Free Warlord (Anathema Book 1) by Lana Grayson Page A

hands. He headed for the door, and I nipped at his heels.
    “It’s just for
one night!”
    “It’s not up to
us,” he said.
    “What do you
mean it isn’t up to you?”
    Keep rummaged in
my fridge and downed a can of pop. I much preferred him drinking Coke to the
alternatives.
    He crushed the
can in his hand. The crackling echoed like snapping bones. “Thorne decided
he’ll be the one to keep an eye on you.”
    I dropped my
purse. “Thorne?”
    Keep nodded
once.
    “You can’t be
serious.”
    “Sorry, Bud.”
    “But what does
he want with me?”
    Keep couldn’t
meet my eye. “He said he’d keep you safe.”
    “Why can’t you
keep me safe?”
    “That wasn’t his
motion.”
    “Oh, Christ,
Keep.” I shifted away, nearly collapsing on the couch. “What’s he want in
return for protecting me?”
    Neither of my
brothers spoke. The silence sizzled, broken only by my ruptured breathing.
    “You wouldn’t
let him,” I whispered. “If he tried, you wouldn’t let him. Right?”
    “He won’t hurt
you,” Brew said.
    I shivered. “Don’t
do this.”
    “He’s offering,
you can’t refuse, let’s just go.”
    I shook my head,
digging my fingers into the couch. “Don’t you dare make me.”
    Keep tried to
mediate. He failed. “He’s not going to do anything that would hurt the club.”
    “What about
hurting me?” My words pinched into a whimper. “You wouldn’t whore out your own
sister.”
    Brew picked up
my bags. “Let’s go.”
    “How could you?”
    “Now, Rose.”
    “ I don’t
believe you .”
    He didn’t meet
my eyes. “Don’t make me carry you too. I’ll toss your ass in the trunk with the
luggage.”
    I seized a
desperate breath. The last taste of my freedom, and I hyperventilated over it. I
trusted my brothers. I loved them. And even if I feared them, I dreaded what
might happen to them so deep inside the club. I never thought they’d hurt me.
    I never thought
they’d let something like this happen.
    That they could be
so cruel.
    As cruel as him.
    “If you make
me...” The words silenced themselves. “I will never forgive you.”
    Keep picked up
my purse and strung it over my shoulder. He wrapped an arm around my waist.
    “It’s for your
protection.” Keep pulled me to the door. “Come on. He’s waiting.”
    I had prayed for
protection for so long, the words practically carved within my soul. I just
never thought I’d need to be protected again.
    Not since Dad
went away. Not since I forgot that nightmare. The fears flooded back to me.
    Terrified of my
own brothers. Of a mistake I didn’t know I made. Of a life I had no choice to
live.
    And now?
    It was right to
fear the man offering to protect me.
    But how
frightening was what he protected me from?

 

     
     
    Thorne Radek
murdered three men before he turned twenty.
    He also broke
his arm playing kickball with my brothers when they were ten.
    He ruled Anathema
like a warlord laying siege to a rebellious village, leaning into the sharpened
blade when Exorcist announced the creation of The Coup with his dagger at
Thorne’s neck.
    And my mother had
loved him like another son.
    The worst part
about Anathema’s dedication to family was how intertwined the MC was within my
own. I knew things I shouldn’t, I kept quiet when I should have screamed, and I
accidentally lived outside the law because that was my life.
    The presents
under the Christmas tree were stolen from other children. I rode my bicycle to
the club dealer to help poison my mother. My dollhouse hid ammo. My vocal
instructor taught me because it was cheaper than buying four new tires after
ducking a rehearsal.
    The men in my
family twisted in crime, ruled a part of the city most people didn’t know
existed, and feared only the day they took their last ride. They didn’t believe
in hell or conformity. Brotherhood was everything.
    The men I
trusted most I also feared. And the man who created us, who was supposed to
love and protect us, reveled in his sin. But