldn’t have been fair. We both needed to find ourselves. I eventually did but it didn’t help much, I could never forget her and not knowing if she felt the same way I did, really messed with my head for some reason.
I just wanted to be loved. When I think back over my time with Annie, sometimes I felt Annie was just with me to prove to herself that she could find a man, that Viv wasn’t the only one to get attention. I wonder if she did actually love me, the more I thought about it, the less sure I was that she did. Was she doing it on purpose to get out of this life? I know she loathed the club lifestyle after her parents died and she couldn’t adapt to Trent’s harsher life. I know sometimes from the way she used to talk about Viv, that she was jealous of her, of her confidence, her rebellious side and she was even jealous of physical things despite them being practically identical. I guess those unique differences, like Viv’s beautiful dark blue/purple eyes made it hard for her to be confident in her own skin.
A phone ringing in the background brings me back to reality. I look over at Viv, who looks like she’s giving up on life. I want to shout at her to fight for her life, that she is worth fighting for. That we are worth fighting for.
“Amazing. Bring her in.” Jared smirks and looks between Viv and I. “I have the best surprise for you two. You’re gonna love it.” He’s f*cking proud of himself. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but one of our friends better not be about to walk in.
We don’t have to wait long before the ‘guest’ walks in. Jared doesn’t know where to stop with his f*cking mind games. I’m actually scared of who he’s bringing in, nothing this man says or does can be any good, ever. I knew he was f*cked up, but I wasn’t expecting who just f*cking walked in. Viv and I look at each other and then back at the woman who walked in.
“Annie?” Viv and I exclaim at the same time, both as shocked as each other.
“That’s me.” she says happily smiling away, acting as if everything were okay and normal.
“What the f*ck is going on?” I shout.
“Don’t be so loud and so rude, Gabe, you used to be so sweet. You’ve changed.” She tuts.
“I f*cking watched you get raped and murdered! This is not f*cking possible!”
“Stop swearing in front of our baby.” She rubs her swollen tummy and looks fondly at Jared. This can’t be f*cking possible.
“What have you done, Annie?” Viv asks her, defeated.
“What you should have done. It’s good to see you again, sis. A bit weird considering the circumstances, but hey, can’t be too picky.” She shrugs.
“We saw you die! How can this be possible?” I shout, needing answers.
“See, my dear Gabe, I always had to live in Vivian’s shadow. Everything she did was perfect, all the guys wanted her, she was fun and beautiful with unique eyes and light blonde hair. She was pretty much perfect. Trent only wanted what was best for us, even if you didn’t see it that way. I was ready to accept what he had been planning for me, being married off to his VP, but then I got talking with Jared, he’s actually very sweet and lovely, unlike what you might be thinking, and we came up with a plan. The night of the little incident between him and Gabe, Jared called me afterwards, telling me what happened. When the Hangman decided to put their nose in our business, it was the perfect plan. The Hangman are so predictable and always looking for new members so we figured he would be recruited which made this plan even sweeter. We’d be getting what we wanted, me at the head of the Kings with Jared and the Hangman gone. Pissing you off would be just a bonus. At first, I was only supposed to seduce Gabe and make sure you knew I was interested in him and then we learnt that he had actually joined the Hangman, our plan was falling perfectly into place. We’d have our revenge on them and on Gabe for making the alliance with the Kings fall, well and on you too, darling Viv, since you’re the one who thought so highly of herself that she didn’t want Jared. It was fun to play this double life. Act like a love sick teen in front of you and be a freak in the sheets with this one behind closed doors.” She says looking at Jared. “It was getting hard to keep up with both of them. Both are very greedy but I’m sure you know that about Gabe. How does my sloppy seconds feel by the way?” She smirks at Viv. We both are appalled and shocked by what she’s telling us.