Prologue

PROLOGUE

brITTA

“ W e’re gonna have to get you out of the city to keep you safe. Tommaso isn’t going to let you go unless it’s in a casket.” My best friend’s dad shifted his attention from my mom toward me. “And he’ll send your daughter with you because he’s a vengeful prick.”

I didn’t have big plans, but sitting by my mom’s bedside in the hospital was not how I wanted to spend my birthday. Most girls at my school dreamed about spending their sweet sixteen at a huge party where they were the center of everyone’s attention. Not me, though.

The thought of a bunch of people staring at me all night long gave me the heebie-jeebies. I had learned years ago that it was smarter to fade into the background. And I knew better than to hope for something that would never happen since my mom couldn’t afford to spoil me like that on what she earned as a bartender.

Considering the situation my mom had gotten us in, I would’ve gladly had every person from my school at a party where I stood naked on a stage while they stared at me all night long. Anything would’ve been better than my mom being beaten almost to death by her boyfriend.

“Whatever you think is best,” I replied before my mom could say anything. I didn’t trust her to make the right decision, especially when it had anything to do with one of her boyfriends.

My mom had the worst taste in men. My dad had bailed on her when she turned up pregnant with me, and each of the guys she got with since as far back as I could remember somehow managed to be worse than the one before. Her most recent boyfriend was awful enough that I’d been thinking about running away from home for the past few days.

I’d thought something was off about Tommaso the first time she’d introduced me to him, but Mom tended to see the best in the guys she dated. He was attractive, dressed well, drove a nice car, and took her out on nice dates…and that was good enough for her.

But his son made me really uncomfortable. He was four years older than me and watched me with too much interest. It gave me the creeps.

I wanted to kick myself for not noticing that he’d been hurting her. When she’d been admitted to the hospital a couple of months ago, she’d lied to me about her “accident.” There had been no car that had hit her, just Tommaso’s fists. And it wasn’t the last time.

After she was discharged, he kept the hits away from her face so that nobody would ask any questions, and she always had a handy excuse for why she was moving slower than usual. A twisted ankle because she was hurrying into work so she wouldn’t be late for her shift. A pulled muscle from lifting a keg when nobody else was around to help out during a busy Friday night. A strained back because she was getting up in years.

It wasn’t until I got the call that she was back in the hospital again that I learned she’d been hiding what he’d been doing to her. She hadn’t told me, even then. I’d overheard a couple of nurses whispering about how her injuries didn’t match up to the story she’d told and that they should probably call the police.

When I confronted my mom about it, she freaked out. I hadn’t understood why she didn’t want the cops involved. Why she wouldn’t dump Tommaso, no matter how much I begged her. All she’d said was that leaving him wasn’t possible and the police couldn’t help her.

I was only sixteen and had nowhere else to go, but the thought of spending the next two years watching my mom get beaten up by the guy who should’ve kissed the ground she walked on was almost more than I could bear.

With nobody else to go to, I called my best friend. Izzy’s dad was a biker and belonged to a motorcycle club. Rubble was sweet with me and Izzy, but he was also a big, intimidating man, and I had this wild idea that maybe he could warn Tommaso off so he’d leave my mom alone. An hour after my call, he showed up in my mom’s hospital room with three other guys who looked just as scary. He explained that he could get us safely away from Tommaso. Only then did my mom confess to everything that had been going on.

Tommaso wasn’t just an abusive boyfriend. He was the enforcer for a local crime boss. A group involved in smuggling drugs and…people.

Rubble moved quickly, sending one of the other bikers to grab our vital necessities before coming back to pick us up. The next thing I knew, he was sneaking my mom out of her room and down to a car idling at the curb in front of the emergency room entrance.

When we were safely in the back seat, he crouched low to stare into my eyes. “You’re not gonna be able to talk to Izzy again anytime soon, but I’ll let her know you’re safe. You can trust the guys I’m sending you to. They’ll look out for you and your mom.”

“Thank you.”

He dipped his chin to acknowledge my gratitude before slamming the door shut and pounding his fist against the roof of the car.

The driver peeled away, and Mom reached over to pat my thigh. “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess, sweetie.”

Staring out the passenger window into the darkness, I whispered, “It’s okay.”

It really wasn’t, but with one of her eyes almost swollen shut and the other bruises I’d caught a glimpse of when she’d been changing, I couldn’t bring myself to yell at her. She knew as well as I did that her choices had put us in danger. Pitching a fit, no matter how well deserved, wouldn’t do any good.

“It’s not.” She cast a furtive glance at the guy driving us away from the town I’d grown up in. “But I swear to you that I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re safe.”

The eight-hour drive to the tiny town of Old Bridge, Tennessee, wasn’t how I’d expected to spend my birthday, but I had nothing to complain about. After that long ride, I got the best birthday gifts I could’ve hoped for—freedom from Tommaso and meeting the man of my dreams.

Several members of the Iron Rogues chapter Izzy’s dad had sent us to were waiting up for us, but I only had eyes for one of them. Stone was tall and muscular, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. He was closer in age to my mom than me, but that didn’t stop me from falling for him at first sight. Or knowing that I was going to miss him so much when the president of his chapter decided we would be safer somewhere else. Even though he kept his distance from me during the few days we were in Tennessee, I could see the same spark in his eyes when he looked at me. Deep down in my soul, I knew this was more than a schoolgirl crush. We were meant to be together. I just hoped he felt the same way.