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Chapter 1

“Do you think Willa would like this one?”

Bliss looked up from the mound of scarves on the display table to the one Ginny was holding up The pale colors and pretty pattern would suit Willa, but the scarf was lame Bliss didn’t voice her opinion, however Instead, she said, “She’ll love it”

Bliss hated scarves unless they were tied around her wrists The thought had her turning from the table to cross to the one with the Christ under the store lighting One in particular with glittering reds and golds caught her eye It was a golden Christ red ornaments

Christ earlier every year It wasn’t even Halloween yet, and stores wanted everyone to start their holiday shopping

It wouldn’t be long before the women at the clubhouse put up the Christmas tree As soon as Halloas over, Raci wouldthe artificial tree out of the attic Rider would steal kisses as he helped decorate Train would hang back and do what no one else wanted to do, storing all the boxes ahen they were done Viper and Winter would laugh and tell the the tree The otherup so early then move into the kitchen and make apple cider punch, which they would drink Then the decorating party would become a fuck-fest that would take them a couple of days to recover from

Bliss blinked back the water that had forood, and she certainly wasn’t going to shed tears in public That lesson had been deeply ingrained in her before she kne to talk

As a child, whenever she cried, it was quietly and efficiently dealt with by her et them thrown out of whichever hoht Left with three mouths to feed after their father had died from a heroin overdose, her mother couldn’t afford to keep a roof over their heads and went froe together went to feed her own heroin addiction instead of ht

She was good at pretending to be clean around others, but her mother didn’t keep the pretense up in front of her children Child and Fa her brothers when she was four, telling her crying mother they needed school and she couldn’t financially care for three children anyway They promised, as soon as she was back on her feet, she could try for custody again It never happened Most of her h her veins, and as left went to providing them hat food or clothes they needed

To her dying day, Bliss would rereen-eyed brothers, both of the them away from their sister Neither had cared about theirfor her, and as a result, they hadn’t wanted to let her go

Her lips tightened Brand and Stone were the only ones who had ever loved her, and she had lost them, just as she had lost Shade Everyone she loved had been taken away from her She should’ve been used to it, but with each loss, it became harder to remember what it felt like to actually be happy She became more bitter and felt as if her heart had been packed in ice

Her thumb brushed over the small necklace Before she had been thrown out of The Last Riders motorcycle club, she would have pouted until Train, Rider, or Crash bought it for her, even though she could easily afford it herself Viper, the club president, made sure each of the members could afford whatever they wanted

Bliss had a hefty as account, which she refused to touch When she was old and er wanted her, she would be able to care for herself, unlike her own hhabit

By the time she was fifteen, her mother had become a club whore for the Devil’s Rejects When her mother hadn’t returned home for teeks, she had been thrown out of the tiny room her mother rented at a hotel, and Bliss had to track her down at the clubhouse

Once there, her mother refused to leave Stark, the club president, proht He swore to keep the men away from her She should have known better