Free Defying Destiny (Forsaken Sinners MC Series Book 3) by Shelly Morgan Page A

even a fraction of what I’ve been feeling for the past two years. Pain. Anger. Hate. But fuck, that slap across my face hurt, even though I deserved it and probably so much more.
    Licking my lip, I taste blood. I figured it broke open because it stung like a bitch, and tasting the blood only confirms it.
    Since I got the news two years ago, I haven’t been thinking rationally about anything. Not like I’ve ever really made good decisions, but it’s even worse now. I know that if they only knew what I was going through or what happened, that things would be different, that they could and would help me. But I’m not ready to share that with them, I don’t know if I ever will be able to. Their pity would just be too much and they won’t understand. Sure, they’ve all been dealt a shitty hand in life in their own way, but nothing like what happened to me. It’s just not the same. There’s no way they will be able to understand.
    A few minutes later, I come up to an old playground. It looks like it hasn’t seen any playtime from a child in ages. It’s all rundown and broken—just like me.
    Something pulls me closer and makes me stop at the swings. I feel a connection to this place, or at least to a memory of a place like this, but I don’t want to think about that. I don’t want to think about coming here with my brother or the feelings of being carefree, loved, and not alone. And I sure as shit don’t want to think about how it makes me feel now that all of that is gone. I just want to sit down and forget everything, if only for a few minutes.
    Taking a seat on one of the swings, I close my eyes and give myself a little push until I start to gently swing. It’s peaceful sitting here alone. With the outside world shut out.
    But then the memories take hold and I can picture myself years ago—as a little girl, begging to go higher. I wanted to touch the sky, but as soon as I got that extra push I needed, I was so scared, crying, begging to stop. I didn’t want to fall, but there was always a voice saying, “You won’t fall, Princess, I’ll never let you go.”
    In the quiet of the night, I can almost hear it now.
    “Harlow?” Hearing my name snaps me back to the here and now, where I’m once again alone. Where I feel the pain and anger and hatred.
    I don’t need to open my eyes to know who’s here with me. It should shock me that he followed me, but deep down I think I knew he would. That I needed him to.
    Louie won’t let me go far, at least until we talk about what happened all those years ago, the night before my world ended. I should have pulled him aside as soon as I was back and got it out of the way, that way nothing would hold me here anymore, but I suppose I was afraid. Afraid to end whatever it is that’s going on, afraid to not have anyone again, even if I don’t really have him in the first place. But mostly, I think I was afraid to end the one thing holding me here. Him .
    “Come to scold me for what I said at the shop?” I calmly ask, needing to keep the edge in my voice. I pray it will push him away, but dread it at the same time.
    And there’s also a part of me that knows I deserve his scolding and his anger. I deserve that and so much more. He should hate me. I want him to hate me. It would make this so much easier. I only wish I could convince myself that it wouldn’t crush me, that I don’t care if he never wanted to speak to me again after tonight. But I do.
    “No.”
    “Then you’ve come to talk about what happened with us before I left?” I ask the next question with a little more heat, but also with hesitancy because as much as I know we need to talk about it, I don’t want to. I just don’t have it in me to fight anymore though, so I guess it’s gonna happen whether I want to or not.
    “Nope,” he says, which makes me open my eyes to look at him.
    Once he sees my eyes on his, he adds, “Not yet, anyway.”
    Well, at least he’s honest. Just not sure what it is he