Chapter 20
It took some force to get back her hand from Aleksei’s grasp, but Deva was damned if she would face her past clutching a security blanket.
The roaring of the bikes peaked outside before it ended abruptly. Everything in her was shaking, but when she looked down at her hands, they appeared steady. Facing the door, she took a step forward and waited. It was tempting to fidget, to smooth her blouse once more, but it wasn’t the image she wanted to project. She wasn’t Victoria Johnson anymore. Deva Landry had guts and courage, and that was what would show.
There was movement behind her, but as Hector and Aleksei didn’t react, she ignored it too, and instead schooled her features as Mex Johnson, the president of the Dark Blood Rows MC and the man that was her father, entered with three men on his heels. She may have recognized two of them, but it wasn’t important. The danger walked first.
Mex hadn’t changed much in all the years since she had seen him last. The only difference was that his dark hair had turned grayer. His tall body was still muscled and wiry, and his eyes were a golden brown, always assessing, and evaluating.
When his gaze locked with hers, Deva almost hoped to see recognition or even happiness in them. Some sort of relief to know that his daughter, his only remaining child, was alive and well. Instead, his expression was closed off, but not before she detected annoyance and calculation. She had escaped the man ten years ago, fighting for her life and freedom, but the little girl inside her hoped nonetheless. It sliced her heart into shreds, but it wasn’t a surprise.
Her father stopped about six feet from them, and his attention was definitely more on Hector than her.
“Nazario. I didn’t think I would see you here. I heard about the Russian, but are you banging my daughter too?”
Deva blinked and shook her head. “Well, Father. It’s been ten years. Not only do you not acknowledge me with your first words, but you managed to insult me as well.” This time, her father’s eyes zeroed in on her, and there was no tenderness in them. “You shouldn’t be allowed to speak to me. Not after all you’ve done, and the mess you left me with.”
“The mess? Are you referring to my father arranging a forced marriage to settle a difference with another MC? And even worse, to have arranged for me to have sex with him before the agreement was settled?”
Aleksei hissed behind her, but she ignored him.
“There is nothing wrong with a man having a taste before the big day.”
Deva closed her eyes as more and more of her father came back to memory. “I don’t know what my mother saw in you. You are disgusting.”
“At least your mother knew where her duty lay. Unlike you.”
Anger spiked in her. “I seriously doubt she would have let her daughter be sold like cattle and turned into a whore.”
Johnson crossed his arms. “That wasn’t the deal! You were to become a wife, not a prostitute. A marriage was planned and agreed on.”
“You don’t know what the deal was for me! And I agreed on nothing.” And now she was screaming, and it was liberating. “All you cared about was your power, your men, and your motorcycles. Your flesh and blood weren’t even worth your care and attention.”
“You never lacked for anything. You were protected.”
Deva cringed and forced her tears back. “Protected? You forbidding me to attend school was protection? Slapping me around when I didn’t behave like a porcelain doll was protection? Threatening me with the most god-awful punishments if I ever crossed the line? Was that how you protect a little girl? One so desperate to please you, to be loved by you? Still grieving her mother?”
“Sacrifice and duty! You were born into this family, into this MC, you must abide by those rules as without them only lies chaos and death.”
Determination flowed back in her veins. “Not anymore.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, Daughter.”
As a single unit, her father and his men drew their weapons and pointed them at her, Hector, and Aleksei. She heard rustling from behind her and quickly turned to see Aleksei and Hector pointing their guns back, and behind them were a few more men, probably Hector’s.
“Nazario, I never took you for a turncoat.”
“And I never took you for a slave owner, Johnson. I suggest you leave now.”
Mex barked a laugh. “Not without her.”
Aleksei hissed and took a step forward. Mex’s gun changed its target from her head to the Russian’s.
“Careful, Aleksei. Finch may have told me not to kill you, but I may be tempted to forget my promise if you don’t let me recover what’s mine.”
And again, Finch’s name came up. “So, it’s Finch who told you I was back. And what has he promised you in exchange for me? Or maybe the question would be, what did you promise him in exchange for the information?”
Her fathers focus returned to her, and she wasn’t about to let it go. “I see, this is no friendship, and I suspect you had to compromise, if not sacrifice, a whole lot, haven’t you?”
