“Oh my god,” Lolita breathes. “Is she alive?”
“Yeah,” I grit out, brushing blood-matted hair from Amber’s face. “But barely.”
“She looks like she was worked over for hours,” LC mutters, crouching opposite me, jaw locked tight.
“She was dumped,” I growl. “Like trash.”
Quinn kneels beside me, steady and quiet. Her hand goes to my arm, “Let’s get her inside.”
“I’ll grab the med kit.” LC bolts toward the clubhouse.
Amber’s mouth moves. Her voice is a cracked whisper but I can’t hear her over all the commotion. I lean in closer. “Who did this to you?”
Her good eye flutters open. “Red-eyed snake…” and then it closes as quickly as the words leave her mouth. Her head lulls to the side.
I freeze. My pulse stalls.
Lolita kneels beside me. “What’d she say?”
“She said ‘red-eyed snake.’”
Quinn’s eyes meet mine. Cold. Calculating. “Does that mean something to you?”
I shake my head slowly, blood roaring in my ears. “No.”
We rush Amber inside. Riot’s perched on a barstool, her eyes going wide the second she sees her in my arms. I blink. Had Riot been here the whole time? Or did she just walk in? I file it away for now, Amber’s bleeding and that comes first.
“Riot, grab a blanket. She’s freezing.”
Amber barely stirs. Her head lolls against my shoulder as I lay her out gently on one of the long leather couches. Blood’s smeared down her temple, her lip’s split in two places. Someone worked her over good. But this wasn’t a fight. This was punishment. This was a message.
Quinn drops to her knees beside us with antiseptic, gauze and that clinical calm she’s always carrying when I can barely think straight. Amber twitches as I dab at the blood with gauze.
“No more… please. I did what they said…” she cries.
“Amber,” I murmur, crouching close. “You’re safe. You’re at the clubhouse. No one’s gonna touch you now.”
Her eyes open barely. They’re bloodshot, ringed in purple. She looks at me like she can’t believe that’s true.
She shudders, lips trembling. “I’m sorry. He said that if I didn’t show… they’d take someone else. Said girls disappear all the time.”
“Did Dante do this?” Quinn asks, sharp.
“No.” Amber tries to shake her head in slow motion. “Dante said I didn’t belong there.”
I exchange a look with Quinn and then LC. The shift in my gut is instant and sickening. Because this changes everything. If it’s not Dante Cross, we have a bigger problem on our hands.
Riot kneels beside me, her face pale. “Do you think this could be linked to the other girls?”
I blink. “What other girls?”
“A girl named Alicia was attacked at Cross’s place the other night and word on the street is girls have been disappearing for weeks.” Riot shrugs her shoulders as if what she’s saying is nothing, “That shit happens all the time on the street.”
Fuck.
This is bigger than I thought. I rise to my feet, my fists clenched. “I need to talk to Cross again.”
Quinn pushes to her feet. “You sure he’s not in on it?”
