“What was up there?” I ask again.

“Letters.” Is all he says.

“I want to see.” I release myself from his arms but Devlin grabs onto my wrist to stop me.

“I don’t think you should babe.” He insists and by the look on his face, I know he’s only looking out for me.

“I have to.” I cry, tears dripping down my cheeks.

“Then I’m coming with you.” He holds onto my hand as we climb the stairs and I slowly walk into my room.

There on the bed I spot the letter that is hand written. There’s no confirmation that Strike actually had written this by his hand, but there’s no doubt that the words written down are from his mouth. I can hear him speaking them into my ear as I read.

My dear little Silver. Why have you run from me? My hands are itching to slice into your sweet skin again. I need you Silver, you’re the only one who can take my lashes. Nobody compares to you. I will get you again because you deserve to be sliced and diced for running away from me!

Be prepared for me Silver, because I will get you back and when I do, you will bleed and I will love every fucking second of it.

My hands shake as I read the last words and I drop it. I don’t even want to touch the paper where his words lie. His promises are real, there’s no question about that and that’s why I’m terrified.

“From now on, you’re always with me.” Devlin orders.

I don’t even bother to argue, I don’t care. I agree with Devlin, I should stay by him because it’s the safest I’ll ever be.

Lauren appears at the door, her face is pale white with tears streaming down and in her hands is a piece of paper. Lauren spots the paper on my floor and frowns down at it. I hold out my arm to her and she runs towards me. We hold each other for a little while.

“He said that he needs me back Tash.” She shows me her letter and reads mine as I do hers.

Lauren’s letter is much nicer than mine, Strike does demand she come back to him so he can fuck her while making her back bleed. He’s not romantic and loving, but by Strike’s standards, he adores Lauren. If he got his hands on her, he would treat her badly of course, but he would treat me worse. He loves giving me pain and making me bleed, hell he actually left me for dead once when he gave me the scar on the back of neck.

He can’t get us again, he can’t win and I won’t let him get to us. Especially Lauren! I won’t let him live his sick fantasy and have Lauren to himself. In his letter to Lauren, he promises to not let her be locked in a room again. She would have to live by the rules and live a miserable life, but the way he makes it sound as if it’s an amazing deal for her. I can’t let him get his hands on Lauren.

When Lauren reads my letter, she’s cries out and holds me tight. The men around us look at us as if we’ve just been handed our death sentence and we pretty much have.

“Come on, we’re going on lockdown.” Grim demands.

“You asked dad about that?” Baby asks.

“I don’t need to, I’m VP and if I think it’s the safest for everyone in this club and their families then lockdown is what we’re fucking doing.” He gets out his phone, telling Franky exactly what they think they should do as Lauren and I pack some things. We don’t know how long we will be kept in the clubhouse for.

Devlin becomes impatient as he watches over me, but I just ignore him because he’s just as scared as I am.

When we get to the clubhouse, it’s pretty much already packed full of families. Looks like Franky agreed with Grim. I don’t even have time to take my bag to Devlin’s room before Elise and Drew rush towards Lauren and I. They are both crying and I try to calm them but it’s no use. I’m as scared as they are.

Elise pulls back, her face has no make-up whatsoever on and her hair is pulled into a messy ponytail. Elise is a girl who takes a lot of pride of how she looks, so I know she’s too upset and panicked to bother with her appearance today. Scrappy rushes over to her, looking her over and holding her tight. He’s going to be just as worried, his baby sister was taken by the Devils and thanks to her, and Lauren and I were rescued.

“You didn’t have anything did you?” Scrappy asks her.

“What do you mean?” She asks, looking at all of us.

So they don’t know that we got letters from Strike? We tell them everything that has happened and their faces show their horror.

“No.” Elise shakes her head. “I didn’t have anything.”

“Thank god.” I sigh.

If Elise also had something from Strike I don’t know how I’d react. She’s too young and delicate to have to be connected to that man. Scrappy holds her again, kissing her on her head and hiding his tears from us all.

Nelly and Maci turn up, looking as sad as everyone else. Nelly’s in bits, she was the closest to Marie and I feel so awful for her. I look over to Lauren and I imagine her in Marie’s place and my heart shatters so much that my hand unconsciously covers my heart. God I feel so sick! I can’t even handle looking at Nelly anymore, Marie was killed as a diversion to get to me and Lauren.

The old ladies rush over and fuss over Carl and Lorena. This is when the tightness of club family life is so amazing. At hard times like this, everyone comes together. I decide now is the perfect opportunity to hide away in Devlin’s room.

“Where are you going?” Devlin soon approaches me.

“Going to put my bag away.” And to have some alone time I silently add inside my head. The way that Devlin looks at me makes me feel as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“Let’s go and take a minute.” He takes my bag from me and leads me to his room and on the way we pass the room I stayed in with Lauren when we first arrived. Smiling sadly I carry on and when we make it to the privacy of Devlin’s room I literally breathe a massive sigh of relief. I didn’t realise how many eyes were looking at me out there.

Devlin throws my bag onto the floor and walks towards me, hooking his thumbs into my jeans. “My wish has come true.” He grins.

“What wish?”

“The one where I wanted you to move into my stylish room with me.” He wiggles his eyebrows and I laugh. It’s feels good to laugh.

Devlin rids me of my jacket and shoes, lying me on the bed and I watch him and he takes off his leather cut and boots. When he lies beside me I stroke the tattoos on his arms and my heartbeat slows. Devlin strokes my hair and it’s not long until my eyes become heavy and I welcome sleep.

As soon as Natasha falls asleep I know. Her body relaxes and her breathing gets heavy and slow. I continue to hold her, taking advantage of looking at her gorgeous face while she sleeps. If she knew I did this, fuck she would make fun of me.

I knew she wanted some space I could see it in her eyes, she looked so tired. Everything caught up with her and I wanted to take care of her.

I’m so fucking glad she didn’t listen to me, I’m relieved that she wasn’t in that house. Thinking about what could have happened to her makes me hold her that little bit tighter. I feel so bad for Spliff, he’s a good man and Strike’s gone and murdered his wife. I smile from the memories that spring to mind of Marie, she was one of kind.

Unfortunately, Marie wasn’t the only casualty. We’re down two prospects because Strike decided to put a knife to their throats when he found them watching him. One of our brothers, Big John was also put down by the Devil scum but on the plus side, Messy lived. Don’t get me wrong, he’s in bad shape, much worse than when we found West outside his home. Messy was so bad that my dad thought he was dead, so did College, the clubs doctor because he was so messed up.