Give Me a Reason (Redemption Hills 1)

Cutter is set on taking back what he thinks was stolen from him. Rebuilding his MC while cutting down their old enemies…and their friends. He wants supremacy. He wants revenge.

He wants Trent.

Cutter and three others are in Redemption Hills. Plotting and planning. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike Trent down.

Trent doesn’t know. Warn him. Call the police and get to a safe place. Please, please, please be safe. These people are not human, Eden. They’ll hurt anyone who gets in their way.

My phone is being monitored, and I’m praying these letters are getting to you. I wanted to tell you sorry to your face, but now all I can do is pray that I haven’t stolen another part of your heart.

Warn him, Eden.

Save him.

Love him.

Love Gage, too.

And in the end, remember that I love you. Just like I will forever remember your love for me.

Harmony

I dropped to my knees.

Gutted.

Shattered.

A sob ripped from my aching, raw throat, and I tried to find the air to breathe.

It hurt everywhere.

The sorrow had seeped all the way to muscle and bone.

She’d cost so much. But now I understood. I understood.

I scrambled to my purse to get to my phone, half walking, half crawling.

I dragged it onto the floor from where I’d left it on the counter and dialed Trent’s number for what had to have been the hundredth time in twenty-four hours.

He hadn’t returned a single call other than the one text saying he’d known he would ruin it.

Still, I’d tried. Tried to break through the barrier.

Each time, it would crush me all over again.

But this time, this time I choked on the fear. “Trent. Oh God, please answer.”

It beeped to leave a message. “Your father…he’s alive.”

I ended the call and forced myself into action, dialing 911 as I raced from the house and to the car.

I started it and flew out in reverse, then rammed down the accelerator when I put it in drive.

“Trent, my sweet warrior. Please.” I prayed it as I gunned it, needing to get to him as quickly as I could.

I had to warn him.

Needed to see him.

The operator came on and I explained the best that I could, all while my heart beat out ahead of me as I sped in the direction of his house.

And I realized right then, I no longer had any questions about this man. His intentions or who he was or his involvement with my sister.

I had one truth—one reason—I loved him, and I would do anything to protect him, too.

Forty

Trent

Cutter stood at the end of my car. A gun in his hand and hatred in his eyes. He no longer had a beard. My gaze dropped to the left side of his neck where the skin was mangled and scarred.

Distorted and disfigured.

But that wasn’t what made him ugly. This nasty, vile creature standing there. No, it was the maliciousness lining his insides.

How the fuck was he still alive?

“Ah, don’t look so surprised to see me, son.” He cracked it. A taunt. A sneer. “Didn’t you miss your dear old dad?”

His body rippled with aggression.

With hate.

While I reeled.

Awareness slowly caught up. Every nerve in my body fired. Muscle binding and twisting.

My eyes scanned. Calculated. Searching for a way to get out of this when I had a gun pointed at my face.

Funny how things turned out that way.

Running and running and running, and I’d ended up in the exact same fucking place.

The wickedness abounding. Clawing and eating and decaying.

Guessed it was grief that slipped down my spine and stirred in my stomach. Fact I’d done it all wrong. All along. Regret after regret.

“Put a bullet in you,” I grunted.

Cutter laughed a disgusted sound. “You didn’t think I’d go out so easily, did you? Guess you should have been a better shot.” He tsked. “And here you were supposed to be the best.”

“And what…you crawled out of the sea like the snake you are and waited for the chance to strike?”

He hiked a shoulder. “Was never going to let you get away. Not from the beginning. Not when your bitch of a mother was gonna run off with you or when you decided to run off with that lying whore.”

Shock punched me in the chest. A full body blow. Kind that stumbled me back as my head dropped and my eyes squeezed shut for the quickest beat.

As the meaning of his words came to fruition.

Hatred heaved from my throat, my voice twisted with horrified disbelief.

With my stupidity.

With a brand-new grief.

“Mom.”

Chuckling, Cutter looked at me like I was ignorant.

Stupid.

I had been.

God, how did I miss it? All those fucking years chasing down a demon when he’d been standing right in front of me.

Had to force myself to remain still. Not to get knocked to the side like a fist had just landed on my jaw. Or just go running straight for Cutter when he’d pull that trigger if I so much as moved an inch.