The Cut by Carol Lynne: Kings of Bedlam MC Series, Book One Read Online Free PDF

to concentrate on the view behind the house. Front porches were welcoming, and he didn’t give a shit about welcoming anyone. In fact, he preferred people left him the fuck alone when he was at home.
    After tossing his empty beer bottle in the trashcan, he grabbed a hammer out of his toolbox. As he returned the nail in the porch’s floor to its rightful place, he couldn’t help but think of Santana’s roof and that damned blue tarp. Didn’t she have a boyfriend or someone who could help her keep up the house? The place had always been a shithole, but from the look of it, he was amazed it was standing at all.
    Weighing the hammer in his hand, he considered stopping by and helping out. Although Smash’s betrayal had gutted him, Stake knew it wasn’t Santana’s fault, Ellie’s definitely, but no way was that sweet girl guilty of anything.
    Tormented by the thought of Santana living in the crappy house next door to Gordon, he swung the hammer and put a quarter-sized dent in the porch floor. “Fuck!”
    * * * *
    “Come on, Mama, just two drinks, and I’ll leave you alone,” Santana pleaded. She held the glass to her mom’s lips and waited for her to take a sip. The fact that it wouldn’t be long before her mom was gone was really starting to sink in. Dr. Braverman had told her that once Ellie stopped eating, she’d only have a matter of weeks. Well, it was the third week of forcing the vitamin drink down her mother several times a day and it was getting harder each time.
    Ellie pushed the drink away from her mouth and pressed her lips together.
    Santana sat back in the kitchen chair she kept beside her mom’s bed. “Oh, mama.”
    “Go,” Ellie croaked, her voice so dry and weak Santana barely understood her.
    How many times had she wished she could do just that? Unfortunately, her heart was stubborn, and no matter how much she wished she didn’t love people who were incapable of loving her back, she did. “Can I come back before I go to bed and try again?”
    Ellie shook her head in reply.
    Trapped somewhere between hurt and pissed, Santana stood. She left the room without turning off the bedside lamp. Yes, it was a childish thing to do, but she allowed herself the satisfaction after the day she’d had. Seeing Stake after so many years had really fucked with her emotions. While her heart sang when he’d run to her aid earlier, the rest of her resented him for witnessing the truth of what her life had been reduced to. It was harder to accept kindness when you knew it could be snatched away at any moment. So, she’d resorted to using the defense she’d honed over the years. She’d never have the strength to physically challenge a man, but she’d sharpened her tongue after years of practicing on those in town who thought to keep her down.
    She poured the expensive vitamin drink back into the bottle before moving into the living room. She slid a VHS tape into the old player and settled on the sofa. She’d discovered the tape in her dad’s trunk, but hadn’t had the guts to watch it. With thoughts of Stake still fresh in her mind, she decided it was time. According to the piece of tape stuck to the side, it was the Kings of Bedlam Fourth of July Picnic. She didn’t know what year, but at the moment it didn’t matter. All she really wanted was to be reminded of the life she used to have. It had never been perfect, far from it actually, but it had been hers, and she’d felt safe.
    Her father had always been mean. In his own way, she assumed her father had loved her, but when she’d been young, it had been Stake who’d intervened when Smash had so often punished her. Stake who’d picked her up from wherever she’d run off to and took the time to care for the belt wounds on the backside of her body. Everyone in town knew how far Smash went with his punishments, but Stake had been the only one brave enough to go up against her father after one of his infamous whippings. She’d never understood how a man