Chapter Two

Savannah

WAKING UP, I'M still exhausted and feel as if I haven't slept in weeks. My eyes slowly slide open as pain fills my entire body. For several minutes, I can't remember what happened to me and why I'd feel as if I've been run over by a damn truck. The curtains are pulled shut in my room and I don't remember shutting them. Hell, I don't remember getting ready for bed or anything else. I try to think hard to remember anything, but the pain is the only thing I can focus on as the aroma of food starts to fill my room. Or the bedroom that I'm currently in. I'm in the downstairs bedroom and not my own room upstairs. There's no reason for me to be in this room. It was Valor's and I haven't stepped foot inside since the day he moved out. There's no reason to clean it or anything else when the girls and I have our rooms upstairs and no one ever stays here with us. What the fuck is going on?

Pushing myself up, I stifle the scream of agony that tries to erupt from me. If the girls are still home, I don't need them hearing me. Looking down at my body, I barely have any vision. My eyes feel swollen and what I can see is kind of blurry. It's just enough to make out bruises and cuts covering my body. Well, what I can see of my body. I feel a large bandage on my stomach and around my arm as I try to take in everything that's been done to me as the memory of what happened finally starts to penetrate my mind. Conrad showed up at my house and beat the hell out of me. He's responsible for the pain I'm currently in. Which means my sisters have found me after he beat the hell out of me. That's not anything I ever wanted them to witness because we got more than enough of that shit when we were growing up with our mother. My sisters deserve to have a sense of peace and not worry about their sanctuary being viciously taken from them by a monster.

Before I can move from the bed, the door of the bedroom opens and I look up to see Valor walking in toward me. Hurt and anger fill me as I take him in. His dirty blonde hair is still kept short on the sides and slightly longer on top of his head with the same color beard covering his face. Valor's beard is still neatly trimmed close to his face and has always been one of my weaknesses when it comes to the man in front of me. Even more tattoos cover his skin and he's gotten a little bigger than what he was before leaving Benton Falls. Valor looks fucking good and as if he hasn't missed anyone since leaving us all behind.

Right now Valor's wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and nothing more as he saunters to the bed next to me and sets down a tray of food. He used to walk around the same way when he lived here before and it always drove me mad because the man is sex on legs. His body might be lean, but you can definitely tell he's got muscles. Valor reminds me of a slightly bulkier version of a swimmer. Especially since his skin is always tan like he's been outside working every single day. I know he spends a fair amount of time outside, but the man has no tan lines and he doesn't walk around naked on a daily basis because that would be completely messed up if he did.

"What are you doing here?" I grit out between clenched teeth. My jaw is absolutely killing me from one of the many hits Conrad landed on me.

"I'm here takin' care of you. Ava called me when they couldn't get you to wake up. The second I got her call, I was on my bike and headin' this way. Slim and the guys brought Doc over to check you out and make sure you didn't have to go to the hospital for your injuries. He cleaned all the wounds, stitched up the ones that needed it, and wrapped your ribs. You've been beaten to hell, but everything will heal on its own given time. You're to rest and not be fuckin' around takin' care of your sisters while tryin' to recover," he tells me, sitting down carefully on the edge of the bed I'm in and brushing some hair out of my face.

Part of me really wants to lean into his touch because Valor has a way of calming me that I've never experienced before. However, I remember that everything he ever told me was a lie and the time we spent together didn't mean the same to him as it did me. I was never anything more than another notch on his bedpost along with the rest of the women he's been with over the years. Tears fill my eyes as I remember everything I've been through with Valor over the years and how much I've missed him since he left Benton Falls and started his life over in Pine View.

"Don't want you here," I tell him, trying to angle my body away from him and turn my back so I don't have to look at the man who once meant everything to me.

"Too bad, Love. I'm the one takin' care of ya and there's nothin' you can do about it. So, instead of bein' a brat, why don't you tell me what happened to ya. Who did this?" he asks me, taking a glass off the tray and holding out his hand with a pill in it as I look over my shoulder at him.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing, Valor. You don't get to know anything about me anymore. You made your choice and did more than enough to show me I mean absolutely nothing to you," I state, taking the pill from him along with the glass of orange juice as he looks down at me with confusion filling his face.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about, Love. I've been confused when it comes to you since the second you started pullin' the fuck away from me. What the fuck did I do so wrong?" he questions and I explode. There's no holding back telling him what I know because I can't hold it in any longer.

"You know, when I first moved here after being saved, I could tell that you wanted Kasey. Whenever the Wild Kings were here, you always followed her around the compound with your eyes and tried to get close to her. As long as Anthony wasn't around that is. Even knowing she was with another man, you still chose to love her and write her a ton of love letters. Letters I found when I came in here to grab your laundry. I didn't mean to read any of them, but I did. You've loved Kasey and there's no room in your heart for anyone else. I'm sure that hasn't changed even now when they've moved to Cedar Bay. I mean, she's closer to you again and you don't have to hide how you feel. Last I heard, Kasey was separated from Anthony.

"Then, I see you walking in the clubhouse with a house bunny who's soaked and getting you wet because you had your arm around her as you led her from the common room so you could fuck her. Don't even try to say you weren't gonna fuck her because you didn't have your cut or a shirt on. You must have started something in the common room and realized one of the girls could walk in so you moved her from there. I'm not fucking dumb and she makes sure to rub it in my face every single time I go to the clubhouse. That's the reason I'm barely there these days. So, Valor, you've more than made your feelings about me clear. I was nothing more to you than a woman you fucked a few times before moving on to the next one. You left and forgot all about us.

"The girls haven't heard from you since you walked away and moved to Pine View. I'm the one that's been there for them and consoled them when all they were doing was crying because they thought they did something wrong. I couldn't bring myself to tell them that you chose to leave them because we meant nothing to you," I tell him, tears falling down my face as I can't do anything to stop them from falling. I'm doing the one thing I told myself I'd never do and breaking down in front of the man who broke my heart so many years ago. The man who I can't get over no matter what I do and how many times I tell myself that he's no good for me.

"Fuck," Valor says before standing from my bed and walking out of the room to leave me all alone once again.

I should be used to Valor leaving me behind because it's the one thing I know he's good at. Valor likes to think that he's a good man, and deep down I really think he is. However, that doesn't mean he's good for me or someone I can have in my life because he's only going to break me repeatedly and I won't be able to stop him from doing it. Valor is the one person in the world besides my sisters who has that kind of power over me and there's nothing I can do to defend myself against him.

With tears still in my eyes, I slowly move over so I'm close to the tray of food he left me. Valor definitely knows how to cook. Hound made sure both boys could cook before they started Prospecting for the club. This morning he made me scrambled eggs with cheese in them, toast, and bacon. Everything is fucking amazing as I knew it would be. The eggs are light and fluffy with the perfect amount of cheese mixed in them and the bacon is crispy but not burnt. Add in the orange juice and it's the kind of breakfast we used to eat on a daily basis when Valor lived with us before moving away.

After eating and the medicine Valor gave me starts to kick in making the pain fade from my body, I start to fall asleep. It doesn't take long at all to fall into the abyss and dream of Valor and the life I thought we'd be living before I realized what a fucking liar he is.

I don't know how much time has passed since waking up and seeing Valor for the first time. The curtains still haven't been opened in the room I'm in so I have no clue what time it is. I know I've been awake a few times for lunch and then Shy helped me get cleaned up the best she could since I can't get any of the areas with stitches wet. Valor has been in a few times to make sure I'm taking my medicine and checking on me to see if I need anything else. Every single time he walks in the room, I tell him how much I want him to leave and he just ignores me as if I haven't said anything to him. I fucking hate that shit and he knows it. Valor is doing this shit to get on my nerves and it's working.

Every single time he comes in my room, he tries to get me to tell him what happened and who hurt me. Valor gets the same response every single time—silence or me telling him I don't have to inform him of anything going on in my life any longer. He still hasn't said a word about what I told him during breakfast and I know he won't bring it up until he's ready to talk about it. Valor kind of closed down when Hound died and Vault went off the rails because he couldn't do anything to protect his dad or get his brother out of his own head and fix the situation for him. Vault had to deal with his grief on his own and it tore Valor apart to see his brother fade to nothing.

My sisters have been in to see me for a few minutes once they got home from school. I did my best to reassure them that I'm okay and nothing will keep me down for very long. At the end of the day, they didn't believe me and there's nothing I can say to change their minds about how they feel. Honestly, I'm not okay and this shit is really taking a toll on me mentally because I swore I would never let a man break me and now two have done that very thing. Valor broke me when he left and I realized everything. Conrad broke me by being the first man in a very long time to put his hands on me in anger.

A knock on the bedroom door pulls me out of my head.

"Come in," I say, my voice barely more than a whisper because of the pain in my throat and the fact that I haven't taken a drink in a while.

Slim opens the door and sticks his head around the side without entering the room. He smiles at me and I can see the question in his eyes about coming in. With a nod from me, Slim walks in and gently closes the door behind him. I know my time of hiding the truth is up. He's gonna want me to talk about what happened and I won't lie to him. Slim has been a great man and done nothing but help my sisters and me since the day he saved us from being sold to the highest bidder.

"Darlin', you know we gotta talk about this, yeah?" he asks me, sitting down in a chair that was brought in the room by someone.

"Yeah," I say, wincing as my throat hurts more with every word I speak.

Slim hands over a cold bottle of water and I open it before taking a deep sip. I know I can't drink too much or I can get sick. But, my throat is so damn dry and I want to drain the bottle completely.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Slim asks me, keeping his voice gentle as if I'll cower away from him if he raises his voice.

"It took me a long time to even start getting over Valor after he moved to Pine View. Honestly, I'm still not over him and I don't think that's ever gonna happen. Anyway, I met this guy one morning when I went out to get a coffee after taking the girls to the summer camp they were in. I had the time and didn't want to make a pot when I got home from taking the girls to school. Anyway, this guy started talking to me in the line as we waited to order. I really wasn't interested in him and got a weird vibe from him, but I still made small talk as we waited. To me, there wasn't any harm in doing that because I wasn't ever gonna see him again. You know I don't usually go out for coffee or anything.

"Suddenly he started appearing at work and kept asking me out. Every single time I told him no. Finally, I gave in for some stupid reason. There were a few days between when I agreed to go out and when I'd finally have to do it. No, I don't have to go out with him, but I agreed so I kept my word. He kept trying to get me to send him sexual messages and I refused. I could tell how angry he was even through text messages when I wouldn't send him the kind of messages he wanted. That's not something I've ever done and I wasn't about to start with a man I got such a weird vibe from. Honestly Slim, I didn't want to go out with him, but I had already told him I would and couldn't back out.

"The day of our date finally arrived and he took me to Bottom's Up. Stryker and Killer were there when we showed up. I tried to ignore them the best I could because I knew I'd made a mistake in letting this guy pressure me into going out with him. Anyway, he got really mad when I refused to drink alcohol. You guys know I don't drink and I wasn't about to start that night. I'm not gonna turn into my mother and one of the ways I know to stop that from happening is by not drinking. He got loud when he got back from the bar because I was leaving. Told me I was a slut and his cock was better than the biker cock I'd been riding. That's when Stryker and Killer stepped in to get me away from him. They sent me home and beat the hell out of my date.

"I didn't see him after that. Even before, I didn't go anywhere other than work if I'm not here or at the clubhouse helping the ol' ladies. I thought everything was done with him and that he took Killer and Stryker beating the hell out of him to heart and would leave me alone. That's not the case. He was biding his time and showed up here. I told him you guys would kill him if he touched me and was told that none of you can touch him. So, he beat the fuck out of me and I have no doubt he's not done with me yet. I mean I somehow managed not to pass out until he left the house, but this guy doesn't seem like the type of man to take too kindly to giving up when he wants something. I'm so sorry, Slim," I tell him, crying as pain and fear fill me because I know without a doubt the club is going to take this on their shoulders and will seek vengeance for what's been done to me.

"You got nothin' to be sorry about, darlin'. The girls have cleaned up the house and thrown out everythin' that was too damaged to keep. Valor's been stayin' here on the couch and Chrome and Court have been outside the house. The four of you are never left alone if they need to get rest, the other guys come over and hang out so you girls are safe here. I know it's not gonna feel that way for you any longer. We can talk about movin' you once you're healed. Now, can you give me the guy's name? I can have Fox start lookin' into him with Kingston so we can figure out how to move forward with this situation," Slim asks me, a tender look on his face as concern fills his eyes and I play with the thin blanket covering me.

"His name is Conrad. His last name starts with an R, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm sorry I can't give you more than that. He refused to give me his last name for some reason," I inform Slim as I sink down in the bed further, completely drained after telling him what happened to me.

"It's okay, darlin'. I'm sure Fox can pull up security feeds and get the information he needs from them. Both outside the house and at Bottom's Up. You worry about relaxin' and gettin' rest. I think Shy is gonna take the girls tonight so you won't have to worry about them. They've been tryin' to get in here with you every time they think Valor isn't watchin'. She'll keep them occupied and let you heal in peace," Slim states, standing from the chair and looking down at me. "I know you don't want Valor here with you, but he has to be. I'm not gonna get into what happened between the two of you because it's none of my business. What I will say is the man has been distraught since showin' up here. He was ridin' so fuckin' fast, he almost made it in half the time it should take for the trip."

Without another word, Slim leaves me alone in the room and I close my eyes as the tears continue to roll down my face. Knowing that Valor risked his life to get to me when Ava called starts to thaw the ice that I've encased my heart in. The only reason he showed up is because the girls needed him. There's nothing between the two of us and that's how it will remain. I can't give him the power to break me all over again. That's the last thought I have before sleep pulls me under once again.