“Your cop family, who you’re still fucking close to!” he spat.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t have any ties to my family anymore, Scott. Except for an aunt who also has no ties to them.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me, Griff!” he roared. “I’ve seen photos of you meeting with your cop cousin – this fucking week.”

“Did Ricky tell you about the Bond case? I assume that’s how he found out my past.”

“No. He only filled me in on your true identity.”

“Danny, my cousin, asked me to investigate the murders of Leon Bond and his girlfriend. With Bond being a high profile drug dealer, Danny wanted the real murderer exposed, but didn’t have faith in his team to do that because he’d discovered his partner was dirty. I’d just come back to Brisbane to look into Marcus, and Danny decided I was the only person he could trust. Foolishly, I agreed to do it.” I raked my fingers through my hair as I recalled the investigation. If I could go back and change anything in my life, taking on this case would be it. “In the course of my investigation, I witnessed another murder, and long story short, that’s coming back to bite me in the ass because it’s key evidence in the Bond case now and they want me to testify. That’s why I met with Danny this week. To tell him to back the fuck off and that there’s no way in hell I’m getting on that stand.”

Scott stared at me in silence as he took all that in. Eventually, he said, “Jesus, Griff, what a shit fight.” He appeared to have calmed down a little, almost as if he was reconsidering his anger at me, but wasn’t sure whether that was the right move.

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it is. You’ve gotta believe that while I did mean to deceive you to get into Storm - and I don’t regret that because I had to do what I did for my family - I wish it could have all happened under different circumstances. My loyalty lies completely with Storm now.”

With wary eyes, he said, “I’m gonna need some time to work through this. To be honest, I’m knocked for fucking six and don’t know what to make of it. I trusted you, one hundred fucking percent, and now that trust is gone, and I’m not sure where that leaves us. I can’t have a VP I don’t trust. And I’m not sure the boys would want a member they can’t trust to remain part of the club.”

His words gutted me.

Threatened to destroy me.

Without Storm, I had nothing.

I was nothing.

As the ghosts of the past circled, and the demons clawed at the soul I did have left, I swallowed back my fear and nodded. No words came, though. There were none left to say. Scott would make up his own mind, regardless of anything more I might say.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said before turning on his heel and walking out of the room.

I stood staring at the nothingness in front of me.

Scott had been the one person I’d hoped would understand.

Instead, he’d walked out.

And my faith in family died the death it should have had years ago.

15

Sophia

I dumped my gym bag on my bed, stepped out of my gym clothes and hit the shower. It had been a long ass day and I needed an equally long shower to wash it all away. After my encounter with my flat tyre and Griff this morning, things had not improved. Andrew had been in a bad mood all day at work and had taken it out on me, especially after I ditched half the day yesterday without informing him. He’d been pissed off about that and I’d had to listen to a fifteen-minute talking-to from him about it. Then, after work, Magan had informed me how disappointed our mother was that I was yet to visit her. And to top it all off, I’d had a run-in with a bitch at the gym over using one of the machines. She didn’t want to share and I refused to back down. Today was not a day I would let anyone walk all over me, and I’d stood my ground with her.

After fifteen minutes of standing in the shower and letting the hot water seep into my muscles, I stepped out and dried off. Then I dressed in shorts and a tank and padded into the kitchen to make dinner. It was late – just after eight – and I was starving. However, a knock at the front door interrupted me.

I opened the door, surprised to find Josie on the other side, smiling at me. “Hi, Josie,” I said warmly.

“May I come in?” she asked, but I sensed that with Josie, the answer ‘no’ wasn’t even an option.

I let her in and led her into my lounge room. We settled ourselves on my couch and I asked, “What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Michael.”

Griff.

“Okay,” I said slowly, not sure where she would take this.

Her face softened but there was a seriousness to it I’d never seen from her before, as if what she was about to tell me was one of the most important things she’d ever tell me. “Michael feels something for you. I’ve never seen him the way he is with you, and I wanted you to know that.”

I frowned. “No, he doesn’t. He’s attracted to me, but he’s not interested in pursuing a relationship with me.” At the frown that appeared on her face, I added, “Trust me, Josie, he and I have discussed it. At length. There’s no way anything will happen between him and me.”

“But you want something to happen?”

“I’m interested. There’s something about him that makes me want to see if we’d be any good together.”

The frown left her face and was replaced with a smile. “You’re going to have to be the one to make the first move, my dear. Michael’s a stubborn man and doesn’t know what’s good for him most of the time.”