Sin I Rise: Part One (Sins of the Fathers 1)

“You’ve got to help me, Gray. I’ll die if I stay locked in here.”

Gray’s gaze flitted to Marcella and he narrowed his eyes. “You are the reason why we’re under attack. If I release you, you’ll only fight against us.”

“Gray,” I said imploringly, pressing tightly against the bars. “Earl set the dogs on me so they could tear me apart.”

Gray shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “He wouldn’t—”

“Do it? Come on, we both know that’s not true.”

Gray didn’t say anything, only watched Satan.

“We’re brothers. Do you really want me defenseless in a dog cage so Vitiello can tear me apart? You know what he did to my father. And he’ll do the same to me, no matter if I helped his daughter, which is all I did. You saw what Earl did to her. It’s not right. This has nothing to do with Vitiello. I still want him dead and won’t hesitate to kill him if given the chance.”

I needed to get through to Gray quickly before Earl spotted us, or my brother was hit by a Famiglia bullet.

He glanced back to the clubhouse then to me. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“You can,” I said fiercely, but I wasn’t sure he could. Right in this moment, my sole priority was to get Marcella to safety. Once that was taken care of, I’d do my best to help Gray. If something happened to him because of my betrayal, I’d never be able to forgive myself. I wanted him safe. I wanted a different life for him.

Gray took out his key chain, and I had to resist the urge to rip it out of his hand. Instead, I waited for him to unlock my cage. The moment the familiar click sounded, I shoved open the door and rushed to Marcella’s kennel.

“Now her.”

“No,” Gray growled. “I don’t care what happens to her. She ruined everything.”

“It wasn’t her fucking choice to be kidnapped by us.”

“But it was her choice to seduce you and mess with your mind. Before her, the club always came first. You lived for the club, for revenge, and now look at you.”

“You were never for kidnapping her. Look at her back!” I turned to Marcella. “Show him.”

She presented her naked, tattooed back to us. The sight still set my blood aflame with rage. The place between her shoulders was red and bloody, and Vitiello whore was written in ugly black letters across her skin.

Gray’s eyes widened and he swallowed.

“Gray, help me. Do you want an innocent woman’s death on your conscience?”

Screams rang out.

Gray turned back to the fights but I couldn’t allow him to leave with the keys. I lunged at him and grabbed his arm. “Give me the keys.”

He turned to me with a disbelieving expression. “I knew it!”

“You know nothing, Gray. Don’t be a sheep that blindly follows the herd into death. Leave while you still have the chance.”

“I won’t leave the club.”

I pulled him even closer. “Gray. Our club took a wrong turn when we kidnapped Marcella, but we sure as fuck went straight into hellfire territory when Earl started torturing her. Don’t tell me you’re suddenly okay with what happened?”

“No,” he growled. “I was against the kidnapping from the start but Earl’s the president of this club and it’s our job to follow his orders.”

Gray shook off my grip and stumbled away. I hoped he’d get on his bike and save his own ass. He was a good guy and didn’t deserve to go down with this club. If Vitiello got his hands on him, he wouldn’t show him mercy, even if he was still pretty much a kid.

I whirled around to Marcella’s cage. She stumbled toward the door when I unlocked it and fell into my arms. I kissed her fiercely, not caring about the bullets and screams. I needed another taste of her before I might never see her again. She briefly relaxed against me and time seemed to stand still. Nothing mattered but her lips, her body, the fire burning in her eyes. “We need to get you to your father,” I rasped.

“What about Satan?”

“Marcella, we can’t help her now. She’s too heavy for us to carry.” I linked our hands and guided her away from the cages. The other dogs had quieted and hidden in their huts. The vision in my left eye was still impaired. Maybe blood had dried on my eyeball, or the hit to my head had left lasting damage, I wasn’t sure. Marcella had trouble keeping up with my steps but she didn’t complain.

I spotted Gunnar and a couple of prospects storming out of the clubhouse and toward the fence, probably to defend our borders but knowing Vitiello’s numbers, I doubted they stood any chance. He would barrel right through us and would leave nothing in his wake.