Payne (The Soldiers of Wrath MC: Grit Chapter Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

own.
    Hanging up the phone because she couldn’t stand it anymore, she left her apartment again, and threw away the cell.
    She needed to man-up, or quit being weak, that was for sure.

    * * *
    P ayne stared at the phone , wishing he could will Vicky to get back on the line, to talk to her. Instead, there was silence. Clara appeared before him, taking the phone from his hands.
    “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “It’s fine.” It wasn’t fine. He wanted to hurt someone.
    The club, they were all looking to him to lead them, and in the last four months, he’d done a fucking poor job of it. He couldn’t get his head in the game, and the only reason they had lasted this long was because there was no apparent threat. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to get all of them killed.
    Walking away from Clara, he made his way outside of the clubhouse into the open air. It always helped to clear his head. Staring up at the sky, he wondered what she was doing. Did she miss him? She sounded so sad on the phone, and yet she still wouldn’t come home.
    He didn’t get it.
    Brix came outside, leaning against the wall. “You love her?”
    “Yes, I love her. I fucking can’t stand living without her.”
    “The past four months you have fucked up, Payne. You’ve not made very good decisions. Men, they don’t know what to do to help you.”
    “You got a fucking point right now?” Payne asked.
    “No one has tried to take this from you. The club, it belongs to you. No one can lead like you. It’s time for you to go and get your girl.” Brix handed him a piece of paper.
    Payne frowned as he opened it up. It was Vicky, her employment papers at a care home.
    “She’s there, boss. The guys, we all trust you. We want to do what is best for you and the club. Let’s go and get your old lady.”

7
    H e was doing this , really fucking going to get his woman.
    My woman. My old lady.
    He stopped in front of the apartment building where she lived, his heart thundering, his need to go to her and demand she come with him riding every part of his body.
    He looked at King, who sat behind him, and saw Beast through the review mirror. They’d taken the SUV, because truth was Payne hoped he could talk Vicky into coming with him today.
    Once they knew where she was he’d gotten on the road and hadn’t stopped until he was here. She had stayed in the same town where they’d first looked, but she’d been keeping a low profile. It wasn’t until Brix started digging more that he realized she’d been staying in some rent-by-the-week motel, using an alias and living off her savings.
    But once she’d gotten a job and signed a lease for an apartment, she’d become a red flag when they’d finally found her.
    His heart was jackknifing in his chest, he was starting to sweat, and he realized it was because he was fucking nervous.
    Yeah. Him. Fucking nervous.
    “You got this,” King said beside him, but the other MC patch was looking out the passenger side window.
    “You know how she feels about you,” Beast said, “so all you have to do is grow a set and tell her how you feel.”
    Payne snorted. “How the fuck did you two become relationship experts?”
    “Because we finally found women in our lives that made us whole.” King was the one to say it. He turned and looked at Payne. “And once you have that in your life everything is right in the world.”
    “We have the MC, and that’s our life, but when you have the woman you love by your side, an old lady that will never let you down and will give you that love—” Beast shook his head. “—Fuck, men, it makes all the shit we’ve been through and done so worth it.”
    The silence stretched on for a second, and Payne let those words sink in. “Well, damn, that’s some heavy shit,” Payne muttered. Before he said anything else he took a deep breath and climbed out of the driver’s side of the SUV. He was going to bring Vicky home, because without her he felt empty.
    He went into the