“No,” Cash ordered firmly. “Pulling rank, kid. No one fucking knows until we know what the hell is going on.”
“I can’t not tell him this. Ravage is important to the club.”
“Don’t give a fuck. Put the phone away, or I will break it.”
Sypher gulped and did what he was told.
The air in the room grew thick with tension as everyone scrambled to prepare for the inevitable storm. I scanned each monitor, desperately searching for any sign of movement, any clue that could lead us to Grace and Karlyn. Panic simmered beneath my focus, threatening to break through as I realized how little time we truly had. Every second felt like an eternity, and failure was not an option.
As time quickly ticked by, I made a note of every movement, every gesture, every person in Trudy’s before the Death Dogs attacked. My mind was a whirlwind of observation, a finely tuned instrument. Every detail was cataloged, filed away for later use, for the protection of myself and those I cared about. It was a skill I’d honed, a necessary evil in this world. Then, I saw Sypher stiffen, his eyes darting to mine, then back to his computer. A flicker of something unreadable crossed his face, a dissonance in the carefully constructed normalcy of the room.
When I frowned, he slowly shook his head and looked at my computer.
My gut twisted as I saw a text box appear and read.
Got a video
Then instantly a video popped up in the chat box. My breath hitched. With shaking hands, I clicked on it, a primal urge to slam the laptop shut warring with my ingrained need for information. My heart dropped into my stomach as my face paled. It was Grace. Her beautiful face etched in horror, her body covered in bruises and cuts as she lay helpless, tied down to a bed, Death Dogs surrounding her as they jacked off, Skinner between her legs, as she lay there unmoving, her eyes void of life. It was an image that would be burned into my memory forever.
Slamming my computer shut, Cash, and a few others, turned to look at me.
“What?” Cash’s voice was sharp, laced with an impatience I knew all too well.
Shaking my head, I couldn’t tell them. My instincts screamed at me to lie, to invent some plausible distraction, but the truth of what was on that screen was a poison I couldn’t pretend not to have swallowed. Yet, the thought of revealing it, of seeing them witness her at her lowest, the pity in their eyes when we rescued her, was too much.
I flat out refused.
My refusal, born of self-preservation, not only for her, but for the others in this room, was a burden only I would carry.
No one else.
Kytten, Cash’s old lady, walked over to me. Her presence was a calming force, a stark contrast to the storm raging within me. Cupping my face, she looked me in the eyes, her gaze steady and unwavering. “Let me see.”
Tears welled in my eyes, my carefully guarded composure failing. My heart broke, not just because of the content of the video, but because I alone would carry the burden of Grace’s torment.
“You don’t want to see it, sweetheart.” It was a plea, a desperate attempt to shield her from this ugliness. I knew the consequences of this revelation; it would taint everything.
“Show me, Nav,” Kytten said softly, refusing to look away. Her quiet determination was a mirror to my own inner turmoil, a silent challenge to my refusal.
I was trapped. Denying her meant betraying her trust, undermining the very foundation of our shared world.
Nodding, I relented, the weight of my decision pressing down on me. My hands trembled as I reopened my computer, a silent apology forming on my lips. I watched as she opened the video, her expression unreadable, a mask I desperately wished I possessed. When she was done, she slowly stood and lookeddirectly at Cash. I didn’t claim to know what he saw when he looked at his woman, the loyalty, the respect, the love. But I knew the second he realized what was on that video. The air crackled with unspoken accusations, with the shattering of illusions.
“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” the VP roared, turning to punch a hole in the wall. The impact echoed through the hushed church, a violent punctuation to the revelation. Every brother in church looked down at the floor, the silence in the room evidence enough of the devastation wrought.
Breathing heavily, Cash turned back to look at me. His eyes, usually alight with a fierce protectiveness, were clouded with pain. “Delete the video. Now. You too, Sypher. I mean it. They don’t see it. EVER!”
His command was harsh, born of a desperate need to control the damage, to pretend this never happened. But I knew, with a sickening certainty, that it had.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ravage
Diamond Creek Hospital...
I hated waiting. It was the worst. I didn’t get why I had to be here. It wasn’t like I knew Maureen well enough to call her family. I mean, I knew she was, sort of, but I wanted to check on Karlyn. She hadn’t said much of anything since we got back. In fact, she’d flat-out ignored me. I knew she was still hurt because the others and I had left her out of the plan, but in my defense, I had only wanted to protect her from the pain. And wasn’t that my whole mantra? To protect? To shield them from the ugliness of the world? But Karlyn... she saw through that. She always did. She called me out on my bullshit, and maybe that was why I hated this so much. Because I had failed her, and it was entirely my fault.
In the end, she still got hurt.
